My Brother's Keeper Alliance

In 2019, Former President Barack Obama spoke of the problem My Brother's Keeper was created to address, and in Tulsa progress is being made. The city is one of just four cities recognized as a "My Brother’s Keeper Model Community" for improving outcomes for young men of color.

“Tulsa is a city that is learning what it means to support young men of color from cradle to career. Across this nation, we are seeing a need for targeted solutions," says BerThaddaeus Bailey, My Brothers Keeper Director, Impact Tulsa.

The three other cities designated as "model communities" are Newark, New Jersey, Omaha, Nebraska, and Yonkers, New York.

My Brother's Keeper Alliance focuses on six milestones; entering school ready to learn, reading at grade level by third grade, graduating from high school, completing post-secondary education or training, all youth out of school are employed and all youth remain safe from violent crimes.

The Obama Foundation says intervention in these six life milestones can have a significant impact on youths’ lives.

“We want to ensure that when our boys and young men of color graduate from high school, they are prepared for what life looks like after high school, whether it be a two-year college or a four-year university training or the workforce. We just wanna ensure that they're prepared and that we're tracking what our community is doing to support them," says Bailey.

Bailey says MBK Tulsa focuses specifically on early childhood education and college or career readiness.

“So now, My Brother’s Keeper convenes partners, right? Anybody working in an area that focuses on youth specifically has an equity-based approach to working with boys and young men of color. And so right now our two focused areas are on early childhood education, specifically on suspensions and expulsions inside primary years. And then we have another work group focused on post-secondary readiness," says Bailey.

Impact Tulsa says about 3,000 students in Tulsa County were not enrolled in pre-k. Causing a need for intervention in early childhood education.

"Our data showed that students in north Tulsa and east Tulsa and west Tulsa were underrepresented in pre-k. So north Tulsa leaders like Dr. Ray Owens, Tim Newton, Greg Robinson, and others served as community validators. And they met with other folks to develop a strategy on raising pre-k awareness and kind of dispelling some of the myths that pre-k is not daycare its set students up for success," says Ashley Philippsen, Executive Director, Impact Tulsa.

Enrolling a child in an early childhood program has many benefits like working with others and becoming familiar with a school routine.

“They'll learn about navigating space and respecting other children's block buildings and their own, while they're doing something that might look like playing. They're also really gaining math skills, and social-emotional skills. Teachers will embed literacy lessons," says Susan Friedman, Publishing Senior Director, NAEYC.

As a result of these efforts, Philipson says pre-k enrollment in Tulsa County has increased.

Data shows that Black and Hispanic males are more likely to be expelled or suspended from school than other students. 

"So, we want to ensure that we're not feeding a school-to-prison pipeline in Tulsa County. And so we're working with our partners in the community to develop what strategies look like in a community to support this decrease in that disparity," says Bailey.

One of My Brother's Keeper's community partners is Tulsa Public Schools, Director of Post-Secondary Readiness for Tulsa Public Schools, Krystal Hutchinson says the partnership with Tulsa Impact and MBK Tulsa has improved the district's efforts in preparing students for their future.

"They're really helping us come together and work through this cycle of continuous improvement so that we can actually make like real systemic change in post-secondary outcomes for boys and young men of color," says Hutchinson.

Hutchinson says it's important to prepare students for a career or college after high school.

“If they're wanting to go off and their path includes college or going straight into the workforce, maybe the military, it's important for us to make sure that students are aware of all of the options available and then know what steps to take in order to like to get a jump start on their particular path,” says Hutchinson.

Tulsa Impact's 2019 community report shows only 17% of African Americans and 17% of Hispanics have a bachelor's degree or higher. These numbers are significantly different from the 37% of white Oklahomans that have a bachelor's degree or higher.

“It's the same thing for our boys and our young men of color. And we see that they disproportionately like are not, they're not filling the same level of experiences and opportunities as their peers. And so, we wanna make sure that we're removing barriers, that we're increasing access. So, all of those things that we know will help students get a jump start on their future plans," says Hutchinson.

Introducing students to higher education means bringing career techs and colleges like Tulsa Community Colleges into schools.

“We wanna get in the schools as early as possible because we know one of the mantras is, you know, you have to be able to see it, to know that you want to be it,” says Dr. Eunice Tarver, Student Success & Equity Vice President, Tulsa Community College.

Tulsa Community College or TCC partners with local schools and hosts "College Achievement Summits".

“We focus on specific demographics that we want to see a higher success rate. And so, we have our Hispanic College Achievement Summit, or our African American College Achievement, our Native College Achievement Summit. It’s important that they see themselves in those spaces. And so, we're very intentional about who we invite to share information. A lot of things that we understand come from just a lack of exposure,” says Dr. Tarver.

Bailey says partnerships like this Across Green Country can help bridge that gap for students of color.

“They want to be exposed to what life looks like for other professionals, specifically black and brown professionals across the city. And so, exposure is really big. And so, supporting them and exposing them. We talk about wraparound mentorship opportunities, so increasing those types of programs that are mentoring,” says Bailey.