Last month, President Obama launched My Brother's Keeper, a new initiative to provide and promote effective programs and opportunities designed to help young men of color be successful.
This spotlight on the ongoing disparities and needed opportunities for these young men has been a long time coming. And as awareness is raised on the larger picture of African American males in the population, there is a group to whom particular attention must be paid: the African American boys and young men involved with state and local child welfare systems.
W
hat distinguishes this group of young men from a general population often ignored or misunderstood, is that the child welfare system is designed to provide for their safety, permanence and well-being. Yet it frequently fails them.
In Changing Course: Improving Outcomes for African American Males Involved in Child Welfare Systems, a new Center for the Study of Social Policy brief, one such young man shared that "everywhere I went, it felt like I was either ignored or I was a problem."
There is a problem, but it's not him. With African American males in the foster care system over-represented, and too many spending their entire adolescence in care, ending up in group homes or institutional settings and less likely to find a permanent family, we need to take action now.
This paper is designed to spur ideas, discussion and action among child welfare system leaders, judges, advocates and other partners working to improve outcomes for African American males.
It's a conversation and a problem we can't avoid any longer and a group of young men for whom we have to literally "change course" and open new pathways to education, employment and stable family relationships.
