Failure is NOT just in Chicago......Philadelphia too!

The Black Star Project: Parents, police, elected officials, schools, churches, foundations failing to save kids' hearts, minds By Tiffany Boncan, Web Producer February 6, 2013 CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - The Black Star Project says the Chicago community must take an active role in curbing gun and gang violence, because new policing strategies will not work on their own. The culture must change. The Black Star Project held a memorial for the 108 young people killed in 2012 Tuesday night, in partnership with Black Parents United and other groups. The bell-ringing ceremony honored each and every victim. The groups also presented their "Report Card on Violence," where they said parents are failing their kids when it comes to providing the infrastructure for a life without violence. But they did propose a four-point plan to improve this failing grade, which they said should be implemented in conjunction with policing strategies to stop the violence - because those strategies will not work on their own. Phillip Jackson, head of the Black Star project, joined Good Day Chicago on Wednesday morning to outline the four-point plan: Rebuild families, with strong parenting units. If children feel well-supported and secure, their value of life improves. If kids are shown that they are valued, they will value others' lives that much more. Provide better mentors. In the absence of far-reaching church programs and youth organizations, kids in high-crime areas are finding mentorship from gangs. Improve education. Jackson said kids in areas where gun violence is rampant are receiving a third world education. They are not given the foundation to fully participate and succeed in the present economy, and so they resort to violence to get what they want and need. Focus not only on getting gang members off the street, but also on preventing others from trying to take their place when they are gone. For more information can be found on The Black Star Project's website, or by calling 773-285-9600. Click Here to See Video of Press Coverage

My Brother Can't Replace My Father His support feels more like control. By Christopher Guzman January 25, 2013 On Valentine's Day, 1995, my stepdad came back from the hospital with tears coming down his face. He told me and my two big brothers that my mom had died in her sleep. My brothers started crying a river, but I went back to my room and continued to play my video game. My brother Alex came in my room and turned it off, and I took a hammer and smashed it in anger. This is how it's been ever since: Alex tries to be like a father to me, but the things he does are more controlling than supportive, and they make me mad. Christopher Guzman My stepdad was sick, too, and he died a week later. I was 6, Alex was 10, and Hector was 11. The three of us stayed with my grandmother in Florida until I was 10. Then we all moved to a foster home in Brooklyn. A bunch of brothers who were in gangs lived downstairs and Hector, Alex, and I hung around them. I always wanted to be like my brothers. I imitated the way they dressed, the way they acted, the way they moved, everything. One time some kids were bullying me on the basketball court and I went and told my brothers. When we came back, my brother punched the head bully in the face and we got the court back. When I turned 16 I moved to a group home back in New York City. It was like jail; I had to take care of myself by fighting, and I got in a lot of trouble. I had to deal with the stress at my group home by myself. I had to do my own paperwork for the system and for getting into college. I had to find a part-time job on my own. I realized that soon I would have to take care of myself and my life. Are These Schools or Pre-Prison Detainment Camps How many Chicago juvenile arrests happen at school? African American students were arrested at a rate nearly four times that of whites or Latinos By Linda Paul February 4, 2013 Arrests on CPS property by age Source: Chicago Police Department. Final column indicates total juvenile arrests on CPS property. Tens of thousands of young people get arrested each year in Chicago, and a lot of those arrests happen on the grounds of Chicago Public Schools. Of course, arrests at school happen all across the country. The connection even has a name: some people say schools are a worrisome 'pipeline' to the criminal justice system for many young people. In fact, last December, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin held the first ever congressional hearings on the topic. One big worry for people who work with kids is the lingering records kids can get from those arrests. There were about 4,600 arrests on public school grounds in 2011. That's about a fifth of the 25,000 arrests of kids 17 and under that year in Chicago. But of those 4,600 arrests, only 14 percent were for the really serious stuff, the felonies, like robbery, burglary and fights with serious injuries -- like that one on the YouTube video. Here's what the numbers say about arrests at Chicago Public Schools in 2011. Almost 75 percent -- three quarters -- of all arrests were of African-American students. At the same time, in that same year, African-American students comprised about 42 percent of the student body. In fact in 2011, African American students were arrested at a rate nearly four times that of whites or Latinos. Kristina Menzel is an attorney who represents kids in juvenile court. She says that when principals request arrest, unfortunately it's sometimes a way for the school to pass a problem kid on to another system. VOICES/GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT The Moynihan Report Reveals a 50-Year-Old Story for Black Families by Kenneth Braswell January 29, 2013 One can't dismiss the societal challenges for black families since the civil rights movement. To most, 1965 seems like 200 years ago. Many pioneers of that time would be challenged to say that they would live to see a black President. Fortunately for blacks in America, this has occurred with the election and re-election of Barack H. Obama; yet, unfortunately many of the challenges faced in 1965 for black families still exist today. While many advances have been made for blacks in leadership, educational attainment, political influence and economic power; there is still much of the American Dream that eludes us. Today an unconscionable 73 percent of black babies are born into out-of-wedlock households, mostly to single women. While that is not an indication on a mother's ability to raise her children alone it does raise another question; where is daddy? Daniel P. Moynihan boldly spoke about the conditions in a report called The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. The 1965 report by then Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor later became known as the Moynihan Report. In the report he described the startling statistics and forecast for Negro families in the areas of employment, family formation and poverty. "I think the Moynihan Report in a lot of ways is one of the most tragic intellectual documents in American History. In a sense that the facts to which it pointed in my view were accurate, the prognosis that it generated was in many ways accurate and our inability as a nation to read that information, interpret it and act upon it is the tragedy of the Moynihan Report," says Dr. Ronald Mincy of Columbia University. Click Here to Read Full Article There are those who cry, complain and lament the destruction of Black boys in the American education system and, on the other hand, there are those who do something about it. The men from Morehouse College In February 2013, 50 Saturday Universities will open around the country that will focus on best practices for teaching Black boys and young men. We need you to open a Saturday University in your school, church, community or city for Black Boys and young men? Here is why you need a Saturday University for Black Boys. In Chicago, only 3 out of 100 Black boys will graduate from a 4-year college by age 26 Only 4% of U.S. college students are Black males Less than 2% of U.S. teachers are Black males Only 9% of Black young men attending Rochester, N.Y. Public Schools graduate from high school Only about 50% of all Black young men in the U.S. graduatee from high school Only 12% of U.S. black students perform at grade level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress Black students in the U.S. are getting a lesser education than many students in third world countries according to the 2011 International PISA assessment The average 17-year-old American Black student has the reading and math scores of the average 13-year-old American white student Black males are suspended more, expelled more and arrested more in U.S. schools than any other American students according to the U.S. Dept. of Education. Low educational achievement among Black boys and young men feeds high educational failure, high unemployment, high incarceration, a propensity towards violence and high mortality in Black boys and young men.