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| NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg |
New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the billionaire financier George Soros have teamed up to aid African-American and Latino youth.
The Young Men's Initiative, as it is called, will overhaul how the city government interacts with the 315,000 African-American and Latino males between the ages of 16 and 24. The aim is to be pro-active: by addressing the much discussed, but rarely confronted, issues affecting this undereducated, over-incarcerated and underemployed minority.
In an effort to fully acknowledge the ever-deepening disparities between the educational achievement and employment prospects of young African-American and Latino males with their white counterparts, Bloomberg's program will focus specifically on closing the gaps.
The boldest aspect of Bloomberg's initiative will be an executive order preventing city agencies from erecting barriers to job applicants with criminal convictions. The three-year program, backed by more than $127 million in public and private financing, including $30 million of the mayor's personal fortune and a matching gift by George Soros, will incorporate dozens of city agencies and include measures to increase school-performance accountability.
Nearly $25 million will be used to expand Jobs-Plus by placing job-assistance services within the very public-housing projects where many of these young men live. Over $18 million will be allocated for mentoring, new fatherhood classes and literacy programs, while $24 million will go directly to schools that have a proven record in closing the achievement gap in high-school graduation. The city will also be required to "encourage and support young people in obtaining government-issued identification."
It's not often folks put their money where their mouth is. You can read the entire story using the link below.
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