By Karim Webb and John Harriel, Los Angeles Wave
By Brittany K. Jackson, Los Angeles Sentinel
By Dorany Pineda, Los Angeles Wave
When BLOOMers like Zakeer succeed, everyone benefits. The work of BLOOM and our partners Brotherhood Crusade and Social Justice Learning Institute are crucial to realizing the promise of our young Black men. The amount of money our state spends annually on prisons would pay for a CSU education for every single graduating senior in California.
When Dr. D’Artagnan Scorza wanted to move the cause of educational equity for young Black men forward, he started by looking back. He founded the Black Male Youth Academy at his alma mater, Inglewood’s Morningside High School, to help young men of color break cycles of recidivism and create opportunities for academic achievement.
I wound up on probation for three or four months. It was my first offense. Looking back, it was a blessing, because it opened me up to BLOOM. It’s changing me for the better. I started off at Social Justice Learning Institute’s Black Male Youth Academy, and BLOOM is like a family. All the doors are open. They give you advice. They’re mentors.
Mykol Lewis is making a difference and sowing seeds among young men in an effort to build a stronger South L.A. This belief in making our communities better is the trademark of Brotherhood Crusade.
When we believe in, invest in and support our young men, they will thrive. By doubling down on our focus on high school completion and reducing recidivism, youth participating in BLOOM saw improved outcomes in school and were better able to complete the terms of their probation and separate themselves from the system.
Though they are only 10 percent of all L.A. young people, Black youth make up nearly a third of all youth on probation. And once in the system, it is hard to get out, with more than 80 percent facing re-arrest within three years. We are losing out on countless innovators and entrepreneurs – a generation of civic and community leaders who could shape the future of L.A. By investing in the potential of our young Black men, we can help them sow the seeds for life success and break the school-to-prison pipeline.
We are facing a crisis of potential, and nowhere is hit harder than South Los Angeles. Young black men who drop out of high school face a 90 percent chance of incarceration, but a diploma reduces that to 12 percent. Learn how CCF’s BLOOM initiative is helping young Black men in South L.A. onto positive paths so they can succeed in school, work and life.
Elizabeth S. Barnert, Rebecca Dudovitz, Bergen B. Nelson, Tumaini R. Coker, Christopher Biely, Ning Li, Paul J. Chung, Pediatrics, February 2017, VOLUME 139 / ISSUE 2
CCF launched BLOOM (Building a Lifetime of Options and Opportunities for Men) to help who young Black men who are or are at risk of becoming involved the juvenile justice system onto positive paths towards success. Since 2012, BLOOM's combination of mentorship, character development and specially-tailored programming has helped nearly 1,000 young men succeed in high school, higher education and life.