Mitchell Kapor Foundation Weblog

I am so pleased to welcome Justin Davis to the Kapor Foundation staff as the program coordinator of the College Bound Brotherhood. In this capacity, Justin will create profiles of community-based organizations for our soon-to-be-launched public database of Bay Area college access programs as well as conduct college outreach to young men in Bay Area middle and high schools. He’ll also assist with grantmaking to Bay Area nonprofits working in this realm.

Justin is a Bay Area native and graduated from Stanford University in 2004 with a BA in Communications. He embraced the title of “student athlete” while at Stanford as a power forward for the men’s basketball team, helping guide them to three PAC-10 titles during his athletic campaign (no hateration allowed, Bears and Bruins)! After graduation, Justin pursued his dream of playing professional basketball in multiple European countries and domestically in the NBA.

Justin believes that many of his opportunities are attributed to the numerous mentors and teachers who believed in him and encouraged him to succeed. While no longer a professional athlete, Justin is very committed to helping young men of color receive the same educational and economic opportunities that he’s had. His interest in education, specifically in urban contexts, developed during his undergraduate senior year while taking graduate courses in education.

Justin aims to eventually develop and institute a national college-level program that focuses on the social and academic development of black student athletes, who historically have the lowest graduation rate of student athletes, to help develop them better prepare for post-collegiate professional careers.

We look forward to working with Justin and immersing him in the world of college access in the Bay Area!

I’m excited to share the announcement for our latest position: Program Coordinator, College Bound Brotherhood!

This is a part-time (20 hours/week), salaried position with an excellent benefits package (health, dental, vision, PTO, life and disability insurance) in a respectful work environment – ideal for someone who has another part-time obligation or is enrolled in graduate school.

Please do not post this announcement on other websites without prior clearance.

Over the past week, a few job announcements have come into my mailbox. Thought I’d compile distribute them. Please send broadly to those who might be qualified. I’m especially interested in promoting the ED position at our sister organization, Level Playing Field Institute. Let’s find some great people for these organizations and efforts!

Level Playing Field Institute: Executive Director;  Education Programs Associate

Women’s Foundation of California: Development and Communications Director

Community Housing Partnership: Executive Director

Yes, it’s true that we’ve been falling off with our blog entries. As some of you have already heard first hand, we’re (hopefully) in the final stages of our program planning for 2010, which we started in earnest last July.

When this grantmaking program structure was launched in August 2007, we decided to learn about and participate in the respective program arenas, green justice and civic engagement, by meeting key players and supporting promising work by effective organizations. This learning process would allow us to evaluate our work and make better decisions about how to better target our resources and efforts for the long haul in the progressive movement. In trying to maintain the equilibrium between our capacity, our interests, and the revenue available for grantmaking and programs (which was cramped by the economic recession, of course), this may mean that we work with fewer organizations over time toward a commonly-identified goal. As a matter of fact, all of the supplementary research and thinking that we’ve done thus far supports that strategy. But our plan ain’t finished cookin’ yet.

By the beginning of December, we hope to have our 2010 program plans in place. Our three core program areas – Green Access, VoICE, and the College Bound Brotherhood – will stay the same. We will still have a general request for applications.  But we will most likely have other, deeper changes in store.

Please stay tuned and check back with us (via the website) in December about moving forward in 2010. We’re getting ready by spending more time planning and less time blogging!

(Artwork borrowed from thewritingloft.com)

I went to Bay Area Rapid Transit’s website to look up the train schedule and caught this photo:

My immediate reaction was “Good for them for using a young brotha’s photo among the commuters, professionals, and suburbanites that they usually feature.”

Then I thought, “Should I be cynical about the use of this photo given the Oscar Grant tragedy?”

And furthermore, “Does this simple image of a capped and “hoodie-d” teen evoke a sense of fear among some of BART’s riders, especially those already nervous about using public transportation?”

This photo reminds me of the Project Implicit tests that gauge deep-seated biases for/against certain categories of people. The tests are quite revealing – and can be troubling.

For a long while I’ve contended that race and class – specifically the devaluation of darker-skinned people -  play major roles in expectation setting and stereotyping. These kinds of biases show up the way that people with privilege and power treat those that have less or neither.

I’m still trying to figure out a way to factor image-shaping into our College Bound Brotherhood initiative. While our top priority is supporting the direct service work to get young black men prepared for college success, I also wonder about provoking a public dialogue about images of young black men – embraced by blacks and non-blacks alike – that limit and suppress their potential.

Got any ideas??

BRING YOUR “A” GAME, produced by one of our grantees, Twenty-First Century Foundation, in partnership with actor-director Mario Van Peebles and producer Karen Williams, will have its BET debut this weekend.  Per the Twenty-First Century Foundation’s website, the documentary aims to catalyze ” a national conversation on the plight affecting Black men and boys…Using a cinematic style influenced by popular culture and employing innovative technologies, the film details strategies that have improved the lives of Black men and boys. It underscores how essential educational achievement and high school graduation are to survival and success in today’s world.”

Interviewees include such Black male icons as Dr. Cornel West, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Richard “Dick” Parsons, Chris Rock, Spike Lee, Lupe Fiasco, Ice Cube, Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, Kevin Liles, Lou Gossett Jr., Hill Harper, Damon Dash, Kevin Powell, Melvin Van Peebles, Geoffrey Canada, Bruce Gordon and former NBA star Alan Houston, and others.

We previewed a clip of the documentary at our recent Black Boys College Bound Initiative celebration of high school graduates.  If you or someone you know has kids in high school who need to hear this important message, please let them know that the documentary will be showing on BET this Saturday, September 12, at 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 13, at 12:30 p.m. in the afternoon.  BRING YOUR “A” GAME will be followed, on both days, by a showing of “Heart of the City”, which examines the impact of education issues on our communities.

Hope you’ll check it out!!

Check out the guest commentary in Philanthropy News Digest by yours truly (with input and inspiration from Freada Kapor): Make a  Socially Responsible Investment in Young Black Men.

Our society’s deeply-ingrained disregard for young black men, especially low-income brothas, continues to stun me. I saw a 40-something man in the BART station with a “Thug Life” tattoo – amidst the collars and creases of the Financial District commuters – and thought “Is that what you really believe about your self-worth, bro?”

We can do better, and we need to do something. Many things. Now.

I’m so pleased to share that our College Bound Celebration was a fantastic gathering and recognition of the BBCBI organizations and participants, including 25 graduating seniors who are off to college in the fall!

The event made the front page of the Oakland Tribune and the evening news broadcasts on KTVU-2 and ABC-7.   There is also a wonderful article in the Oakland Globe. So rather than me recounting the event, I’ll let the press speak for us. LOL

This is just the beginning – if we have our way, next year’s event will be standing room only, full of young brothas who are proudly college bound, changing stats and stereotypes in the process. Stay tuned.

Photos by Hahn Nguyen

The month of May wore me OUT! So much going on – can I capture it in 300 words or less? Here goes!

On Tuesday the 19th, I headed to Denver for the FCCP spring convening, Shifting Landscapes: Exploring Civic Engagement Strategies, Partnerships and New Possibilities. These gatherings are always informative with interesting people, and this was no exception. I presented a brief historical overview during the session Turning Promise into Practice: Strategies for Transforming Antiquated Voter Registration Systems – a fired up name for a strategy session on voter registration modernization. Check out the slideshow (pdf) for more information.

California’s special election was also held on Tuesday. We were concerned about the potential (and realized) low turnout for an election with huge budget implications, so the Foundation made a grant to Citizen Voice in support of their nonpartisan Special Elections Project. In two weeks they reached over a million people! See more on their website.

I also moderated a panel at A Dream Deferred: The Future of African American Education, the annual conference sponsored by The College Board. Our panel, The Black Boys College Bound Initiative: A Philanthropic and Community Collaborative, highlighted the work and strategies of three of our grantee organizations – Young Scholars Program, M3 Education Foundation, and SACREA’s My Brother’s Keeper Summer Algebra Academy. Again, check out the slideshow (pdf) for more details.

Last but certainly not least, I attended a U.C. Berkeley commencement ceremony to happily witness my colleague Carmen Rojas as she received her Ph.D. in City Planning. Many congrats, Carmen! Or should I say “Dr. Rojas”?

More stuff next week. I’m going to rest.

Flickr photo by Mark Jarvis