Partner Spotlight: NYC Young Men's Initiative
Since 2015, Literacy Trust has partnered with the Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) to offer Reading Rescue programming in schools across the city. This year, 50 NYC DOE schools receive Reading Rescue programming through YMI, a multifaceted initiative aimed broadly at improving outcomes for young Black and Latino men. We caught up with YMI’s Executive Director Jordan Stockdale at the end of February to reflect on our years-long partnership, and specifically to celebrate the history and successes of this initiative for young men in New York City.
What is the history of YMI?
YMI was created as an initiative in 2012 to reduce disparities between Black and Brown young men and their peers. Under the de Blasio administration we’ve actually grown the budget (the city tax levy part of the budget). It’s a $32 million budget and it’s a fund specifically to reduce racial disparities. That’s the mission, and we do that through funding and co-managing initiatives related to creating jobs, criminal justice reform, health -- we have a nascent health portfolio, and education of course -- including mentoring.
Who does YMI seek to impact?
Reading Rescue is our youngest program. A majority of our programs support young people from ages 16 to 24. We are very happy that we do have this early intervention program through our partnership with you.
Why is early literacy intervention important and included in the portfolio?
If we can help people stay on grade level, they won’t fall behind, and they won’t fail courses. Failing courses is highly correlated with dropping out of high school. Failing one course, the graduation rate plummets. Failing two years, the likelihood of graduating is really tiny. And so to keep people on grade level means they need to pass the grades. At the early ages, you develop a love of reading if you can read well and have the appropriate resources. There’s a point where you switch from learning how to read into learning information from reading and then loving reading. Reading Rescue allows young people to have that skillset to make that transformation from learning to read into learning information and loving to read.
How do different programs and investments across the portfolio relate to each other?
This is our youngest program, but we try to have programming from playground to career, in a way. We are intentional about that, and intentional about investing in evidence-based programs that have achieved really strong results. To the extent that we can do that throughout a young person’s life, it means they are more likely to be successful. We don’t purport to fully end racial disparities. It’s really about how much good we can do with the money we have and the resources we have.
Can you share successes? What recent YMI history can we celebrate?:
NYC Men Teach is probably our most popular program. CUNY and DOE partners with us. That program has been responsible for hiring several hundred men of color in the classroom; in increasing the men of color in the classroom and reducing the disparity between the teachers of color and students of color. Research has shown that Black students who have a Black teacher are more likely to graduate high school (according to a John Hopkins study).
We recently launched a tutoring program in juvenile detention centers, so we’re excited about that. We invested some money in CUNY tutor corps. We launched the Mentors Matter program, which has 3 components (one of which was a sizable contract with 100 Black Men to mentor hundreds of students in NYC schools this year). We understand the pain and need for additional support during the pandemic. We also allocated $500k total in funding opportunities (grants) to 25 different community-based organizations (CBOs) that offer tutoring, mentoring, or social/emotional support.
The future of YMI:
I’m excited to do another round of a community response initiative, which gets funding into local CBOs that need it right now, and young people need that additional support, so it’s a win-win. We have some new criminal justice initiatives coming, including transitioning NYPD out of NYC schools.
Lastly, who inspires you?
I have a bunch of different mentors and historical figures that I admire. I had Ben Jealous as a professor and he is the former head of NAACP. Vernon Jordan as well -- I had the chance to sit down with him one time. He’s a power figure, and his autobiography is very impressive. I think if we’re talking about Black leaders that aren’t talked about a ton, Vernon Jordan’s career is really interesting; particularly his early career in organizing. He’s done so many different things, so to look at him is really interesting.
(As told Literacy Trust, edited for length. Note: Vernon Jordan sadly passed away a few days following our conversation with Jordan Stockdale. You can read about his legacy here.)
