Corporations Donate Over $60M To President Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Initiative

Back in February, President Barack Obama announced the creation of the “My Brother’s Keeper” program. This federal program was established to allow corporations, community groups, and other organizations to create programs for high-risk youth. Young people who were at-risk at becoming criminals and/or under-educated are the program’s main focus.

Recently, President Obama expanded the initiative to include young men of color whose lives would be positively enhanced with the help of star athletes, educators, foundations, and large corporations.  The commitment level from several companies has been astounding.

• AT&T is also announcing an $18 million commitment to support mentoring and other education programs.
• The Emerson Collective and its partners are committing $50 million to collaborate with school districts and educators to launch a competition to find and develop the best designs for next generation high schools. The Emerson Collective was founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, along with partners from Silicon Valley.
• Obama also said leaders of 60 of the nation’s largest school systems have pledged to expand minority boys’ access to better preschools and advanced classes and to try to prevent grade retention, suspensions and expulsions. The College Board is also investing over $1.5 million to all African-American, Latino, and Native American students with strong educational skills enroll in at least one advanced placement class before graduation.

In addition, the NBA and Phi Beta Sigma both have committed to provided 35,000 new mentors, collectively.

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Photo Credit: Global Post