I Am My Brother’s Keeper
C A S E S T U D Y
A collaboration with My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to understand and identify the challenges and barriers experienced by boys and young men of color in education and create a framework to improve the learning experience for them and male educators of color.
S E E K I N G
D E E P E R U N D E R S T A N D I N G
O F T H E N E E D
Research Question
What do boys and young men of color in Chicago desire and need to improve their quality of life and create their pathways to success?
“If I told you that I am a young man of color that grew up on the South Side of Chicago, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Be honest. I bet you thought about gangs, drugs, poverty, or violence. They call me ‘at risk.’ But that isn’t what I am.”
— From an interview with young men of color
Being My Brother’s Keeper
Action Plan
W H A T W E C O - C R E A T E D
K E Y I N S I G H T F R O M
T H E R E S E A R C H
Boys and young men of color want to be seen as people, not as racist stereotypes.
“They look at you in a different way.
They speak to me out of fear.”
The “Being My Brother’s Keeper” Action Plan is unique because the intended user is not the 200+ boys and young men of color we interviewed. The Action Plan is an opportunity for an everyday Chicagoan, a community-based organization, government agency, employer, or funder to act and impact the lives of boys and young men of color.
The Action Plan has been the guiding document for the Chicago My Brother’s Keeper Action Team led by Thrive’s former Chief Equity Officer, Christopher Goins.
S E E K I N G
D E E P E R U N D E R S T A N D I N G
O F T H E N E E D
The Process
S P E A K I N G D I R E C T L Y W I T H
B O Y S A N D M E N O F C O L O R
To ensure that we created an Action Plan that centers around the needs of boys and young men of color in Chicago, we talked with 200+ young boys and men of color from across the city, including the following neighborhoods: Austin, Brighton Park, Chatham, Englewood, Humboldt Park, Little Village, North Lawndale, South Shore, Rogers Park, and Roseland.
In addition, we conducted focus groups and in-depth one-on-one interviews with boys and young men to hear their stories, wants, and needs. To understand the holistic needs of boys and young men of color, we also convened and interviewed community–based organizations (CBOs) and civic and business leaders.
U N D E R S T A N D I N G T H E N E E D
We set out to understand the unique assets and challenges boys and young men of color experience in Chicago while also exploring the needs of those best situated to help these boys and young men reach the adulthood that they desire. To address a challenge of this magnitude, we understood that the interventions would have to traverse the different levels of society (micro, meso, and macro levels) and that new infrastructures would be necessary. To begin building this infrastructure, ChiByDesign proposed a design research project utilizing a co-design approach to:
understand the current MBKA practices and the programmatic needs, wants, and desires of Chicago youth,
1
complement successful MBKA partner practices,
2
innovate new strategies, experiences, and infrastructures with MBKA stakeholders, and
3
illuminate a new path forward for youth development practitioners.
4
P R O J E C T
D E T A I L S
Thrive Chicago
My Brother’s Keeper Alliance
PARTNER
Anti-Racist
Innovation Strategy
PROJECT TYPE
14 months
PROJECT TIMELINE
6 MBK
Working Group meetings
OUR PROCESS
8 Youth
Focus Groups
1 City-wide survey
200+ boys and young men of color
R E F L E C T I O N S A N D
N E X T S T E P S
The MBK Action Team meets monthly to advance the Action Plan's recommendations and develop new initiatives based on the insights from our research. Some of the work includes piloting a course at five schools across the Chicagoland area to encourage high-school-aged young men of color to pursue a career in education. The MBK Action Team is also researching with boys, young men, and male educators of color to understand the challenges and barriers they encounter within and outside the classroom to generate policy recommendations to mitigate these concerns and create an educator pipeline in Chicago.
To learn more about this project,
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