In the U.S., Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This federal holiday is set aside to celebrate the life and accomplishments of the great civil rights leader. At the Ford School, we were fortunate to be able to attend a program to look at innovative programs for youth and young adults featuring an outstanding panel of experts.
Broderick Johnson, a former Obama Administration Cabinet Secretary and Director of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, Luke Shaefer, Director of Poverty Solutions, and Brian Jacob, co-director of the Youth Policy Lab as well as the Education Policy Initiative, talked about mentoring and summer youth employment programs aimed at low income urban youth.  Although these programs have only been in operation for a few years, the initial evidence indicates that they are having a positive impact on the populations they seek to serve. However, as all of the panelists acknowledged, the programs have room to grow and develop. As a school, we are very proud and excited of the applied research being conducted by our research centers, seeking to make an impact on issues of poverty and inequality.
We were also excited to learn that Broderick will be joining us as a Towsley Policy Maker in Residence for the Winter 2019 semester and he will be teaching a class on mass incarceration. For any of you who are interested in learning more about this panel or exploring issues related to poverty alleviation and social inequality, you might want to take some time to watch the video of the panel.