Another CBC Week has come and gone. I attended so many policy sessions till I was almost relieved when the Secret Service locked down the Washington Convention Center on Saturday afternoon to do their security sweep.
The issue forums and Braintrust meetings featured a number of eloquent speakers. Few were more passionate or eloquent than Susan L. Taylor, founder of the National CARES Mentoring Movement.
Taylor is on a mission to “mobilize massive numbers of able African Americans to take the lead in fulfilling our society’s spiritual and social responsibility to our children.”
Consider:
- Of all black fourth-graders, 58% are functionally illiterate.
- In some cities, 80% of our boys drop out before finishing high school.
- Every day 1,000 Black children are arrested.
- 1 in every 8 African American males ages 25-29 is incarcerated.
- The number one cause of death for our boys is homicide.
But as Taylor observed:
We are the people who refuse to die.
Taylor doesn’t want much of your time. Just an hour a month to:
- Encourage a child each
- Be available for a phone call
- Help with problems at school
- Have lunch or a snack
- Listen to challenges and ideas
So, are you in?
To find out how you can get involved, go here.
