| Strategies being developed for African American males
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By Felix Hoover For YourNewColumbus.com
Columbus--If things go as planned, each of 15 communities throughout the state will concentrate on two major projects for each of the next three years to improve the lives of black males and their families, said Samuel Gresham Jr., executive director of the Ohio Commission on African American Males. “Communities will pick their own projects,” he said. He said that he wants to assemble some of the nation’s best minds, experts in policy areas, to help each community identify the projects. Another group would be put together to solve whatever problems were chosen. The intent is to overcome the negatives so often attached with black males with respect to education, employment, health and other aspects of community life, he said at the session on Dec. 5 at the King Arts Complex. Similar programs have taken place across the state in recent months. Speakers were allowed five minutes to speak at Friday’s session. “Not everything about black men is negative,” said John Gregory, president of TEACH Enterprise, a career development center on the East Side. “We need to replicate many of the positive and put out information and promoting positives.” He has done a research paper on why black males 16 to 24 didn’t go to work, finding that many have a criminal record, lack education and often are have problems with the court and their family because they’re behind in child-support payments One area of concentration for TEACH is employment of ex-offenders. “You can’t have a re-entry program without an employment component,” Gregory said. State Sen. Ray Miller said, “We got to find a way to expand programs like yours.”
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