My Brother’s Keeper aims to close ‘opportunity gap’ for students of color. Does it work?

Saudia Harris and Makayla Thompkins joined My Sister’s Keeper last year to find a space where they could grow as young women, explore career opportunities and talk with others about their mental health. But most importantly, they sought a feeling of community.

Harris is the president of My Sister’s Keeper (MSK) at Southwest High School and Thompkins is the vice president. The program has about 30 participants at Southwest High School.

Harris and Thompkins say My Sister’s Keeper provides a welcoming environment for young women from all walks of life, no matter their race. It’s a place where they can let their guard down and feel they are not alone with their emotions or experiences, they said.

“I think girls need that community and that safe space where they can feel welcomed,” Thompkins said. “And I feel like MSK does that a lot, you automatically feel welcome. You can be brand new, and we want to welcome you. We want to make sure that you’re feeling safe and just someone to talk to, someone to really talk to and hear you.”

At a school board meeting in August, some Fort Worth ISD school board members questioned the value of the program across the district, which includes a My Brother’s Keeper track for young men. They questioned the transparency of goals around how the program benefits students and whether to continue the program.

School board member Kevin Lynch wanted to see data on the trends of students’ achievements before, during and after their involvement in the program. The information provided by the program focused on data at a single time and not how student achievement improved or decreased over a period of time.

“To spend this large sum of money, especially as we talk about some of these populations and us not moving the needle,” Lynch said. “I just want to make sure we’re spending the money where it needs to be spent to move student outcome goals.”

Program focuses on mentoring, college prep and more

Students in Fort Worth ISD’s My Brother’s Keeper and My Sister’s Keeper programs attend weekly mentoring and check-in sessions where they learn about college preparation, career choices, community involvement, cultural awareness, personal growth, and leadership development. Students have also participated in activities such as Opal’s Walk for Freedom and Autism Awareness Day, MLK Day Community Service, read to elementary school students and volunteered during events at AT&T Stadium.

My Brother’s Keeper and My Sister’s Keeper had 19 chapters last school year in Fort Worth high schools, 15 My Brother’s Keeper and four My Sister’s Keeper chapters. It served 273 students — 177 males and 96 females.

The schools with the most students participating are Southwest High School with 53 students, R.L. Paschal High School with 27 students, and Polytechnic High School with 23 students. Fort Worth is a majority minority district when it comes to enrollment so most students who participate in the programs are students of color.

A motion to table action on extending funding for My Brother’s Keeper and My Sister’s Keeper failed 6-3 at the board meeting in August. The school board then voted 7-2, with Kevin Lynch and Michael Ryan voting no, to extend the program’s $255,000 contract for the 2023-24 school year. The school board asked the staff members to issue quarterly reports on student performance, including test scores, grades, and graduation rates.

Board member says My Brother’s Keeper ‘saves lives’

Board member Quinton Phillips agreed the program needed better data to show its impact, but said it saves lives. He recounted students saying to him how being part of the program was why they came to school, how they received shoes, uniforms, or had something to eat.

“You have these programs that are making the difference, and they don’t have the language or the metrics to be able to showcase how fabulous they’re doing, they’re doing the work,” Phillips said.

My Brother’s Keeper began in 2014 under the administration of President Barack Obama to “address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential,” according to Obama’s White House website.

A July 2015 report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers explored the barriers that disadvantaged youth, particularly young men of color, face and quantified the costs this poses to the U.S. economy. It stated that if young men of color between the ages of 16-54 participated in the workforce at the same rates as non-Hispanic white men their age, the GDP would rise 2 percent or an estimated $350 billion. It concluded how disparities in education, the criminal justice system, and employment increases the barriers for youth unless there are strategies implemented to improve their outcomes.

Prior to starting the My Brother’s Keeper program, Fort Worth ISD joined with other school districts to improve the academic and social outcomes for students of color. In 2015, according to the FWISD My Brother’s Keeper web page, 76% of African American students and 80% of Hispanic students in FWISD were economically disadvantaged as compared to 31% of white students; 41% of African American students and 55% of Hispanic students were successful in state assessments compared to 75% of white students.

Students gain a sense of ‘connection and community’

My Brother’s Keeper, and eventually My Sister’s Keeper, was brought into FWISD in 2018 to address opportunity gaps that are faced by young men and women to ensure that they’re able to reach their potential. The program is available for anyone regardless of skin color.

“This is a program that gives the students a sense of connection and community and a trusted adult that they know has their back and is checking up on them,” Christina Galanis, director of secondary student engagement, said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. “They have that relationship with that person and that’s getting them to schools and that’s a win because that’s going to translate to better attendance, better achievement, it’s going to translate to improve post secondary outcomes.”

Galanis says the immediate objective of the program is to have students be involved with mentors, community service, and volunteering and to have a sense of community, which can lead to increased academic achievement.

The Counseling Services Department will meet with the organization to address the data tracking concerns raised by the board, Galanis said. The department will start to track trend data to correlate the impact of the program on students’ behavior, achievement and attendance over time.

In Southwest High School, the My Sister’s Keeper program meets every Thursday in the morning, with food provided. Students discuss at length how they are feeling that day, as well as a topic related to mental health. They experiment with different techniques for improving their mental health.

One week, students took turns standing in the middle of the group and talking about what they were letting go from their past to move on as a person. Another week, they wrote letters to themselves about how they were feeling. The letters were collected and will be given back to them in May to see their growth.

They go on field trips that have included a visit to American Airlines’ headquarters, to explore possible career paths. And they take trips to colleges, including HBCUs.

Harris said she is excited about the rest of the school year and the safe space My Sister’s Keeper offers for her and her friends.

“I’m excited to see growth in me, since this is my senior year, and just see how I have overcome these past four years and just letting go, seeing myself mature more,” she said.” And there’s some stuff I am upset about but I’m just trying to heal from that.”