NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 4,000 young people have participated in the first year of a sweeping effort to help young minority men in ways ranging from job internships to inmate education, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.
Financed partly with the billionaire mayor's own money, the three-year, $127 million Young Men's Initiative is intended to lower poverty, crime, unemployment and dropout rates among black and Latino males between 16 and 24.
The effort takes aim at a host of what officials see as underlying problems. Its year-one report describes initiatives as diverse as a "fatherhood academy" at a community college and a directive erasing criminal-history questions from initial employment applications for many city agencies. The idea is aimed at fields in which a conviction might not be relevant.
Minority advocates have praised Young Men's Initiative as extending a hand to a group burdened by problems that have persisted over generations. But others have questioned the project's fairness and effectiveness.
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