Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Young Men’s Initiative will offer basic skills classes, job training, paid internships and mentoring to young black and Latino men. City University of New York hopes to play a key role, reports Inside Higher Ed.
Whenever there’s a conversation about educational or workforce preparedness goals in New York City, CUNY is going to be involved,” said Suri Duitch, associate university dean for continuing education and deputy to the senior university dean for academic affairs at CUNY. “
LaGuardia Community College will get funding to expand its health training program and Bronx Community College will be able to spin off a peer mentoring program for young men seeking a GED.
CUNY is also incorporating some of the findings from the city’s original round of research into other programs already in place. “One commonality of all the effective programs is that they helped young men find and keep a stable adult in their lives,” Duitch said. “And we will incorporate those into our models as well.”
As part of the initiative, city high schools’ performance grades will factor in the success rates of black and Latino male students.
