By Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge

Ferguson, MissouriBy: Danaya Burnett, Jasmine Lacey, Jessica

Robinson, Jasmeen WellereKamisar, B (2014) Ferguson Joins "My Brother's Keeper' Community Challenge." The Hill. Retrieved from thehil.com/blogs/blo-briefing-room/news/219349-ferguson-joins-my-brothers-keeper-challengeg

Locality Development

• Ferguson signed on with Obama's "My Brothers Keeper" community challenge, this is an example of locality development because the organization is aimed at creating an infrastructure that will impact community-wide issues plaguing Ferguson (Kamisar, 2014).

Locality Development Cont.• Using the community challenge is a type of

community capacity building. Jim Shelton, the deputy secretary of education and the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force executive director, stated in an interview that "the same kind of community trust work [produced by the community challenge] really needs to happen in Ferguson” (Kamisar, 2014). Building trust in a community is a type of social capital that would be improved upon.

Social Planning

• The social plan of My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) is to ensure that children are protected from violence and to raise the graduation rates in secondary and post-secondary education. MBK works with younger children to ensure that they all enter school “cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally prepared” and they all “read at grade level” (Kamisar, 2014).

Video: http://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/my-brothers-keeper-meeting-in-ferguson-mo#.VeO-jmQ7TGQ.email

Social Action • Social action is a confrontational approach (Swanke, 2015) social

workers and community members use to change “power relationships and the structure and function of important social institutions in communities” (Defining Macro Practice, 2007, p. 4).• Examples: Protests, Boycotts, Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage Movements

• The ‘My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge’ surfaced in Ferguson, Missouri because of the social action community members participated in through “repeated protests and unrest” (Kamisar, 2014) after Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer.

Social Actions Cont.

• These are a few examples of the Ferguson protests• The killings of several unarmed black men, such as Michael Brown, showcased

extreme inequality which demands social action. The My Brothers Keeper Community Challenge is an initiative intended to begin diminishing inequality through improving school systems, increasing graduation rates and ensuring the safety of minority students (Kamisar, 2014).

References Cengage Learning Inc. (2007). Defining Macro Practice. Retrieved from

http://www.cengage.com/resource_uploads/downloads/053460435_52807.pdf.Kamisar, B. (2014). Ferguson Joins ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ Community Challenge. The

Hill. Retrieved from http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/219349-ferguson-joins-my-brothers-keeper-challenge.

Swanke, J. (2015). Models of Macro Practice [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved fromhttps://bb.siue.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-573827- dt-content-rid- 4096178_1/

courses/SOCW-400-002- 201535/Models%20of%20Macro%20Practice%20PPT.pdf.