David Johns, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans (the Initiative), will participate in the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Urban Leadership Development Conference in Atlanta on Friday, Oct. 14. He will conduct a workshop on “Hosting Your Own African American Education Teach-In to Support African-American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth,” where he will highlight the Initiative’s African American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) toolkit as a resource to help adults support youth. Johns also will discuss related efforts to meet the unique needs of students who are most often neglected and ignored. Later in the afternoon, Johns will deliver the keynote address at the conference to discuss opportunities for caring adults to support the cognitive, social and emotional development of African American students, including those most often neglected and underserved.
The conference will bring together nearly 500 affiliate professionals from across the nation for learning and professional development sessions. The Whitney M. Young, Jr. Center for Urban Leadership is the nonprofit educational institute of the National Urban League.