James Cole Jr., general counsel, delegated the duties of deputy secretary, will join Mayor Ivy Taylor and Congressman Will Hurd for the inaugural My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) San Antonio Mentoring Summit at the University of Texas, San Antonio downtown campus on July 28. He will discuss the President’s My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Initiative to ensure that all young people, including boys and young men of color, can reach their full potential. In addition, Cole will highlight the MBK Success Mentors Initiative, which was launched earlier this year in response to the MBK Task Force’s recommendation that federal agencies inaugurate a cross-sector national absenteeism initiative to improve the outcomes for young people, including those in underserved communities.
The MBK Success Mentors Initiative aims to reduce chronic absenteeism by connecting students who are or at risk of becoming chronically absent with trained school-linked caring adults and near-peers. The initiative is the nation’s first-ever effort to scale an evidence-based, data-driven mentor model to reach and support the highest risk students. Thirty communities across the country—from cities such as Dallas, Baltimore, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Flint, Michigan, to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota—have joined the MBK Success Mentors Initiative as a means of helping their most at-risk students stay in school and improve their outcomes in education and in life.
The one-day summit will bring together state and local officials, community leaders and others to learn from one another and maximize resources.