CPAR Research

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Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
Center for Policy Analysis and Research

 

Achieving Economic Security among African Americans

Despite decades of social progress, economic disparities persist along racial and ethnic lines in the United States. Within and across social classes, African Americans experience greater barriers to economic security than their white counterparts; a greater proportion of African Americans live beneath the federal poverty level than white Americans; and middle-income blacks are more often at risk of falling out of the middle class than whites.

 

Of particular concern is the ability of African-American individuals and families to:

• Secure jobs that offer a living wage and provide critical supports such as paid leave and health care.
• Obtain a quality education that will prepare them for an increasing global, competitive and specialized job market.
• Get timely and adequate health care that will help reduce their disproportionate burden of disease.
• Own and retain a home and accumulate other wealth-building assets for themselves and future generations.

Building on its 2006 report Poverty, Race and Policy: Strategic Advancement of a Poverty Reduction Agenda, CBCF is working to develop a national agenda to reduce poverty and promote economic security among African Americans. The agenda will be shaped in collaboration with congressional members and staffers who have been at the forefront of introducing poverty reduction legislation, as well as representatives of key organizations focused on civil rights, social justice, health equity and education reform issues.

 

This work is made possible through a grant from the Annie. E. Casey Foundation.

 

Reaching Academic Success among African-American Males

Current educational policies inherently neglect personal, social and emotional factors that contribute to academic achievement, particularly among African-American males. Currently, less than half of black males who start high school graduate within four years, compared to 75 percent of white male students.

 

Through funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Dr. Ivory Toldson conducted a study on factors that improve educational outcomes for African-American males. The domain areas he explored were personal and emotional factors, family factors, social and environmental factors and school factors. Dr. Toldson’s study findings and policy recommendations are presented in the report Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-age African-American Males. Rather than recapping problems, the report emphasizes solutions to the persistent gap in academic achievement among African-American boys. The report was released at a briefing on Capitol Hill in June 2008, in collaboration with Rep. Danny K. Davis of Illinois.

 

Beginning in spring 2009, the policy and practice solutions proposed in Breaking Barriers will be disseminated nationally to a broad audience of stakeholders through a series of district-level forums. The forums will also serve to solicit input on the report’s recommendations from critical stakeholder groups—including school administrators, teachers, legislators, parents and students themselves—as well as discuss implementation strategies for the solutions proposed. Dissemination of the report is supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute Campaign for Black Male Achievement.

 

In conjunction, The Journal of Negro Education (JNE) issued a call for papers for a special Summer 2009 issue, sponsored by CBCF and the Open Society Institute Campaign for Black Male Achievement. Edited by Rep. Danny K. Davis of Illinois and Dr. Leon D. Caldwell, president of the Think Tank for African American Progress, the issue will feature research articles focused on improving educational outcomes for black males.

 

Reversing the Tide of African-American Childhood Obesity

In June 2008, CBCF collaborated with the Leadership for Healthy Communities to convene a strategy meeting on the childhood obesity epidemic in the African-American community. Forty-seven policymakers, researchers, and leaders of community-based organizations, professional associations and businesses took part in the meeting and identified approaches for reversing this growing trend. Policy and program recommendations are presented in the new report Reshaping Our Communities, Reclaiming Our Health: African Americans Define Strategies for Healthy Kids and Healthy Neighborhoods. The user-friendly document also suggests strategies for public policy advocacy and community advocacy. CBCF will work with the Leadership for Healthy Communities to disseminate the report to stakeholders in the public and private sectors.

 

The Leadership for Healthy Communities is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that advances policies to support healthy eating and active living nationwide.