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Council strives to uplift black men and boys |
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Written by T.V. Floyd
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 Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Legislature this week received a blueprint to help build a firmer foundation for black males in Florida.
The architectural plans, drawn up by the Council on the Status of Black Men and Boys, outlines more than 50 recommendations that group members hope will reverse the social ills plaguing black men and boys in the Sunshine State.
“This is an opportunity for the community, state and federal leadership to identify issues impacting black males in the community and target resources to mitigate the negative impacts and accentuate the positive impacts within our community,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Levi Williams, who chairs the 19-member council that collaborated on the report. “The Attorney General’s Office lent their resources to us along with a lot of individuals.”
In addition to Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum, State Sen. Frederica Wilson and State Rep. Frank Peterman Jr., many hands helped draft the report.
The state departments of Health, Education, Corrections, and Children and Families also gave their input.
Recommendations include forming at least one local council in each of Florida's 67 counties, and establishing a $250,000 budget from the state to hire an executive director and expand forums.
The report comes at a time when the state is slashing its budgets and looking to scale back property taxes.
The council is scheduled to make a formal presentation of the report to the state on Jan. 22.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to work with this distinguished group of individuals,” McCollum said in a prepared statement. “It is important to bring together both the people and the resources needed to help today’s youth make the choices that will send their lives in a positive direction.”
The report, released to the public on Tuesday, Jan. 15, addresses improvements in economic outcomes, education, health status, developing legislative review, and foster care and families’ issues. These names are also the titles of the subcommittees that researched issues and made recommendations based on their findings.
One committee is championed by a lawyer who knows firsthand the battle that children face when they are separated from their parents.
“I grew up without my parents,” said Christopher Norwood, 35, vice chair of the Council and chairman of the Foster Care and Families committee. “My father passed away before I was born and my mother died in a house fire when I was 13.
“Initially, it was me and my sister, who was 18 at the time, then I moved with distant relatives for a year. After that, I moved in with my best friend’s family who raised me until I went to college.”
Norwood attended Hampton University in Virginia, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Social Work.
He received his master’s degree in Public Administration from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his Juris Doctorate degree from St. Thomas University’s law school in Miami.
Norwood is the director of Lawyers for Children, an advocacy group in Miami.
Although he did not actually enter the foster care system while growing up in Newark, New Jersey, he said the proposed changes in the report should be implemented in foster care systems across the nation.
“My committee made three primary recommendations in the realm of foster care,” Norwood said.
The first issue focused on relative caregivers, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles who take care of their grandchildren, nieces or nephews.
In most cases, it is the elderly black woman who takes care of two to three grandchildren, according to Norwood. If she were a foster parent, she would receive about $398 a month for each child, but because they are a relative, they only receive about 70 percent of that.
“There needs to be more services and money given to relative caregivers,” he said.
“The state has a lot of services that they are obligated to provide. Relative caregivers should know that a kid in foster care could go to college for free and receive $800 while doing so.”
In addition to balancing the support for relative caregivers, the committee also addressed kids aging out of the system and the preparation that they need to make the transition.
The solutions for this issue were actually drafted by a group of kids in the Miami Youth Shine organization.
They outlined several requests that include being allowed to attend their case hearings.
The third recommendation from the Foster Care and Families committee dealt with finding adoptive parents. Norwood noted that one successful program in black communities statewide is basically defunct.
“One Church, One Child was created by the state Legislature, but over time it has been de-funded,” said Norwood. “We need to re-fund this program.”
The Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church family in Newark adopted Norwood when his mother died. He found that he was able to depend on the entire church.
“They were always a resource for me,” he said. “They took an offering for my books and other essentials. If there was anything that I needed, I knew I could depend on them.”
That kind of safety net is what Norwood is hoping the recommendations in the report will create. He and Williams said they hope that residents embrace the report, and use it as a guideline to improve their lives.
“This report means nothing if individuals do not read it and want to make a better change for their future and for their families,” Williams said.
To view the annual report for the Florida Council on the Status of Black Men and Boys, go to www.cssbmb.com.
Photo: Levi G. Williams
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