Beyond Virtue Signalling: How You Can Help Employ and Empower Youth of Color Today
With everything that has happened over the past 3 months, I haven’t really had much time to reflect and write anything here. I’ve been busy, like many of my nonprofit counterparts, pivoting to meet the needs of our clients — creative youth of color ages 16 — 22, and keeping revenue flowing through the organization I founded twelve years ago E4 Youth.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Abery, Breonna Taylor and others have brought about a gruesome perfect storm of events that have exposed the pain of 400 years of inequality that people of color have known all our lives. Diverse protesters in both large and small cities are taking to the streets to show their outrage and solidarity. Even in the former Ku Klux Klan stronghold of Vidor Texas, 150 black and mostly white people came together to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Major brands, corporations and foundations are declaring that #BlackLivesMatter and pledging millions of dollars to support social justice, education and address racial inequality.
I applaud and welcome all of this support. It’s long overdue but I have to admit, I’m a bit skeptical.
My skepticism is rooted in the 12 years of experience as a black founder of a nonprofit dedicated to providing workforce development for thousands of high school and college-aged youth of color and 50+ years of being a black human being.
Virtue signalling is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings. Feeling morally superior. - Cambridge English Dictionary
How can you move beyond virtue signalling?
If an event like Covid-19 had taken place in any of my 11 previous years as a nonprofit executive, E4 Youth’s doors would likely be closed. I can’t tell you how many “gate keepers” I’ve had to convince that what we are doing is necessary and that it should be supported with substantial and sustained financial resources. Encouragement, thoughts and prayers are nice, but as I have grown fond of saying, “You can’t eat a warm and fuzzy feeling!”
The number one corollary for educational attainment is affluence. The nonprofits that receive the majority of funding to serve people of color are made up of mostly white folks. People of color need real economic development opportunities and nonprofits led by them need to stop being marginalized.
So, this year we are fortunate. The years of investment by my founding board members, the development of our Theory of Change, logic model and curriculum has paid off in the launching of the Creative Leadership Academy (CLA) last fall in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. Our question is, how can we continue to grow and sustain it?
The CLA provides professional level training and employment opportunities for college age creative youth of color as well as professional development and support for educators that work with youth of color.
Students earn cash gift cards as they participate in career mapping, portfolio and resume development activities. The most advanced students earn employment at $12 — $20/hr as Creative Mentors that lead our high school enrichment clubs and serve as Digital Docents that promote cultural and digital literacy skills to younger students and older adults.
They also qualify for job shadowing, internship and employment opportunities with our partners across the creative and technology industries working on campaigns for brands like Lyft and Southwest Airlines. They go on to earn jobs at tech companies like Tableau, award winning ad agencies like McGarrah Jessee, and ground breaking tech startups like the Permanent Legacy Foundation. This summer, we have nearly 50 of these students participating in our Summer Digital Apprentice program.
Get In Where You Fit In
So, I’m happy to welcome you to the fight for equity. You’re just in time to help us raise $250,000 to expand our CLA cohort from 50 to more than 100 in the upcoming school year.
We look forward to featuring your volunteers as they inspire our students by sharing about their journeys to success in our Virtual Talks series this summer. It’s going to be a real relief not having to worry about how we’re going to continue paying our Creative Mentors and Digital Docents a living wage, reimburse them for wifi hotspots so that they may be able to do their jobs and make sure ALL of our students have the digital devices and software they need to thrive.
Because of you, our Digital Docents will be able to support our partners Latinitas, Con Mi Madre and Creative Action as we help 2000 elementary and middle school students code immersive stories about their lives. Best of all, I can’t wait to celebrate you and our alumni as they accept those well-paying jobs in the creative economy with your company because they have consistently exceeded your expectations.
