The Ingham Change Initiative is tackling the challenges facing local young men of color with a new undertaking announced Jan. 19.
The Initiative, already a year in the planning stage, launched its implementation phase at 10 a.m. in the Governor’s Room at the Lansing Center.
“If you were to evaluate the quality of life for all the groups in America, including education, criminal justice, employment and health care, you would find at the bottom of every category young men of color,” says Dr. Clarence Underwood Jr., chair of the Initiative. “The Ingham Change Initiative will analyze public policies that affect the lives of young men of color and develop an action plan with recommendations that hopefully will alter policies that restrict opportunities that young men of color have for realizing the American dream.”
The organization has gathered data on issues affecting health, education, employment and economics, child welfare, the justice system and how the media impacts perceptions of youth of color, Underwood explains. Goals have now been established to improve life opportunities for all youth in Ingham County and provide them with a better future.
On Jan. 19, officials introduced the Initiative’s 23 commissioners, presented local data and change strategy and the desired outcome of the group’s work. Speakers included Underwood, athletic director emeritus at Michigan State University, and Willard Walker, senior policy consultant at Public Policy Associates. Walker is helping build capacity for a national initiative based on his firm’s work in Lansing, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
The Ingham Change Initiative is working to reverse a series of public policies that have had a negative impact upon young men from communities of color, using as data an analysis of those policies included in a study by the Dellums Commission. The goal is to develop an action plan to reverse public policies initiated during the past 25 years that limit life paths for young men of color as well as develop new policy to create better opportunities for all youth.
The Ingham Change Initiative is coordinated by the Ingham Lansing Community Coalition for Youth. The Capital Region Community Foundation provided seed funding to launch the Initiative. Commissioners of the Ingham Change Initiative are: Dr. Clarence Underwood, Jr. – Chairman (MSU Athletic Director Emeritus), Chief Mark Alley (Lansing Police Department), Randy Bell (Michigan State University Ingham County Extension), Jackie Borden-Conyers (W.K. Kellogg Foundation), Renee Canady, Ph.D. (Ingham County Health Department), Paula Cunningham (Capitol National Bank), Dr. Dele Davies, MD, MSc (Michigan State University Pediatrics & Human Development), Mr. Jim Davis (Lansing School District), Stuart Dunnings (Ingham County Prosecutor), Hiram Fitzgerald (Michigan State University-University Outreach & Engagement), Judge James Giddings (Ingham County Circuit Court Family Division), Toni Hughes Glasscoe (Lansing Community College), Dr. Olga Hernandez-Patino (Lansing Community College Department of Human, Health & Public Service Careers), Chris Holman (Greater Lansing Business Monthly), Joan Jackson Johnson, Ph.D. (City of Lansing Department of Human Services & Community Relations), Teresa Kmetz (Capital Area United Way), Jim Paparrella (Child & Family Services Capital Area), Larry Meyer (Michigan Retailers Association, Retired), Deb Nolan (Ingham County Board of Commissioners), Derrick Quinney (City of Lansing City Council), Beth Spyke (Sparrow Health System), Douglas Stites (Capital Area Michigan Works!), Tracey Taylor (Lansing Community College High School Completion Initiative).
