MY Lansing Action Guide is a comprehensive plan co-created by community and municipality to close gaps in economic equity for families with children of color ages 0-25.

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A new poll released by WKKF and Ebony Magazine found that many African Americans are troubled by a wide range of issues, especially economic challenges such as obtaining meaningful employment and livable wages. Seventy-three percent, or almost three-fourths of the survey’s 1005 respondents, are concerned about income inequality.

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A new study finding that Black and Latino students who identify with ‘hip-hop’ culture face unfair disciplinary practices in urban schools may help shape more equitable school districts in the Greater Lansing area.
 
Professor Muhammad Khalifa performed an ethno-graphic study to understand the full cultural context of schools in Southeastern Michigan over the course of two years. The study gathered individual responses, field notes, school data and involved shadowing subjects to create a more in depth picture than what could have been represented with interviews and surveys.
 
Khalifa, a Michigan State University assistant professor of education completed his investigations during his Doctoral work.
 
“Traditional schools have casted aside ‘hip-hop’ culture as a deviance,” said Khalifa. “There are achievement, suspension and disciplinary gaps that can be resolved if educators begin to view these students as assets instead of burdens.”
 
The findings of this study follow a recent charge from the Obama administration to discontinue zero tolerance policies that critics believe marginalize students that do not conform to their school district's cultural norms. Based on Khalifa’s study, schools can perform an equity audit to determine which students, parents, teachers and non-instructional staff are feeling excluded by the school system.
 
“We are very clear on which teachers are struggling and how to map a plan for improvement,” asserted Khalifa, “Until we have a handle on our equity data and a plan to create a district that is inclusionary instead of exclusionary, than we are not serious about reforming education.”

Professor Khalifa is currently working with a team to provide area schools with access to an online equity audit that can be performed and returned electronically. This inexpensive resource would generate a report giving school leaders and communities an equity benchmark for their school, as well as a way to move forward in an inclusive and culturally responsible way.
 
Source: Muhammad Khalifa, Michigan State University
Writer: Tashmica Torok, Innovation News Editor
 

Michigan-based Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) is one of the grantees featured in a new report that examines the changing face of philanthropy.

As the U.S. population shifts – with ethnic and racial groups growing faster than the overall American population – the W.K. Kellogg Foundation finds the philanthropic landscape is rapidly changing to become as diverse as the country's population. "Cultures of Giving: Energizing and Expanding Philanthropy by and for Communities of Color," a new report commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation with major funding by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, shows how philanthropy is evolving, with some of the most significant growth stemming from identity-based philanthropy — a growing movement to spark philanthropic giving from a community on behalf of a community, where "community" is defined by race, ethnicity or gender.

ACCESS, which conducted the first research ever done on giving in the Arab American community, inspired Arab American donors to identify themselves as philanthropists who can give strategically and began laying the groundwork toward establishing the Arab American community's first ever identity-based fund.

This report explores current shifts within the philanthropy sector and showcases key learnings, best practices and successful models to promote and enhance philanthropy and giving among communities of color. It shares WKKF's journey so that others might learn from both its successes and mistakes, and it challenges fellow funders to consider new ways to collaborate with and advance the impact of identity-based philanthropy to positively impact the country's most vulnerable children and families.