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My Brother’s Keeper groups develop plans

By Staff | Jun 27, 2016

NASHUA – After the formal adoption of the White House initiative known as My Brother’s Keeper earlier this year, advocates have continued their mission to improve the health, well-being and education of Gate City residents through focus groups.

More than 200 communities nationwide have accepted the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge to develop a cradle-to-college strategy to help children enter school cognitively, socially and emotionally prepared. Two of the three challenge goals selected by Nashua involve improving the educational outcome for students in Nashua, while the third seeks to reduce violence.

"My Brother’s Keeper has several different initiatives, but most communities chose ones to focus on," said Kim Kleiner, assistant to Mayor Jim Donchess and former school board member. The education challenges chosen by Nashua focus on helping children enter public school ready to learn, and on helping children to read at grade level by third grade.

Those involved in launching MBK have broken into three focus groups to assess their obstacles in the community and what must be done to move forward.

"With MBK, the focus groups are the second half of the summit," Kleiner said.

The White House initiative gives a set number of days to work on each phase of the program. Nashua had 45 days to plan the summit, and following the May 19 summit, the city has 120 days to develop implementation plans. Anyone can join a Community Challenge focus group at anytime.

The next meeting date is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, July 1 at the mayor’s office for the "reading by grade three" group. Interested residents can contact Kleiner at 589-3260.

"There are so many people that work really hard to give back to the community, that have good ideas – it’s just a matter of hearing the ideas, and giving that opportunity for people to share," she said.

Organized through the mayor’s office, focus groups are facilitated by different leaders from the community, with Kleiner heading the group focused on reading at grade level.

"In the focus group, everyone had things to say, but there is never the venue to say them," Kleiner said, noting how the communication and connections strengthen the community. For instance, she recalled how a casual conversation at a backyard barbecue prompted the recent Nashua School District and Sky-Skan partnership to fund the renovations for the Nashua South Planetarium.

"You don’t know where to have those conversations and who to have them with," she said.

My Brother’s Keeper seeks to strengthen the community in part by rallying resources already in place – a tall order for a city like Nashua with many city and nonprofit services, schools and educational programs.

"They are hard conversations because there are so many players to bring in – the public schools, all of our nonprofit partners such as the Boys & Girls Club (of Greater Nashua), Youth Council, the Adult Learning Center … you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but you want to build on existing programs," Kleiner said.

The May summit included more than 70 people including education representatives from UNH, the ALC, the local chapter of the YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club and several Board of Education members she said.

Part of the development will be to identify appropriate grants and assistance to apply to, which will be done through the mayor’s office.

"You need the data to prove that you’ve met the requirements, just like any other grant. You need the data before it’s feasible," she said.

While Nashua is the first city in New Hampshire to adopt the program, New Hampshire was the last state in the country to participate in My Brother’s Keeper.

Donchess started the process on getting the White House initiative My Brother’s Keeper in Nashua shortly after taking office, said Kleiner.

"I was really excited at first about this, and now I’m beyond excited. I probably think of My Brother’s Keeper 24/7," she said. "This is the best community conversation I have seen in a long time. Nashua has a wealth of people who have good ideas and really care, especially about our children."

My Brother’s Keeper challenge grew out of the 2012 shooting of unarmed 17-year-old black male Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who was later acquitted in the teen’s death.

The six major objectives include the three adopted by Nashua – entering school ready to learn, reading at grade level by third grade and keeping children safe from violence – and three others related to graduating from high school ready for college or a career, completing postsecondary training and successfully entering the workforce.

Tina Forbes can be reached at 594-6402, tforbes@nashuatelegraph. com or @Telegraph_TinaF.

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