Urban Update
A multi-cultural program that examines news events and issues that have a broad impact on New England's minority communities. The program airs Sundays, from 11:30-12:00 p.m., and is hosted by Byron Barnett
Air Date: May 18, 2008
Host: Alberto Vasallo
Topics: Status of Black Boston - Part 3: Economic Development & Empowerment
Status of Black Boston - Part 3: Economic Development & Empowerment
This is the third edition of the series entitled the Status of Black Boston. It is collaboration between Urban Update and the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. In this edition the topics my guests and I will be discussing are Economic Development & Empowerment in Boston Black community. Joining Alberto Vasallo is John T. Turner the Development Director for United Negro College Fund. UNCF plays a critical role in enabling more than 65,000 students each year to attend college and get the education they want and deserve. To close the educational attainment gap between African Americans and the majority population, UNCF helps promising students attend college and graduate. Greg Almieda is President of Global View Communications. Global View Communications takes the unique approach of combining the best practices of community outreach, the skills and talents of an advertising agency, and the strategic focus of marketing consulting to provide its clients with a full suite of ethnic marketing services. Global View Communications is committed to helping its clients engage all ethnicities. Boston City Councilman Charles C. Yancey. Councilman Yancey is a lifelong resident of Boston, and was first elected to the Boston City Council in 1983. He is the longest serving elected public official in the history of Boston politics. He served as President of the Boston City Council in 2001 and the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials in 1999. Councilman Yancey also served as Chair of the Council's Committee of Employment and Workforce Development and Finance Services and Community Investment. And Leonard Webb, President and Founder, The Professionals Connection. The Professionals Connection is a non-profit organization that boasts some of the brightest and sharpest minds in and around New England. To date they have a diverse database of roughly 10,000 "like minded professionals" and that number is constantly growing every week as people find out about the power of the connection.
"The underdevelopment of Blacks in the United States is due primarily to the lack of equal educational opportunities and to the denial of opportunity for on-the-job experience and training. If it is true that most capital formation must come from the savings of the developing group, the Black economy is likely to remain poor". That is a quote from Dr. R. Grann Lloyd. Dr. Lloyd was Editor-in-Chief of The Negro Educational Review from 1981 to 1995.
Young Black males in contemporary American society face major challenges to their development and well being. Social and economic indicators of Black male development provide a profile of an individual whose quality of life is in serious jeopardy.
While blacks spend $110 billion on housing, only 48 percent of black households owned their own home compared with 75.7 percent for white households, according to Census figures for the fourth quarter of 2005. In fact, African American homeownership declined one percentage point from the fourth quarter of 2004.
