JANUARY 3, 2017 PROGRAM:
Ujamaa Place
Former St. Paul Chief Police Chief John Harrington, Board Member, and Otis Zanders, President and CEO, will enlighten us about a bold organization here in St. Paul - Ujamaa Place. Ujamaa Place is an organization focused on young African American men in Saint Paul (primarily between the ages of 18 and 30), many of whom suffer multiple barriers to becoming stable, productive members of the community. These barriers include being undereducated, unemployed and/or unemployable, affiliated with gangs, a criminal history, homelessness, drug use, and a general marginalization by greater society.
In 2009, a group of leaders in the St. Paul African American community, including then St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington [rt.], Executive Director of the St. Paul YWCA Billy Collins, then St. Paul City Council Member Melvin Carter III, Thad Wilderson M.A. Ed. LP, Mary K. Boyd from St. Paul Public Schools, the NAACP, and several members of the Black Ministerial Alliance and the Council on Black Minnesotans identified that programming for this population was a significant gap in the social service delivery system in St. Paul, and needed immediate attention. Without intervention from a program like Ujamaa Place, this will be a “lost generation” of young men who die at a young age or are incarcerated for most of their lives.
The mission of Ujamaa Place is to assist young African American men primarily between the ages of 18 and 30, who are economically disadvantaged and have experienced repeated cycles of failure. This mission statement is rooted in the philosophy of African American culture and empowerment – that everyone is important, valuable, worthy, and loveable.