Building a Lifetime of Options and Opportunities for Men: Transforming the Lives of Young Black Men in South Los Angeles

This report tells the story of BLOOM, its impact, and the lessons we learned along the way. Through the initiative, Brotherhood Crusade (BHC) and Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) developed programs that tap into the potential of young Black males through developmental relationships with male mentors along with positive peer relationships and accountability with other young Black men. Since its launch, BLOOM has impacted the lives of nearly 800 young Black men in South L.A. Over the past six years, California Community Foundation's (CCF) commitment of $500,000 per year, totaling $3.5 million, leveraged $3.3 million from other foundations, as well as contributions from individual donors, with an additional $3.2 million pledged over the next five years.

• Rate of Reoffence: The large majority of BLOOMers—nearly 90%—did not reoffend while they were enrolled in the initiative, indicating that BLOOM has been effective in achieving one of its key program goals. Tweet
• Education: Because of the programmatic shift, for most cases, education data was only collected for the last two years of the initiative (2017 and 2018). That said, nearly 70% of BLOOMers maintained a GPA of 2.01 or higher in at least one of the two years, and nearly 40% of Bloomers maintained this GPA in both years. During the same time frame, nearly 70% of enrolled BLOOMers met A–G requirements. Tweet
• Behavioral: While nearly three-quarters of all BLOOMers had been suspended and/ or expelled prior to their involvement in the initiative, the percent of BLOOMers suspended and/or expelled dropped considerably from 70% to 18%, less than one-fifth of participants, during the initiative. This is an important success for BLOOM Tweet