“The experience of young black males was represented by the experience of Michael Brown and others who have followed over the years,” says Joe, also associate dean for faculty and research at the Brown School. In the United States, for black males ages 18-29, homicide is a leading cause of death whether by the police or a peer.
Joe hopes to change that with HomeGrown STL, an initiative he started working on almost as soon as he arrived in St. Louis. Housed in the Race and Opportunity Lab in the Center for Social Development at the Brown School, HomeGrown STL hopes to improve the social mobility of the region’s 60,000 black boys and young men, ages 12-29, in one generation—by the year 2039. Social mobility is defined as the ability of black boys and men to move upward and attain a better life than their parents. Read more here.