Grantee Profile: Urban Leadership Institute

Matt Stevens and David Miller receive a steady barrage of questions—on average 40 to 50 phone calls and emails per day. Most requests come from African American single mothers who have read or heard of their book, Raising Him Alone: Things Black Women Can Do to Raise Boys.

Miller, a former Open Society Foundations Baltimore Community Fellow, and Stevens, a youth development expert, published Raising Him Alone in 2008 in response to the growing number of appeals for advice from African American single mothers. The guide’s insights are culled from hundreds of interviews with single mothers and grandmothers.

After the publication of Raising Him Alone, mothers continued to reach out to these two experts on issues ranging from parenting tips to emergency intervention for homelessness or disease. “We had a grandmother come up to us one day,” Miller said. “She had hypertension and was raising six boys on her own while living in public housing.”

Miller and Stevens saw an opportunity to build a support network and re-teamed in 2009 to found the Raising Him Alone parenting institute. The institute holds ongoing forums that offer a safe place for African American single mothers to talk to each other about the challenges of raising their sons and learn of resources covering topics such as parenting, economic and financial literacy, social services, and mental health. Each forum is attended by representatives of community-based service institutions who can provide mothers with direct access to support resources.

In just a few months, the institute reached its goal of creating a network of 1,500 mothers. As of September 2009, the institute already had a database of 4,700 mothers, almost 500 of whom are members of its Facebook page.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, over half of African American boys grow up in single-parent households, the vast majority of which are headed by single mothers. In light of these figures, linking single African American mothers with the right resources is essential to assisting families, particularly if such efforts are employed in tandem with responsible fatherhood initiatives.

“We’re not advocating that mothers do it by themselves,” Stevens added. “We surround them with resources to help them and their sons, and we encourage them to engage the fathers in every way we can.”

The institute focuses on providing education and referrals, using collaboration and partnerships as its biggest vehicles. Currently, the institute holds forums in Baltimore, where Miller leads discussions as the executive of Urban Leadership Institute, and in Newark, where Stevens facilitates through his nonprofit, the Residential After-School Program. The institute has also formed the Community Network Initiative to start ongoing forums and follow-up activities in other locations like Atlanta, the Caribbean, and Europe.

“We receive so many calls from all over,” said Stevens. “Regardless of race, culture, or socio-economic background, single mothers want help to catch up with their sons.”