Just two months after holding its first African-American Male Summit, Jackson (Mich.) Community College (JCC) is taking steps to get Black male students involved in the Michigan town. The college is also quickly becoming the nucleus of community involvement for many African-American residents.

JCC recently released a report, which examines the obstacles and roles that education and family structure play in the lives of Black males in Jackson, which is 80 miles west of Detroit. The report entitled, “The Jackson African-American Male Summit Executive Report,” also evaluates the state’s penal system. Among the more than 100 recommendations included in the 70-page document are: the hiring of more minority teachers, the establishment of a mentorship program, and the increase of diversity among law enforcement and within the state’s jury system.

“Our objective was to address some of the challenging conditions that are facing young African-American males. We wanted to identify the reasons for their lack of achievement in education and identify the barriers that are preventing them from steering clear of the penal system,” says Lee Hampton, director of the Office of Multicultural Relations at JCC, who adds that many of the college’s proposals are modeled after the national, multi-partner initiative, Achieving the Dream, to help more community college students earn degrees.

Among the findings included in the report, obstacles that keep many of the Black males in Jackson, a small city that was 19 percent Black according to the 2000 Census, from succeeding in secondary and higher education are the availability of drugs, lack of parental involvement and supervision, the lack of diversity among teachers and staff, and poverty. The report encourages legislators to revise the state’s education system and provide a community college education free of charge. Local officials are also calling on churches and religious organizations to be more involved with the educational process.