the president's quarterly letter
July 2007

 

Dear Friends of the Knoxville Area Urban League:

 

The spring 07 quarter has been very busy. And even though we’re just entering summer, we are busy planning for our annual fundraising gala on October 18th.  Last year, almost 1000 people attended our Equal Opportunity Awards Gala, and we raised $90,000 for our annual fund. Proceeds from the event allow us to fill in funding gaps to provide much needed services.  We were certainly pleased with last year’s efforts; however, our goal is to do even better this year. Our Gala has become one of the must attend events.  Individual tickets can be purchased for $150. I can guarantee that there will be good food, good music, good company and you will be supporting our work --- hope that you can attend.

 

Each year the National Urban League publishes a report on the state of black America; this year’s report presented a “portrait of the black male”. It made for very depressing reading. But the discussion of the state of black males in our society and the statement of why we should all be concerned with the serious difficulties black young men have getting on in life, affects the welfare of us all. For example, there are more black young men caught up in the penal system than are in college; the disconnect so many young black men feel for mainstream life; the high incidence of out of wedlock births among young black people and fatherless households; the relatively high drop out rate from high school; the career dream of too many young black males is to be a professional athlete and not a teacher or plumber. The National Urban League’s report concludes that “the crisis of the black male is our crisis”.    And it is.

           

The Knoxville Area Urban League has programs to help with this problem. In our Workforce Development programs, we work daily to assess, counsel, train and find employment for adults.  The Urban League offers a number of programs to children and youth. Working with National Scholastic, we provide approximately 3,000 books to daycare centers, Head Start, and other pre kindergarten programs each year. The Urban League has programs to help children develop computer skills - the Digital Academy. Our National Achievers Honor Society inducted nearly 100 students from all over Knox County to acknowledge their academic achievement as well as to lift them as role models for other students.

 

Last year, we also established a chapter of the Boys to Men mentoring program. This program seeks to match successful adult male role models with 12-18 year old boys.

To address issues of young women, we hosted a mother/daughter communications workshop. For the last 18 months, our Young Professionals (ages 24- 40) group has been an informal association. This month, the group was incorporated as an official auxiliary of the Knoxville Area Urban League and a chapter of the National Urban League Young Professionals.   I continue to be amazed at the young talent and energy that is waiting to be tapped which will make Knoxville an even better community.  The Urban League is committed to this effort.   Their next event will be hosted by TVA on August 23 for networking and social gathering.

 

Remember that we now offer classes focused on economic development at the Urban League. The classes focus on several economic issues facing African Americans: starting and building businesses, investing in the financial markets and personal finance. The next class on Entrepreneurship and small business management begins on September 5 and ends October 31. Classes are on Mondays and Wednesday evenings. Our classes are open to anyone who is thinking about starting a business.

 

Your membership in the Knoxville Area Urban League is important to us and this community; and we thank those who have joined with us since my last letter. The financial support of people like you enables us to do the work that we do. An annual membership costs only $25 (you can always donate more) and is tax deductible. We hope you will consider a membership.

 

We wish for you a good and restful summer.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Phyllis Y. Nichols

President & CEO

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Spring 2007

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