Monthly Newsletter

November 2022

Welcome to the inaugural 1300 Campaign monthly newsletter! Each month, we'll bring you campaign updates, big wins, and the latest policy news as it relates to advancing equity and justice for young men of color. We will also have calls to action and spotlights on local community champions.

 

Thank you for supporting this historic movement to increase college enrollment.

Last Month the 1300 Campaign Sacramento celebrated its 3-years of increasing college enrollment with its first convening since the pandemic began. This gathering shot new momentum into

Measure L Inches Toward Victory

Brings Increased Funding for Youth

On the ballot for Sacramento voters this November was Measure L, also known as as the Children and Youth Health and Safety Act, which reallocates 40% of the city’s cannabis revenue towards a youth-fund that would support and sustain programs helping keep youth healthy, housed, and safe. Although official results will be finalized in the coming weeks, early results show that support for Measure L is leading with 60% of votes.

 Measure L is expected to allocate $10 million annually to fund a host of youth services that are closely aligned with the city's commission-developed and council-adopted strategic plan. These services would include mental health counseling and wellness services, substance abuse prevention, street outreach, violence intervention, case management, summer and after-school programs, and early childhood education, family support services, and youth workforce development, including career pathways that advance the city’s climate-action goals. If passed, this measure would also create a new nine-member Sacramento Children’s Fund Oversight Commission, responsible for developing and reviewing strategic investment plans, annual service performance reports, and periodic youth impact evaluation reports. IYT is a proud partner of the SacKidsFirst Coalition and supports the goals of Measure L. Follow the movement on Instagram @vote_yesonl

 
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History of The 1300 Campaign

New to our campaign? Here's a breakdown of the progress we've made since forming this coalition three years ago.

 

 January 2020 – Origins

In 2020, My Brother’s Keeper Sacramento selected Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT) to lead the organization’s education initiatives in the region. Shortly after, IYT convened a diverse coalition of K-12 superintendents, college presidents, and educational leaders to form an Executive Strategy Community (ESC) to identify and take joint action on the region's most pressing educational equity needs. What quickly arose was the disproportionate college enrollment rates for young men of color (YMOC). 

October 2020 - Coalition is formed around increasing college access

The ESC solidified its commitment to closing this achievement gap and created the 1300 Campaign, an initiative to send an additional 1300 young men of color (YMOC) to their local CSU and UC institutions. From there, the ESC began discussing the implementation of nine policy priorities focused on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and helping send more YMOC to college. 

March 2021 – Building Infrastructure and Public Accountability 

To support the efforts of this campaign, IYT began to collect student data from CSU Sacramento, UC Davis, as well as middle and high schools. Additionally, in the spring of 2021, the campaign launched its public-facing data dashboard to demonstrate the progress of college enrollment amongst young men of color (YMOC).

 

 October 2021 - First Win  

 In early fall, the 1300 Campaign had its first policy win in which a district passed a new policy banning willful defiance suspensions for all students district-wide. Within the next several months, the 1300 Campaign successfully had a school district sign onto a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which commits the school to a year-over-year increase in more YMOC who apply to college. Continuing the momentum into 2022, the Sacramento 1300 Campaign secured four policy resolutions from school districts and three resolutions from higher education institutions, and sent an additional 184 YMOC to college.

 April 2022 – 1300 Campaign Expands to Northern Central Valley

Though extremely successful in the Sacramento region, the leaders of the 1300 Campaign understood that the challenges that face YMOC exist beyond Sacramento. The decision was made to expand into the Northern Central Valley (NCV) and partner with educational leaders in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties. The NCV 1300 Campaign now works with CSU Stanislaus and UC Merced to replicate the progress done in the Sacramento region.

 

September 2022 – Racial Equity Assessment tool 

Lastly, in September of this year, the Sacramento 1300 Campaign hosted a Year 3 Launch celebration to reinvigorate the campaign and welcome two new Co-Chairs: American River College President Melanie Dixon and Sacramento State University President Robert Nelsen.  The campaign also finished developing an Organizational Racial Equity Assessment tool, which will enable institutions to critically examine the inputs and outputs of educational initiatives, programs, curriculum, and budgets for impacts and alignment with educational outcomes outlined in the Campaign's goals.

Why 1300?

The number 1300 symbolizes the 13th amendment in which slavery was abolished, except as a punishment for crime. This significant loophole in this amendment has thus served as the foundation of what we understand today as the school-to-prison pipeline. Our mission is to dismantle the systemic racism that exists in our educational institutions like the school-to-prison pipeline and increase the amount of YMOC who attend and graduate from university. The campaign's goal is to send an additional 1300 YMOC to CSU Sacramento and UC Davis by 2025 and an additional 1300 YMOC to CSU Stanislaus and UC Merced by 2026. 

 

So how do we address this?

By working with our district, college, and university partners, we collectively draft resolutions and memorandums of understanding that focus on the campaign's nine policy priorities. We know that through the successful integration of these policies we will not only be able to help thousands of young men of color get to college, but dramatically improve a system that is preventing so many brilliant, ambitious, and capable young people from pursueing their dreams.

Establish Culturally Responsive Pathways 

 

  • A-G Eligibility for All: Ensuring all high school graduates, especially YMOC, are eligible for post-secondary opportunities by making the A-G requirements part of the default curriculum.

     

  • Ethnic Studies: Increasing a student’s sense of self, community, and cultural competency, by incorporating ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement.

     

  • Place-Based Mentorship: Improving the social-emotional and academic conditions of students, particularly YMOC, by establishing relationship-centered mentoring rooted in agency, identity, and culture.


 Bridge the Opportunity and Achievement Gap

 

  • Increase the number of high-Level Counselors: Allocating resources to hire additional counselors who provide academic and social-emotional guidance, including critical intervention and prevention counseling to support YMOC.

     

  • Development of a Racial Equity Assessment Tool: Developing a tool to critically examine the inputs and outputs of educational initiatives, programs, curriculum, and budgets for impacts and alignment with educational outcomes.

     

  • Dual Enrollment: Providing dual-priority enrollment to increase access and inclusion for YMOC in postsecondary options, earning college units while progressing towards high school graduation.
     

Interrupt Harmful Narratives and Practices

 

  • Mandatory Implicit Bias Training: Incorporating mandated, regular implicit bias training for K-12 educators as an ongoing effort to address racial inequities and unconscious biases that impact learning opportunities and outcomes for YMOC.

     

  • Moratorium on School Suspensions: Shifting the culture of punitive disciplinary actions by implementing a moratorium on school suspensions, which will bring about approaches that aim to address the root causes of students’ behavior while not removing them from the classroom.

     

  • Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Bridging the gap between teacher and student by helping teachers understand the cultural nuances that may cause a relationship and subsequently, student achievement to break down with a professional development approach centered on culturally responsive pedagogy.

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Follow the movement @1300campaign on IG

Interested in supporting The 1300 Campaign or want to learn more? Visit the Support page on our website and send us a message!

1300campaign.org/jointhemovement

 
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