Everyone at the table

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Concerned, careful and committed to see change: That is the mindset of the more than 250 local leaders involved in the Urban Congress.

The coalition, part of Raymond A. Jetson’s MetroMorphosis non-profit, started in 2016 with a mission to improve quality of life for African-American men in Baton Rouge. Before creating Urban Congress, MetroMorphosis reached out to local organizations specifically impacting African-American men, such as 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge, My Brother’s Keeper and Boys Hope Girls Hope, and invited them for an informational discussion.

The resulting coalition’s seven key goals include improving black men’s access to health care, education, interaction with the criminal justice system and overall employment, reducing income disparities and increasing life expectancy. The goals will guide the still-young coalition’s plans for action, with the organization envisioning that it will take seven to 10 years to see real change.

Using a collective effort and a strategic approach, Jetson, who is president and CEO of MetroMorphosis, plans to enrich African-American men’s lives while ensuring they are productive, connected, healthy and safe.
metromorphosis.net

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“The term ‘congress’ was chosen very intentionally, because we wanted to communicate that this is not just another meeting, workshop or a convention. But rather, this is a convening of delegates to deliberate toward action.

We set about to take a year to learn about those seven areas in this community. Now, going into the second year, it’s going to be about the action plan, execution and ensuring that we’re making progress toward what we want to see happen over the next year.

I can’t, in a paternalistic way, tell somebody who lives off of Gus Young Avenue what they should do with their life. Although I grew up there, I don’t live there today. I’m not living their experience. It’s not for me to tell them what needs to happen in their community or how a particular service or service provider should interface with their community. My goal is to get that person at the table. To speak their own truths, interests and perspective.

When we are able to get folks who are in the room based on lived experience alone, who are able to believe that they actually have the ability to craft change in their community, there’s little else that excites me more than that.

It’s impossible for us to thrive as a community when one segment of our community is not experiencing the outcomes from the systems and structures that are in place. We’re not here to fix black boys and men. We’re here to build systems and structures that are sensitive to what is happening as it relates to this segment of our population.” – Raymond A. Jetson

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Read more from our cover story, featuring people standing up to solve racial issues in Baton Rouge.

This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.