The challenge

The Harlem neighborhood that houses The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (BHSS) is one of the poorest in New York City. Its residents contend with overcrowded and inadequate schools, high unemployment, drug trafficking and pervasive health concerns, from asthma to AIDS. According to the leaders of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, this climate often leads children “to underachieve, to succumb to the street culture of drugs and violence, to accept jail as a predetermined aspect of their lives, to conform to the negative images of women and men, to lose connection with their history, their culture, and the legacy of their struggle.”

Seeds of commitment

Jason Warwin, Khary Lazarre-White, and Cidra Sebastien, who together direct The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a youth development organization, grew up in New York City. “We do this work because we have been influenced and inspired by activists and social-change makers who came before us,” they write. The group focuses on young people, they say, because “society is failing our children. In the city of New York, children are allowed to attend failing schools, to be surrounded by drugs and violence, and allowed to have no real opportunity because they are black and brown and economically poor.”

As undergraduates at Brown University, Lazarre-White and Warwin founded The Brotherhood as a leadership group for young men in Providence, R.I., a program that was the precursor to The Brotherhood/Sister Sol. Sebastien joined BHSS in 1997 when she was 17. After graduating from Hampton University, she returned to work with the program and has since become a director.

Accomplishments

Since Warwin and Lazarre-White founded The Brotherhood/Sister Sol 10 years ago, 96 percent of youth involved in their multi-year program have graduated from high school or earned a GED, the high-school equivalency certificate. Eighty-one percent have been accepted to college, and 93 percent of college-age alumni are employed full time or pursuing higher education. According to Santiago Taveras, Local Instructional Superintendent in the New York City schools, “I have seen firsthand their effect on members at three schools in Harlem and the South Bronx – none have been sentenced to jail time; 97 percent have no criminal record; and only 3 percent had children before graduating high school. These numbers are staggering.”

Students join chapters composed of 10 to 18 young men or women in seventh, eighth or ninth grade, and remain in their chapters until they graduate from high school. The curriculum fosters critical thinking, practical skills for negotiating modern life, and leadership competence. Subjects include Pan-African and Latino history, sexism, and conflict resolution. Participating youth have year-round access to guidance and mentoring. Some receive opportunities to study abroad, and all are encouraged to undertake service projects in the community.

The BHSS has responded to the need for additional programs. When aspiring poets wanted an outlet, Lyrical Circle was born. That group has since mentored poets who perform at local events. BHSS has published Voices of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a collection of BHSS youth writing, and this year will publish a companion volume designed to help educators explore writing with their own students. The After School Program was established when younger children’s need for support became apparent. The Liberation Program and Summer Liberation School focus on social change work; their youth members have waged tenant-rights campaigns and organized neighborhood residents to turn an abandoned school building into a community center. In the International Study Program, students have traveled to Africa, Latin America, and Central America to study the politics, culture, and history of their host countries.

Leadership style

The BHSS created an organizational structure called the Directors Circle that is deliberately egalitarian and consensus-driven. The three leaders rotate tasks, including arranging meetings and communicating with staff. That structure, directors believe, echoes the underlying values of the organization: community, collaboration, and equity. For example, teaching that women are equal to men is easier when equality is a visible feature of the organization. Leaders believe that the BHSS internal structure “provides an effective example for youth to see how people can work together to accomplish complex goals by combining their energy and talents.”

The collaborative nature of BHSS leadership is also designed to allow Warwin, Lazarre-White, and Sebastien direct involvement with youth in the chapters, which “ensures that leadership decisions are made with the best interest of the programs and the youth, and not based purely on administrative ideals,” according to the BHSS leaders.

The future

Warwin sees his role shifting in the next few years to one of developing leaders and replicating the success of the BHSS. “Ideally, in five years I will be expanding our work and continuing the struggle to support community and youth development within another distressed community in New York City,” he says. Sebastien would like to see BHSS and its youth “coordinating a school based on our educational philosophy and the organization recognized as a model for youth development that other people in the country could use to transform other communities of color.” Lazarre-White is working toward a future with more opportunity for children: “I am committed to the movement and will be involved in the same efforts in five years. There is a long line of people who have sought to fight the moral fight. I will write more. I will do more. The struggle will remain.”

More about The Brotherhood/Sister Sol

“They truly do represent role models as young men and women who can go into their communities and make positive change. Their story is one that needs to be promulgated so that others in other cities will believe that they can do the same kind of things.”
- Michael Gillespie, Dean, Borough of Manhattan Community College

“This dynamic leadership team has made a profound impact on this community through their work with youth.”
- Santiago Taveras, Local Instructional Superintendent, New York City