By Janice Hayes Kyser
Contributing Writer
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — Joshua Abrams opted to mentor youth at Bridge Builders Foundation, a nonprofit agency, because he wanted to give back to his community — and maybe learn a lesson or two in the process.
“What I learned is that we as African Americans must go through this racism we experience and then process it and look for solutions to deal with it and rise above it,” said Abrams, who became a youth college ambassador at the agency while a public policy major at UCLA.
Today, the 25-year-old UCLA grad serves as a consultant to Bridge Builders Foundation, helping to launch programs, develop strategy and, of course, mentor kids. His experiences with racism growing up in Louisiana and the Inland Empire taught him one key thing he tells students — go big or go home.
“Don’t shrivel up against hate and injustice — get big,” he advises students. “Follow your dreams; be better.”
It’s the kind of advice Bridge Builders Foundation has been giving young people since its founding in 1998.
Bridge Builders Foundation helps youth of color build resilience and respect for themselves and others in a society that too often greets them with hostility because of the color of their skin.
Through science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives; financial literacy and other programs, the organization is crafting a generation of leaders who know their history and are prepared to combat bias with confidence, knowledge and love. The organization’s mission is to remove the barriers of race, poverty, ignorance and despair to change the trajectories of young people’s lives.
And that is what it has been doing for 26 years. Founded in 1998, Bridge Builders Foundation currently serves more than 700 youth of color annually through targeted programs, and several hundred more members of the community through their targeted initiatives.
The organization has also awarded more than $1 million in financial scholarships to African-American males and boasts a robust pool of 150 volunteers who donate more than 5,000 hours a year to the cause.
“What we do is provide our youth with the social, emotional and cultural supports other institutions may not be able to provide,” says James Breedlove, president of Bridge Builders Foundation.
“We expose youth to professionals that look like they do and avail them to opportunities in STEM and other fields,” Breedlove said. “We do it all through a lens they can relate to. The lens of inner-city youth of color.”
That lens is often clouded by bias, hate and intolerance, but the goal is to build a belief in youth ages 4 to 21 that they are unstoppable, Breedlove said.
“It’s about building a sense of belonging in our youth and making them feel and believe that everywhere they are they belong, even if society is telling them otherwise,” Breedlove said. “Sure, they’ll face challenges that have to do with our history in this country and society, but we help them develop strategies and tactics to pivot around those challenges and build a confidence that makes them unstoppable.”
Breedlove, 63, who was raised in Los Angeles, says he is not surprised that throughout his life African Americans have been and continue to be the most targeted group for hate incidents and hate crimes, as confirmed by the state attorney general’s latest report, but he says that doesn’t have to continue to be the case.
“Teaching tolerance and acceptance of differences is the answer,” Breedlove said. “A lot of the problem is the belief that life is a zero-sum game, that for one group to thrive, another has to lose. This us versus them mentality is a ploy that stimulates hate and intolerance.
“We have to let everybody know that no group is a monolith. … That kind of summation is offensive. … Stereotyping, making assumptions … drawing conclusions based on generalizations created from isolated incidents, that is not healthy on any side.”
Erecting that confidence, one student, one mentorship, one science camp, class and interaction at a time is what makes Bridge Builders invaluable, said Deputy Executive Director Jamecca Marshall.
Marshall said the agency is using a grant it received from the California Stop The Hate campaign to disseminate Stop The Hate information through flyers, brochures, branded materials such as T-shirts and caps. In addition, Bridge Builders enlists high school and college students to be ambassadors to their younger peers to educate them about hate crimes and incidents and what they can do to report incidents, rather than accepting them as the norm. She said speaking up is not only the right thing to do in the fight against hate and intolerance and the actions it sometimes spawns, but the only way to track hate so that the state and other agencies can devote the resources needed to fight it. Marshall believes that one of the key roles Bridge Builders Foundation plays is preparing youth of color for college, where systemic intolerance often exists at a level students aren’t prepared for.
“Our goal is to help our youth succeed in spite of the systemic racism they may encounter on college campuses in our state,” said Marshall, noting that more and more students of color are opting to go to historically Black colleges and universities and other institutions out of state to avoid intolerance, which ultimately hurts the state.
“We and the next generation must sound the alarm and not accept hate as business as usual,” Marshall said. Breedlove agrees.
“Far too many of us normalize the remarks, comments, actions and microaggressions we encounter on a daily basis,” Breedlove said. “We can stand up and speak up when we are the targets of hate. We must also look in the mirror and be more tolerant, accepting, and make sure we don’t perpetuate hate on anybody else.”
For more information about Bridge Builders Foundation visit: Info@BridgeBuildersLA.org or call 323-282-7827.
Janice Hayes Kyser is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers.
This resource was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library via California Black Media as part of the Stop the Hate Program. The program is supported by partnership with California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
