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New Baltimore Program Works To Help Young Men Succeed

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- On this day of remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there's a new program to help young African-American men succeed.

Jessica Kartalija reports the effort started at the White House and has made its way to Baltimore City.

"We need to change the statistics," said President Barack Obama.

Last year, Obama started a program called "My Brother's Keeper" to help keep at-risk youth in school and out of jail.

"After 211 homicides, 189 were African-American males. It's going to take a lot for us to make the type of progress I would like to see and to make that sustainable," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

Now the mayor and City Schools CEO Dr. Gregory Thornton are launching "My Brother's Keeper" throughout the school district.

"It starts with communities coming together doing things, and working together in ways in which we haven't," Thornton said.

The president challenged cities across the country to improve quality of life for students and open the discussion about racial differences.

"To have a conversation about what we can do differently, how we can work better together so we can have a bright future for our African American men," Rawlings-Blake said.

Districts across the country have taken action.

"I can't think of a better way of keeping Dr. King's dream alive than certainly the dreams of our children," Thornton said.

The "My Brother's Keeper" program has been a key part of the White House's response to unrest following the killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

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