Ten activists from Philadelphia were named winners of the Black Male Engagement (BME) Leadership Award.

The award was created to honor Black men who step up to lead the community.

The BME Leadership Award is led by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Foundations’ Campaign for Black Male Achievement.

“The award shines a light on a truth about Philadelphia that we need to remember: there are thousands of Black men in this city who choose to make it a stronger and better place to live for all of us,” said Trabian Shorters, one of the leaders behind the BME Challenge, which sponsors the award.

“Perhaps if we tell their stories, and others decide to support their efforts, you will see more and more Black men and boys willing to follow their example.”

BME is an ongoing initiative that seeks to recognize, reinforce and reward Black males from all walks of life who engage others in making communities stronger. BME also operates in Detroit.

“There is no cavalry coming to save the day for Black communities in America. The answers we’re looking for reside right within the hearts, hands and heads of community residents,” said Shawn Dove, campaign manager of CBMA.

“BME recognizes Black men and boys as assets to the community, not as problems to be solved, and we’re thrilled to be a partner in this strategy.”

Earlier this year, BME asked local Black men and boys to share their stories of what they do to make their communities stronger. More than 1,000 in Philadelphia gave personal video and written testimonials viewable at bmechallenge.org. Those who shared their stories were then eligible to apply for funding through the BME Leadership Award.

The BME Challenge offered a combined $208,000 to the Philadelphia winners to reward their work and inspire others to step forward in their communities. The funding will be used for projects such as helping veterans find services, providing therapy for autistic children and exploring the experience of Black men through a theater performance.

The following are the BME Award recipients:

• Greg Corbin is the founder of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement and a teacher who integrates hip-hop, spoken word and poetry into his classroom to better reach students. Corbin will launch The Legacy Project, which will explore the multi-layered experience of Black men through a one-man theatrical performance and community workshops.

• Tyree Dumas is the founder of DollarBoyz, a youth entertainment company, and CEO of Youth Now On Top (Y-Not). Dumas will lead Y-Not Youth, an after-school program that offers a safe haven, dance instruction and homework help.

• Russell Hicks, owner of Ebony Suns Enterprises, a consulting business that provides social media training for youth and social entrepreneurship programming to schools and nonprofits. Hicks will lead FLASH MOB, where young Black men will learn how to create — and then implement — a business-branding campaign via social media.

• Brandon Jones, who was formerly incarcerated, now works to reduce the frequency of shootings in North Philadelphia by mentoring high-risk youth and mobilizing the community. Jones will create a curriculum that helps prevent youth from going to prison, and returning citizens from going back to jail.

• While serving a 15-year-prison sentence, Reuben Jones fought for and won custody of his son. After his release, he founded Frontline Dads to help others in similar situations deal with custody and child support issues. The group also conducts a mentoring program for at-risk youth. Jones will launch the Frontline Dads Comprehensive Transformation Initiative, a mentoring/intervention program that fosters critical thinking skills, conflict resolution, creative expression and counseling.

• Solomon Jones is an author, an awarded-winning columnist and a professor at Temple University. Jones will expand Words on the Street literacy program, which aims to increase the literacy of more than 600 students through role modeling, workshops and the opportunity to write a story that will be published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

• Ari Merretazon is a Vietnam veteran who shared his life story in an anthology on Black veterans and has since worked to help those returning from war. The movie “Dead Presidents” was loosely based on his life. Merretazon will expand Pointman Soldiers Heart Ministry, a group of Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans, to help returning veterans from the Middle East find counseling, job services and benefits.

• Alex Peay is the founder of mentoring program Rising Sons, where he helps Black males achieve their goal, dreams and ambitions. Peay will strengthen Rising Sons, an after school program where recent college graduates and college students 18–25 mentor boys at three Philadelphia public high schools, and also train them to mentor boys at two local elementary schools.

• Eric D. Williams is founder of Project Elijah Empowering Autism, an after-school program for middle-spectrum autistic students ages 8–14. Williams will expand Project Elijah Empowering Autism, an after-school program for middle-spectrum autistic students ages 8–14. The group will open a new facility in Philadelphia in 2012, and will use the funding to offer speech, gross motor skills, recreation, music and life skills therapies.

• Shawn White is a recording artist/producer and the project director for the University of Pennsylvania’s “Shape Up: Barbers Building Better Brothers program,” which conducts HIV/AIDS and violence prevention through barbers and their clients.

White will launch Phreman Audio Studio Academy, which will teach audio recording and mixing to young people while promoting HIV/AIDS prevention and anti-violence strategies.

This spring BME will be looking for local partnerships to encourage more Black males to be positively engaged in communities. This summer BME will conduct another call for stories to be followed in the fall by a new round of applications for the BME Leadership Award.

Contact staff writer Ayana Jones at (215) 893-5747 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

It seems that whenever an African-American man or boy is in the news these days, it’s for doing something dark and nefarious. 

In Philadelphia, even the most high-profile athlete in the city, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, has done jail time.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has been making gifting grants to communities all across the country for years, has noticed as well. And to circumvent the bad news, the Knight Foundation has partnered with the Open Society Foundation to make a change.

Having awarded more than $105 million in grants in 2009, the Knight Foundation is looking to bestow some of that money on the men of Philadelphia through the BME (Black Male Engagement) Challenge, the goal being to highlight African-American men and boys in the city who are making a positive impact in their communities, but won’t receive any recognition for the work they do.

Philadelphia and Detroit are the target cities for these first-time awards.

“We want to shine a light on the brothers who help others achieve, who involved neighbors, friends and strangers in things that uplift the community,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president of communities. “If you want to see more Black men and boys providing their leadership in an effort to strengthen their neighborhoods and this city, we want to amplify the positive impact that Black males have in their communities every day.”

The first phase of the projected ended on Sept. 30. During this time voters were encouraged to visit the Web site bmechallenge.org and make nominations. As of press time Monday, Philadelphia had 1,008 nominations and Detroit had 1,047.

The next phase is the application period. Anyone who has entered or been nominated will be able to formally apply for grants, ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. Winners will be announced in early January. Before that, the Knight Foundation is looking to bring all of the applicants together around Thanksgiving with friends and family to honor them.

“We want to uplift and highlight Black men who are engaged in their communities,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Philadelphia program director for the Knight Foundation, which is headquartered in Miami. “We decided to start by finding Black men who are already engaged in their communities and doing positive things. We wanted them to tell their stories about why they are doing positive things, and hopefully that will inspire others to do so also.”

There are no parameters, according to Frisby-Greenwood. All an entrant needs to be doing is something that benefits the community. Former Mayor, the Rev. W. Wilson Goode Sr. has been nominated for his work with Amachi. Goode is the director and organizer of the nationally acclaimed faith-based mentoring program that focuses on children with incarcerated parents.

But there are other entrants with much lower profiles than Goode’s. There are barbers who through their trade employ others. One nominee cleans the alleys in his neighborhood daily. There is a security guard who lost his daughter to domestic violence who is now strongly advocates against abusive men.

“Being able to employ people in this economy is great,” Frisby-Greenwood said. “We have men doing so many different things. And in many cases they don’t know that there are grants available to them. We are looking for new and innovative things. They are out there.”

In 1950, the Knight Foundation began dispersing grants, mostly in a small region of the Midwest. In 1993, it reincorporated as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Cities that had Knight-Ridder newspapers — The Inquirer and Daily News were once a part of that chain — were designated as “Knight Communities” and, to this day, the company continues to fund grants in those 26 cities.

The Black Male Engagement Challenge is the fourth and latest competition set up by the Knight Foundation. The other three are the Knight Arts Challenge, the Knight News Challenge and the Knight Community Information Challenge. 

Staff writer John N. Mitchell can be reached at (215) 893-5745 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .