OAKLAND – Former President Barack Obama will come to Oakland in February for a program that will address opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color, Oakland officials and the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance announced yesterday.

Obama will participate in MBK Rising!, an event that will bring together My Brother’s Keeper communities, young men of color, organizations that are focused on boys and young men of color, elected officials andcross-sector leaders.

Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper in February 2014 to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color and to ensure all youth can reach their full potential, MBK officials said.

In 2015, the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, inspired by My Brother’s Keeper, was launched to scale and sustain the organization’s mission.

In late 2017, the MBK Alliance became an initiative of the Obama Foundation.

Within the Obama Foundation, the MBK Alliance leads a cross-sector national call to action that’s focused on building safe and supportive communities for boys and young men of color where they feel valued and haveclear pathways to opportunity.

“On behalf of the city of Oakland and our tremendous coalition of dedicated partners taking action to ensure that all young people have every opportunity to achieve their dreams, we are honored to have been selected,”Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement.

Schaaf said, “I look forward to welcoming President Obama and young people from around the country to Oakland and making the first-ever MBK Rising! event a great success.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, “I’m proud to join Mayor Schaaf in welcoming MBK Rising! to the Bay Area for their first-ever national event.”

Breed said, “At a time when we are seeing rising division and discrimination across our country, I could not be more excited for our cities to have the opportunity to highlight our efforts to confront structural inequalities and lift up the next generation of African-American leaders.”

Registration for the event opens on Dec. 5.

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