Talk 01
The State of Black Men in America
Black men are discussed constantly and measured rarely. A data-centered look at where they stand on health, work, wages, wealth and voice shows where the real gaps are and which institutions are positioned to close them.
Learning outcomes
- Read the main indicators of Black male economic mobility
- Separate individual-responsibility narratives from institutional ones
- Identify where employers, schools and governments can act
- For
- Universities, foundations, corporate DEI and talent leaders, public agencies, national conferences
- Audiences leave understanding
- A clearer picture of the economic, educational and institutional conditions shaping Black men's futures, and where investment makes a difference.
- Behind the talk
- Gentlemen's Factory's research, The State of Black Men in America and The Gentlemen's Agenda, a data platform built with the Black Dollar Initiative.
Talk 02
The New Economics of Black America
Entrepreneurship alone will not close the wealth gap. Ownership, access to capital, workforce pathways and institutional investment have to work together, and communities need institutions of their own to hold the assets.
Learning outcomes
- Distinguish income, ownership and wealth as separate problems
- Connect capital, workforce pathways and institutions
- Leave with questions to ask of their own investment strategy
- For
- Chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, banks and funders, Black business and professional associations
- Audiences leave understanding
- A view of Black economic development that goes beyond starting businesses, and a short list of levers that compound over time.
- Behind the talk
- Building enterprise in Brooklyn, government workforce and youth development contracts, and civic board service on the Public Housing Community Fund and the Kingsborough Community College Foundation.
Talk 03
Raising the Next Generation of Men
Boys and young men are moving into adulthood with fewer structures than earlier generations had: mentors, rites of passage, clear paths to work. Character, accountability and belonging can be developed on purpose.
Learning outcomes
- Recognize what structures young men are missing
- Build accountability and belonging into program design
- Connect character development to economic readiness
- For
- Schools and colleges, youth organizations, parents' and fathers' groups, workforce programs
- Audiences leave understanding
- A practical framework for developing young men that treats education, character and economic readiness as one effort.
- Behind the talk
- Youth and workforce development work, Gentlemen's Factory's whole-person framework, and the G Code educational program.
Talk 04
From Safety to Prosperity
Public investment in underserved neighborhoods is usually organized around preventing harm. Safety is the floor. A prosperity agenda asks what must be true for people to build lives there they want to stay for: ownership, employment, capital, education and networks that compound.
Learning outcomes
- Reframe community investment from reducing harm to building assets
- Connect safety, ownership, employment and capital in one agenda
- Leave with measures that match a prosperity goal
- For
- Mayors and city agencies, public-safety and economic-development leaders, philanthropy, urban policy forums
- Audiences leave understanding
- A reframing of community investment from deficit reduction to asset building, and measures to match.
- Behind the talk
- Advising NYC Department of Correction leadership on Rikers Island reform, growing up in Coney Island, and building enterprise in Brooklyn.
Talk 05
AI, Work and the Communities We Cannot Leave Behind
AI is changing which skills pay, which jobs exist and who gets hired, faster than workforce systems can adapt. If communities already cut off from capital and networks are cut off from this transition too, the gap will widen for a generation. The response has to be institutional, not individual.
Learning outcomes
- Understand where the AI transition collides with existing gaps in mobility
- Identify what employers, educators and governments can build now
- Treat the response as institutional, not individual
- For
- Technology companies, employers, community colleges, workforce funders, policy forums
- Audiences leave understanding
- Where the AI transition collides with existing gaps in economic mobility, and what employers, educators and governments can build now.
- Behind the talk
- Workforce and youth development contracts with government, Gentlemen's Factory's AI & Future of Work cohort, and convenings of Black and Brown leaders in tech.
Talk 06
From Brooklyn to the Boardroom
Moving between a neighborhood, a government agency and a boardroom means translating between worlds that rarely trust each other. The leadership skill that matters most is building trust across them.
Learning outcomes
- Build trust across institutions with different incentives
- Translate community needs into language funders and agencies act on
- Lead through uncertainty without losing the mission
- For
- Leadership programs, corporate and nonprofit audiences, university students and young professionals
- Audiences leave understanding
- Practical leadership lessons from working in banking, healthcare, city government and community enterprise.
- Behind the talk
- Nearly two decades across banking, healthcare, New York City government and founding Gentlemen's Factory.
Talk 07
Building Institutions That Outlast the Founder
Programs end when grants end. Organizations depend on their founders. Institutions keep producing outcomes regardless of who leads them. Underserved communities have many programs and too few institutions of their own, and closing that gap is a design discipline.
Learning outcomes
- Test whether their work is a program, an organization or an institution
- Apply five moves that make an institution durable
- Plan governance and succession early
- For
- Founders and social entrepreneurs, nonprofit boards and executives, accelerators, philanthropic leaders
- Audiences leave understanding
- A clear test for whether their own work is a program, an organization or an institution, and five moves that make it durable.
- Behind the talk
- Rebuilding Gentlemen's Factory for durability, and governance work on the boards of the Public Housing Community Fund and the Kingsborough Community College Foundation.
Talk 09
The Human Development Gap
Some people are developed on purpose. Executives get coaches, elite students get advisors. Most adults face the biggest transitions of their lives (a career pivot, a layoff, fatherhood, a first leadership role) with no structure at all. That gap is an institutional choice, and it can be closed.
Learning outcomes
- See human development as infrastructure an institution can build
- Identify the transitions in their workforce or community that go unsupported
- Take away a framework covering career, wealth, health, family, leadership and purpose
- For
- Employers and HR leaders, universities and community colleges, workforce boards, public agencies
- Audiences leave understanding
- Human development as infrastructure an institution can build, fund and measure, not a perk for the few.
- Behind the talk
- Gentlemen's Factory's whole-person framework (career, wealth, health, family, leadership and purpose) and its research on Black men in America.
