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Welcome Message
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Welcome to IamSAAM.org – the official website of the New York/New Jersey State of the African American Male (SAAM) initiative. On behalf of my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Rep. Major Owens, Rep. Donald Payne, Rep. Charles Rangel and Rep. Edolphus Towns, I encourage you to use this site as an opportunity to be a part of a new and exciting project aimed at expanding opportunity for Black men in New York and New Jersey.
SAAM was launched in 2003 under the auspices of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the leadership of our colleague from Illinois, Rep. Danny Davis. Congressman Davis envisioned a nationwide effort focused on Black men and boys that would result in a policy agenda supported by members of the CBC. The New York and New Jersey delegation has taken up the call to action and are moving aggressively to fulfill the mandate of this important project. We are taking the multitude of ideas, suggestions, and information we received at our June 2005 conference at NYU Law School and creating the infrastructure necessary to execute the administrative and programmatic tasks related to SAAM. This website is the first step.
Please use this site to keep informed about SAAM, to obtain information about policy issues that have some bearing upon Black men, to communicate and share ideas with other Black men and interested persons or groups in the New York metropolitan area, and become involved in grassroots efforts to improve our community. Become an activist involved with --- as the website theme which we adopted from our conference puts it --- “Changing the Image, Changing the Reality, Taking Responsibility.”
Feel free to contact the coordinators for this project, Walter Fields, CSS Vice President for Government Relations, at wfields@cssny.org or my special assistant James Steele at jamesg.steele@mail.house.gov should you have any specific questions about NY/NJ SAAM. I encourage you to become a SAAM member today and inform your friends, coworkers and family members about this effort. We welcome and encourage your participation!
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