Welcome to SJLI

A Little Background

The Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) grew out of the work of its pilot academy, the Black Male Youth Academy (BMYA) at Morningside High School. The BMYA began in 2006, and the SJLI centered on this work, began in 2007. The SJLI was created to expand the success of the BMYA and reach multiple populations.  Since 2006, we have inspired the creation of three additional academies at Morningside High School, based on the model of the BMYA including the Phoenix Rising Women’s Academy (PRWA), My Sister’s Keeper, and Robinson’s Male Youth Leadership Academy. There were 8 African American male seniors in the 2009 BMYA graduating cohort. Of this 8 group, five were accepted to a four-year University, two attended a community college and 1 attended a trade school.

Its Simple!

Our focus is on advancing social justice in order to empower and uplift communities so that we can achieve equity.  

We combine an innovative community based approach with research methods to develop and manage programs that improve community conditions. We hope to serve as a replicable model for organizations that wish to address issues affecting underserved communities. 

Our site is meant to be interactive and we encourage you to participate in our forums, blogs and discussions.  We are a dynamic organization and we rely on you to keep it that way.  Please remember to check back for frequent updates.  

If you wish to make a contribution to our organization, you can do so by clicking on the Give link at the top of the page.  SJLI is a project of Community Partners, a 501(c)(3) organization.  Therefore all contributions made to SJLI are tax-deductible.