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Tuesday I mentioned that a recent RAND report found that many of California's boys and men of color are facing a load of issues that need fixing, and the answer is a comprehensive strategy.

The report's lead author, Lois Davis, says that comprehensive solutions take into account all barriers—health, safety, socioeconomic characteristics and education—and addresses them head-on.

L.A. gang interventionist Clifford “Skipp” Townsend agrees. He says that he sees better results when he goes after every part of a person's life.

“Sometimes we can just give people jobs, but then we don't teach them to be good people,” says the founder of 2nd Call, a community-based organization that offers personal development programs to at-risk youth, ex-felons and parolees.

“We teach them how to swing a hammer…and we teach them how to be good employees, but how do you become a good person,” Townsend asks. “To keep your job…to pay your rent,” he adds. “That's the key part right there. How to deal with life?”

Running interference

Katherine Larson, who developed Achievement for Latinos Through Academic Success (ALAS), says that comprehensive strategies are “really the only way to reach any child living in poverty.”

ALAS monitors middle school students' attendance, teaches parents how to participate in schools, improves students' problem-solving skills and connects students and families with other community services. Larson says “you have to help them in all walks of their life,” adding that, “you have to do whatever it takes.”

‘Whatever it takes' for Larson has meant going beyond the focus of her dropout prevention program. For example, when her program inquired about a 12-year-old child who had not been showing up to school, they found that the 12-year-old was staying at home with a younger sibling who had not been inoculated, and, therefore, was not allowed to attend school.

ALAS worked with the children's mother to make sure that the younger sibling was inoculated so that both children could make it to school.

“Whatever we saw was the barrier, we went after it to remove it or run interference, whatever it was,” Larson says. “We didn't' prescribe a territory for ourselves,” Larson adds. “Everyone has to work together.”

What are they running from?

And the comprehensive work isn't always pretty.

Townsend, whose organization focuses on job readiness and retention, attitudes and behaviors, effective communication, mental health, life at home and family support, says that in his work it's about identifying what the boys and men are dealing with, but also what they are covering up.

“Often society looks at what they're running to,” Townsend says. “They run to drugs. They run to gangs. But they're not looking at what are they running from? Let's address what they're running from.”

Townsend says that sometimes he uncovers that a young man can't read, or in one case, that a boy was unhappy that his mother worked as a stripper.

“We found ourselves doing a complete community wraparound service” for the family. In this case comprehensive service meant helping the mother find a different job, Townsend says.

Now what?

Okay. So there are a lot of factors that contribute to the disparities that California's men and boys of color face. The help must be comprehensive and aggressive. But where do we start? How do we ensure that another of these reports isn't needed five years from now or ten years from now?

The California Endowment says that they are working on a plan that they believe will answer those questions. Check back Thursday to learn what they told me about how boys and men of color factor into their Building Healthy Communities Initiative.