History

My Brother's and Sister's Keeper Colorado originally started as The Brotherhood, founded in 2006 in Aurora, Colorado. It follows a smaller model used by a school in the San Diego area. Upperclassmen mentored younger students, encouraging them to get involved and push themselves at school. One individual who came up through the group in San Diego became a very successful teacher, moving to Colorado in 2005. He acted and called together a group of African American males that transcended the high school's academic and "social" boundaries. He thought high school's academic and "social" boundaries, these young men would be ambassadors within the school to help create a more cohesive environment and change the stereotypes within their four walls. Through these actions, The Brotherhood's Smoky Hill Chapter was born.  

The inaugural chapter of 60 members boosted their GPAs, with some going up more than an entire letter grade. Following the creation of The Brotherhood's Smoky Hill Chapter High, The Brotherhood expanded by starting another chapter at a neighboring high school in 2009. The following year, two middle and an elementary school opened branches to develop a feeder program in the high schools and create a nonprofit to support the chapters. As many may know, The Brotherhood and Sisterhood programs have been a household name in the Metro Denver area. Its success is recognized for the impact of building young men and women to become effective and innovative change-makers. Through this commitment over the past 13 years, we have served over 500 young men and women with an established support system built upon meaningful relationships, shared wisdom and strategies, and networking opportunities that follow them into adulthood.  

Because of this success, reforming and rebranding The Brotherhood Nonprofit as My Brother and Sister's Keeper of Colorado came into talks. The goal behind this venture was to better align the organization with national practices and initiatives, attract diverse funding sources, enhance and streamline the brand recognition already received by both programs and accelerate the positive transformation of Colorado's communities of Color. In January 2019, The Brotherhood issued its public declaration in leading the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge at the state level in Colorado. Over the 2019 school year, the organization realized that there are many existing but incomplete approaches to the systemic challenges faced by Black youth. From community and stakeholder research and feedback, there has been much talk about Black and Brown youth "failure" but a limited commitment to interrupting the long-term systems of inequity across the course of life. At the beginning of 2020, The Brotherhood began to rebrand under MBSK Colorado and develop our state action to meet the MBK Community Challenge.