Kenney appoints new head of Black Male Engagement

Mayor Jim Kenney announced Friday that 37-year old Jack Drummond will be the city’s new director of the Office of Black Male Engagement — a position created during the last administration to address the needs of young men of color.

“I’m touched and inspired to have been selected to a position like this,” Drummond said.

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“I’m very excited to be a part of this leadership under the mayor. I think it’s a direct reflection of your character that you kept this position under your administration so I thank you very much.”

Housed within the city’s Office of Public Engagement, the Black Male Engagement Office was created under former Mayor Michael Nutter to broaden the awareness of the issues facing men of color, who often feel disenfranchised.

Earlier in the day, Kenney had visited Pennypack House School, a facility within the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, which houses juvenile males charges with felonies. He said they had small class sizes, great teachers and great learning materials—resources the inmates were not privy to before they were in prison.

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“It’s very sad to think that young men have to go to prison to get the kind of educational opportunities that they’re afforded in our corrections system,” he said.

“I was wondering aloud and to myself if they had had those opportunities before they got in trouble, would they have gotten in trouble in the first place?”

Prior to joining the faculty to CCP, Drummond worked as a teacher, and an administrator in the city’s Health & Human Services department. He also is an accomplished musician with the violin.