Comments on: Urban Influence Magazine http://ybpguide.com/2007/07/12/urban-influence-magazine/ Young Black Professional Guide Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:27:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: The Urban Scientist http://ybpguide.com/2007/07/12/urban-influence-magazine/comment-page-1/#comment-1466 The Urban Scientist Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:41:23 +0000 http://ybpguide.com/2007/07/12/urban-influence-magazine/#comment-1466 I am a former member of the National Urban League Young Professionals and as a NULYP member I received the magazine gratis. It's a nice magazine, informative and succint. It is very much a commercial for the National Urban League. But like all advertising endeavors, read between the lines carefully. Truth in advertising can be hard to glean. What I'm saying is that the Urban League has a great sale line, the packaging ad branding are familiar -like all household brand names should be - but I think they have long way to go. For example, 1) the many programs they promote are great but they hem-haw on how effective some of the programs are at meeting some objectives. e.g. they offer utility assistance but can't tell you how many people are repeats vs new. 2) They offer training and education programs to transtion people from welfare/poverty to self-sufficiency/middle class SES but they can't give you stats on exactly how many families have been removed from the welfare lists or how long (1 yr, 5 yrs, 25+ yrs) they provide social services to a family. 3) Finally, the conference (Young Professional Summit) is great, but more than anything it's fun. It's a huge party, all of the advertising is geared to attracting Attractive people to have a great time. The amount of time and money put into planning workshops/seminars/ etc that detail actual urban league or related business to this demographic minor compare to the resources put into planning the Social Networking functions. I am a former member of the National Urban League Young Professionals and as a NULYP member I received the magazine gratis. It’s a nice magazine, informative and succint. It is very much a commercial for the National Urban League. But like all advertising endeavors, read between the lines carefully. Truth in advertising can be hard to glean. What I’m saying is that the Urban League has a great sale line, the packaging ad branding are familiar -like all household brand names should be – but I think they have long way to go.
For example,
1) the many programs they promote are great but they hem-haw on how effective some of the programs are at meeting some objectives. e.g. they offer utility assistance but can’t tell you how many people are repeats vs new.

2) They offer training and education programs to transtion people from welfare/poverty to self-sufficiency/middle class SES but they can’t give you stats on exactly how many families have been removed from the welfare lists or how long (1 yr, 5 yrs, 25+ yrs) they provide social services to a family.

3) Finally, the conference (Young Professional Summit) is great, but more than anything it’s fun. It’s a huge party, all of the advertising is geared to attracting Attractive people to have a great time. The amount of time and money put into planning workshops/seminars/ etc that detail actual urban league or related business to this demographic minor compare to the resources put into planning the Social Networking functions.

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