Ujamaa Place helps Black men overcome life’s challenges

Every day Christopher Crutchfield wakes up he is excited to go to his job as CEO and president of Ujamaa Place, where he helps young Black men strive to overcome the challenges life has dealt them. 

“It’s so fulfilling because we are changing lives one man at a time. We mourn their failures and setbacks, and we celebrate their successes,” he said. “It’s a wonderful fulfilling thing to be working to try and reverse the damage done to a young Black man and try to get them back thriving in our community.”

Ujamaa Place is a St. Paul-based nonprofit that was started in 2010. According to its website, its goal is to “provide holistic transformation for young African American men experiencing inequity at the intersection of race and poverty.”

The whole program centers on Ujamaa’s theory of transformation, which provides coaching and programming in housing, education, employment, family/community, criminal justice, and wellness.

According to Crutchfield, the secret sauce is the lifelong bonds the staff and participants create with each other. He said nearly every day, Ujamaa alumni come in to talk to current participants or just to hang out.

“It’s a brotherhood of love and caring as we work with these men on some very significant issues and barriers they have and help them succeed,” he said.

As of 2022, it has served 6,000 participants. While not all Ujamaa men are formerly incarcerated, many are, and Crutchfield says the program specializes in reducing recidivism among its participants, pointing to the figure those who have gone through the program have a 4% recidivism rate, compared to the average of 35% across Minnesota.

“It’s really addressing the trauma and addressing the need for housing or addressing the need for education and helping these guys stand up and watching them thrive,” he said.

Crutchfield also cited the program’s success as a result of its Afro-centric approach. He noted that nearly the entire staff is Black, which he said adds to the coaches’ credibility.

“I think that they can relate and talk to the men in ways that other people have a harder time doing,” he said. “Also, the messages arrive to the men differently when the person talking to them looks like them, has walked on their path before, and understands them in pretty significant ways.”

Ujamaa has more than 60 local partners and receives around $1.5 million from the state every biennium. It hosts multiple events every year, but the biggest is its breakfast at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in October.

Crutchfield has only been leading the program for just more than a year, but said it is still trying to build back from the challenges of the pandemic.

“The magic of our program is that it’s in person. It’s the relationships between our coaches and our men, and you just can’t do that over Zoom,” he said, adding that his top priority is getting all the programs back up and running in person.

Beyond that, he said there is no limit to where Ujamaa can go.

“We can open up the Jama offices in other areas of the state or the country. We can really do some innovative things with their programming,” he said. But more immediate is expanding Ujamaa’s mental health services.

“We’re hoping to do a pretty significant expansion in our mental health area to help the men address the trauma and their mental health needs,” he said.

Those interested in supporting Ujamaa can go online to donate. And men from ages 18 to 30 looking for help from the program can go to the Ujamaa office at 1821 University Avenue Suite 187 in Saint Paul on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. for an informational session and intake.