Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation is a United States nonprofit organization established in 1981 to continue, in the private sector, the work and public-policy concerns of two bipartisan presidential commissions: the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly known as the Kerner Commission, and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence. The Foundation is based in Washington, D.C., and focuses on practical responses to violence, poverty, educational disadvantage, youth disconnection, and strained relationships between minority communities and the police. The organization’s intellectual foundation is the conclusion of the Kerner Commission that the United States was at risk of becoming two separate and unequal societies. That commission linked civil disorder to persistent unemployment and underemployment, weak educational opportunities, segregation, unequal housing conditions, discrimination, and shortcomings in the criminal-justice system. It argued that the federal government had the resources and authority required to address these problems at national scale. The later National Violence Commission similarly emphasized the relationship between economic exclusion, limited educational and employment opportunities, social inequality, and violence. Its recommendations included a major reordering of national priorities and stronger investment in employment, education, community development, and violence prevention. The Eisenhower Foundation translates these broad recommendations into demonstration projects, technical assistance, evaluations, research reports, and policy communications. During the 1980s it supported neighborhood-based youth development and crime-prevention initiatives in inner-city communities. These projects generally worked through local nonprofit organizations, providing relatively modest grants, organizational assistance, and connections to public and philanthropic funding. One cited example was Around the Corner to the World in Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, which combined youth development with employment-related activity and community organization. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Foundation developed and promoted the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation model. The approach combined supervised after-school safe spaces with a neighborhood-oriented police presence inspired in part by the Japanese koban system. Participating sites offered mentoring, homework assistance, computer learning, sports, cultural activities, youth guidance, and advocacy, while police officers engaged in community-based problem solving. Programs were established in cities including Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Juan, with later examples reported in places such as Baltimore, Columbia, Canton, Jackson, and Dover. Foundation materials describe reductions in serious crime in several participating neighborhoods, although the strength and comparability of evaluations varied by site. The Foundation later developed the Quantum Opportunities Program for high-risk minority high-school students. Unlike safe-haven programs aimed mainly at younger children, Quantum provides intensive mentoring, tutoring, life-skills instruction, college preparation, leadership development, advocacy, and modest financial incentives. Evaluations cited by the Foundation reported improved grades, graduation, and college-acceptance outcomes, and the model has been recognized by evidence-based youth-services organizations. Related initiatives, including Project Prepare and Argus Learning for Living, address job preparation and alternative pathways for high-school students and young adults who have left school. Alongside direct programming, the Foundation updates the analyses of the two presidential commissions through reports such as Youth Investment and Community Reconstruction. Its work emphasizes comprehensive, adequately funded, community-based strategies rather than isolated enforcement measures. The organization has argued that neighborhood institutions can reduce crime and drug abuse when they receive sustained support and that youth development, employment, education, community reconstruction, and constructive police-community relationships should be pursued together. It has received support from public agencies, private foundations, corporations, and international partners, including Japanese institutions involved in the Safe Haven-Police Ministation work.

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation was created in 1981 to preserve and advance the civic agenda of two major United States presidential commissions. The first was the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, formed after the urban unrest of the 1960s and widely identified with its chair, Illinois governor Otto Kerner. Its 1968 report warned that racial segregation, unemployment, unequal education, inadequate housing, discriminatory institutions, and unequal justice were producing a divided society. The second was the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, established after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Its work connected violence to social exclusion, limited opportunity, cultural conditions, and the availability of violent means. Rather than operating as a government agency, the Eisenhower Foundation was established as a private-sector vehicle for implementing and revisiting the commissions’ recommendations. Its work has combined research, demonstration programs, evaluation, fundraising partnerships, technical assistance, and public communication. The Foundation’s central premise is that violence prevention cannot be separated from employment, education, youth development, neighborhood conditions, and the capacity of local institutions. In 1982, the Foundation began a neighborhood self-help crime-prevention and youth-development initiative in ten inner-city communities. The program relied on local nonprofit organizations and sought to strengthen their ability to organize residents, provide services, and address youth needs. Support came from philanthropic and corporate sources, including the Ford Foundation and IBM, as well as local matching partners. Grants were generally modest and spread over multiple years, while Foundation staff provided organizational and technical assistance. The projects produced mixed results, but they helped establish the Foundation’s preference for locally rooted, comprehensive interventions over short-term enforcement campaigns. One demonstration, Around the Corner to the World in Washington, D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, connected youth development with community organization and employment activity. Additional public support helped create a weatherization business that employed unemployed young adults. A Rutgers University evaluation reported reduced criminal involvement among participants, while also noting limitations in the absence of control or comparison groups. The Foundation used this and other experiences to refine its approach and to distinguish promising practices from programs that did not scale or perform as intended. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Foundation created the Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation model. The safe-haven element responded to evidence that children in inner-city neighborhoods were particularly vulnerable during unsupervised after-school hours. The ministation element drew on the Japanese koban concept of small, neighborhood-based police facilities oriented toward familiarity, accessibility, and problem solving. With support from Japanese corporations, Keidanren, the Center for Global Partnership, and United States public agencies, the Foundation organized exchanges that brought American police leaders and community representatives to Japan. Selected participants subsequently received support to establish combined safe-haven and community-policing projects in the United States. These projects were operated by local nonprofit organizations and generally served primary- and middle-school children. Activities included mentoring, homework help, computer learning, sports, cultural programming, youth leadership, and advocacy. Police officers participated in neighborhood problem solving rather than functioning solely as enforcement personnel. Sites were launched in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Juan, and other communities. Foundation accounts report that serious crime fell more rapidly in several participating neighborhoods than in nearby comparison areas, though results were not uniform and should be interpreted in light of differing evaluation designs. The Foundation subsequently identified a gap in services for older, high-risk students. It concluded that many teenagers in high school did not view conventional safe-haven settings as relevant to their needs and that close association with police could limit participation. In response, it developed the Quantum Opportunities Program, an intensive model combining mentoring, tutoring, life-skills instruction, college preparation, advocacy, leadership training, and stipends. Evaluations in multiple locations reported improved academic performance, graduation, and college admission outcomes. The program has been cited by United States youth-services and evidence-based-practice organizations as a promising or exemplary model. The Foundation has also supported or replicated employment-focused programs, including Project Prepare and Argus Learning for Living, for students and young adults who need job training or have left school. Its strategy has been to combine educational, employment, mentoring, and community interventions rather than treat crime as an isolated policing problem. It has proposed pairing Quantum Opportunities with job-training programs at the same locations to serve both students and dropouts. Research and communications remain a major part of the organization’s mission. Foundation reports have reviewed its demonstrations, assessed successful and unsuccessful approaches, and updated the policy implications of the Kerner and Violence Commission findings. Its publications have addressed neighborhood watch, volunteer participation, nonprofit capacity, youth investment, drug abuse, community reconstruction, and the relationship between policing and public trust. The Foundation has sought to present evidence from local demonstrations to policymakers and funders while advocating sustained investment in disadvantaged communities. Its work has received coverage from United States and international media and has been supported by government departments, philanthropic foundations, corporations, and international partners.

• 1992

  After-school safe-haven rationale strengthened

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The Foundation draws on research emphasizing the vulnerability of young people during after-school hours while refining its safe-haven model.

• 1990

  Safe Haven-Police Ministation model expands

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The Foundation develops and promotes a combined youth safe-haven and neighborhood-policing model, supported by Japanese and United States partners.

• 1982

  Neighborhood self-help crime-prevention initiative launched

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The Foundation begins a multi-city youth development and community crime-prevention demonstration involving local nonprofit organizations.

• 1981

  Foundation established

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation is established to carry forward the objectives of the two presidential commissions through private-sector action.

• 1968

  Kerner Commission report

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The commission warns that the United States is moving toward two separate and unequal societies and calls for major investments in jobs, education, housing, income support, civil rights, and police reform.

• 1968

  National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence established

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  Following major political assassinations and continuing national violence, a second bipartisan commission is formed to examine the causes and prevention of violence.

• 1967

  National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders begins work

  [1]Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org

  The bipartisan commission investigates civil unrest in major American cities, including Detroit, Newark, and Los Angeles.

A practical, evidence-oriented social-policy foundation focused on reducing urban violence and inequality through youth investment, community-based organizations, employment and education programs, and collaborative policing.

• Community youth development and policing

  Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation Program

  A neighborhood-based model combining supervised after-school facilities with community-oriented police ministations. Local nonprofit organizations provide mentoring, homework support, computer learning, sports, cultural activities, youth guidance, and advocacy. Participating police officers work with residents on local problem solving and relationship building. The model was implemented in multiple United States cities and was designed to address both youth vulnerability and distrust between disadvantaged communities and police.

• High-school youth development

  Quantum Opportunities Program

  An intensive program for high-risk students in disadvantaged high schools. It combines long-term mentoring, tutoring, life-skills education, college preparation, advocacy, youth leadership, and modest stipends. Foundation-supported evaluations reported improvements in grades, graduation, and college acceptance. The program was developed to meet the needs of older adolescents who were less likely to participate in elementary- and middle-school safe-haven programs.

• Youth job training

  Project Prepare

  A job-preparation and employment-oriented initiative associated with the Foundation’s broader strategy for serving students and young adults who need alternatives to conventional school pathways. It is intended to complement mentoring and educational programs by connecting participants with practical employment skills.

• Alternative education and employment preparation

  Argus Learning for Living

  A learning and job-training model used for high-school students and young adults, including individuals who have left school. The Foundation has treated Argus as a complementary intervention to Quantum Opportunities, seeking to combine academic support, life skills, and employment preparation.

• 1990

  Combine youth safe havens with neighborhood policingStrategy

  Background

  The Foundation identified unsupervised after-school hours as a period of elevated risk and explored Japanese neighborhood-policing practices.

  Action taken

  It promoted Safe Haven-Police Ministations that paired nonprofit youth services with accessible, problem-solving-oriented police participation.

  Aftermath

  The model was implemented in several cities and became one of the Foundation’s principal approaches to reducing crime while improving police-community trust.

  Source

• 1982

  Adopt neighborhood-based youth and crime-prevention demonstrationsStrategy

  Background

  The Foundation sought practical ways to address the structural causes of urban violence identified by the presidential commissions.

  Action taken

  It funded local nonprofit organizations in inner-city communities and supplemented grants with organizational and technical assistance.

  Aftermath

  The demonstrations generated lessons about local capacity, community organizing, youth development, and the limits of small-scale grants without sustained support.

  Source

• 1981

  Continue the presidential commissions through private-sector actionStrategy

  Background

  The Foundation was created after the Kerner and National Violence Commissions had completed their work, with the aim of preserving their findings and pursuing implementation outside government.

  Action taken

  It organized research, demonstrations, technical assistance, evaluations, and policy communication around youth investment, community reconstruction, and violence prevention.

  Aftermath

  This mission shaped the Foundation’s subsequent focus on community organizations, youth opportunity, employment, education, and constructive police-community relationships.

  Source

• Develop Quantum Opportunities for older high-risk youthStrategy

  Background

  Research and field experience suggested that older high-school students, particularly those at high risk of disconnection, needed more intensive academic, career, and leadership support than conventional safe havens provided.

  Action taken

  The Foundation developed a package of mentoring, tutoring, life skills, college preparation, leadership, advocacy, and stipends, with the possibility of pairing it with job-training programs.

  Aftermath

  Evaluations reported stronger academic and postsecondary outcomes, and the model received recognition from evidence-based youth-service organizations.

  Source

1. 1Milton S. Eisenhower Foundationen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation official websiteeisenhowerfoundation.org