Entering its second year as an AEI priority initiative, the FREE Initiative is a national collaborative outreach and educational resourcing effort under the leadership of AEI scholar Ian Rowe. Drawing on insights from Rowe’s cutting-edge research in upward mobility in a recent book, the FREE Initiative is disseminating new insights about the critical roles family, religion, education, and entrepreneurship play in helping the rising generation of young Americans to develop. FREE also catalyzes a growing network of exemplary leaders who are using their spheres of influence to revitalize community life and guide young men and women into a better future.
The FREE Initiative is committed to building partnerships between policymakers, cultural leaders, and local influencers in ways that help young Americans—particularly emerging leaders representing ethnic minority groups—to move up the economic ladder and invest in social institutions that help all people flourish. While our initial year focused on setting the Initiative’s resource framework and programming trajectory, the year ahead will implement these plans, by growing new audiences and increasing collaboration with newly developing AEI programs—including Academic Programs, the American Dream Initiative, and AEI’s Leadership Network—as well as strengthening external partnerships. [Read more…]
