President Obama held his final My Brother's Keeper Summit (MBK) at the White House on Wednesday. MBK was launched by the President in 2014 to help address the opportunity gaps for young men of color and help them reach their full potential. President Obama put out a call to action to members of the community to help make this program a success. Since its inception, almost 250 communities in all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and 19 tribal nations have accepted the MBK Community Challenge.  Wednesday's summit drew 300 of those involved with the program to the White House to participate in the Summit and come face to face with other black men who believe in the program as well. Some of the notable faces who were present were actor and comedian D.L. Hughley along with Former Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter.

As his days in office come to a close, President Obama assured visitors of the summit that this program will not end with his presidential term.

"This is only the beginning," he said. " We are just scratching the surface."  

Malachi Hernandez is one of the young men President Obama was able to reach.

Hernandez, like some of the young men in the program, grew up in poverty-stricken parts of Boston. His father left the home when he was only seven years old. Now Hernandez is the first to go to college in his family. The freshman at Northeast University even has a few things in common with President Obama which made his MBK experience, even more, life changing. In a conversation between the two, President Obama shared his story with Hernandez. 

"He told me how he also grew up without his father," Hernandez said. 

He recalled an instance wherethe President also asked for advice and suggestions on improving MBK and its reach. 

"I emphasized to him that all young people need is love," Hernandez said as he proudly introduced the President and the man he now calls a mentor.

For those who believe that MBK was a political move for the President, he cleared that up this misconception by saying,"My Brother's Keeper was not about me. It was not about my presidency."

"This is something I will be invested in for the rest of my life. We are just scratching the surface."

It's safe to say that President Obama is not going to let this program end when his term does. In order to ensure continued progress, he gave insight to those in the room on future steps to be made. Some of his advice about responsibility falls directly into the lap of the incoming administration, while the rest is for everyday people in all communities.

"There's an infrastructure that has to be built by the government to ensure that our young people can succeed and prosper in this 21st-century economy. We can't wait for government to do it for us.We gotta make sure that we're out there showing what works.We gotta put in our own time and energy and effort and money into the effort. We have to be rigorous in measuring what works.We can't hang on to programs just because they've been around a long time. We can't be protective of programs that have not produced results for young people even if they produced jobs for some folks running them."

The White House announced new federal commitments Wednesday to MBK including a way to monitor chronic absenteeism in schools as well as investments toward former and current foster youth. Building on the success of the MBK initiative, the White House and Department of Education began the Rethink Discipline campaign, identifying disciplinary measures across the country through data collected by race, gender, and disability. In a report released Wednesday, the Civil Rights Data Collection found that over 220,000 students were referred to law enforcement and 70,000 had a school-related arrest between 2013-14. Notably, the rate of referrals and school-related arrests showed great disparities by race and ethnicity. Black students received more school suspensions and had the higher number of school-related arrests. The report outlined changes implemented to school discipline practices by 13 school districts ultimately lowering suspension rates and creating safer learning environments.

Check out President Obama's final remarks.

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