Brooklyn Families Scrutinize the Close to Home Proposal*
NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) held the Brooklyn community forum for the Close to Home program March 13 at NYCHA Van Dyke Community Center. The overcrowded condition had its good point and detraction. It was encouraging to see the range of ages in the packed room and the involvement of the audience during the community discussion segment. Given this was Brooklyn’s only community forum for Close to Home, NYCHA Brooklyn Community Operations ought to have chosen a NYCHA facility that had triple Van Dyke’s capacity. Suggested alternatives would be Penn-Wortman or Louis Pink Houses’ community center. The depth in consideration for the forum’s location underscored the depth of consideration into the Close to Home program.
The event’s first few stages described this alternative to upstate detention of juveniles and built a clear framework for community input. Close to Home’s goal is to direct the majority of detained NYC youth to rehabilitation, supervision, and confinement to services near their families, rather than facilities hundreds of miles from New York City. Family members can more easily visit them and educational attainment is a key element. ACS Commissioner Ronald Richter extolled a screening tool that guages the level of detention required for each juvenile that reduces the number in confinement.
Close to Home is State legislation pending voting. If passed, New York City can do operational planning. The people’s questions revealed the community’s insight into family dysfunction, juvenile delinquency, disaffection with public school curricula, and inadequacies of city agencies serving youth. There were instances of ACS staff not responding directly to questions and admission of not considering certain events yet, being consistent in needing the community’s input, especially that coming from young people.
One young man revealed that he’d been confined three times as a minor. He spent time at Bristol, Lincoln Hall and Boys Town. He found the Upstate facilities had more structure than Boys Town which is located in downtown Brooklyn. He admitted he needed structure. Adults who were parents, nonprofit staff members or part of the clergy raised questions about adequate funding and a wholistic approach that helped families with adjudicated youth. When asked how much money would be saved by providing services in NYC rather than Upstate, ACS Commissioner Richter stated he didn’t know the cost because it has been a State expense. His goal is reducing the numbers in detention. The forum attendees learned from another concerned citizen that NYS expended $240,000 per youth annually at Upstate facilities.
This session revealed people were concerned with resolving claims of
educational neglect in the face of teens who are determined to be truant. The program’s efficacy is in question given ACS has reduced the number of caseworkers and there is a need for parent advocates and youth advocates. While the Commissioner stated costs weren’t a part of this discussion, the people wanted to talk dollars. One nonprofit manager who had spent 16 years behind bars and now held a doctorate requested that NYC Department of Education and ACS put their funds together to allow funded community-based organizations to conduct intervention programs within public schools.
ACS asked a teen how to improve school. The young man attempted an answer; however, he was at a disadvantage because he can only talk about what he’s been exposed to. The more exposure to history,
STEM, and global studies from direct experience, school, and other sources, the better anyone can talk about what is lacking. What pupils or truants can adequately talk about is the affect of the teaching-learning environment. This is why youth make such statements as “school is boring.” The community forums will be held in each borough. The Queens forum was scheduled for March 14; the Manhattan forum is scheduled for March 16;Staten Island's forum is scheduled for March 26; and The Bronx forum is slated for April 2.
*Most names withheld due to no prior knowledge of media coverage.
Labels: ACS, DOE, families, juvenile detention, New York City, NYC Ho, parent advocacy, urban
The other evening I was invited to watch
Waiting for Superman with
Long Island University Education Department admin and a few students. Because all in the room had viewed the movie previously, we could ask the person controlling the DVD player to forward to a particular scene.
In short, the group was displeased with stated and implicit messages. For example, the national teachers unions were so strong that observably incompetent teachers can't be fired; rather, principals within a district or another one would trade their so-called "lemon" to another school. This trade was in the hopes the "new lemon" would be a bit better than who they had before. Can you believe that after two or three switches, no principal realized that an incompetent teacher would not improve under his watch? This film wants you to believe that hope springs eternal; that an experienced principal would know anyone worth having would be kept.
More interestingly, someone in our small crowd explained that you can't stop someone from his working profession (teaching), so a principal may reassign someone out of the classroom into a clerical or administrative duty, in the hopes the person looks for another school. An alternative is to have the poor performing teacher to agree to find another teaching post rather than go through disciplinary procedures.
Another segment described tracking children for different roles and occupations. First track students were headed for executive-leader positions; second track students were headed for clerical jobs or small business; and third track were prepared for factory or farm work. The US economy made a significant shift into the information age and office environment in the 1970s. If tracking still exists or neighborhoods are designated to produce low academically perform students but most factories have moved out of the US and family farms have been taken over by agribusiness, what is the rationale for the type of education given to American children in the 21st century?
The production explains the need for charter schools as a counter to the strong teachers unions. If bad performing teachers can't be fired then the US will allocate public dollars to schools that aren't controlled by these unions. On the US east coast, we find charter schools' with total pupil seats anywhere from 100 to 350. How do these small schools meet the needs of large and medium-sized cities? It becomes even more intense when a charter school is placed in a low income neighborhood. 500 or more applications may be submitted to a charter school with 150 seats. The solution is school lotteries.
Waiting for Superman allocated ten minutes to watching five young children in different parts of the nation go through the anxiety of participating in a lottery. The five weren't the lucky ones the day of their respective lottery dates. Both parents and children were so crestfallen. One little boy was later selected for a seat at a sleep away school.
It was a great experience listening to these sharp minds analyze and synthesize the statements and images of Waiting for Superman. I took away the need to understand what motivates the positions anyone may energetically advance to the public. Is it money? Is it a vision? Is that vision in line with values of a society as a whole?
Labels: charter schhols, children, lottery, public education, teachers
Link
Recent occurrences have me share a personal story rather than my usual news stories. Know that the six degrees of separation exist in your life. Everything you need and want will come through people you know or suddenly become acquainted with. This occurs for me time and time again. My fault has been not to act on what is presented.
A case in point, I developed a food preparation workshop series and I'm currently marketing it to senior centers in New York City. During the development stage, I called one center director Debra Holland and two program coordinators Mr. Chew and Mr. Boyd. My intent was to determine interest and see what needed to be part of the workshop. My conversation with Ms. Holland was turned around. She wanted me to have the answers and a fully fleshed program because this is what she's done before for her membership and planned to do in the next round of funding. She gave me a deadline to submit a document to her. I submitted earlier. She liked what she saw and said she'd tell other center directors about Tasty Food is Our Healthy Medicine workshops series. I followed the workshop description with a flyer.
This wasn't six degrees; it was one degree of separation. My conversation with the program coordinators uncovered that Mr. Boyd's director was collaborating with Ms. Holland to complete their respective refunding applications. Mr. Chew accepted the flyer and description. He said we could schedule after February.
Due to learning about the refunding application, I went to the Dept. for the Aging website to read the RFP. It revealed that health promotions is an essential service at senior centers wherein programs have to detail how they will actualize health education, physical education and nutrition.
The RFP was partially available, providing the first ten pages through download. The budget proposal and its instructions weren't available. That gave me the opportunity to contact the ACCO to ask questions and promote the workshop series.
Other similar situations have occurred for me. They all start by me thinking about a project and writing a framework. Within days, I receive an email or have a conversation that brings me much closer to realizing the idea. Please keep visioning, writing your ideas and be in a state of mindfulness in your walk through life habits. And, of course, share with others.
Labels: business, collaboration, intuition, marketing
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Obama's Plans for America
President Barack Obama will go down in history as a man with great intellect, composure and resilience. Despite the makeup he and others wore during last night's broadcast, he's holding up physically better than many others. Even Biden still looks fresh.
Beyond appearances, Obama addressed several critical issues facing this nation. Affordable higher education, putting a halt on increasing interest rates on student loans, retooling Americans for current and future jobs by having community colleges serve as educational and retraining institutions. He called out the financial institutions that received the bail out; however the average American homeowner is still losing their homes. Let's hope the federal investigation of Wall Street is executed post haste.
Our President will be remembered for pulling US service people out of Iran. It was a long ordeal that resulted in deaths and property destruction. Whether Saddam Hussein was a national threat or Al-Quaeda is an organized body needs exploration. One thing the war brought to Americans is employment in the form of tour-of-duty. Soldiers sent money home and were able to pay off debts. We're living in critical times when men and women "join up" in order to sustain the family back home. Our rich American citizens need not have fighting in their income-generating considerations. President Obama didn't mention this but he did state it is time for those with incomes of $1,000,000 and more to pay their share of taxes. He said millionaires are paying less taxes than middle income households.
He didn't address whether Unemployment Insurance will be extended given the imbalance between the number of unemployed and available jobs. He mentioned that jobs have been created but the issue is whether people can live on these wages. So his talk was absent of stating the kinds of jobs created.
Yes, the United States has oil and gas deposits that could provide 100 years of energy. Isn't it time that this nation make significant investment into wind, wave, and solar energy? Back in the 70's and 80's there existed the US Dept. of Energy whose mission was to audit the gasoline industry and do R & D into alternative energy applications. That department was dismantled however, it's findings remain. We need to apply them. This world can't sustain the underwater oil spills or rock fracturing to release natural gas. Our President asserted his support of "fracking" which raised many "Ughs" from people seated around this writer.
Vice-President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner sat quietly behind Barack Obama. Biden projected confidence and acceptance of the State of the Union Address, while Boehner wore the mask of rock hard opposition. Was that necessary? Did he not agree that Americans need jobs and to keep their homes? Did he not agree that Wall Street needs to be investigated? Does he think millionaires and billionaires shouldn't pay taxes based on their tax bracket? Bipartisanship has its limits. The legislature has to play another game. The American people need
change.
Labels: Barack Obama, State of the Union, US economy, US politics
The Black Power Mix Tape 1967 - 1975
The Brooklyn Academy of Music put substance into celebrating M.L. King, Jr. Day in Brooklyn. Two theaters within BAM Rose Cinema were packed with people absorbing "The Black Power Mix Tape 1967 - 1975." This documentary is a compilation of interviews and B-roll with people key to the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements done by Swedish reporters very attuned to the social movement occurring in and by Americans. It mixes old interviews with Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Eldridge Cleaver, Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis and others with voiceover commentaries from Talib Kweli, Sonia Sanchez, Abiodun Oyewole, and Erykah Badu, to name a few.
The Swedes' persistence in broadcasting what was happening in the United States brought condemnation on them and created friction between national leaders. Even TV Guide--not associated with Pulitzer Prize winning journalism--criticized the reporters for exposing only the social problems. In the spirit of the New York Times, they were simply broadcasting all the news that was fit to air.
The time period contains the expansion of Martin Luther King's concerns to global and class struggle, King's assassination, the birth of the Black Panthers, the evolution of SNCC, the arrest of Angela Davis, the Vietnam War, the heroin epidemic, and the choices the larger US black population made in carving a place within US society. The feminist and gay rights movements acknowledge using the terminology and tactics of the Black Power and Civil Rights leadership.
It was uplifting to see the jovial and warm side of Kwame Ture. Angela Davis was the epitome of grace under fire as she spoke passionately about the irony of black people being characterized as violent when she remembers her four young friends in Birmingham being killed by a bomb's explosion or the need for her male family members and neighbors to patrol their community armed due to the frequent brutal and lethal attacks by white society.
While it was later revealed in US news reports that many of the servicemen's corpses held bags of heroin as they were wheeled off the planes and onto American runways, it was startling to revisit the Vietnam war to learn many documented as dying in combat where actually deaths from drug overdose.
The connection between the heroin flooding inner city communities and the average black persons resolve to learn more and do more to change his circumstances was strongly made. The clip of radio announcer Vy Higgensen's lamenting the life of a newborn addicted to heroin is one of many poignant moments in the documentary.
Thought and the clouding of it, is one element of the human dynamic. Most of the leaders featured--Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Kathleen Cleaver--had a lit cigarette between their fingers. Did they consider how their smoking habit impacted their health or the cigarette producers' revenues. Seated behind a desk with stacks of books, the manager of Liberation Bookstore contends the road to black people's empowerment is gaining knowledge and applying it. Unfortunately, narcotics, alcohol and chemicalized food are plentiful in the ghetto.
Getting free from mood altering substances and the promise of what a disciplined life yields was and is the charm of the Nation of Islam (NOI). A young dewy-faced Louis Farrakhan reveals in an interview the stance that the white man is the devil if one understands to be a devil is to be wicked; and the white man has been wicked to blacks. The NOI's ability to rehabilitate drug addicted and undereducated people was well-known during this time. There's footage of a long line of young boys dressed in suits, ties and bows orderly getting on buses. This is a relief from seeing unwashed and miskept children in earlier scenes.
Black Power Mix Tape is not a feel good documentary; rather it is a neutral archive of locations, people, statements and occurrences for the viewer to experience. It is for the viewer to digest and assess. It is for the viewer to make use of the stories relayed.
Labels: black power movement, civil rights movement, community control, drug addiction, heroin, NYC politics, Vietnam War
Basic 101 on The American Jobs Act
Amid small jeers, Brian Benjamin of the Obama National Finance Committee briefed the public about the The American Jobs Act, at Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn, a chilly Friday night ago. Was it the weather or was it the economy that kept too many people away from the opportunity to have a national program explained in simple language?
The American Jobs Act, when passed by the legislature, will allocate $447,000,000,000 to hire American workers, extend unemployment insurance, and give employers tax incentives to re-ignite the economy. President Obama faces stiff opposition from the Republicans for dollars and strategies that retrain Americans in needed jobs in a global, post-industrial reality; effectively address discrimination against the long-term unemployed; keep in place key public jobs such as teachers, the police and firefighters; finance national infrastructure projects and establish an infrastructure bank for a sustainable stream of financing to upgrade existing structures and the installation of new ones.
$175 billions is allocated for payroll tax cuts. Specifically, employers would receive a $4,000 per employee tax relief for hiring the long-term unemployed. $50 billion is allocated for national infrastructure projects which include telecommunication and information technology comparable to other leading nations. $49 billion for the Pathways Back to Work; $5 billion for summer youth programs; and $15 billion for Project Rebuild which renovates commercial properties and undeveloped land along America's main streets.
Prior to Benjamin's talk Kirsten John Foy NYC Public Advocate's community affairs director discussed the changing global economic scene and what Americans needed to do to stay viable. "American cities aren't at the level of Wi-Fi accessibility of other world cities." This leaves Americans unable to effectively compete for jobs, projects and other opportunities because the global economy is fueled by broadband.
Employment for American veterans coming from Afghanistan, Iraq and other conflict areas are addressed through the Returning Heroes Tax Credit. Given the permanent loss of certain jobs, low consumer spending, disrepair of roadways, communication and utility lines, one would believe there would be bipartisan support of the Act; however, it isn't the case. When queried whether the Republicans opposed the American Jobs Act because they want the act renamed and accredited to a future Republican president, St. Senator Velmanette Montgomery responded, "The Republicans could take the credit for it right now." It has more to do with a fundamental stance on governance and the federal government's role in meeting societal needs.
Brian Benjamin explained "the sources of the $447,000,000,000 are one-third coming from the bill, tax increases, and another portion from reallocation of the federal budget." Benjamin stressed that the Act provided a framework for dollars and programs without details in program design and administration. This means people can propose specific initiatives, programs and strategies with specified dollar amounts to realize outcomes and results. The audience was asked to collaborate on developing sound program proposals and not wait for others to do so.
Labels: American Jobs Act, Barack Obama, taxes, the economy, US politics
Are Occupy Wall Streeters the New Civil Rights Activists
The first day in November had a group of protesters and local media converge on Brownsville for a
Stop Stop and Frisk protest rally and march to the 73rd Police Precinct. The rally was held underneath the busy, noisy Rockaway Avenue #3 train station. Key spokespeople included Revolutionary Communist Party, USA's
Carl Dix and MADRE Vice President Margaret Ratner-Kunstler.
The protest group was small and the absence of Brownsville residents was too apparent. Juxtaposed to the assembly were sky-reaching NYCHA buildings. Where were Brownsville residents in this struggle to stop police brutality? Had the police effectively intimidated the community? The answer is NO.
Key community organizations and churches hadn't been contacted so that they, in turn, could notify their members or neighbors. It appeared as if residents became aware of Stop Stop and Frisk as it unfolded. Three young men who said they were from the neighborhood agreed to talk in front of a camera, if one came their way. A young woman News 12 reporter stated she had enough footage and thought "it is more important that young whites came to Brownsville for this protest than to interview people from the neighborhood."
One media relations spokesperson(young, tall white man)explained that the handbills for this event had been distributed within the apartments in the NYCHA building. The question is who passed them out? New York City is a racially-polarized city. New York's communities of color are in the throws of a 20-year housing displacement process and look circumspectly at most whites visiting their neighborhoods. The majority of New York victims of police brutality are black and Latino men. It is quite possible that if white or Asian people were handing out the paper in the building, residents may have discarded them without consideration. Yes,
kill the message because of the messenger.
The speakers were inspiring, one young man recounted his brush with stop and frisk which resulted in brain injury and confiscation of his identification. Carl Dix apologized for Cornell West's absence. He explained that Brownsville had the highest incidence of Stop and Frisk in the five boroughs. He later stated that "The young people here are today's Freedom Riders...or a new generation of Freedom Riders."
So this is what the News 12 reporter wanted to capture. Dix affirmed that this Stop Stop and Frisk demonstration was the start of others throughout the five boroughs.
The march soon commenced. In tow was a colorfully, fashionable wheel-chair bound woman who identified herself as the "Mayor of Brownsville." She expressed disappointment in her neighbors' low turnout. However, things picked up as the group drummed and chanted up Rockaway Avenue to Pitkin Ave, then a turn on Bristol Street to reach the 73rd Precinct at Bristol and East New York Avenue. The community looked with interest, accepted the handbills and some joined the march. There was a police escort from start to end.
The police set up a corral for marchers who didn't want to be arrested. Many that initially went within the corral soon exited in favor of standing farther away from the precinct's doors. Thirty people were arrested and put in police wagons to places unknown within a half-hour. The police, then made a human wall and walked slowly down the sidewalk to sweep away the remaining assembly. As the body turned down Bristol to return to the corner of Livonia and Rockaway, a zealous young white man shouted "F?#@ the police!" A black man told him, "Hey, don't[don't do that]on their turf!" No sooner had the advice been given than the police arrested the man who cursed.
The march back was punctuated with chanting and handbill passing. Mimi Rosenberg, Legal Aid Society lawyer and WBAI program host was in the crowd. Rosenberg had quietly advised people against going in the corral in front the police precinct. The march birthed a new social activist. A young girl, escorted by two women, had held a poster, chanted and marched with much enthusiasm. This is but one important outcome: people need to develop self-assurance and a sense of community ownership at a young age. Margaret Ratner-Kunstler made concluding remarks before the group dispersed. Ratner-Kunstler stated the thirty arrested protesters may have been taken to the 77th Precinct. This was confirmed by someone in the crowd that recognized one 77th Precinct community affairs officer.
Labels: Brownsville, Occupy Brooklyn, Occupy Wall Street, Stop and Frisk
