Cherry Blossoms Reach Their Peak Bloom in D.C.

With all the bad news and at times venom that is hurled at Washington D.C., I thought I would take the time to remind all of you that Washington D.C. can be a place of beauty. Of course, there are many of our nation's treasure's, such as, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Vietnam Memorial Wall, and soon to be a monument in honor of Martin Luther King.

But you know what else?

It is spring in Washington. And while the annual blooms of the cherry blossoms are a fleeting thing, it remains one of the highlights of the year for tourists and native alike.

From WLJA Channel 7 in our nation's capital, a report on the spring and the cherry blossoms:

www.wjla.com/news/stories/0310/721202_video.html?ref=newsstory

Cass County Poverty Reduction Training

"Cass County Human Services Coordinating Council (HSCC) is working to reduce poverty.

On Friday, April 30, the HSCC is sponsoring a Day One Training, to be presented by former Cassopolis resident Bonnie Bazata, executive director of St. Joseph County, Ind., Bridges Out of Poverty.

Bridges Out of Poverty is a national initiative that uses community transformation to support people in moving out of poverty."

For more information, see the Dowagiac Daily News at:

www.dowagiacnews.com/2010/03/30/cass-county-tackles-poverty-reduction/

Student loan overhaul aims to make college more accessible

From the New York Times:

President Obama signed legislation on Tuesday to expand college access for millions of young Americans by revamping the federal student loan program in what he called “one of the most significant investments in higher education since the G.I. Bill.”

The new law will eliminate fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing loans to college students and use much of the nearly $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell grants and make it easier for students to repay outstanding loans after graduating. The law also invests $2 billion in community colleges over the next four years to provide education and career training programs to workers eligible for trade adjustment aid after dislocation in their industries.

The law will increase Pell grants along with inflation in the next few years, which should raise the maximum grant to $5,975 from $5,550 by 2017, according to the White House, and it will also provide 820,000 more grants by 2020.

Students who borrow money starting in July 2014 will be allowed to cap repayments at 10 percent of income above a basic living allowance, instead of 15 percent. Moreover, if they keep up payments, their balances will be forgiven after 20 years instead of 25 years — or after 10 years if they are in public service, like teaching, nursing or serving in the military.

Creating better access to student loans is a crucial reform that will make it more affordable for millions of Americans to attend college. As much research has clearly demonstrated, a college education is clear way to access higher paying wages and therefore reduce poverty.

Read the full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/us/politics/31obama.html?hpw

Census: Counting the Homeless in Kalamazoo

"In Kalamazoo, census workers were out Monday, counting the homeless population from 6:00 to 10:00. After a quick prayer, it's time for dinner, a routine that Donna Pearce of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission is very accustomed to.

“We have an average of 275 individuals here with us each night, so we shelter 70 percent of those sheltered in Kalamazoo,” said Pearce.

On Monday and Tuesday, Pearce is taking part in an effort to make sure every homeless person in Kalamazoo gets counted for the 2010 census, " per WWMT-TV3.

Housing less expensive than sheltering, study says

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

It costs nearly twice as much per month to house a family in an emergency shelter in Kalamazoo than it does to provide transitional or permanent housing, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Kalamazoo was one of six places nationwide that HUD examined in a study on the cost of first-time homelessness among families. The study, announced Thursday, was conducted over a 18-month period in 2004 and 2005.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/homelessness_costs_more_than_h.html

This study echos what has been shown nationally throughout a variety of research: That the extra support and administrative costs required to shelter a person that is homeless exceed the costs of simply providing housing.

When a person has a solid living situation, it stabilizes their whole live. They are more likely to be self sufficient and hold a steady job. In Kalamazoo, we covered some of the progress of housing the homeless in Kalamazoo in 2009 in our Affordable Housing Partnership video. You can watch it here:

What are the best methods for alleviating poverty?

New York Times Columnist NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF speaks about some concrete ways in which we can alleviate the issue of poverty in America. Here are some of the ways that he states are proven ways to make a difference:

High-quality early childhood programs, before kids get behind. Much-studied examples include the Perry Preschool program in Michigan in the 1960s and the Abecedarian Project in North Carolina in the 1970s. Both worked with impoverished children who had much better outcomes than control groups. For example, those who had been through the Perry program were — as adults, decades later — only half as likely to go on welfare and much less likely to be arrested.

Intensive efforts in the ninth grade (which is well known as education’s Bermuda triangle, swallowing up poor students). A program called Talent Development in Philadelphia gave ninth graders a double dose of math and English and reduced absenteeism and significantly improved performance for at least the next couple of years. Tentative results suggest it is also improving high school graduation rates.

Career academies. These keep students engaged in high school by teaching around career themes and partnering with local employers to give kids work experience. Eight years of follow-up research suggests that graduates are more likely to hold jobs and earn more money.

Jobs programs. One of the most successful is the “jobs-plus” demonstration, which trains people living in public housing to get jobs and gives them extra incentives to keep them. Participants thrive — and the gains continue even years later, after the program ends.

Conclusion: This wave of research suggests that there’s no magic bullet, that helping people is hard, and that even when pilot programs succeed they can be difficult to scale up. But evidence also suggests that we increasingly have the tools to chip away at poverty. We know what to do if we just can summon the political will.

Compare this to the Poverty Reduction Initiatives list of priorities:
http://www.haltpoverty.org/Reducing_Poverty/

What do you think, are these the most concrete ways in which we can significantly reduce poverty?

Civil Rights Commission Releases Report on Migrant Living Conditions in West Michigan

Michigan Civil Rights Commission
2010 Report on the Conditions of
Migrant and Seasonal Farm workers in Michigan

March 22, 2010

Excerpt from Executive Summary:

"First, families were often living in housing that was extremely substandard, including structural defects, lack of clean running water, exposed wires, overcrowding, close proximity to fields (and thus pesticides) and poor sanitation. Because camps are typically inspected pre-occupancy, the most hazardous violations are often not apparent, or may not yet exist, when the inspector is present.

Second, the Commission heard testimony from many farm workers describing discrimination that they had endured. Farm workers related incidents of sex-based discrimination against women, sexual harassment, national origin discrimination and racial discrimination. The Commission received several reports of employers refusing jobs to U.S. citizens or to English-speakers, preferring instead to hire farm workers who do not speak English and are thus believed to be less likely to know they have the right to be treated fairly or to complain about low wages or poor working conditions.

Third, the working conditions faced by migrant and seasonal farm workers were often the topic of their testimony during the forums. Problems described included the lack of drinking water, portable toilets and hand washing facilities available in fields where the hand-harvesting various types of agricultural products is taking place. Some workers said they did not have access to water in the fields at all, while others stated their employer charged them for water. Some stated there were no bathrooms and no breaks offered. Other testimony during the forums described outright wage theft and established that the accepted industry practice of growers paying piece rates to workers often results in workers being paid less than the required minimum hourly wage.

Fourth, for many of Michigan’s migrant farm workers, language barriers present a substantial obstacle to accessing services. Although all organizations that receive federal funding are required to provide equal services for their Limited English Proficient (LEP) clients, many do not. The testimony outlined difficulties encountered when attempting to obtain drivers’
and marriage licenses at some Secretary of State’s offices, in interaction with health care providers, county clerks’ offices, the police, and with local hospitals.

Problems with state and local law enforcement were discussed by several individuals. Allegations included officers overreaching into the area of federal immigration law and stopping people without cause based on their appearance, a form of discrimination often termed racial profiling.
Child farm workers not only have limited legal protections, they also face extremely hazardous working conditions. Several people testified that these conditions have had severe negative impacts on children and their future. Coupled with this, others spoke about the inability to procure childcare while working in the fields for long hours each day.

Finally, racism and other forms of mistreatment directed at farm workers by people in the community were alleged. While some might discount some of this animosity as the result of a bad economy, this can not excuse the mistreatment of migrant and seasonal farm workers who are contributing to Michigan’s agricultural economy."

www.michigan.gov/documents/mdcr/Summary-Concl-NextSteps_as_passed_by_MCRC_315420_7.pdf

Health-care reform welcomed by those who serve the needy of Southwest Michigan

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

The new legislation, by extending health coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans who lack it, would “help people establish a medical home” where they could get comprehensive, preventative care instead of going to the emergency room for minor medical problems, Crawford said.

“They would get the care in the right place in the most effective manner,” she said.
Saith said that because so many Americans don’t have health insurance or are underinsured, the Family Heath Center has seen “a tremendous rise in people with advanced medical conditions. ... They have multi-system diseases at advanced stages and need lots of coordinated care.”

Don Leonard, of Kalamazoo, a 56-year-old patient who was at the Family Health Center on Monday afternoon, said he doesn’t see the legislation having much of an impact on him because he’s already covered by Medicaid.

“But I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who really need it. There’s people who are dying or really sick who don’t have it (health coverage). That’s not right.”

The community in Kalamazoo County is ahead of the curve in offering health insurance options to the uninsured:

In Kalamazoo County, about 3,500 people without health insurance who have a current medical condition have been able to qualify for the Kalamazoo County Health Plan, which gets money from the state and the local United Way, Crawford said.

Under the legislation approved by the House, those people and an undetermined number of others would become insurable with federal funds within 90 days of final passage of the health-care plan, Crawford said. According to an Associated Press report, a high-risk pool would offer this coverage until 2014, when Medicaid would expand significantly.

“There will be more money to cover more people” than the county health plan does, Crawford said. “Adult males are the majority who fall through the gap” now, she added.

Read the Full Article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/health-care_reform_welcomed_by.html

What are the next steps for Health Care reform?

Congress passed a historical bill this weekend to expand health care coverage to over 30 million Americans. What the Health Care Bill will accomplish for lower-income families cannot be understated:

MEDICAID Expands the federal-state Medicaid insurance program for the poor to cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $29,327 a year for a family of four. Childless adults would be covered for the first time, starting in 2014. The federal government would pay 100 percent of the tab for covering newly eligible individuals through 2016.

Near-poverty Americans not covered by Medicaid: Some 15 million more Americans than currently have it will get health care through Medicaid.

Middle class families who can't afford to buy insurance: Some 15 million will eventually get subsidies.

INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS Major consumer safeguards take effect in 2014. Insurers prohibited from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more. Higher premiums for women would be banned. Starting this year, insurers would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, and from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing medical problems. Parents would be able to keep older kids on their policies up to age 26. A new high-risk pool would offer coverage to uninsured people with medical problems until 2014, when the coverage expansion goes into high gear.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/18/1823150_whats-in-the-health-care-reform.html?storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0iuYu01I7

As many are aware, medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy. And among those who filed for bankruptcy, 75 percent reported having some type of medical insurance. But The Washington Post says people in bankruptcy with insurance were nearly $18,000 in the red. And those without insurance had an average of almost $27,000 in medical debt.

This bill is only a first step towards providing affordable health care to all Americans. There will be more tough decisions and more reforms to face in the future. However, surviving for a century of battles on the very topic, it is long overdue.

What are the next steps to assuring all Americans have access to affordable health care?

Low Literacy Affects 14 Percent of American Adults

"When Richard Handziak was hurt on the job in 1998, he was forced to share his secret.

Doctors couldn't understand why he was resistant to filing for worker's compensation. But after meeting with a counselor, Handziak revealed he was reading at a third-grade level.

"I didn't want these people to know I couldn't fill the paperwork out," said Handziak, now a 50-year-old semi-truck driver."

According to an article on literacy in the Lansing State Journal, "Demand for literacy remediation services statewide is high and waiting lists are common..."

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/99999999/AAAA/3210575/-1/news0302

State Supreme Court to Hear Case Against Underfunded Indigent Defense System

"Michigan was a 19th century pioneer in providing legal aid to poor criminal suspects.

Now, it has one of the nation's stingiest and most fragmented systems for representing the 80 percent of defendants who can't afford a lawyer, a wide range of critics say."

See:

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100320/NEWS01/303200003/1002/NEWS01/Michigan-pays-big-for-underfunded-indigent-defense

Cass County Woman: Clean and Sober for 100 Days Starts to Turn Her Life Around

According to the Dowagiac Daily News,

"How does an intelligent, vivacious young woman wearing a cross around her neck land in Cass County Family Treatment Court after losing her home and three children?

Jessica, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, took her first drink at 12. At 14, “I not only drank, but I started smoking pot as well.”

Sweet 16? “I became severely addicted to cocaine, along with drinking and using pot every day,” which cost “thousands of dollars.”"

For more on Jessica's story and how Family Treatment Court, Hope's Door (a recovery residence), Southwestern Michigan Community College, and others helped her get a second chance, see:

www.dowagiacnews.com/2010/03/19/meth-addicted-mother-of-three-turning-her-life-around-slowly/

St. Louis Has a New Policy to Protect Rather Than Dispose of the Possessions of the Homeless

"St. Louis (Missouri) has established a policy which now provides sturdy bags and waterproof identification tags to make it easier for homeless residents to store their stuff — and to retrieve it when it does get (thrown out by city clean up crews.)

"We keep an inventory and make arrangements for people to pick up whatever they've left behind," Siedhoff says the Director of Health and Human Services in the city.

It's an unusual policy. Cities are more likely to confiscate and destroy the property of the homeless than to monitor and store it."

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124735830

Residence for Homeless & Disabled Veterans In Galesburg May Close

"Dozens of homeless and disabled veterans could be out on the street as the place they call home is in danger of shutting down. The Stone Cottage Residence, is a 29 bed facility in Galesburg. Many of the veterans living there have psychological problems and some of them were homeless before Stone Cottage took them in," per WWMT-TV3 Kalamazoo.

The full story may be found at:





www.wwmt.com/articles/margin-1373831-bottom-newschannel.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The new poor: In hard times, lured into trade school and debt

From the New York Times:

One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.

But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

“If these programs keep growing, you’re going to wind up with more and more students who are graduating and can’t find meaningful employment,” said Rafael I. Pardo, a professor at Seattle University School of Law and an expert on educational finance. “They can’t generate income needed to pay back their loans, and they’re going to end up in financial distress.”

For-profit trade schools have long drawn accusations that they overpromise and underdeliver, but the woeful economy has added to the industry’s opportunities along with the risks to students, according to education experts. They say these schools have exploited the recession as a lucrative recruiting device while tapping a larger pool of federal student aid.

“They tell people, ‘If you don’t have a college degree, you won’t be able to get a job,’ ” said Amanda Wallace, who worked in the financial aid and admissions offices at the Knoxville, Tenn., branch of ITT Technical Institute, a chain of schools that charge roughly $40,000 for two-year associate degrees in computers and electronics. “They tell them, ‘You’ll be making beaucoup dollars afterward, and you’ll get all your financial aid covered.’ ”

Read the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/business/14schools.html?pagewanted=1&hpw

The obesity-hunger paradox

The perceptions of what hunger is in America have changed quite a bit since the 1970's. With Lyndon Johnson's Great Society came programs such as food stamps, and in their current form the they are known as the bridge card. With these programs, hunger was significantly reduced in America. Our poorest populations could use these food credits to afford enough food to allow for basic nutrition.

However, things have changed drastically since the creation of government food assistance in the 1970's. The United States convenience economy has created the fast food industry, as well as a plethora of quick-stop style shops that offer foods and snacks high in salt, sugar and fat. Obesity is an epidemic and our belts are growing at an alarming rate.

One could assume that food stamp assistance could be a fuel to to that obesity trend, as people in poor neighborhoods use food stamps to purchase pop, unhealthy snacks and other items that would inflame their health maladies.

So why not cut food stamps? Isn't the obesity epidemic evidence that Americans need a reduction in food, not a subsidized fund for unhealthy habits?

The situation is in fact far more complex than it first appears.

A recent article by the New York Times speaks to the obesity-hunger paradox that is a common experience in many American cities and communities:

WHEN most people think of hunger in America, the images that leap to mind are of ragged toddlers in Appalachia or rail-thin children in dingy apartments reaching for empty bottles of milk.

Once, maybe.

But a recent survey found that the most severe hunger-related problems in the nation are in the South Bronx, long one of the country’s capitals of obesity. Experts say these are not parallel problems persisting in side-by-side neighborhoods, but plagues often seen in the same households, even the same person: the hungriest people in America today, statistically speaking, may well be not sickly skinny, but excessively fat.

Call it the Bronx Paradox.

“Hunger and obesity are often flip sides to the same malnutrition coin,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “Hunger is certainly almost an exclusive symptom of poverty. And extra obesity is one of the symptoms of poverty.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Such studies present a different way to look at hunger: not starving, but “food insecure,” as the researchers call it (the Department of Agriculture in 2006 stopped using the word “hunger” in its reports). This might mean simply being unable to afford the basics, unable to get to the grocery or unable to find fresh produce among the pizza shops, doughnut stores and fried-everything restaurants of East Fordham Road.

Precious, the character at the center of the Academy Award-winning movie by the same name, would probably count as food insecure even though she is severely obese (her home, Harlem, ranks 49th on the survey’s list, with 24.1 percent of residents saying they lacked money for food in the previous year). There she is stealing a family-size bucket of fried chicken from a fast-food restaurant. For breakfast.

That it is greasy chicken, and that she vomits it up in a subsequent scene, points to the problem that experts call a key bridge between hunger and obesity: the scarcity of healthful options in low-income neighborhoods and the unlikelihood that poor, food-insecure people like Precious would choose them.

Full-service, reasonably priced supermarkets are rare in impoverished neighborhoods, and the ones that are there tend to carry more processed foods than seasonal fruits and vegetables. A 2008 study by the city government showed that 9 of the Bronx’s 12 community districts had too few supermarkets, forcing huge swaths of the borough to rely largely on unhealthful, but cheap, food.

In Kalamazoo, we have struggled to maintain a grocery store on the North Side Neighborhood that is economically sustainable. It doesn't make the need any less apparent. Our communities need healthy food options and we need to work together to create ways to generate these opportunities.

One final though from the article:

Poor people “often work longer hours and work multiple jobs, so they tend to eat on the run,” said Dr. Rundle of Columbia. “They have less time to work out or exercise, so the deck is really stacked against them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/nyregion/14hunger.html?hpw

Benton Harbor Editorial Calls for More Investment in Young Children and Their Mothers

According to an editorial in today's Benton Harbor Herald Palladium:

"Michigan's Children is a Lansing-based organization that advocates on the behalf of children and their families. According to a recent Budget Basics report issued by the organization, "More than one of every five (22.4 percent) Michigan children under the age of 5 lives in poverty, and poverty rates are disproportionately high for children of color."

Let me repeat: More than one in every five Michigan children live in poverty. If this was the flu, it would be called an epidemic. Yet, I hear few, if any, of our leaders in Lansing or locally talking about the issue."

The full editorial may be found at:

heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/03/10/opinion/editorials/1261636.txt

Consumer protection bill lacking... consumer protections

As the US Senate works to draft a consumer protection bill, a key piece has been negotiated out of the bill that would affect millions of low-earning consumers. The bill's drafters have removed a key provision in the legislation that would have empowered federal authorities to crack down on payday lenders.

From the New York Times:

The Senate Banking Committee’s chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, proposed legislation in November that would give a new consumer protection agency the power to write and enforce rules governing payday lenders, debt collectors and other financial companies that are not part of banks.

Late last month, Mr. Corker pressed Mr. Dodd to scale back substantially the power that the consumer protection agency would have over such companies, according to three people involved in the talks.

Mr. Dodd went along, these people said, in an effort to reach a bipartisan deal with Mr. Corker after talks had broken down between Democrats and the committee’s top Republican, Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama. The individuals, both Democrats and Republicans, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations.

Under the proposal agreed to by Mr. Dodd and Mr. Corker, the new consumer agency could write rules for nonbank financial companies like payday lenders. It could enforce such rules against nonbank mortgage companies, mainly loan originators or servicers, but it would have to petition a body of regulators for authority over payday lenders and other nonbank financial companies.

Consumer advocates said that writing rules without the inherent power to enforce them would leave the agency toothless.

Why remove legislation that would address one of the largest financial scams in the country? The only blowback is apparently from payday Lenders themselves, who have financially supported several senators in the past. It seems that politics are once again getting in the way of progress.

W. Allan Jones, who started Check Into Cash, in Cleveland, Tenn., in 1993, has been a longtime friend and supporter of Mr. Corker’s. The company says it is now the country’s third-largest payday-lending chain, with 1,100 stores in 30 states. Payday loans are short-term, high-interest loans — typically 400 percent on an annualized basis — to help borrowers cover expenses until their next paycheck. Many take out more loans, digging themselves deeper into debt.

Payday lenders are great at accomplishing one thing: making money. And yes, that money is taxable and brings in revenue to our country. According to the times, "The industry’s trade group estimated that payday loan companies contributed $10 billion to the economy in 2007, and directly employed 77,000 people."

But is this the kind of economic gain we want in our country, the kind that preys on our citizens, increases our debt, and sustains poverty? Aren't these the vary reasons we got ourselves into this economic mess in the first place?

If the feds won't regulate these organizations, we need to take back our communities on a local level. Initiatives such as Bank On San Francisco (and soon to be Bank On Kalamazoo) work with local mainstream financial organizations to open up credit and short term loans to low-income and consumers with debt. Through this kind of work, we can eliminate the market for payday lenders by offering a reasonable alternative.

Asset requirements create obstacles for those needing aid

Asset requirements create obstacles for those needing aid

A recent article from Minnesota talks about the states challenge of asset requirements and the impact it has on those who need government aid. From the Star Tribune:

As the Great Recession ensnares more middle-class families, how far does a family need to fall before the public safety net kicks in?

Many government programs have requirements for families to spend down much of their savings before they can qualify for temporary assistance. Advocates say these tests undermine a family's ability to bounce back from financial setbacks in the future.

Minnesota's food support program -- better known as food stamps -- is a case in point. To qualify for the assistance, Minnesotans need to have assets below $7,000 -- which amounts to a few months of mortgage payments for many.

"These are really troubled times and people maybe just need help for just a short period," said Colleen Moriarty, executive director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota. "We don't want to throw people into abject poverty forever."

A draft study on hunger from Second Harvest Heartland found that if the food stamp test was eliminated, between 75,000 and 87,000 low-income Minnesotans would qualify for the public assistance. That would bring an estimated $154 million in economic activity into the state, as families buy more food and stores hire more workers. The federal government pays for the food stamp program, though states set their own rules and administer it.

It is time to revisit the methods for which our states qualify our neediest residents for aid. For many, receiving aid means liquidating virtually all of ones assets in order to qualify. When you eliminate your only means left of financial stability, what's left for you to move on with your life?

If anything, asset requirements create residents who depend on assistance longer, as they are left with nothing to move on. We need to rethink what qualifications should exist for our aid programs and consider making changes.

Read the full article:

http://www.startribune.com/business/86669707.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Poetry on Poverty from Japan

The Japanese have contributed much to our world's culture. The cherry trees which fill our nation's capital are a sign of friendship between our two countries and were a gift from Japan. (By the by, the Japanese name for their country is: Nihon or Nippon.)

For the Japanese, their most revered holiday is the New Year. On December 31, 1975, I had the pleasure of witnessing a portion of the Buddhist's New Year's Eve ceremonies at the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha, in Kamakura which is not far from Tokyo. Actually, there were hundreds of thousands of people present, so I did not witness the ceremony, could not get close to the monks, only the pageantry of the celebrants in their holiday best kimonos. Imagine, if you will, a sea of brightly colored kimonos. It inspired me to write this Haiku many years later:

Michigan Sunset Praise
(Daibutsu New Year’s Parade – déjà vu)

Flush spring tree blossoms
Sunset spotlight, blacken’d sky
God’s kimonos praise.

The Japanese have a long tradition and appreciation of poetry. The feudal lords of that country often employed a court poet, perhaps something like our poet laureate.

One such poet was Matsuo Basho who lived from 1644-1694. On-line, I have read that Basho is a sobriquet (kind of like Mark Twain.) The name Basho means banana tree.

In his poetry, Basho-san explored many human feelings including compassion for the problems of the poor:

Poverty's child -
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.

Poverty Rates in Great Start Readiness Programs

The State of Michigan publishes a report which lists and ranks school districts participating in the Great Starts Readiness program by their percentage of children served in the program who come from families in poverty.

Here is a sample of school districts from Southwest Michigan. Again, this is the percentage of children in the school's Great Start Readiness pre-school who are in poverty homes:

98.4% - Benton Harbor
90.0% - Covert
75.0% - Battle Creek
66.2% - Hartford
63.1% - Kalamazoo
59.1% - Sturgis
50.3% - Three Rivers
49.2% - South Haven
39.5% - Allegan
27.9% - Edwardsburg
12.2% - Mattawan

The full report can be found at:

www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/rptRankOrderListForEnhancedAlloc_259021_7.pdf

Mobile dental clinic to start service in Kalamazoo County next week

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

The long-awaited mobile dental clinic should be on the road in Kalamazoo next week, county officials said.

The 40-foot-long RV that has two dentist chairs, a laboratory and a small waiting room is expected to arrive on Sunday, according to Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services.

The mobile clinic will travel to elementary and middle schools at Kalamazoo Public Schools, starting Wednesday with Lincoln International Studies School.

For the first time, children will be able to get cavities filled — instead of just their teeth cleaned — at school, said Bonnie Dykehouse, the county dental clinic’s program manager.

The mobile clinic will target underserved children whose families cannot afford dental care.

In future years, the clinic could expand to visit other school districts besides Kalamazoo, Dykehouse said. It is starting with KPS because the health department already has a dental program set up to serve the district’s children.

Read the full article:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/03/mobile_dental_clinic_to_start.html

Program helps homeless vets find jobs

Program helps homeless vets find jobs

A West Michigan group is trying to get some veterans back on their feet, considering they put their lives on the line for the United States.

The program is funded by No Worker Left Behind, and is a partnership between Michigan Works!, Michigan State University and the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.

The program educates homeless veterans so they might be able to get hired.

"It's made me nervous," said Robert Lee, a program participant. "I'm totally out of my comfort level."

Video link:

http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/kalamazoo_and_battle_creek/Program-helps-homeless-vets-find-jobs

U.S. plans new measure for poverty

U.S. plans new measure for poverty

From the NY Times:

The federal government announced on Tuesday that it would begin producing an experimental measurement of poverty next year, a step toward the first overhaul of the formula since it was developed nearly a half-century ago by an obscure civil servant in the Social Security Administration.

While the original definition — the cash income collected by a family or individual — will remain the official statistical measure for eligibility and distribution of federal assistance for the time being, “the new supplemental poverty measure will provide an alternative lens to understand poverty and measure the effects of antipoverty policies,” said Rebecca Blank, the under secretary of commerce for economic affairs.

Advocates for the poor and technical experts have argued for years that the original standard, developed in conjunction with the Johnson administration’s War on Poverty, was anachronistic. The civil servant who created it, Mollie Orshansky, based it on the Agriculture Department’s cheapest meal plan, on the assumption that the average family spent a third of its income on food at the time. Her formula has largely remained the same except for inflation adjustments.

The Poverty Reduction Initiative has advocated for a change to the Federal Poverty Measure for many years. The problems with the current standard are numerous. In some instances, it undervalues poverty by failing to account for costs such as shelter, transportation, medical expenses and clothing. In others, it overvalues poverty by failing to account for recipients of services, which can effectively boost incomes over the poverty level.

A new measure would allow the government, non-profit agencies and other human service initiatives a more accurate look into the needs of both specific families and diverse communities. Hopefully the "test run" this fall will prove just how valuable a new measure would be to supporting the needs of millions of Americans.

Read the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/us/03poverty.html?scp=3&sq=poverty&st=cse

Study: Poverty in childhood can shape neurobiology

A recent study presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting demonstrated the effects that poverty can have on a child's neurobiology:

Living in poverty can shape the neurobiology of a developing child "in powerful ways," affecting children's behavior, health and how well they do later in life, a new study shows.

U.S. researchers found what they called "a biology of misfortune" among adults who were poor as children, particularly if they lived in poverty before the age of 5, the study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) shows.

Early childhood is a"crucial time for establishing the brain architecture that shape's children's future cognitive, social and emotional well-being," the study says.

"Children growing up in a disadvantaged setting show disproportionate levels of reactivity to stress, and it shows at the level of hormonal studies, neurological brain imaging studies and at the level of epigenetic profiling," said Thomas Boyce, of the University of British Columbia.

Thankfully, legislatures supported the continuation of funding for Early Childhood Education programs in the State of Michigan's Budget earlier this fall. If this study's results are true, then not only are we talking about the economic future of our children but of their social and cognitive abilities as well. Heavy levels of stress that children suffer in poverty have very long-term consequences that potentially create mental barriers for the rest of their life.

The researchers studied data on more than 1,500 individuals born between 1968 and 1975 taken from a 40-year demographic study of U.S. households that measured family income during every year of childhood, educational attainment, what level people reached in their careers, plus crime and health as adults.

They found "striking differences" in how the children's lives turned out as adults, depending on whether they were poor or comfortably well-off before the age of 6.

"Compared to children whose families had incomes of at least twice the poverty line during their early childhood, poor children complete two fewer years of schooling, work 451 fewer hours per year, earn less than half as much," the study said.

They also received more than $800 a year more in food stamps as adults, and were more than twice as likely to report poor overall health or high levels of psychological distress, the study said.

Poor children were also fatter than their more affluent counterparts, and were more likely to be overweight as adults.

And the litany of misfortunes continues, with poor males twice as likely to be arrested and poor women six times more likely than their more affluent age-group peers to have a child out of wedlock.

The study also found that it was possible to positively shape the futures of poor children, by giving the families of under-fives additional income. About 4 million children in the United States lived in poverty in 2007.

Read the full article:

http://www.news24.com/Content/SciTech/News/1132/9cbf7c95f98d4d87a65e16b326436fc6/22-02-2010-07-15/Poverty_affects_kids_success

Habitat for Humanity seeing fewer applicants

Habitat for Humanity is struggling to find families to become owners of new homes. The Kalamazoo Gazette Reports:

A sluggish economy has led to fewer families seeking to partner with Kalamazoo Valley Habitat for Humanity to build their own homes, said Don Jones, the organization’s executive director.

“Families have dialed back and are unwilling to sign on for a major financial commitment,” Jones said.

It’s the first time in a decade that Kalamazoo’s Habitat affiliate is without the desired number of families to partner with to build new homes, said Ann Kilkuskie, the organization’s development director. To close that gap, the agency has stepped up efforts to promote the affordable-housing program to those who qualify.

Kalamazoo Habitat is not the only city which is struggling:

The Battle Creek Area Habitat for Humanity also has struggled in the last 18 months “to get a full slate of homeowners for our houses,” said Art Pearce, the agency’s executive director. Officials with Habitat for Humanity of Michigan say the majority of the state’s 77 affiliates are experiencing a similar downturn in applicants.

The fear of buying a Habitat-built home seems somewhat misguided, as the homes are often more affordable than many apartment complexes which would offer much less. The idea of a long-term financial commitment could be scaring families, though logically they have to be paying for rent someone else if they need a home anyway. Additionally, some of Habitats requirements are not be possible for families who have to work a lot of hours to support their income.

“When you do the Habitat math and factor in a zero-percentage mortgage, a house sold at no profit and down payment assistance, you’re looking at a $450 a month house payment,” Jones said. “It’s the same math whether it’s tough or great economic times.”

To qualify to partner with Habitat to build a home, individuals must meet certain criteria, including the ability to make monthly house payments and a commitment of between 300 and 500 hours of “sweat equity” hours toward their home. Jones said participants also must attend classes on home ownership and financing and fall within income guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Read the full Kalamazoo Gazette article:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/02/economy_stalls_affordable-hous.html