Eye exams, donated glasses provided at Family Health Center, Battle Creek

Staff from the Southwest Michigan Eye Center provided eye exams and glasses to patients at the Family Health Center Wednesday afternoon.

"We brought in the Kendall Optical System that's used for taking donated Lions Club glasses and categorizing them into a computer organizing system. Then they're boxed and bar coded." said Dr. Jeffrey Colquhoun. Students from the Battle Creek Area Mathematics and Science Center had previously worked to prepare about 2,000 pairs of glasses into the system.

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110428/NEWS01/104280314/1002/news01/Eye-exams-donated-glasses-provided-Family-Health-Center

Berrien and Cass County Fair Poorly in National Health Study

How healthy is Berrien County?

According to statistics recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, there appears to be some room for improvement.

The statistics, compiled yearly for each county in the nation, had Berrien ranked 65th out of Michigan’s 82 counties in health outcomes, which includes mortality and morbidity rates. That placed the county in the bottom third statewide.

In a second category, called health factors, the county came in 52nd. That includes factors such as health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment.

Cass County, meanwhile, ranked 59th in health outcomes and 50th in health factors.

Theresa Green, director of community health planning for the Berrien County Health Department, said she respects the findings because they provide insight to what the county can improve on.

“It’s not surprising to the health department,” she said of some of Berrien’s low scores. “They’re (the health institute) putting together data in a good way. There are some different ways to measure things that I haven’t thought of. ... They include nontraditional factors.”

Berrien fared the worst in morbidity rate - which includes factors such as poor or fair health and poor physical and mental health days.

Poor mental health days is based on responses from community members who are asked about how often during the past 30 days they thought about their mental health, which includes stress, depression and problems with emotions. The statistics represent the average number of days a county’s adult respondents reported that their mental health was not good.

www.southbendtribune.com/news/sbt-berrien-county-lags-in-health-rankings-20110423,0,3996364.story?track=rss

"The Legislature is being Unnecessarily Punitive with Poor People"

"It just seems to feel like the legislature is being unnecessarily punitive with poor people."

- Ken Sikkema, Public Sector Consultants and former Senate Majority Leader on this week's broadcast edition of Michigan Public Radio's "A Look at the Week in State Politics".

Mr. Sikkema's comments were in response to a discussion about the legislature's proposal to force poor families to purchase their children's back-to-school clothes at thrift stores.

The full broadcast, which also discussed the school aid budget and other topics, can be listened to at:


news.michiganradio.org/post/look-week-state-politics?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+michiganradio+%28Michigan+Radio%3A+Michigan+News%29&utm_content=Twitter

Infant Health Program Provides Services for At-Risk Pregnant Women

Cassopolis Family Clinic’s Maternal Infant Health Program (MIHP), part of its obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Niles, was recertified in January by the Michigan Department of Community Health for 18 months, through June 2012.

“(MIHP) provides services for at-risk pregnant women and infants up to their first birthday,” says Michelle Schau, MSW, program coordinator.

“For the patients we’re privileged to serve, ‘at risk’ may mean they have limited or no financial resources to access the basic goods and services they need. To be eligible, patients must qualify for Michigan Medicaid.

“Although the program is completely voluntary, many women who choose CFC for prenatal care, choose to seek services of the (MIHP). Many patients lack adequate family support, whether emotional, physical or financial. We tailor our services around the needs of our patients. Education, case management and parenting classes are free of cost for our patients,” Schau said.

There are three disciplines involved in MIHP services.

Social workers provide case management. Registered nurses provide patient education, including what to expect during pregnancy, delivery and after birth. Dietitians provide guidance on eating well during pregnancy and following birth and education and proper nutrition for infants.

“This program really makes a difference in the quality of our patients’ lives,” says Mary Middleton, executive director. “Every time we deliver a healthy baby, it’s a success.”

www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/04/21/maternal-infant-health-program-recertified/

Michigan Working Poor May Receive $25 Child Tax Credit Instead of $400 Earned Income Tax Credit

An update on plans to eliminate the earned income tax credit:

Low-income wage earners who would lose existing Michigan tax credits that average $425 a year scrapped in Gov. Rick Snyder’s business tax overhaul would pick up a new $25 per child tax credit in a compromise version.

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley told the House Tax Policy Committee that the administration supports the change. Coupled with expanded credits for rent and property tax payments, low-income residents would receive more than $100 million in tax benefits.

That’s less than a third of $350 million the Michigan Earned Income Tax credit currently provides. It’s proposed elimination by Snyder has received perhaps the most criticism. Advocates call it a tax increase on the working poor that will push more Michigan children into poverty.

Rep. Jud Gilbert, R-Algonac, chairman of the committee that could report the tax package out as early as next week, was an early proponent of the MEITC and suggested the $25 credit as an alternative.

Still, the amount doesn’t come close to matching the benefit of the MEITC. It equals the tax benefit of the current $600 per-child tax deduction, a break that Snyder’s plan also eliminates.

www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/04/michigan_working_poor_would_re.html

Two Women: (A Poem Upon the Conclusion of Another Year of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance)

On the last day for taxes
two women arrive
after we are packing up boxes
to close the end of another season.

Picking up stray papers
and stacks of tax forms,
I hear the first woman crying
sitting next to her preparer.
Somehow having her taxes completed
forces her to re-think
all of the tough times
she faced this past year:
the spousal abuse,
subsequent divorce,
and stalking by an angered male
and his friends.
I don't remember
her income or her taxes.
I just remember her tears.

The second woman comes just
as the first's return is being reviewed.
She lives solely on her supplemental security income
of $674 per month
and is in arrears on property taxes
and other bills
of which she has a shoe box full.

These are my memories
of a tax season coming to an end:
an abused woman forced to relive her abuse
by the simple filing
of an annual tax return
and a poor woman
who struggles to pay for a home
without enough income
to do so.

Memories of
two women.


P.S. A song from Billie Holiday:

Lady sings the Blues

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdCIsMeA8eY&feature=fvwrel

First Aid for Families in Need

At the next Project Connect, the Homeless Relief Campaign Iniative (HRCI) is bringing something new to Kalamazoo County Residents. For the past month they have been involved in a fundraising program called Operation Give a Kit. This involves selling First Aid kits which will be donated to individuals and families that attend Project Connect this May. Their goal is to sell 200 First Aid Kits and they're already getting a lot of support from the community. On Tuesday, the WMU Red Cross Club held a fundraiser on campus where they collected a total of over $161 in just a few hours, which has helped them reach nearly 10% of their goal. The Western Herald published an article on this effort.

This is a unique fundraiser which is helping HRCI to pay for their non profit filing status and is giving back to the community. First Aid supplies are important to health and they are something that many families who struggle to put food on the table could not otherwise afford. This program also makes it easy for people to help as they can give online: http://www.operation-give-a-kit.com/pages/eLink.html?idev_id=108


To find out more information, you can contact:
Scott Spicer- scott.spicer@myrightresponse.com or
LaShana Jones shana_jones@hotmail.com

Gun Lake Tribe Constructs Nine New Homes

With the completion of a block of nine homes, the Gun Lake tribe has begun bringing its tribal elders home.

An open house March 31 unveiled the homes of “The Settlement,” built in Bradley on a cul-de-sac off 128th Avenue west of 6th Street with nearly $2.5 million in grants.

Tribal housing director Melissa Brown said the homes will first be offered to tribal elders—members older than age 50—who now live throughout west Michigan but may lack the means to live where the tribe has called home for more than a century.

The 400-member tribe has approximately 80 elders.

The tribe, also known as the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band, settled in Bradley in 1838 near Gun Lake. According to the tribe, the tribal settlement was then called the Griswold Mission, overseen by an Episcopal church. The tribe was formally recognized by the federal government Aug. 23, 1999.

“This is exciting,” Brown said of the project’s completion. “We worked hard to get here.”

The bulk of the funding came from 2009 federal stimulus money, through the Native American Housing Block Grant. The Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomie Indians were one of 104 tribes and Alaskan native villages that won grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development nationwide; 327 applied.

The Settlement is the tribe’s first housing project. The two- and three-bedroom homes on 33 acres include some “green” features, such as geothermal heating systems, efficient windows and on-demand water heaters.

To accommodate some needs of the elderly, the homes contain no stairs and have wheelchair-friendly door frame widths.

www.allegannews.com/articles/2011/04/14/local_news/4.txt

Michigan's 7 Catholic Bishops' Letter to the Governor and Legislature on Behalf of the Poor

Dear Governor Snyder and Legislative Leaders:

We, the Roman Catholic Bishops of the seven Dioceses in Michigan, take this opportunity as proposals are being advanced by our legislators to craft the state budget, to call on you, our executive and legislative leaders, to carry out your responsibilities with greater attention to the needs of the poor, the unemployed and other vulnerable persons who make up a large part of the citizens of Michigan. It is a well-known fact that a very clear indicator of the moral strength of any society is in the way its neediest citizens are treated. As such, budget priorities reflect significant moral choices. As moral leaders of the citizens of our state, we have reasonable cause for serious concern based on the Fiscal Year 2012 and Projected Fiscal Year 2013 Executive Budget Recommendation, along with proposals that are currently under consideration in the Legislature.

Various policy proposals addressed in committee and others that have been put forward, if enacted, would adversely impact the state’s destitute and working poor population and will likely create additional hardships for those for whom we are collectively responsible – you as elected leaders, and we, the spiritual leaders, of the people of this state...

For the full letter, see:

www.micatholicconference.org/assets/files/statements/bds_20110411-EITCLetter.pdf

In Some States (including Michigan), Working Poor Could Pay More Taxes

Several states want to scale back or eliminate a tax credit for the working poor, as they try to balance their budgets. Anti-poverty groups say some of these same states also want to cut taxes for businesses.

Governors say they're trying to balance the need to promote jobs with deficit reduction. But advocates say the poor are being asked to bear an unfair share of the burden.

The tax break is called an earned income tax credit, or EITC. About half the states offer residents an EITC on top of a similar credit available from the federal government.

Ramona Spencer is a single mother of five who lives in Lansing, Mich. The state's Republican governor, Rick Snyder, has proposed eliminating the Michigan EITC, which is 20 percent of the federal credit.

"Four hundred dollars may not seem like a lot to a lot of people," Spencer says. "But when you are already living on the bottom rung of society, you feel the difference."

www.npr.org/2011/04/11/135320299/in-some-states-working-poor-would-pay-more-tax

It's Everybody's Business to Invest in Early Childhood Development Programs

"For every dollar spent on early childhood development we save $17 on the cost of juvenile homes, jails, welfare, or remedial programs."

"Investing in our children between the ages of zero and five is one of the most important uses of our limited resources that we can make."

The United Way of Southeast Michigan has prepared the following short video on early childhood education:

Diverging Pathways: How Wealth Shapes Opportunity for Children

Racial disparities in households with young children are dramatic:

•• In 2007, 32% of white households with young children were income-poor and 14.2% had no assets. In sharp contrast, 69% of Latino and 71% of blacks were income-poor, and 40% had no assets.

Racial disparities in child outcomes start early and grow over time:

•• At nine months, all children start out with fairly similar scores on a standard child development test, but by two years of age, racial disparities emerge.

The wealth gap widened for households with children:

•• Between 1994 and 2007, the wealth gap between white and black households with children
increased by $22,000 -almost doubling from $25,000 to $47,000.

•• In 2007, black households with children held only 4% of the wealth of white households.

•• From 2005 to 2007, black households living with zero or negative net worth (debt) grew from
35% to 39% while it stayed constant at 15% for white households.

Maternal education matters, but alone cannot eliminate racial wealth disparities:

•• For every dollar of wealth owned by a white mother with a bachelor’s degree or higher in 1994
a black mother owned 64 cents. By 2007, it had fallen to 13 cents.

•• The wealth gap between white and black mothers with a bachelor’s degree or higher grew five
times larger between 1994 and 2007 to an astonishing $128,000.

The above are from a new report by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The full report is located at:

insightcced.org/uploads/CRWG/DivergingPathways.pdf

Senior Health Fair in Calhoun County: "It's a Really Nice Thing"

A dozen amateur performers exchanged smiles as they filled the gym with the rumble of hand drums.

It was hardly what Cathie Davids expected when she set out for the Marshall Area Senior Health Fair on Thursday morning.

"I liked it," she said simply. The therapeutic drumming class she took part in was just one of the unique aspects of the second annual health fair at Marshall Middle School.

The morning-long, free event featured exercises and activities, 57 vendors giving out small gifts, and several local politicians, whose speeches were largely ignored by the perusing senior citizens.

A cheerful accordion player strolled among the display tables, and seniors were fed and given free health checks.

Mamie Gamble, celebrating her 84th birthday, got her blood pressure and eyes checked at the event.

"I was surprised about a lot of things," Gamble said. "They got some of everything -- food, (health) checking, and free things. I enjoy it. It's a really nice thing."

But the lighthearted, social surface of the fair didn't mask its emphasis on issues facing seniors in the county, organizers said.

"For some, physically, their capabilities for finding resources are limited," said Karin Gallagher, director of marketing for Maplewood, an assisted living community in Marshall.

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110408/NEWS01/104080312/1002/Fair-highlights-senior-health

Sitting Bull Descendent to Visit Niles Museum

The last surviving great-grandson of legendary Lakota leader Sitting Bull will make another visit to Niles.

The Fort St. Joseph Museum will host Ernie LaPointe Saturday, April 9. He will be available to sign copies of his book “Sitting Bull: His Life and Legacy” and his DVDs about the story of Sitting Bull. The book and DVDs will be available for purchase for $20 each at the museum.
Sitting Bull, a Lakota chief and holy man, is famous for his involvement at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

LaPointe’s book is unique in that it tells Sitting Bull’s story from the Native American perspective. It’s the only biography of Sitting Bull written by a lineal descendent.


www.nilesstar.com/2011/04/01/sitting-bull-descendant-returning-to-niles/

Many Low-Wage Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet Basic Needs

Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security.

The Labor Department will release its monthly snapshot of the job market on Friday, and economists expect it to show that the nation’s employers added about 190,000 jobs in March. With an unemployment rate that has been stubbornly stuck near 9 percent, those workers could be considered lucky.

But many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.

A separate report being released Friday tries to go beyond traditional measurements like the poverty line and minimum wage to show what people need to earn to achieve a basic standard of living.

The study, commissioned by Wider Opportunities for Women, a nonprofit group, builds on an analysis the group and some state and local partners have been conducting since 1995 on how much income it takes to meet basic needs without relying on public subsidies. The new study aims to set thresholds for economic stability rather than mere survival, and takes into account saving for retirement and emergencies.

“We wanted to recognize that there was a cumulative impact that would affect one’s lifelong economic security,” said Joan A. Kuriansky, executive director of Wider Opportunities, whose report is called “The Basic Economic Security Tables for the United States.” “And we’ve all seen how often we have emergencies that we are unprepared for,” she said, especially during the recession. Layoffs or other health crises “can definitely begin to draw us into poverty.”

www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/business/economy/01jobs.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/business/economy/index.jsonp&adxnnlx=1301749382-RlNKMmQ4mdbS65HciuvKew

Optimism for the Future: Dialogue 1 & 2

For me, it is encouraging when I see young people engaged and active in the political process. The year I turned 18 was the first year that 18-year-olds could vote. The first time I voted in 1972 was an important experience.

It is easier for young people to be involved when there is a presidential election. The news, whether it is on CNN, Fox News, NPR, John Stewart, or the local television and radio tends to focus more on Washington than Lansing.

Hopefully, young people will be engaged in 2012. In the meantime, I hope that they start their involvement this year by learning about issues at the federal and state level which impact programs that benefit the poor or near poor. Programs like the federal Title I program are up for review this year. Title I is the largest federal educational program which assists school districts with poor and near poor children.

In addition, many programs at the state level are being considered for reduction: including bilingual education program funding from the Michigan Department of Education, the earned income credit for the working poor through the State's income tax system, etc.

From my perspective, I have found two good sources for information on the state budget programs that impact programs for the poor and for children. These are:

The Michigan League for Human Services:

www.milhs.org/

and Michigan's Children:

www.michiganschildren.org/

There are, no doubt, many other good sources of political information.

In the meantime, I encourage our young adults to be active in politics. You can and do make a difference.

In 1972, as a young 18-year-old, we sang along to this song when we thought we could make a difference:

"Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going?"

"No, I never ever think of it at all"

"Don't you ever worry
When you see what's going down?"

"No, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all"

"When it's time to function as a feeling human being
Will your Bachelor of Arts help you get by?"

"I hope to study further, a few more years or so
I also hope to keep a steady high."

"Will you try to change things
Use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?"

"What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change?
I always thought that everything was fine."

Or as Chicago once sang it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItsZ_0mbnW4&feature=fvst