VISTAs for an Economic Future in Michigan

In a conference designed to continue the development of VISTAs designated in Michigan, what resulted was a strong discussion on how to make Michigan a legitimate economic, education, and political force in the United States.

The topic that keep arising continuously in my groups discussion: the fact that Michigan needs to be an economic force again before it can improve the other facets that involve quality of life in the region. One of the great struggles as we all know is keeping the young population of college graduates from moving out of state (Chicago is the largest thief). Everything here is cyclical: We need to bring in new industry to support the graduates and we need the new graduates to stay to support and create the industry.

An idea surfaced of creating more VISTAs that focus on serving microenterprises and staff organizations that specialize on economic development. I think it would be beneficial to look into the ways in which we can push the maximum amount of resources into ingniting an economy: It seems that VISTAs would be a very efficient way of doing it.

Americorps Prepared to Expand

According to Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., a bill to expand Americorps program from 75,000 to 250,000 volunteers appears ready to be passed by congress.

"This week, the House is expected to pass a bill that would increase the number of federally funded service slots to 250,000, and the Senate will soon begin moving similar legislation.

The House proposal won committee approval last week with overwhelming support from both parties."

It would also increase the education award Americorps receive from $4,725 to $5,350 and requires that it match any future increases in Pell Grant scholarships. Being an Americorps volunteer myself, obviously I have some embedded personal interest in the bill.

But beyond supporting myself, this bill will further aid poverty reduction efforts across the US in a extremely affordable way. Americorps are basically paid a poverty-level wage, so the cost of labor is insignificant. We also create millions of volunteers: it is estimated the current 75,000 in service responsible for creating over 2.2 million volunteers to their organizations.

Having Americorps volunteers work for the Kalamazoo County Poverty Reduction Initiative has greatly increased our capacity to fight poverty; it will certainly aid other organizations as well. I strongly recommend to anyone, young or old, this exciting opportunity to serve their country.To learn more on how to serve, visit http://www.americorps.org.

Stimulus to deliver major projects in Southwest Michigan

A recent report from the Kalamazoo Gazette article highlighted the major amounts of money going towards projects in Southwest Michigan. Of the projects, two strike strike me as projects that could be harnessed to aid the local economy: additions to the Kalamazoo County International Airport and Kalamazoo's Metro Transit. From the article:

The Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport is to receive $1.6 million toward construction of a new terminal and $894,000 for a new air-traffic-control tower.

Kalamazoo's Metro Transit will receive $950,000 from the federal spending bill for expanding its Rose Street offices.

These projects are particularly interesting because of the mass amounts of public money going into the projects. Using a community benefits agreement model, it could be very beneficial to leverage for standards that provide local construction and hiring requirements for the construction. Over the next several months, it will be important to monitor the development updates to see if they can be influenced to use local labor to ehance the local economy.

Transportation Still a Major Issue for those in Poverty

Transportation issues have always been a source of frustration for anyone who has experienced poverty. In a country dominated by the automobile for the past century, it is a large obstacle for anyone trying to make it to work on a weekly basis on top of accessing the support services that a low-income person needs to survive.

Cars are expensive - from their initial cost to purchase, to the high-priced gasoline they consume, to the burdening cost of repair. For someone making minimum wage who has a family, the cost can be crippling. For many in poverty, they simply cannot afford the cost associated with an automobile.

If you aren't driving around to get to where you need to be, then you have to rely on either friends or public transportation. Public transportation, while strong in some major cities in the country, is completely unreliable in Michigan. In our cities, at most what is available is a scattered system of buses which do not even serve all the relevant population areas.

Anyone who's ever ridden a bus to get someone knows how difficult their routes can be to traverse. If you don't live near a route, or if that route does not lie where you need to go, you can forget about an easy travel. It could take 3-4 hours a day to reach what a car would feasibly do in 30 minutes.

What we need to mend the struggles of public transportation is a system of both light rail and high speed trains. This would make it easier for any residents, regardless of income, to access the resources around them. It would also be environmentally friendly, reducing pollution and increasing mobility of the region.

In the Michigan Business Review, writer Nathan Bomey asks if a high speed train could be in Michigan's future.

In fact, the Windy City is the top thief of Michigan's top college graduates, according to Ann Arbor-based think tank Michigan Future.

Which is just part of the reason why he believes high-speed rail could provide a significant boost to the region. If young people could visit Chicago regularly, why not stay in Michigan after all? Not to mention the fact that high-speed rail could introduce a wave of new people to the Detroit region.

For now, though, high-speed rail is still largely a fantasy for most of the country. The sheer amount of investment needed - tens of billions of dollars for hundreds of miles of track and trains - is daunting.

But the Obama administration's commitment to enhancing the nation's transportation infrastructure and the inclusion of $8 billion in high-speed rail funding in the $787 billion economic stimulus package are promising steps.

Rick Harnish, executive director of the Chicago-based Midwest High-Speed Rail Association, argued that Michigan needs high-speed rail.

"I don't see how Michigan remains in the global marketplace if it doesn't link itself to fast trains with Chicago," he said.

Please add Kalamazoo to the list of High Speed stops in this senario. For a city who prides it self in being the transition from Chicago to Detroit, this would reap millions for the economy. So what's holding all this potential economic development back?

Ultimately, the barriers to high-speed rail present significant obstacles, though. Freight carriers own most existing tracks, for example, meaning Amtrak trains have to yield to freight trains during routine trips.

Harnish said high-speed rail investments would require the construction of new tracks to avoid freight trains as much as possible and renegotiation of deals with freight companies.

We need to make these forms of transportation a priority again. It simply isn't feasible to rely on hybrid car development to push the future - the roads are crowded and potential slower than a train anyway. The development of trains in Michigan would help both its poverty residents as well as those well-off.

Analyzing Southwest Michigan's Potential to be a Research Model

Several months ago after several meetings with leaders and collaborators of the nine counties of Southwest Michigan, the collation of organizations accepted a plan to bring about a community indicators database in Southwest Michigan. The database would essentially take data from the service providers in the region to create a comprehensive analysis of what works and where there are necessary gaps that need to be filled in the fight to reduce poverty.

Soon afterwords, the combined efforts of the Lewis Walker Institute and the Kalamazoo County Poverty Reduction Initiative secured a significantly-sized grant to fund their efforts. When PRI and Lewis Walker representatives recently met with state poverty officials to discuss the state's direction in poverty reduction, they found many similarities in their plans. In turn if the model for Southwest Michigan could be successfully adapted, it is quite possible that the region could plan a lead role in poverty research on both a state and federal level.

There are several other factors why the region would be an ideal model for poverty reduction:

• The diversity in the socioeconomic status of its citizens
• The mix of both urban (Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Benton Harbor) and rural populations of residents
• Its basically neutral position in state political affluence
• The success of already standard programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise
• The resources and leadership already available through the Lewis Walker Institute and PRI
• The cooperation between counties that the region has already demonstrated.

With all these factors considered, the future for a collaborative framework of poverty reduction in the region seems very positive. If we can work together and effectively create an effective system of community indicators, we might not only improve our local communities but have an affect on distant states as well.

Photos from the Poverty Simulation at Senior Services

An in depth look at the recession

On Tuesday the New York Times asked the question: What does the worst recession in a decade look like?

Conveniently enough, they provided a map of unemployment and job losses over the last year. Beyond the map, here are some highlights of the article that accompanies it. Some conclusions were:

• The recession is deep and broad with every state in the country, with the exception of a band stretching from the Dakotas down to Texas, is now shedding jobs at a rapid pace.

• Unlike the last two recessions — earlier this decade and in the early 1990s — this one is causing much more job loss among the less educated than among college graduates.
• The brunt of the layoffs in this recession is falling on construction workers, hotel workers, retail workers and others without a four-year degree.
• The Great Recession of 2008 (and beyond) is hurting men more than women.
• It is hurting homeowners and investors more than renters or retirees who rely on Social Security checks.
• It is hurting Latinos more than any other ethnic group.
• Though the largest pains have been suffered by the most vulnerable workers, In the long run it may end up afflicting the comfortable more than the afflicted
  

And in opinion the most disturbing fact:

• Recessions often tend to increase inequality because lower-income workers are concentrated in boom-and-bust industries.

To briefly summarize what is happening:

Our economy just went through a 50 year post war period of unheard expansion. What highlighted this expansion was a booming housing industry, a financial sector that supported the world, and until the past several decades we were a manufacturing powerhouse.

These economic strengths created one of the largest middle classes who had wide access to higher education. Reasonable class equality prevailed for many because of a combination of a strong manufacturing core and a educational system that created a large white collar workforce.

With a manufacturing core in shambles, it is important that we utilize initiatives to give low-income persons a better chance for higher education. Coupled with that, we must create incentives to re-establish manufacturing locally in the United States.

The skilled trades are suffering unheard amounts of unemployment and may NEVER recover to support the labor force they once employed. We are in a time of a shifting economy, and it is important we create pathways that transition this work force to new productive trades, whether it be gaining more education or accessing a new trade such as alternative energy.

We must act now to use the resources we can or risk a larger inequality. The suffering of the base of our economy - the workers that provide us the basic products and services we need - will lead to a decreased equity for all American consumers. In a time where our country struggles to fill other needs such as energy and healthcare, it is something we simply cannot risk.

RCAR Program gives disadvantaged residents hope of new careers

Last year, the The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) identified $1,500,000 in federal highway administration funding to support the Road Construction Apprenticeship Readiness (RCAR) program. The program was designed to provide apprenticeship readiness training for women, minorities, and economically disadvantaged persons in the road construction
trades.

The customized training included 150 hours of job readiness skills, applied math, computer applications, blueprint reading, workplace safety and an overview of the road construction trades. Participants were paid a stipend for each hour of RCAR training.

A year letter, the program was deemed a great success as a large portion of participants passed their major tests. However, due to current economy conditions, the program failed to supply any hope of jobs. Construction workers with years of substantial experience have been losing jobs ever since the economy started its plunge.

While these program graduates may have an opportunity to gain jobs when the stimulus construction projects start to break ground, it could be argued the programs ultimate success was providing a model that any industry could use to include disadvantaged persons in their workforce.

The program analyzes the basic skills necessary to succeed in many entry level career positions, and it would only be necessary to alter it slightly to fit a new industry. One possible avenue has begun to be discussed at great length: the green jobs industry.



With a slew of jobs being thrown at green projects such as home weatherization, it is quite possible a deal could be brokered to accept applicants from programs with a model similar to RCAR.

The great strength of a program like RCAR is its ability to expand to other industries. Though the economy may seem bleak, it is possible we can still find ways to improve the lives and careers of disadvantaged residents in our community.

Stimulus package still limited on details

As Obama delivered his first address to congress this week, many watched in awe as he spoke loquaciously about his plans to uplift our nation through his stimulus package. Proof that many were so impressed came in a CBS poll which showed Obama's approval rating for handling the economic crisis leapt 17 percent after the speech among those who watched it, from 63 to 80 percent.

There is a general consensus that people agree with what our government is doing to stop the crisis, even though the details on how we are going to do it are extremely limited.

For example, in a recent phone conversation with CALSP, I thought I would be getting insider details on how funds dedicated to Headstart early childhood programs could be accessed. However, the phone call turned out to be another bout of rehashing information available by simply reading any report on the stimulus.

The simple fact is no one knows how discretionary funds will be available in any category. Qualifications for grants and projects applications have still yet to be determined, creating a buzz among organizations scrambling to apply for any funding available.

It is extremely important for us to continue monitoring these updates as they come in. I ask for any commentators to discuss what they interpretations are of any part of the package, and for any ways that we might best utilize this opportunity.

Changing the Discourse on Poverty

The "American Dream" has been a great public relations campaign for the United States in the last century. For who could argue against a country of where anyone can succeed, regardless of race, class, or gender?

Everyone loves a Cinderella story, of whose repertoire now includes the impressive 8 Oscar victories by hit film Slumdog Millionaire. However uplifting the story, we all know deep inside that the chances of anyone in poverty truly rising out their condition without resources is slim to none. America is no exception.

Knowing this is true, why are we so quick to judge those on the lower rungs of the later? American popular culture has historically given a tough shrug to its poor residents. If you can't pick yourself up and rise above, its your fault. It would seem that the foundations of our culture would not allow smart, hard working people to fail.

In the idea of the American dream, a philosophy based off of self-reliance and personal responsibility, there exists a an inherent problem: the idea that some of our poor are deserving or their condition, whereas others are not.

Generally, the "deserving poor" refers to people who live in generation poverty. Generational poverty is a cyclical problem where those who lack resources for their own lives have none to give to their children to rise above their conditions. As studies suggest, education is one of the highest indicators of poverty across the United States. Parents who lack education themselves are rarely in conditional to give their children advice on how best to pursue theirs.

On the other hand, the "undeserving poor" refers to those of whose poverty status is situational or temporary. This group of poor has likely greatly expanded with the recent layoffs caused by the economic crisis. Unlike those in generational poverty, these members usually have either job experiences or education necessary to rise out of poverty again when the opportunity comes.

The idea of deserved and undeserved poverty needs to be broken. At a time when our economic playing field is leveled, there is a chance for increased empathy towards all people in poverty conditions. It is time we should realize that whether generational or situational, no one deserves to live in a condition where they struggle to meet their basic needs.

If we do not break this ideology, it could have rippling effects on our society and the well-being of all Americans. When the economy finally does recover, no one knows how long it could take to reach its previous height. What will result is families who were once in situational poverty could find themselves being confronted with a long-term problem. It is like a fish net: while many will be lifted up through the net back to financial stability, others will fall through to the bottom.

Someday after this depression has passed, we will forget about the distinction between deserving and undeserving poor. Those who fell through the net could find themselves less deserving for aid than before.

Its time to change the discourse on poverty not because we need to save these few. It is simply because no one deserves to be labeled as undeserving.