10 Reasons Why You Should Vote Yes for the Public Transportation Mileage in Kalamazoo

1. Our public transportation helps keep people in productive jobs and preparing for productive jobs, with two-thirds of riders using the services for work or school.

2. Our public transportation system is an important factor in the overall viability of our local and regional economy, with high-tech employers saying having a public transportation system is “very important” for business location and re-location.

3. Our public transportation system is a collaborative, inter-connected network that coordinates bus routes
with demand/response service, reducing duplication of services.

4. Our public transportation system provides more than three million rides per year in Kalamazoo County.

5. Our public transportation system is well utilized, providing more than 70 percent more rides than it did a decade ago.

6. Our public transportation system provides well-known, documented environmental and economic benefits to the community, state and nation, including cleaner air, less traffic congestion and decreased reliance on foreign oil

7. Our public transportation system transports elderly and disabled citizens to receive important services throughout Kalamazoo County.

8. Our public transportation system helps individuals who can’t afford private transportation to medical appointments, meetings and life-enriching experiences.

9. Our public transportation system will require only four-tenths of one mill for four years outside the City of Kalamazoo, less than the levy that expired at the end of 2008 for out-county residents.

10. Our public transportation system will require one mill within the City of Kalamazoo, the same as that approved by voters in 1998 and less than that approved by city voters in 2006.

The vote takes place in the city of Kalamazoo on Tuesday May 5th, 2009.

Government and Taxes: What role should they play poverty reduction?

One of the long-lasting issues that always surfaces in any situation involving poverty is the role of government in reducing poverty. At times discussing the issue feels more painful than a root canal: but it doesn't have to be.

Though the Poverty Reduction Initiative is not politically aligned and does not lobby government on behalf of these issues, we encourage healthy discussion and discourse on all the topics. In fact, our mission to reduce poverty in the most effective way possible as well as the most beneficial to an entire community whether it is through private or governmental means. In most cases, it becomes a combination of both.

The facts are that inequality in the United States has been growing rapidly in recent years, and though there exists no current data to represent the trend, it is likely that is only growing with the recent economic downturn that has cost so many of the working class their jobs.



So what should be the role of government in addressing poverty? Should the rich take on more tax burden to support the poor? Is it the private industries responsibility to support the communities?

What role should government play?

Developmental Assets: A Potential Template for Community Covenants

At the VISTA training last month in Ypsilanti, I was privileged to see a presentation on the Developmental Asset Model for children conducted by the Search Institute. I was so inspired by the research that when I returned to Kalamazoo I told our director Jeff Brown about what I had learned. It turned out that Jeff was already certified in Developmental Assets and wanted to implement that idea into our community covenant to support the Kalamazoo Promise.

From the Search Institute website:

Developmental Assets are common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults. Studies of more than 2.2 million young people in the United States consistently show that the more assets young people have, the less likely they are to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors and the more likely they are to thrive. Assets have power for all young people, regardless of their gender, economic status, family, or race/ethnicity. Furthermore, levels of assets are better predictors of high-risk involvement and thriving than poverty or being from a single-parent family.

There are forty identified Developmental Assets, which are broken down into external and internal assets. External assets include the categories of support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and constructive use of time. Categories of Internal assets include commitment to learning, positive values, school competencies, and positive identity. The individual assets vary upon the age group of the children, but all include these basic categories. You can view each of them on their website:

Early Childhood (ages 3-5)
Middle Childhood (ages 8-12)
Adolescents (ages 12-18)

One of the great pieces of this model is that it stresses programs that center on relationship building and valuing youth, rather than simply implementing new programs. It has the potential to be a great resource when the community is ready to create a covenant to encompass the new vision of Kalamazoo. If we build our model this innovative research, it could have the potential to affect a great number of children and families in Kalamazoo

Gilmore Museum Aims to Reach Out to Disadvantaged Youths

Disadvantaged teenagers could have the opportunity this summer to work with antique cars, and get paid for their efforts. The PRI is working with the Gilmore Car Museum near Richland to coordinate an educational program that would support low-income teenagers.

Using the Summer Youth Employment program, it has an opportunity to be both a educational experience and a well-paying job. Tim Morris, Gilmore's Director of Education, has experience leading programs at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. He already has developed an in depth curriculum that meets state level standards. Additionally, the program is intended to excite and prepare these youths to enter car maintenance programs, such as the highly respected one at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

The only barrier is finding the right source of youth employment to foster the program. With the Gilmore being just over county bounders, they can not access the large stimulus money for teens being poured into the Summer Youth Employment program. However, if they can access the program through Barry County, they have a great opportunity to employ youths and give them an opportunity to succeed in the future.

Summer Offers More Jobs for Disadvantaged Youths in Kalamazoo

For disadvantaged youths who would otherwise have little to do this summer, hope is arrived in the form of a $800 thousand stimulus supplement for employment this summer. Hundreds of youths ages 14-24 who are low-income now have the opportunity to have a meaningful and educational experience this summer employed in a non-profit in Kalamazoo.

The stimulus money provides the recruitment, administrative, and training costs associated with hiring. Non-profits who need staff will be asked to take on these workers free of charge - as long as they can find them meaningful work to do. This comes in additional to an estimated $300 thousand dollars which will be raised by city officials - coming to a total of over a million dollars in youth employment funds.

So the great task begins of finding opportunities that will not only keep youths, busy but also show them the value of steady employment and engage them in an opportunity to learn. Sure, you can put a bunch of workers in a park to pick up trash, but the experience may do little to actually change their outlook on life. We need experiences that will be transformational for these youths so that they use them to be more successful in the future.



If you administer a non-profit who is looking to have an educational opportunity or employment opening this summer, consider staffing your agency with the summer youth program. Contact Cincy Sullivan 269-383-2536 x 117 or csullivan@kresa.org

Kalamazoo Dig: More Community Gardens Make Sense

Community gardens make great sense for Kalamazoo. This is precisely why the PRI was excited to lay the ground work and facilitate the development of several more projects in Kalamazoo.

A community garden combined with recent stimulus money for a summer youth employment program has the potential to great a lasting impression on Kalamazoo urban agriculture. Basically, the stimulus package is guaranteeing the wages for hundreds of youth up to 24 years old; all they need is a place to work.

If we are to expand several more gardens this summer, we will need young people to staff them. These two programs have the potential to work in perfect symmetry. Not only will youth be employed, but it will be far more interesting and involved work that a typical summer job.

There are several other reasons why more gardens make sense in Kalamazoo:

• They give youths who would have no activities to not only have a productive focus but additionally get paid for their efforts
• They offer healthy fruits and vegetables and no cost to community resident
  
• They are a education tool to teach each other how to create their own garden
• They build relationships between different ages and backgrounds, and bring each other face-to-face in the community

With plenty of open lots available in Kalamazoo to convert, it should not be difficult process to being. What matters know is if community organizations can embrace and take on gardens as projects of their own interest.

PRI Launches new website

Yes.. it has finally come. The PRI is now online and up to modern standards with its beautiful new website.

Among other things, users may

• Register for volunteer opportunies
• Sign up for newsletters
• Donate directly online
• Read PRI stories
• Host poverty simulations and presentations
• Analyze poverty statistics in Kalamazoo
  

Please take your time, look around and enjoy!

http://www.haltpoverty.org

-Kevin Lignell

Could Kalamazoo be home to an Educare center?

What's a best way to make sure our youth grow up with the highest chance of success? Support them when the are young and most vulnerable. That's what successful Educare centers across the United States are doing to give their at-risk children the best chance of succeeding. Their goal: to dramatically improve the quality in programming for early children and create a platform for broader policy change.

Educare centers are state-of-the-art early childhood centers designed to meet the needs of today's families who are making the transition from welfare to work and are recipients of a mix of Head Start, child care and preschool services. They serve 150-200 of their community's at-risk children (birth to 5 years) and their families. Each classroom provides a BA-degreed teacher, an assistant teacher with a AA degree, and an aid from the community. All classrooms are supervised by teachers with Master's degrees in early childhood.

So why haven't we implemented one of these innovative ideas already? Basically, its purely a financial motive: Educare centers cost around $4-5 million to build and nearly $2-3 million each year to maintain. We simply haven't allocated the resources for such a project, though of large foundations are willing to help, it wouldn't be difficult to attract the funds. Organizations such as the Gates Foundation have contributed to projects on equal scale in the past and could be a possible avenue for the future.

Kalamazoo has the unique opportunity of already having an amazing program, the Kalamazoo Promise, in place to garner support for of these centers. What better argument that to suggest that our program is not the only solution but a perfect place to start for MORE programming to ensure our children have the best possible future. We are already a model for how to make education a real possibility for every child; lets make sure that they are supported from their earliest times of learning.

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.