Elder Rights Workshop to be Held in St. Joseph County

St. Joseph County will host a first of a kind Elder Rights Awareness Training Day at the St. Joseph County Courthouse on June 21. The event is being held in recognition of June 21 being recently proclaimed “Elder Rights Awareness Day” by the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners.

The program will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. in the lower level conference rooms of the Courthouse.
Probate Judge Thomas Shumaker said everyone is welcome.

There will be a diverse group of presenters and topics concerning elders rights including:

* Court interventions and strategies to keep elders safe, guardianships and conservatorships.
* St. Joseph County Vulnerable Adult Protocol — What is it? Who should use it?
* The role of the Department of Human Services, Adult Services Division.
* An update on the Estate Recovery Act implementation in Michigan.
* Law enforcement intervention.
* Domestic and Sexual Abuse Services & Personal Protection Orders.
* A community response panel discussion regarding community resources, how groups work together to inform, serve and protect vulnerable adults.

www.sturgisjournal.com/features/x1732973864/Elder-rights-training-set

Berrien County Grant Seeks Alternatives to Jail for the Mentally Ill

For too long, police officers have felt perplexed in dealing with mentally ill people who crowd jails and prisons.

Now, Berrien County officials are pursuing a different approach to address the problem.

On Friday, 71 police officers, firefighters, school officials and mental health professionals met at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center to discuss steps to break the cycle that shuffles mentally ill people from hospitals to lockups and back again.

In October the county received a $50,000 federal planning grant "to look at how we create better collaboration between the entities of justice and mental health (agencies)," said Terrie Mattes, intake manager for the Berrien County Trial Court Family Division.

"Out of that (money) we've done a variety of training events and developed a three-year strategic plan," she said.

The grant was awarded by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration. The project is an effort of the courts, the county prosecutor's office, the county Juvenile Center, which is operated by the Family Division, and mental health agencies.

"We're targeting Benton Harbor and Niles, because 70 percent of all juveniles on probation reside in those communities," Matthes said. "If we can reduce the number of kids that are entering the criminal justice system from those two communities, we will reduce the probation caseloads, costs to the courts, things like that."

The next step is training police officers and first responders in dealing with the mentally ill's behavior while helping families get the services they need, Matthes said.

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/06/12/local_news/5186752.txt

Upjohn Institute Economist to Address Importance of Pre-School Education at SW Michigan College

Tim Bartik, Ph.D., a senior economist with the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, will be the keynote speaker at the Cass County Great Start Business Summit on Tuesday, June 28, from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at Mathews Conference Center at Southwestern Michigan College.

The summit is sponsored by the Great Start Collaborative of Cass County, in partnership with Midwest Energy Cooperative of Cassopolis.

The summit will address how investing in quality early childhood education and programs impacts economic development and the business community...

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Heather Merrill at (269) 445-6217 or

hmerrill@lewiscassisd.org

Reservation deadline is June 20.

The Great Start Collaborative is a group made up of parents, clergy, business people and health and human service organization leaders, with a mission to insure that all children arrive at the kindergarten door ready, willing and able to succeed in school and in life.

www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/06/09/great-start-business-summit/

Kids Food Basket: A Summer Hunger Prevention Program for Kids in G.R.

Summer school supper feeding program for kids in Grand Rapids, Kid's Food Basket, debuts their promotional video:

Bread for the World Addresses Reasons to Protect Safety-Net Programs

Amid the tense budget climate in Washington, DC, Bread for the World members are urging their elected representatives to form a circle of protection around programs for hungry and poor people when Congress considers legislation to reduce federal deficits...

There are other persuasive reasons to protect safety-net programs. Sometimes we know that a policy is morally wrong but may still assume that otherwise it makes sense. But current proposals to reduce the resources available to hungry and poor people do not make sense.

In our last Bread newsletter, we talked about the necessity of reducing the federal deficit and current proposals to cut programs that support hungry and poor people, such as international food aid or SNAP (formerly food stamps). However, the United States simply does not spend enough on these programs to make a difference in the deficit. For more on why cuts to non-military discretionary spending will not solve the nation's fiscal problems, see "The U.S. Budget: Myths and Realities" at www.bread.org/hunger/budget.

But wouldn't cuts help a little, even if they are just drops in the bucket? Ordinarily, people think of budget cuts as saving money—by definition. But just like an individual trying to save money by skipping preventive maintenance of her furnace or roof or car, cutting safety-net programs doesn't save money because it adds to costs in other areas of the budget.

When full-time, year-round workers do not earn enough to eat fresh vegetables and whole grains regularly, the country's productivity suffers. When millions of children don't have enough nutritious food to concentrate in school, the country's future becomes bleaker. Ample data show that hunger and poverty increase the healthcare costs of adults and children—both now and years down the line. And unlike spending on programs such as WIC, rising healthcare costs are a significant cause of the budget deficit.

www.bread.org/what-we-do/resources/newsletter/june-2011/cost-hunger.html

Letter Writer Complains of Bridge Card Use for Junk Food

In Friday's edition of the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph Herald Palladium, a letter to the editor complains about Bridge card users "on more than one occasion" purchasing "Twinkies, frozen pizzas, Doritos, and several two-liter bottles of Pepsi."

The writer states that he "believe(s) that Bridge Card purchases should be limited to healthy, wholesome, staple foods only - fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, whole grain breads etc., and not include junk-food items such as chips and sugar-filled beverages."

Now I am not sure when the last time I saw anyone buy Twinkies at the local supermarket. I am not even sure there are any Twinkies, although there probably are.

Certainly, I have personally bought the other things on the list: frozen pizzas, Doritos, and Pepsi. I probably should not admit it, although my waste line would certainly expose the truth, that these are something like staples in my household.

I know that fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains, etc. should instead be what we snack on. So, I don't object to the notion that we ALL should eat more healthy foods.

I live in Stevensville which has just opened a brand, spanking new Meijer store. When you first enter the grocery end of the store, you can be overwhelmed by the wonderful produce section. I mean it is absolutely beautiful. Fresh lettuce of numerous varieties, apples, corn, grapes, and myriad other fruits and vegetables bountifully greet shoppers.

Stevensville is not Bloomfield or Forest Hills, but we do have fewer children than the state average who qualify for the federal free/reduced price lunch program. Slightly more than 20% of the children in our school district qualify for this program. According to the State's Center for Education Performance and Information (CEPI) state-wide 46% of children in fall 2010 qualified for free/reduced price lunch.

I could be wrong, but my recollection is that the city of Benton Harbor (where 90% of children qualify for free/reduced price lunch) does not even have a grocery store. There are Aldis, Sav-A-Lot, Meijer, and a wonderful Hispanic market/restaurant La Perla, but these are all in the Township outside city limits. There are plenty corner "party stores" which sell a limited selection of foods. There is also at least one Family Dollar Store which carries canned goods, boxed cereal, and the like.

So, while I agree with the statement that we all should eat more healthy foods, the fact of the matter is that in some communities fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are harder to come by than in other areas. In the more affluent areas, like Stevensville, some of us (and I am guilty as charged) still fall to the temptation of buying junk food rather than more wholesome foods.

And frankly, I think the letter writer's mention of Twinkies is probably an embellishment.

The letter to the editor which got me going this morning can be found at:

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/06/03/opinion/letters/5058068.txt

Food Bank Gives Aid to Storm Victims

Brayden Thurston, 2, wore a big grin as he toddled behind his mother in line for food.

That's because this would be his first meal in days that didn't consist of cold hot dogs, said his mother Jessica Thurston.

The Thurstons were among hundreds who finally received help days after a Sunday wind storm knocked out electrical power and destroyed their food supplies.

The Thurstons, who live in Triangle Mobile Home Park, were reached by a group of volunteers targeting poverty-stricken neighborhoods with the offering of food.

"It's going to help," Jessica Thurston, 20, said with a small smile as she returned to her mother's waiting car with a box of groceries.

Many people who could not afford to refill their pantries after the storm were individually notified of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan handout at Trinity Lutheran Church Friday morning.

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110604/NEWS01/106040314/Food-bank-gives-storm-victims

10 years of Grand Rapids' drug needle exchange program: Why backers say it works

On a recent Thursday evening, a heroin addict stepped through a Heartside neighborhood door and did what some would have thought impossible in West Michigan.

He legally traded his dirty needles for a free batch of new syringes, a simple swap experts say reduces the spread of AIDS, hepatitis C and other diseases.

The Clean Works program at 54 S. Division Ave. in Grand Rapids has been in business just over 10 years, armed with evidence it is paying off.

“It works. It works on many levels,” said Tami VandenBerg, chairwoman of the Grand Rapids Red Project, the nonprofit organization that oversees the program. It is marking its 10th anniversary with a 6:30 p.m. reception Saturday at the Pyramid Scheme in downtown Grand Rapids.

When Grand Rapids Mayor John Logie proposed a needle exchange in 1997, about 25 percent of those living with AIDS or the HIV virus in Kent County contracted it from injection drug use.

That figure has plummeted to about 5 percent, a reduction VandenBerg attributes primarily to needle exchanges. Part of the drop may be due to the death of some those injection users counted in the 1997 numbers.

www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/06/10_years_of_grand_rapids_drug.html

Girls on the Run Teaches Confidence in Battle Creek

Since early March, young girls involved in Girls on the Run trained and prepared not only for Thursday night's 5K run through Binder Park Zoo, but for life in general.

"It basically empowers girls with a greater sense of self-awareness and achievement, a sense of community and just becoming a strong, confident young woman," council director Carrie Wilson said.

The race ended with high-fives, camera flashes and smiles from participants and spectators alike. For first-year coach of the St. Joe team, Jodee Cape, it was easy to see how much the girls have enjoyed their journey.

"The girls absolutely love it," Cape said. "On our last day, we told them, 'Tuesday is the party and Thursday is the run,' and they were all really bummed out because they just enjoyed it so much."

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20110603/NEWS01/106030309/Running-purpose

Allegan County Volunteer Medical Corps starts with free clinic

For a few hours on Saturday, ... Fennville High School was a free medical clinic.

That brief transformation was due to an Allegan County United Way effort to create a Volunteer Medical Corps to serve the underinsured, something organizers believe is the first of its kind in the state.

Using a $49,000 Volunteer Michigan grant, the largest of seven awarded throughout the state, the United Way purchased electronic medical records software, laptop computers and iPads and four portable exam tables in the lead-up to organizing the one-day free clinic.

United Way volunteer coordinator Karen Hancock-Owen said 32 individuals were given medical treatments between the clinic’s 9 a.m.-to-5 a.m. hours, though many more received ancillary services for needs such as family planning and mental health. The effort’s 76 volunteers were prepared to provide services for as many as 100 patients.

“It went wonderfully,” Hancock-Owen said. “People came in throughout the day.”

She said that in some cases, the clinic was able to provide help for more immediate problems.

“One person found out they had pneumonia; we were able to set them up with medication,” Hancock-Owen said. The student concession area by the school gym served as a pharmacy for the day, stocked with sample packs of medications provided by area medical establishments. “A family with strep throat came in, and we were able to treat them.”

Allegan County Health Department’s medical director, Dr. Rick Tooker, volunteered his time during the clinic and said it served to educate the patients.

“We’re trying to help them understand when they really “We’re trying to help them understand when they really need to seek medical help,” he said. “It’s a teachable moment.”

www.allegannews.com/articles/2011/05/30/local_news/2.txt