Battle Creek Habitat for Humanity Works to Spruce Up Blighted Properties

Volunteers from River Walk Community Church in Battle Creek worked Saturday afternoon to give a more appealing look to a house at 657 Van Buren St., under a new effort to spruce up blighted properties in the city.

The initiative was launched last week by Battle Creek Area Habitat for Humanity, which is targeting abandoned houses to be boarded up, cleaned up and secured.


"There are over 600 abandoned houses in Battle Creek, many with broken windows and smashed doors," executive director Joe Konrad said in a new release. "They are accessible and they are dangerous."

 

www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20120212/NEWS01/202120312/Habitat-Humanity-brighten-blighted-areas

Economic Class: The Great Divide in American Education

Economic class is increasingly becoming the great dividing line of American education.

The New York Times has published a roundup of recent research showing the growing academic achievement gap between rich and poor students. It prominently features a paper by Stanford sociologist Sean F. Reardon, which found that, since the 1960s, the difference in test scores between affluent and underprivileged students has grown 40%, and is now double gap between black and white students.

 www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/occupy-kindergarten-the-rich-poor-divide-starts-with-education/252914/

For battered immigrant women, fear of deportation becomes abusers’ weapon, but 2 laws can overcome that

Teresa Gomez, a Salvadoran woman in her 20s, and Margaret Ashong, a grandmother from Ghana, endured regular beatings, threats and insults by the fathers of their children. Like many battered immigrant women in the Washington D.C. area, they mostly suffered in silence, fearful that if they went to the police they could lose their right to remain in the United States and their source of economic support.

It was not until both women ended up in emergency rooms — Teresa with her face slashed and bloodied from a knife attack, Margaret bruised and traumatized from another beating — that they discovered a network of support that eventually helped them obtain legal immigration status as well as psychological and financial help.

“He treated me like a slave, and there was no one I could tell,” said Ashong, 62, who lives in Arlington County, Virginia.  “He told the police I was not his wife and that they should send me back to my country. But [the police] said to me, ‘Don’t weep, madam, this is not an immigration matter. It is a case of domestic violence. We will get help for you.’ ”

www.washingtonpost.com/local/for-battered-immigrant-women-fear-of-deportation-becomes-abusers-weapon/2012/01/30/gIQAZCx3zQ_story.html

Tax Refunds: A Vital Chunk of Working Poor's Annual Budget

For Ola Jones, 53, her federal income tax refund typically amounts to more than an extra paycheck each year.
It's a vital part of her annual budget and a way to cover extra bills and necessities.
"Right now, I need a washing machine and tires for my car," said Jones, who stood in line one snowy Saturday morning in late January to obtain free tax-preparation help at Focus: HOPE in Detroit.


Her daughter, Tujuana Jones, 19, also received free tax-preparation help, offered that day by volunteers from the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. The student, who attends Wayne County Community College District and works at Rainbow Clothing in Detroit, planned to go shopping with her $500 tax refund.

For lower-income families, the tax season kickoff is a time to catch up with bills and rebuild some savings. The federal earned income tax credit and other Michigan-related tax credits offer a powerful punch for limited budgets.

www.freep.com/article/20120209/COL07/202090429/Susan-Tompor-Tax-refund-is-vital-chunk-of-annual-budget-for-many-people

Farm Worker Justice: A Report on NPR's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

 For decades, religious organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the Catholic bishops, and others have been working with labor organizers to try to improve conditions for farm workers, and there’s been some success, most recently in the tomato fields of south Florida, where immigrants harvest nearly all the winter tomatoes this country grows. Our report is from Saul Gonzales in Immokalee, Florida.

Watch Farmworker Justice on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/february-3-2012/farmworker-justice/10207/

Study finds few have enough savings to get through emergencies

More than a quarter of Americans have little or no savings to help them survive an emergency that leads to a three-month loss of income, according to a new report on the health of Americans' finances.

And that's only if they can sell their homes or cars to get fast cash.

The number jumps to 44 percent when researchers exclude assets like homes, businesses and cars that could be sold to raise cash, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which got an assist from Ohio Policy Matters.

In other words, lots of us are asset poor, even if our incomes may look OK on paper.

www.cleveland.com/consumeraffairs/index.ssf/2012/01/study_finds_few_have_enough_sa.html

Niles special needs dance class a hit

Kelsey Wolff put her hands in the air and stretched them way up high toward the ceiling, smiling wide as she did it. Beside her, another dancer laughed and raised her hands, too.

It was just another night in the Niles-Buchanan YMCA’s special needs dance class.

YMCA dance director Maycie Boyle said the class is a great way for special needs kids to get out and have fun.

“It is a great social network for them because they are meeting people just like themselves and finding friends outside of class,” Boyle said. “That is so important because, at home, they might not have someone they can relate to.”

Boyle helped start the class new this year at the request of a parent with a special needs child. She had no experience with special needs kids and didn’t know what to expect.

She found out really quick.

“I have to say this is my favorite class. I just love it,” Boyle said. “They are so much fun and so carefree. When my class is having fun, I am having fun.”

The class, which is for special needs kids 18 and older, takes place at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday.

www.nilesstar.com/2012/01/31/special-needs-dance-class-a-hit/

Earned Income Tax Awareness Day

When times get tough in low-income households, the food budget is usually the first thing families cut. We can’t end hunger as long as people lack the financial resources they need to put food on the table.

A series of tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012, including two provisions that are critical for low-income working families: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). These tax credits boost household earnings and lift millions of people out of poverty each year.

Additional information about EITC and the Child Tax Credit are in the full article at:

www.bread.org/ol/2012/tax-credits/

Michigan Department of Education Looking for Partners for Summer Feeding Program

Education leaders in Michigan are looking for help keeping kids healthy even when school is not in session.

More than a half million kids in Michigan are eligible for summer food assistance, but only about 15 percent of them do (participate).

Now, the Michigan Department of Education is looking for organizations to help change that.  “We know it works, we know healthy kids are healthy learners and the results are better results educationally,” said Martin Ackley, Michigan Department of Education.

The Department of Education says a recent report found that more than half of kids in Michigan are living in poverty. Now the department is asking for churches, summer camps and other organizations to volunteer to be sponsors and act as sites for the summer lunch program.

Sponsors receive federal compensation for both the meals and administrative costs.

www.wwmt.com/articles/leaders-1401004-look-education.html

Michigan Department of Treasury Now Accepting Home Heating Credit Tax Forms

The Michigan Department of Treasury has begun processing home heating credits for low-income residents.

Residents can apply for the credits for 2011 heating payments on their state income tax return or by filing a Michigan Home Heating Assistance Claim if they don't file a return. Links to both are on the state's heating assistance and income tax websites.

Forms are available at many libraries and post offices in Northern Michigan and at Department of Human Services branch offices around the state. Residents also may get forms and assistance by calling 517-636-4486.

NOTE:

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and AARP Volunteer sites throughout the state can assist low income and senior citizen clients with IRS certified volunteers for no cost.   Direct deposit refunds can be obtained in as few as 8-10 days.

www.wwmt.com/news/heating-1400923-home-residents.html


The list of VITA sites throughout Michigan can be found at:

www.michiganeic.org/freetaxprep