"Michiganians struggling to just get by in this dismal economy are getting a helping hand from an unlikely source: the tax man.
Federal and state tax agencies have anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars to give low-income workers and their families through the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Last year, more than 720,000 Michigan residents collected $1.5 billion from the federal credit, at an average of $2,047 apiece."
The full article is in Tuesday's Detroit News:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kalamazoo is hosting a new program called Girls 2 Women, a program aimed at guiding middle-school girls in areas of education and career development.Read the full article:
The program will kick off at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Kazoo Books, 2413 Parkview Ave., in Kalamazoo with speaker Patti Criswell, American Girl author.
Criswell will speak about her career as a writer. Each girl will receive a copy of her book, which Criswell will be signing.
This event is the first of six “Girls Night Out” activities featuring a female career role model.
“I think this program helps girls look at their options, and see that there are opportunities out there to help make their dreams come true,” said Janene Weis, director of marketing and public relations with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Michigan.Over a span of nine to 12 months, the girls will tour Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Van Buren Technology Center.
The girls also can participate in an overnight lock-in at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo and design a community service project.
At the end of the program, the girls will create a newsletter detailing their experiences.
“A lot of our girls come from lower-income families or at-risk situations. I just want them to see that there are options available to them to get an education — to get that dream job,” Weis said.
Girls and mentors interested in participating can contact Devan Bell at devanbell@bbbsmi.org or (269) 382-6800 ext. 138.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is supporting a new effort led by First Lady Michelle Obama to combat childhood obesity.Read the full article:Her campaign launched Tuesday when President Barack Obama signed a memorandum creating a task force on childhood obesity.
"Our current generation is actually on track to have a shorter lifespan than their parents," Michelle Obama said at a Tuesday press briefing at the White House.
Because one in three American children is overweight, or at risk of becoming overweight, "We have to act, so let's move," she said.
Sterling Speirn, president and chief executive officer of the Battle Creek-based philanthropic organization, said the Kellogg Foundation will commit its expert knowledge and financial resources to the First Lady's Let's Move challenge.
"Let's Move is a campaign that's going to rally our nation to achieve a single but very ambitious goal: to solve childhood obesity in a generation," Michelle Obama said.
To keep the initiative running even after the Obamas leave the White House, the First Lady said a new, independent, nonpartisan organization will be created to meet four goals set by the coalition:
• Offering parents the tools and information they need,
• Getting healthier food in schools,
• Ensuring all families have access to healthy and affordable food,
• Increasing opportunities for kids to be physically active both in and out of school.
There are many reasons to be concerned about the well-being of the poor. Poverty limits the ability of individuals to fully participate in society; they miss out on the benefits of such participation as does society as a whole. Poverty’s effects spread within families and across generations and require social expenditures that take resources from other areas.Read the full study here:
We also now see that the effects of poverty go beyond social and economic concerns and are felt on the body as well. The notion that the “poor pay more” extends to their bodies as well. In an endless cycle, we have an endgame in which poverty begets poor health and poor health can lead to poverty.
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It is not enough to simply acknowledge that poverty robs some of us of good health and weakens us as a country. Much is known about the potential for national policies, and related policies at the state and local level, to break the links between poverty and poor health. Applying such knowledge is a critical step in improving the health of our nation.
Director Mattie Jordan-Woods said local officials have received at least six responses to a recent request-for-proposals for a new store to replace a Felpausch grocery that closed in May.The north side currently has no store that offers fresh fruits, vegetables and other produce to residents in the area. They have to drive either to Portage, Oshtemo or the east side in order to purchase groceries in quantity.
Jordan-Woods declined comment on when a search committee could announce its selection for a new tenant for the vacant store at 512 N. Park St.
"Without a doubt, there will be a grocery store there in 2010," she said. "But we know we have to take our time and do it right. This could be our last chance to get a store in there."
Major individual and family donors to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Greater Kalamazoo United Way will contribute an additional $4 million over the next three years to provide a “lifeline” to Kalamazoo County residents who lack food, shelter and medical care.For more information on donating to Lifeline Initiative, contact:
In what is likely a first in Michigan, the two charitable fundraising organizations announced today that a quiet campaign launched last summer will provide $2 million this year and $1 million in both 2011 and 2012 to local non-profits that will use the money to provide basic human needs.
The $4 million is in addition to money the donors have committed to the foundation and United Way over the next several years, said Michael J. Larson, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Kalamazoo United Way.
Olivarez said the first round of funding should be out in the community by May 1.
The two charity leaders said Kalamazoo County’s human toll in the sharp economic downturn shifted the emphasis for this program from creating long-term sustainability to providing immediate relief.
“We’ve been looking at programs that help people become employable, to get jobs, that help them learn how to fish (to be self-sustaining),” Olivarez said. “Right now we realize a lot of people just need a fish. Both of those things have to happen, but this piece is to get that fish out now to the people who are hungry.”
Area school administrators and religious leaders are sending out a call to the community to address the literacy gap among African-American students in Kalamazoo Public Schools.There will be a reading and writing clinic on February 22nd, from 6pm - 7:30pm and continuing every Monday thereafter. It will be held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 120 Robertson St., Kalamazoo and support Parents with children from kindergarten through age 8. Call (269) 760-7743 to sign up.
“We have to opportunity to save someone’s life tonight. It’s that important,” Kimberly Parker-DeVauld, principal of Lincoln International Studies Elementary School, said during a forum Wednesday. “It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child. We’re here to shock you into action.”
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