Benton Harbor Seeks Promise Zone Designation from Lansing

Benton Harbor Area Schools officials say they are hoping to send their outgoing students to college for free in the near future.

Although still in its preliminary stages, Leonard Seawood, the district's superintendent, said officials are putting together a plan to present to the state in hopes of approval for such a program.

"We've had to go through the hurdles," he said.

The idea was first started in Kalamazoo a few years ago. It's called the Kalamazoo Promise and provides for any high school graduate in Kalamazoo's public school system accepted into a Michigan college or university to receive free tuition. The program, which has since been implemented in other districts around the state, is privately funded.

Seawood said there are 18 other sites around the state that are in the same boat as Benton Harbor and attempting to receive backing from the state, which is required. He added the most important question is how the district will raise the money to pay for the tuition.

www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101110/News01/11100360/1052/News01

WWMT 3 Report: Shocking levels of poverty in Kalamazoo County

Last week, Poverty Reduction Initiative Director Jeff Brown interviewed with Channel 3 about the rising poverty levels in Kalamazoo. Watch the story here: http://www.wwmt.com/articles/county-1383511-kalamazoo-mich.html

Story transcript:

With the unemployment rate in Michigan sitting at 13 percent, we know people are suffering, but numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show the poverty level in Kalamazoo County is shocking.

Jasmine Conley and her two children are staying at the women's shelter in Kalamazoo, trying to find a job and a place to call home. Conley is definitely not alone, according to numbers recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Kalamazoo County ranks fourth in Michigan for the number of families living in poverty.

93 percent of single moms are also finding it hard to make ends meet. In the City of Kalamazoo, 75 percent of black children under the age of five are living in poverty.

“It's hard when you're pregnant, cause nobody wants to hire you,” said Conley. “I put in over 20 applications and I still haven't gone in on any of them.”

The Poverty Reduction Initiative believes a downturn in manufacturing and a large increase in unemployment for people who have less than a college degree are to blame, and the ones most affected are the kids.

“Kids, by and large, that grow up struggling in poverty are the ones that struggle through life,' said Jeff Brown of the Poverty Reduction Initiative, “and their kids struggle as well.”

Stores like Rescued Treasures in Kalamazoo help people get by on smaller budget, and the money raised goes back to helping low-income families. Experts say such families need more education and jobs accessible to them, not miles away from poor neighborhoods.

For Conley, she says she's using her surroundings as motivation.

“I just look at them and see how hard it is, which pushes me more to get out of here,” said Conley. “It's sad seeing everybody in here.”

For those who need extra help, there's a program called Project Connect. On November 17th it's hosting an event at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center and Fairgrounds. From 1:00 to 6:00 pm 75 different agencies will be on hand to offer some 50 different services.

Read the full article: http://www.wwmt.com/articles/county-1383511-kalamazoo-mich.html

Helpful or Hassle? Michigan Changes When Food Stamp Users Get Benefits

You could call Michigan's plan to change food benefit scheduling "forced budgeting." Instead of arriving all at the beginning of the month, benefits will be added to the Michigan Bridge Card at intervals throughout the month. Families often spend all their EBT funds at the beginning of the month, leading them without food and putting huge pressure on local food pantries to support them at the end the of month.

The new interval design would lesson these challenges by spacing out the times in which residents receive their benefits. Personally as someone who uses a bridge card, I can see both the the positives and negatives of this change.

Positive:

• It will force people to budget more consciously and they'll never run out of food at the end of the month.
• It will help keep stores better staffed and stocked, with shopping spread out throughout the month.
• Users will likely buy more fresh foods and vegetables at the end of the month, instead of stocking up heavily on boxed and frozen items early.
  

Negative:

• It will increase the hassle and micromanagement one must do when shopping for groceries.
  
• It will be harder to buy sale items in bulk because of less money on the card at once
  
• It may force families to have to wait without food not once, but multiple times a month while they wait for their cards to charge.
  

I can see why this change will help a lot of families by providing more funds left over at the end of the month. I can also see how it will slow the rush to food pantries at the frantic times during the end of the month.

For my personal use, I am not a fan. I run a steady budget and have never been impulsive with my spending. For me, it means waiting an extra day or two not once a month, but TWICE. My life is busy enough as it is and finding the time to run to the store will be more hassle. It also means holding back when bulk items are on sale because my card has less money.

It may help some families in Michigan, but it also will cause hassle others. I'm interested to hear the results in a few years.

Read the full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wirestory?id=12056499&page=2

Learning from our mistakes and embracing 'One Community'

For the last few weeks, I have been watching the dynamic PBS series "We Shall Remain" which coveres 5 episodes of Native American History, beginning with the time of the European colonization. It covers their history from the words and documents of Native Americans who lived during these different periods. In the third episode, the documentary focuses on the Cherokee relocation experience, otherwise known as the infamous "Trail of Tears." The relocation of the Cherokee led to the deaths of a quarter of the 12,000 Cherokee residents who made the disastrous march to territory West of the Mississippi.

What made this event even more outrageous was that these Cherokee looked and acted no different than ordinary Americans of the time. They had adapted western culture, clothing, lifestyle and converted to Christianity. As they marched towards their new land, they sang Christian hymns eerily similar to the experiences of the African-American slaves. This was not merely a territory grab, it was an ethnic cleansing. It was truly a stain on American history and an affront the values we hold dear as Americans.

There is much we can apply from this experience to issues that exist today. What great injustices are a stain on our country today? What about the laws in Arizona that target Hispanic-looking residents? The payday lenders that take advantage of our low-income residents? The simple fact that our ethnic minorities have poverty rates that are double, triple those of white Americans? The poverty rate among our many rural Native American communities scattered across the United States?

These problems exist because we continue to make choices which affirm that exclusion and inequality are acceptable. We refuse to make tough decisions to right the wrongs that we have committed in the past. Instead of asking why these problems exist, we decide close our eyes to them and focus on our own lives instead.

We have an opportunity to stand now as One Community. We have an opportunity to make changes that benefit the well-being of all Americans. We have an opportunity to fight the injustices that plague all our communities.

Are you willing to make that stand?

A Michigan Third Grader's View on Education Funding

If you watch the following third grader's presentation on Michigan's funding of education (as prepared for the Save our Schools group headed by Tom White), I guarantee that you will feel that public schools in Michigan have some very talented youth:

School Funding from a 3rd Grader from MASSP on Vimeo.

More Kalamazoo Public Schools students enrolling in Advanced Placement courses offering college credit

How can one measure the performance of students in a given district?

For Kalamazoo Public Schools, enrollment in Advance Placement courses is being used as a key measurement to determine student success. Since 2007-08, the number of students who have taken AP courses has more than doubled from 359 to 983 students in 2010-11. The number of low-income students has jumped from 63 in 2007-08 to 259 in 2010-11.

In January 2009, Rice and the school board set the goal of doubling the district’s AP enrollment and the number of students who earned college credit through the program by 2014, using the 2007-08 numbers as a base. Rice said that both goals have been achieved already.

“This is a tremendous, tremendous accomplishment — by teachers, by students, by school administrators, by counselors,” Rice said before Thursday’s board meeting.

AP courses are one of the many ways to prepare high-school students for college courses. Where many Kalamazoo Promise students struggle transitioning to college, this may be one way to improve their success rate.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/10/more_kalamazoo_public_schools.html

Lions Club volunteers have helped nearly 500 children with vision screenings

For those without medical care, vision screenings are not always the top concern compared to other personal and medical needs. The Lions Club in Kalamazoo has made it a priority to prevent blindness in children.

A vision screening program helps identify vision problems for children from 1 to 5 years old. At the upcoming Project Connect event in November, vision screenings will be open to all members of the community.

From 2007 to 2010, the program has helped screen 495 children. They are still looking to improve parts of the program, including the wait time to hear results.

“The way we do it now, it could take up to a month for a child’s parents to hear back about the photo screening, and we would like to shorten that wait time and get results to them faster,” McFarland said.

Currently, the children are screened by local Lions Club volunteers and the pictures are then processed and taken to an ophthalmologist at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan for evaluation. If a problem is suspected, the child’s family is notified and referred to an eye doctor in the area.

“The earlier a youngster’s eyesight problems are detected, the more successful treatment can be,” Kowalski said.

The screenings can help identify: Strabismus (improperly aligned eyes); abnormal refractive error of the eye, which results in nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism; or cataracts.

Often times, children are not screened before starting school — by then treatment might not be as effective or affordable, Kowalski said. “That’s why we try to get the kids screened when they are young,” he said.

For more information on Project Kidsight, including how to set up a screening, or to find out ways to help the project, contact Bill Kowalski at 269-323-0106 or Pat McFarland at 269-434-6356.

For free vision screenings, consider attending Project Connect on November 17th, from 1pm to 6pm.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/living/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/10/lions_club_hopes_to_improve_vi.html

Education Awareness Day is Saturday in Kalamazoo: Event tailored partly to Hispanic families

This Saturday, an educational awareness day will provide students in grades 6 to 12, their families and other young adults with resources from food assistance to help with federal financial aid to information on scholarships. Specifically, Hispanic families and their children are being targeted to take advantage of the opportunities provided by higher education. The free event will run from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Hispanic American Council, 930 Lake St. in Kalamazoo.

Challenges faced by Hispanic students include "lack of awareness of assistance programs and having to work extra hours to keep resources flowing into the family, which can detract from spending time with children on their school work and planning for college."

“We want to be able to get the resources to the community in an environment that is safe territory for kids and their parents and where language barriers can be dealt with,” Lori Mercedes, interim director of the Hispanic American Council said of the event. “We’re always talking about making The Kalamazoo Promise a reality, but there are so many barriers to overcome. Our goal is to get these kids to the university.”

To learn more about the Hispanic American Council, visit http://www.hispanicamericancouncil.org/.

The full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/10/education_awareness_day_is_sat.html

Indiana Ends Food Aid For Developmentally Disabled Adults

Indiana has quietly ended a state grocery benefit paid to hundreds of developmentally disabled people who advocates say have no money of their own to buy food.

The state Family and Social Services Administration withdrew the grocery benefit just weeks after it announced it would no longer reduce the benefit for those who receive food stamps, which a lawsuit claimed was a violation of federal law that prohibits food stamps from being counted against other benefits.

The lawsuit was filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union and Indianapolis attorney Steven Dick on behalf of Dick's 26-year-old autistic son. Dick said he believed the state ultimately decided to end the grocery benefit altogether because it could no longer factor in food stamps.

www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101022/News01/10220315/0/news

West Michigan Food Pantries See Drop in Demand

"The good news is that after being overwhelmed with requests, area food pantries are reporting a leveling off in demand.

Pantry providers point to a record 1.88 million people now receiving state food assistance as a major factor.

"Last fall, we were at capacity and concerned about being able to respond to such increases," said Marsha DeHollander, program director of ACCESS of West Michigan, which oversees a network of 100 pantries in the area. "We are still serving a lot of people -- more than 20,000 are coming to food pantries a month."

But DeHollander said usage is down 13 percent from their exceptionally high levels. She said they are serving around 6,700 people per month now, compared to 7,700 per month in 2009."

www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/10/west_michigan_food_pantries_se.html