Hearts for Kinship Care House Party

On February 14th, 2012, the Contact Center will host a “Hearts for

Kinship Care House Party” from 4 – 6 PM at 1227 Vine St.,Cincinnati, OH.  This event is free and open to the public to learn about kinship care , meet Cincinnati kinship caregivers, and learn about legislation that has been introduced in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.

Baked sweets and hot cider will be available for any donation to

our Kinship Care Campaign.

For more information call 513/381-4242.

Hostage Taking

by William Wallace

I was upset and extremely bothered when I learned that tax cuts for millionaires
and billionaires were once again being excluded from this legislation. 

The low/moderate income people are being asked to make even more sacrifice. I
thought the idea was supposed to be " shared sacrifice "!!! 

George Bush's asinine and wrongheaded economic policies are still being propa
gated by the current administration !!! 

The real issue in this country is lack of good-paying jobs. And we need a jobs
program, not unlike the one I was able to take advantage og back in the
seventies. It was called the Comprehensive Employment Training Act. 

And we need to end tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires !!!

PEC Leader speaks at Welfare Research Conference

Cassandra Barham was our People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio representative to the national Welfare Research Conference held in Washington, D.C. June 1 – June 3, 2011.  She joined with other former and current public assistance mothers to speak out on how America’s threadbare economic safety net for families should be improved in our country.  We are proud she had this chance to tell her story to policymakers.  The trip was funded through the generosity of Common Counsel Foundation.

 

Cassandra is a mother of seven and has worked as an advocate for years. Cassandra stated, “I was able to complete my G.E.D. while on public assistnce.  Having that income help was essential for me at the time.  While on public assistance I  was able to participate in a vocational training program to learn a construction trade.  Due to a disability, I was unable to further my career goals in the building trades although I would have been paid well doing the same work as men take for granted in the construction work world.  Women should have equal opportunities there too and my training proves we can and must continue to break down sexist barriers!  Women can be plumbers and carpenters and roofers, too!  And we must demand equal pay with men!”

 

At the conference other women shared similar stories. All the women urged that Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) policy be changed to include allowing education (G.E.D., college and vocational training) to count as the full work requirement for as long as it takes for recipients to successfully complete their degrees.

 

The current TANF policy is very short sighted, putting severe restrictions on how many hours education can count as the work requirement for welfare.  Yet if mothers (and fathers) are truly going to leave welfare-and more important poverty- for good it is essential to learn skills and get an education.

 

Contact Center and the People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio are resurrecting an old campaign whose time has come again: WAGES or “Work After Good Education is Success”.  A good education and quality job training never go out of style or out of usefulness.  “We need jobs that require skills and an education if we are truly going to get out of poverty,” states Cassandra.

Kudos for Community Health Care Clinics in Ohio

We are very pleased that the Ohio House of Representatives fully restored state funding to community health care clinics in Ohio!!!  The clinics are most often used to help those who are low-income without health care insurance.  They help thousands of people with their health care needs around the State of Ohio and are a wonderful investment of our taxpayer money.

Below is Mary Causey of Cincinnati’s testimony in front of the Ohio Finance Committee.  We are pleased to say that her testimony was well received by the members of this Committee, both Republicans and Democrats.

Testimony

 for Ohio House Finance Committee

April 29, 2011

 

by Mary Causey, Cincinnati, Ohio

The People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio

(former Ohio Empowerment Coalition)

Steering Committee Member

Good afternoon.

Please restore funding to the community health centers.  Otherwise what is going to happen to the people?  To the people who depend on these facilities who are uninsured and cannot afford to pay for their health care?  They also cannot afford to pay for transportation to go elsewhere because they go to the health centers in their neighborhoods.

I have been going to the Northside Health Center for the last twenty-five years.  I have had breast cancer and had surgery.  I have been treated for liver cancer. I would never have been able to afford all the health care I have received from the Northside Health Center all these years.  It was a lifesaver for me.  The Northside Health Center also has helped my two grandchildren whom I have raised since they were small. I am a kinship caregiver.

I am also asking you to restore funding to the Kinship Permanency Incentive Program.  Please do not take away this funding.  I know how much it costs to raise grandchildren. One of my grandsons is 6 ‘ 3 “ tall and weighs 200 lbs.  The “baby” is now 6’ and weighs 300 lbs. He is also ADHD.  All the years I have raised them they never stopped eating and outgrowing their clothes.  It costs a lot to raise children!  However I would never have considered putting them in foster care because they belong with me, their grandmother.  They know who they are and they have family who will always stand behind them.  Please do not let kinship caregivers down in Ohio!”

Note:

The  Ohio House Finance Committee also listened to the kinship caregivers and restored half of the funding to the Kinship Permanency Incentive (KPI) Program.  We appreciate this and encourage the Ohio Senate Finance & Financial Institutions Committee to restore the funding completely.  Kinship caregivers already save the State of Ohio thousands and thousands of $$$$ by not placing the children in foster care.  They are true heroes in our midst!

One Ohio Now Statehouse Rally/PEC and ABLE Legislative Action Day

Join us Tuesday, April 5, at the Ohio Statehouse 12 – 1:00 PM to rally for safety net  social services  in Ohio: kinship care assistance, child care, community health clinics for the uninsured and many more!!

Although Governor Kasich has actually protected and even improved some programs that help the poor (and we thank him for this!) there are other programs that need to be supported.  Ohio has lost 600,000 jobs in the past decade. Ohio leads the nation notoriously at #3 in numbers of children under 5 yrs old who are food insecure/hungry.  We cannot turn a blind eye or deal ear to the pain around all around us of people devastated by job loss.

Cincinnati bus will leave 8:30 a.m. on April 5 at Contact Center, 1227 Vine St., Cincinnati.  Call 513/381-4242 to reserve a space.

Bus returns 5:00 PM same day.

LEADERSHIP TRAINING DAY

The People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio (PEC) and Advocates for Budget Legislation Equality (ABLE) will hold a joint Leadership Training Day on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.  The Church is located at 1450 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43229.  E. Dublin-Granville Rd. is Rt. 161, located at Exit 117 off of I-71.

The Training Day is 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

The Leadership Training Day will focus on building knowledge and skills connected to the upcoming State Budget process.

Trainings will also include how to  effectively educate policymakers.

Please RSVP to lwilliams@zoomtown.com or for more information.

Human Rights Day Observed in Cincinnati

Contact Center, in collaboration with Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center,
Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Over-the-Rhine for Education in
Public Schools (OTREPS), The People's Empowerment Coalition of Ohio, UFCW, Miami
Student Group in Over-the-Rhine, and Miami Full Employment Council of Dayton
marched in honor of  Human Rights Day Friday, December 10, in Downtown
Cincinnati.  The March called for human rights to health care, housing, and an
economic safety net of employment and, for those unable to work, income
assistance. 

Human Right to Health Care/Protect Medicaid
The first station was the Department of Job and Family Services to call
awareness to the need for health care and protect the State Medicaid Program
from cuts in the upcoming State Budget.  Lynn Williams, statewide organizer for
the People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio,  stated, “We are very concerned that
the State Medicaid Program will be a target in the upcoming State Legislature
for cuts to reduce the  state budget deficit of  $8 billion.  Medicaid is a
health care safety net for very low-income people, children, the elderly poor
and the disabled poor.  We urge the State Legislature to find other ways to
reduce deficits than cut this very important and lifesaving program. That is
truly a safety net for the poor.” 

Human Right to Housing
At the next station, the Justice Center, speakers focused on how Ohio could
indeed help solve the State budget deficit by re-examining who is locked up in
Ohio’s prisons.  Molly Brazier, a Miami University student, spoke on this issue.
“According to the National Institute of Corrections, the annual cost of keeping
a person in prison is $25,868 dollars.  For comparison purposes, the average
annual cost of educating a student in Ohio is $14,000.  Between 1980 and 2003,
the incarceration rate in the United States has quadrupled.  While the rate of
violent crimes has stayed relatively the same, the jails are now overflowing
with non-violent drug offenders.  The number of people in prison for drug
offenses has gone up 550% since 1980 giving the United States the highest
incarceration rate in the world.”   She emphasized, “If the government were to
take even half of these prisoners out of jail and instead put them on parole,
the estimated savings this would have on state and federal budgets would be in
the billions.  Instead of cutting out critical services such as health care,
food stamps, and unemployment assistance to fix the budget crisis, the
government should look to the astounding and growing cost of the prison-system
for solutions.”  

Other speakers at the Justice Center stated that city, county, state and federal
funds should be used for housing the homeless instead of locking up non-violent
offenders.  “Jail cells are not the answer to low-income housing, “ cried out
Vanessa Sparks of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. 

Human Right to Jobs and an Economic Safety Net, Extend Unemployment Insurance
The last station of the March was in front of Senator George Voinovich’s office
near 7th St. and Walnut St.  Katherine of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace
Center called for America to reduce the national deficit by cutting a $715
billion military budget and use money saved for a national jobs program.  She
stated that America could afford extending unemployment insurance to the $2
million laid off workers who are now losing (or have already lost) this small
thread of an economic safety net.  At a time when 8 million jobs have been lost
across America, this is not the time to forget the unemployed people of our
country who are now facing destitution. 

Christina Schnetzer of the People’s Empowerment Coalition of Ohio, a laid off
worker who is a mother living in a rural county in Ohio, told her story of
trying time after time to find a job.  She has a four year degree and applies
constantly for employment but has only been able to”land very small temporary
jobs occasionally” in the last several years.  She has reached a point of
desperation and calls out to Congress to feel her pain. 

The March ended with a rallying shout to stay in solidarity and “fight on” until
politicians pay attention and take action to alleviate the pain of unemployed
workers in Cincinnati, Ohio, and across America! 

International Human Rights Day is observed annually by the United Nations to
call for human needs to be met by all countries. Given that one in five children
in America is now living in poverty, we need human rights to a basic economic
safety net in the United States.

International Human Rights Day

Contact Center, in collaboration with  Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center,
Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, Over-the-Rhine for Education in Public
Schools (OTREPS), and The People's Empowerment Coalition of Ohio, among others,
will honor International Human Rights Day Friday, December 10, with a March
through Downtown Cincinnati.  The focus will be on the human right to medical
care, housing, quality education and an economic safety net of full employment
and, for those unable to work, income assistance.  

The peaceful  March begins at 11:00 a.m. from the Contact Center, 1227 Vine St.,
with stops along the way at the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family
Services, Justice Center, and Federal Building Downtown. Speakers with personal
stories, original poetry and songs will be featured at each stop along the
March.  

Contact Center is calling for Ohio's State Policymakers to balance the upcoming
State Budget by reducing the Ohio Corrections budget (freeing non-violent
offenders/ alternative sentencing),   instead of cutting into the Medicaid
Program. which has already been in the news.  Medicaid is a health care safety
net for the poor, including children,  and the disabled poor. It is essential to
protect this life-affirming health care program and not balance Ohio's upcoming
budget on the backs of the poor. 

Contact Center supports  Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center's  platform of
Jobs not warfare.  America's deficit could be significantly reduced with troops
out of  Afghanistan.  Please join us in unity on International Human Rights Day
to call for Peace! 

For more information call 513/381-4242.

Waiting for Superman Commentary by William Wallace

“We can whenever and wherever we choose teach all children whose education is of
interest to us. We already know more than we need to know to accomplish that
task. Whether we do it or not must finally depend on the fact that we have not
done it so far…” 

Some one said it.
It was an African-American educator as I recall. But I guess it struck a chord
with me and so I committed it to memory because, for me, it sort of encapsulated
the continuing struggle America has had with the education of our children. How
we talk about education and how we teach our kids and challenge our kids when it
comes to a quality education in our neighborhood public schools. 

Just recently I read an article about the documentary”Waiting for Superman”. As
I understand it “Waiting for Superman” is a sort of rallying cry for
comprehensive reform in our public schools because, according to WFS (Waiting
for Superman), our American public school system is in crisis. The article goes
on to state the reason our public school system is in crisis is because we’re
failing millions of students, producing as many drop-outs as graduates and these
alarming statistics threaten our economic future.
Some concerned citizens saw our neighborhood public schools being threatened in
this economically-depressed Cincinnati community, Over-the-Rhine, back in the
fall of 2007. We came together and formed a committee we named OTREPS
(Over-the-Rhine for Education in Public Schools). And while we successfully
helped to save our only remaining K-8 neighborhood public school, Rothenberg,
from demolition (renovaton of Rothenberg to begin in January 2011), we are
intensifying our focus. The teachers and administrators  redoubled their efforts
to make sure our kids continue to improve in school so they can be successful in
life.
It gives me great joy to state that Cincinnati Public Schools in general and
Rothenberg Academy in particular got high marks from the Ohio Department of
Education recently and we celebrate that. But we also need to now build on that
success.
As a member of a committee trying to effect change, I help out in a third-grade
classroom at Rothenberg. So I see first-hand how critical the need is to help
our young people with things like reading, reading comprehension and math. We
need to continue to raise the level of instruction so our kids can compete on
the global/world and international stage. 

WFS has a website and on this website it offers ideas on what you, the
citizen/resident /parent can do to help in this effort. They suggest for example
to “call the school and ask what they need”. Maybe they need people to lend a
hand in the cafeteria or to help with accounting for children at the end of the
school day.
Another idea is to pledge to see the film, “Waiting for Superman”. That sounds
like a good idea to me. And if you like the film, tell members of your family,
your relatives and friends about it. Maybe they will go and see it too. 

One of the mistakes people sometimes make is adopting the notion that because
they don’t have kids they don’t need to worry about kids’ education.
Even if you don’t have kids you should care about public education because the
kids are our future. And that is some of what this film / documentary is trying
to say.

OCT 2 RUMMAGE SALE

Please come out to support Contact Center’s RUMMAGE SALE on Saturday, Oct. 2, 10 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  There will be plenty of gently used clothes, toys, and household items, as well as freshly baked goodies.

We will also be doing voter registration .

Hope to see you there!  Location is large parking lot at 1225 Vine St.

For more info call 513/381-4242