equal voice magazine winter edition 2015

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CommunitiesWhat Does a $34 Million Gift Mean for Oakland, California? p. 06

Medicaid Denied p. 16Elders in America p. 30 Alan Stanfield p. 47

DIGNITY OF LIVING

Equal Voice

Criminal Justice Prop. 47 Is Changing Criminal Justice. Will It Take Root in U.S.? p. 09

Housing Convergence: Housing, Race and Black Lives Matter p. 44

WINTER 2015 ◆ ISSUE 5

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AMERICA’S HOME CARE AIDES

Medicaid Denied: The Cost May Be Measured in Lives As part of “The Dignity of Living” special series, Equal Voice News traveled to the Mississippi Delta to learn about the lives of residents whose elected leaders have declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The Dignity of Living: Elders in America: Living on the Edge. Why We Should Care. In a special report about the “The Dignity of Living,” Equal Voice News looks at whether the U.S. is ready for the coming “age wave.” One reason: Each day, 10,000 Baby Boomers turn age 65.

The Dignity of Living: America’s Home Care Aides In this Equal Voice News special report, meet Christal Boutte, who is among 3.5 million U.S. home caregiv-ers. She is helping four people in the Seattle area lead dignified lives in their own homes.

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Ballard Senior Center (Seattle) visitors participate in classes such as French, yoga, and improved balance.

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Equal Voice Magazine, published biannually, is a compilation of stories that originally appeared in Equal Voice News, an online newspaper published by Marguerite Casey Foundation. Equal Voice News offers original stories, profiles, opinion pieces, photo and multimedia features on issues such as health care, affordable housing, education access and immigration reform, and documents the way policies on those and other issues intersect with the lives of poor families.

www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org

SubmissionsEqual Voice News welcomes unsolicited submissions. Stories must address issues affecting poor working families. Accepted stories may be edited for length and clarity. With your submission, include your name, address, daytime telephone number and email address. Equal Voice News also considers previously published articles for reprinting. Submit your stories or story ideas to Brad Wong at [email protected].

ContributorsReporters & Contributors: Brad Wong, Maria Rigou, Nell Bernstein, Keith Griffith, Margaret Santjer, Gary Gately, John Bartlett, Alan Stanfield.

Photography: Mike Kane, David Bacon, The San Francisco Foundation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - LA, LUPE, Paul Joseph Brown, Metropolitian Tenants Organization, Californians for Safety and Justice.

For editorial questions, contact Kathleen Baca, Marguerite Casey Foundation’s director of communications, at 206.691.3134 or [email protected].

Marguerite Casey Foundation is a nonprofit organization that exists to help low-income families strengthen their voice and mobilize their communities in order to achieve a more just and equittable society for all.

www.caseygrants.org

What Does a $34 Million Gift Mean for Oakland, Califoria? Consider it this way: Fifteen percent of the more than 406,200 residents in this racially-diverse Northern California city are expected to benefit in some way.

Prop. 47 Is Changing Criminal Jus-tice. Will It Take Root in U.S.?Passed in November 2014, Prop. 47 is keeping thousands of people who committed minor crimes from going to prison, families together and neighborhoods more intact. In an era of mass incarceration, is this a model for the country?

Convergence: Housing, Race and Black Lives MatterIt’s time for housing activists, Black Lives Matter members and other grassroots advocates to come together so there can be true human rights in the country, John Bartlett of Metropolitan Tenants Organization writes in an opinion essay.

Texas Residents Win Law for Streetlights in Neighborhoods Residents in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas are one step closer to receiving streetlights, an infrastructure improvement that people who live in areas known as colonias have wanted for decades because they boost safety for families.

Alan Stanfield - A 2nd Grader Who Loves His Mom’s HelpIn June, Equal Voice News celebrated graduates of all ages, as they prepared for new chapters in life. One youth who was honored hails from Tupelo, Mississippi and touched upon the universal theme of receiving – and loving – help from his mom.

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Will LAPD ‘De-escalation’ Training for Officers Work? As law enforcement agencies nationwide face questions about use of force and fatal shootings of unarmed Black men, Los Angeles is retraining its 10,000 police officers to ease tensions. Will it help?

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On the Cover:Photo by PaulJoseph Brown for Equal Voice News

America’s Next Leaders:Young People Making a Difference “America’s Next Leaders 2015” is an Equal Voice News series that highlights young people who are contributing to their communities. In this magazine, meet Tracy Chacon and Rahsaan Ison.

In 2015, Equal Voice News chronicled the growing number of older Americans, the need for home health aides, and the denial of Medicaid to millions of poor people as part of our powerful series, “The Dignity of Living.”

Days after our Medicaid story was published, comedian John Oliver, host of HBO’s popular “Last Week Tonight” show, covered the same topic, reminding people that the denial of health care means gambling with lives.

I’m proud to share this series and the accompanying photographs in our winter edition of Equal Voice Magazine. The notion of “The Dignity of Living” can actually apply to the entire country, as it is now home to 46.7 million people in poverty.

Marguerite Casey Foundation launched Equal Voice News, an award-winning publication, seven years ago to highlight these stories about policy, poverty and people. We focus on families, the poor and grassroots communities making progress.

At the time, very few organizations took this approach.

As the 2016 presidential campaign continues, this approach is even more crucial, as we seek solutions to poverty. Marguerite Casey Foundation brings people together and asks those most directly affected by poverty to talk about their lives. We listen. Their stories, their voices serve as the foundation of change.

In this magazine, you’ll also read about the effort by families to secure streetlights to boost neighborhood safety in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and how an anonymous $34 million gift is helping Oakland, California thrive as an epicenter of positive change.

We also delve into how the affordable housing movement is linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. We look at how California’s Proposition 47 is reducing the number of incarcerated individuals, and whether the approach will take root across the country.

Finally, we end with a first-person essay by Alan Stanfield, who finished the second grade in Tupelo, Mississippi in 2015. He reminds us that families send kids to school each day with hope for the better and faith that change is possible.

We hope you enjoy this edition of Equal Voice Magazine.

//President’s Note

Luz Vega-MarquisPresident & CEO Marguerite Casey Foundation

EQUAL VOICE MAGAZINE | 3

Brad Wong | Equal Voice NewsOriginally published June 30, 2015

4 | EQUAL VOICE MAGAZINE

Communities

Residents in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas celebrated on June 26 that their communities were one step closer to receiving streetlights, a safety improvement that people who live in areas known as colonias have wanted for decades.

Residents met in San Juan with state lawmakers to mark the passage of House Bill 3002, which requires the Hidalgo County tax assessor to collect money from property owners so that streetlights can be installed, according to La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), a grassroots organization founded by farmworker and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.

“We are celebrating because our colonias will finally come out of the

Texas Residents Win Streetlights for Their Neighborhoods

shadows,” Emma Alaniz, a LUPE member and resident of the Curry Estates colonia, said in a statement.

“My colonia is ready for when the law goes into effect. Now that we have the law on our side, we’re going to be sure that the [county] commissioners implement it.”

Passage of HB 3002 involved policymakers as well as a grassroots campaign. The campaign to raise awareness about neighborhood safety started more than 20 years ago, according to LUPE. Residents in this predominantly Latino area had a simple message for elected leaders: People should be able to live in safe neighborhoods.

Roughly 85 percent of county neighborhoods are outside des-ignated city limits and lack the infrastructure that other neighbor-hoods have. It can be unsafe for children to be outside in neigh-borhoods that are dark after sun-set, LUPE said. Adults, especially those with diabetes and heart problems, have no place to walk in the evenings. In addition, van-dalism, theft and automobile ac-cidents can occur in communities that lack streetlights.

Interestingly, since 2007 county officials have had the legislative authority to install streetlights and collect money from residents to pay for electricity to power them, LUPE said. The legislation, though,


gives the tax assessor a distinct way to collect those dollars. It mandates that the assessor put a fee on property tax bills of land owners who will benefit from those streetlights.

The bill, which was written by state Rep. Armando Martinez and state Rep. Sergio Munoz, passed the Texas state Legislature in late May.

State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa was another key supporter of the legislation. On June 17, the bill became law without the governor’s signature, and it goes into effect on Sept. 1.

But officials in Hidalgo County, which has more than 831,000 people and a poverty rate of 35 percent, still need to adopt the process, LUPE said. More than 90 percent of county

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residents are Latino. Residents in neighborhoods must submit applications for streetlights to be installed.

In January, county leaders agreed to a pilot streetlight program. Ada Neri Curiel, who lives in the Goolie Meadows colonia and goes by Nelly, has been knocking on the doors of her neighbors to

raise awareness of the issue and encourage people to pay for the electricity to power the lights. Her colonia is part of the pilot program.

“We’re ready to start the pilot program,” she said in a statement. “We have faith in the commissioners that they, too, will be ready to start.”

Brad Wong, is the news editor for Equal Voice News.

Opposite page: For more than a decade, residents in Texas border towns have lobbied for streetlights to increase safety, especially for kids. Kids also raised their voices in the campaign. Current page: In June 2015, residents, community leaders and elected leaders celebrated passage of a law that paved the way for streetlights in Texas border towns. Streetlights will be installed starting in January 2016.

“We are celebrating because our colonias will finally

come out of the shadows.”


So what does a $34 million invest-ment in Oakland, California actually mean in terms of positive change?

Well, consider it this way: Fifteen percent of the more than 406,200 residents in this racially diverse Northern California city with a history of working families are expected to benefit in some way.

Talk about an investment with teeth and a deep sense of the public good.

Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area - and really, the world - woke up on July 14 to news of a philanthropic gift from an anonymous donor who decided to share the money to power programs in Oakland’s public schools and at more than 15 community organizations that focus on education, jobs, health care, immigration rights, small business lending, the arts and housing.

The $34 million is expected to trans-late into 731 new affordable housing units and 2,502 jobs, and have the

net impact of helping 62,570 resi-dents, according to The San Fran-cisco Foundation, which is leading the investment of the money.

“This holistic approach will create pathways of opportunity in Oakland neighborhoods that need it most,” Fred Blackwell, chief executive officer of The San Francisco Foundation, said in a statement.

Among the investment recipients are the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Restaurant Opportunities Center, which focuses on helping workers gain better wages and conditions. The two organizations will use $1 million of the donation to work together to open Restore Oakland, a restaurant training program that will also be home to a restorative justice effort.

Equal Voice News spoke with Zachary Norris, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, about Oakland, the Restore Oakland project and the investment in his hometown.

WHAT DOES A $34 MILLION GIFT MEAN FOR OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA?

Regina Jackson, president of the East Oakland Youth Development Center, celebrates on July 14, 2015 the announcement of a $34 million investment from an unnamed donor to community organizations in Oakland, California.

Equal Voice NewsOriginally published July 21, 2015

Photos courtesy of The San Francisco Foundation

Communities


Q: How would you describe Oakland to people who are unfamiliar with the city?

Oakland is a tale of two cities right now.

We have people who are being really displaced out of the city as the tech boom happens. It’s had a huge impact on the housing market, both in terms of ownership and rental prices. We have seen this in conjunction with a police department that, unfortunately, hasn’t been accountable to low-income communities of color, especially Black communities.

It has created too many Black and Brown and Southeast Asian folks being criminalized and pushed out. This should be obvious about crimi-nalization but it often gets left un-said: People are physically removed and taken to jails and prisons. They lose connections to their jobs and education opportunities. They be-come disconnected.

On the positive side, we have a long history of organizing and people pushing for racial and social justice in the city. We have had people organize to stop a condominium project and win some gains on affordable housing. Ella Baker Center and other allies were able to get about $7 to $10 million [in public money] earmarked for services for formerly incarcerated folks.

These victories stand on the shoulders of good social justice organizing in Oakland.

We’re at a critical juncture in Oak-land, whether it will be a diverse city or whether we’ll see greater income inequality as a tale of two cities. It’s being touted as an economic suc-cess, [and] if you look at the average income, that number is high in com-parison to the rest of the country. But that’s an average. The poor are getting poorer but the rich are get-ting richer. That is having an impact on people staying in the region.

Housing is a human right. You have people who have been in neighborhoods who have been there for decades. They’re getting pushed out.

We’ve seen the connection between rising housing prices and criminalization serving as a one-two knockout for families. The shift we’re trying to do is away from a “punishment economy” and more toward a “caring economy.”

Q: What is Restore Oakland?

Restore Oakland is designed to put forward a different vision of safety.

Restore Oakland is a multi-use space for restorative justice and economic [development]. It will house a restaurant run by formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. It will house a worker training program for jobs in the restaurant industry..

The other component is restorative justice, which will be an alternative to traditional prosecution. We’ll provide those services at Restore Oakland.

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People who go through restorative justice programs are less likely to recidivate as compared to traditional criminal justice prosecution. We want to make visible this restorative justice approach.

Community members from throughout Oakland, California gathered on July 14, 2015 at the East Oakland Youth Development Center to talk about how a $34 million investment from an individual will help residents and neighborhoods in the city. Pictured from left to right: Sherry Hirota, CEO of Asian Health Services, Zakiya Harris, chief education officer and co-founder of Hack the Hood, and Galen Silvestri, executive director of United Roots at the Youth Impact Hub.


We also want Restore Oakland to be a good home for organizing and for jobs not jails. It will be about jobs for people who have been hardest hit by this “punishment economy.”

A lot of our conception of what safety is has been based on removing people. We think that this safety system should be based on opportunity and people staying and working it through. We think that the vast majority of people in the criminal justice system would run with those opportunities.

We know that people have harmed other folks and amends need to be made. We [also] know that restorative justice works.

Our aim is to be able to help divert about 100 youth per year from criminal justice prosecution through restorative justice programs run by our partners, and to train about 400 to 500 workers annually to help them advance in career ladder jobs within the restaurant industry.

Lastly, we aim to use the space to engage youth and adults in organizing for a jobs-not-jails policy agenda and budget in Oakland and Alameda County.

That is the vision.

Q: How will the $1 million be spent?

The funds are to support Restore Oakland as a whole. The budget we’re looking to raise is a total $2.5 million to acquire the space and design the space for the restaurant and restorative justice. We want to raise a year’s worth of operating expenses.

This first $1 million is a core anchor. We’re in the process of doing a more detailed business plan and feasibility study.

We are exploring site selection as part of the feasibility study, looking at sites in East Oakland. We want to make sure that we’re locating it in a place that really meets the needs that we identify.

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Youth and adult supporters are seen on July 14, 2015 at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, California. The San Francisco Foundation held a news conference to announce a $34 million investment from an unnamed donor to support community organizations in Oakland.

We hope that Restore Oakland will open in the spring of 2016.

This investment really changed the game. Now, we’re getting letters from architects and other people who want to partner in designing this space. It changed it from a concept to a project moving forward.

Q: What are your overall thoughts on the $34 million investment from this anonymous donor?

This person has decided to make an investment in the promise of Oakland. The promise of Oakland is to defy the national trend of growing inequality and continued structural racism. This investment really points the way forward to help provide real opportunities for Oakland to be a model of sustainable diversity. Oakland can be safe and prosperous for all of its residents.

Interview conducted by Brad Wong, news editor for Equal Voice News. This interview has been edited for clarity.


SAN FRANCISCO — Sholonda Jackson has been circling downtown San Francisco in search of a parking place for more than an hour, but her tone is still upbeat as she talks about the day’s errand — filling out the paperwork to get the last of her three felony convictions reduced to a misdemeanor. Addicted to drugs since her mother first handed her a crack pipe when Jackson was a teenager, Jackson has been clean now for 11 years.

A devoted wife and mother who works for an organization that supports homeless veterans and volunteers in her spare time,

Jackson has her bachelor’s degree and plans to earn her master’s. But today, her top priority is shedding the “felon” label, and everything it carries, once and for all.

Jackson’s destination is the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, where she can get help with modifying her record under California’s Proposition 47. Passed in November 2014, Prop. 47, as it’s known, reclassifies certain low-level drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Its passage meant early release for thousands of prisoners, and kept thousands more from going to prison in the first place. For those

like Jackson, who have already done their time, it offers the elusive prospect of a fresh start.

A felony drug conviction, no matter how old, carries with it a heavy load of post-prison punishments: Formal and informal barriers to everything from financial aid to public housing to getting a job. Advocates estimate that as many as 1 million Californians may be eligible to clear old felonies under the new law.

Jackson, who volunteers in her spare time to make sure those eligible know about Prop. 47, has already succeeded in

CALIFORNIA’S PROP. 47 IS CHANGING CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

Will It Take Root in U.S.?

A pro bono attorney helps Joseph Barela of San Pedro, California with changing his criminal record under Prop. 47 at a May 2 legal clinic hosted by Californians for Safety and Justice in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Californians for Safety and Justice.

Nell Bernstein | Special to Equal Voice NewsOriginally published September 29, 2015

Criminal Justice


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More than 130 volunteer attorneys and public defenders helped residents on Sept. 27 remove eligible felonies from their criminal records at the Prop. 47 Record Change and Resources Fair in South Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Californians for Safety and Justice.

downgrading old charges in Sacramento and Alameda County. San Francisco is her last step toward a new beginning, but not, it turns out, today. The clinic closes before Jackson can find a parking space. There is nothing to do but turn around and head back across the Bay Bridge to her job in downtown Oakland. But she will be back, Jackson promises with a full-throated laugh — on public transportation.

After a decade-plus of a crack cocaine addiction and a 13-stop tour of duty that included every California state prison for women, Jackson became clean in her early 30s. Until Prop. 47 came along, her

criminal record blocked her at every turn as she struggled to secure steady employment, complete her education and build a stable home for herself and her family, she says. In California alone, those who carry a felony record face as many as 4,800 post-incarceration penalties and restrictions. Nearly three-quarters of these last a lifetime and more than half explicitly restrict employment.

Jackson was starting college when she confronted this reality. A placement counselor discouraged her from pursuing her goal of becoming a medical billing and coding specialist, telling her potential employers would likely toss her resume once they learned about her record. He suggested, instead, that she study massage therapy and go into business for herself. Jackson took the advice, made straight A’s and discovered along the way that she was good at her newfound trade. When she learned it would cost $250 to apply for a license to practice, it seemed a small price to pay for the independence the counselor had promised.

Instead of a license, Jackson received a curt letter informing her that her felony conviction disqualified her from practicing the trade (the application fee was not refundable).

Solving problems like Jackson’s was not the main driver behind Prop. 47. When the initiative was placed on the ballot, prison overcrowding was so dire the

Community Health Leadership Program


Since Prop. 47 was implemented, civil rights, legal and social justice organizations throughout California have held clinics to help people with changing their criminal records. Photo courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles.

California prison system had been placed under federal receivership and ordered to cut its population radically and quickly. The new law promised to address this crisis and balance the budget to boot. By passing a measure that wipes an array of former felonies off the books and making it retroactive, the state has done more than pull itself back from the fiscal brink. It has offered a case study in redemption for a nation in the midst of a re-examination of crime and justice issues.

California has long been a harbinger on the criminal justice front. As far back as 1976, California removed the word “rehabilitation” from its criminal code, on the grounds that “the purpose of imprisonment is punishment.” In 1994, as this sentiment gained favor nationwide, California passed an influential “Three Strikes” law that imposed sentences of 25 years to life on those convicted of a third felony, no matter how minor. A decade later, 26 states and the federal government had followed suit.

Today, not just California but the nation as a whole appears to be in the midst of a major re-examination on matters of criminal justice. In a national survey conducted for the Pew Center on the States in 2012, more than 80 percent of those asked supported locking up fewer nonviolent offenders and reinvesting the savings in alternatives, another provision of Prop. 47. In a July speech to the NAACP, President Barack Obama called for prison sentences for nonviolent drug crimes to be lowered or eliminated. Calling for greater investment in alternatives to prison, Obama applauded those states — including California — that had lowered incarceration rates in recent years and seen crime rates drop in the process.

“Mass incarceration makes our country worse off,” the

president said bluntly, “and we need to do something about it.”

Whether the national will exists to answer that challenge remains to be seen. But, there is no question that other states are watching the implementation of Prop. 47 closely — some with an eye on replication.

Lenore Anderson runs Californians for Safety and Justice (also known as Safe and Just) and its 501c(4) arm, Vote Safe, which served as command central for the Prop. 47 effort. Since the initiative passed last year, Anderson says, Safe and Just has fielded “a variety of inquiries” about replication.

In many states, change is already in the works. Texas — like California, a longtime frontrunner in the tough-on-crime charge — recently raised its monetary threshold for felony theft (as did Prop. 47, which makes theft under $950 a misdemeanor). Colorado modified monetary thresholds for financial crimes, such as check and credit card fraud, as well as computer crime and car theft.


Utah passed a reform package in March that converts all first- and second-time drug possession offenses to misdemeanors. Other states, including New York and Missouri, are advancing reforms that reduce penalties for low-level crimes. Illinois and Michigan have shown interest as well.

The details may vary from state to state, but the big picture, says Anderson, is that efforts “to replicate the premise that you can build widespread support for sentencing reduction” are taking hold rapidly across the nation.

Those who led Prop. 47 to victory are leaving little to chance on

that front. Anderson says that her organization recently received planning grants from the Ford Foundation and The Public Welfare Foundation to “incubate a multi-pronged strategy” that will offer strategic support to state-based organizations already working to reduce incarceration. The ACLU, a prominent supporter of Prop. 47, recently announced plans for an eight-year campaign aimed at reducing incarceration through the political process. That effort is underwritten by a $50 million grant from the Open Society Foundations, also a major backer of Prop. 47.

While the values that undergird

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, which estimates that about 18,000 Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in California qualify for relief under Prop. 47, held a legal clinic this summer with other organizations. About a third of the 18,000 people live in Los Angeles County. Photo courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles.

Prop. 47 may be catching hold nationwide, some warn the process that brought change to California is not so easily replicated elsewhere. California has a particularly robust ballot initiative system that allows voters to impose their will directly, observes Barry Krisberg of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at U.C. Berkeley. With a few exceptions, Krisberg adds, reformers hoping to bring the Prop. 47 ethos to other states will “have to go through the legislative process. There I become much more pessimistic, because the record of legislators on these kind of laws has not been very good…There’s been a lot more rhetoric than action.”

The California experience has made one thing clear: The kind of change that Prop. 47 represents does not simply happen on its own. In what Anderson describes as “an unprecedented level of direct, grassroots outreach,” thousands of volunteers contacted more than 300,000 voters and held more than 200 voter-mobilization events in 15 key counties in advance of the 2014 election. This and other campaign efforts were fueled by millions of dollars in donations from a powerful coalition of funders that includes the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, The California Endowment, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Rosenberg Foundation and The California Wellness Foundation.

In the days and weeks that fol-lowed the election, the phones at Californians for Safety and Jus-tice were flooded with calls from defense attorneys, advocates and others from around the state. De-fendants who had been facing sentences of eight or nine years before the election were walk-ing out of court with terms of six months or even probation. Coun-ty jail populations were dropping rapidly, by 10 to 30 percent, ac-cording to some estimates.

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During the last four years, CPS and the unelected Chicago Board of Education have cut our schools' budgets and have negatively impacted the academic and social-emotional growth of Chicago’s youth. BPNC has united schools and communities in the SW side of Chicago in a campaign for equitable funding for local schools. Through this campaign hundreds of students and parents have demonstrated their support against the privatization of Chicago’s schools.

Some of the calls, says Anderson — a seasoned organizer who does not generally veer toward the sentimental — brought her to tears, as she contemplated “not only how significant a change this really was,” but also what that shift revealed about “just how wrong a path (the) justice system had been on for so long.”

“These are pretty run-of-the mill, low-level crimes,” Anderson notes of the offenses eligible for reclassification under Prop. 47. “We didn’t do anything too crazy here, to be honest. But if (it) had this dramatic of an impact, you have to ask yourself: ‘How did it get so far out of whack?’”

A n d e r s o n ’ s question begs another: If the criminal justice system has been so profoundly “out of whack” for decades, what will it take not only to rein it back in but to undo the damage to lives and communities incurred during the tough-on-crime decades?

Sholonda Jackson, who does outreach for Prop. 47 as a volunteer with Oakland Community Organizations, is contemplating related questions. A fervent supporter of Prop. 47, she is nevertheless troubled by its focus on a narrowly defined cluster of “non-serious, non-violent” offenses. If we truly believe that people can change, Jackson challenges, we need to offer the same shot at redemption to others who share her will to change, but whose crimes make them ineligible for relief under the law.

“Prop. 47 is a good start,” says Jackson, “but we need to come

up with something more inclusive for people who have changed their lives around, regardless of the crime. Nobody is hopeless.”

Jackson’s idealism is tempered by political savvy. The success of Prop. 47, she explains, depended on “the exclusion of many people who could benefit from it. You have people who have committed violent acts who have also changed their lives around but can’t profit from a bill that excludes so many people.”

Like Jackson, Lenore Anderson sees Prop. 47 as only the beginning of a much larger shift — one that will entail not only rolling back over-incarceration but also creating a new paradigm regarding safety.

“The biggest opportunity we have is not just to end mass in-carceration,” An-

derson says. “We need to replace it with community health. We need to replace it with lifting commu-nities up. I think that we are in a moment where we can actually do that, and that becomes our plat-form for safety.”

In California alone, those who carry a felony record face as many as 4,800 post-incarceration penalties and restrictions.”

“We’re not just going to reduce mass incarceration,” Anderson adds with characteristic energy. “We’re going to clean up the legacy too.”

Nell Bernstein, an author, editor and journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area, is Editor-at-Large for Equal Voice News. Her latest book, “Burning Down the House,” argues for shutting down the country’s juvenile prisons and returning children to communities.

SPECIAL REPORTS FROM EQUAL VOICE NEWS

In 2015, Equal Voice News embarked on a special series, “The Dignity of Living,” to examine in closer detail how policies affect poverty and people. Equal Voice News spent time with older Americans, home care aides and the working poor who lack access to affordable health care. Our journalists listened to community stories and questions as to whether policies are in place so that people throughout the country can live well, thrive and make progress. As the country prepares for Election 2016, Equal Voice News will continue this series in the coming months. Visit equalvoiceforfamilies.org to get news updates about policy and poverty, as well as to read the latest story in “The Dignity of Living” series.


THE DIGNITY OF LIVING

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MEDICAID DENIED: THE COST MAY BE MEASURED IN LIVES

A child looks out of a mobile home in Beulah, Mississippi, near the home of Caesar Johnson, in August 2015. Caesar Johnson has long been uninsured due to not qualifying for Medicaid and not earning enough to afford private coverage.

Health Care


Keith Griffith | Special to Equal Voice NewsOriginally published October 27, 2015

IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA — A few weeks before Christmas in 2010, Gloria Owens was shopping in the Dirt Cheap Store in Yazoo City, Mississippi, when she collapsed. That is when Owens, now 59, learned she was suffering from untreated diabetes. A social worker here, she’d lost her health insurance after switching to part-time work in 2009. Private insurance was unaffordable. So, like millions of other uninsured across the country, Owens pinned her hopes on the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in March 2010.

But as the health care law’s third annual enrollment period gears up to open on Nov. 1, Owens remains uninsured, with little realistic hope of gaining coverage. Complications from her chronic diabetes have left her too weak to return to full-time employment. In many states, her part-time earnings would qualify her for coverage under Medicaid. But Mississippi, like the rest of the Deep South, has declined to accept federal funds to expand the state’s Medicaid program, a core initiative of the Affordable Care Act as it was originally envisioned.

More than 8.5 million U.S. citizens and legal residents have gained health coverage since 2013, when the federal insurance exchanges first opened. But, as Congressional Republicans continue to battle the law, officials in 19 states have refused to expand Medicaid, citing the requirement for states to shoulder 10 percent of the additional costs.

In Mississippi, where Medicaid eligibility rules are among the most restrictive in the country, expansion would extend insurance coverage to an estimated 139,000 low-income residents. Many, like Owens, are the working poor. Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, has been adamant in opposing expansion, saying there would be “very little incentive” for people to seek work under the new eligibility rules.

“There is no one who doesn’t have health care in America,” he said in a 2013 interview with Kaiser Health News. “No one. Now, they may end up going to the emergency room. [But] there are better ways to deal with people that need health care than this massive new program.”

Owens, desperate for treatment, visits a rural clinic with sliding scale fees, often turning to friends and family for help making the payments. She has no primary physician, and doctors at the clinic have yet to diagnose the underlying reason for her dramatic weight loss — over 130 pounds since her collapse five years ago.

Though she’s a lifelong Mississip-pian, Owens is considering a move to Michigan, a Medicaid-expan-sion state where her sister lives, simply to get access to insurance coverage. “My health is declin-ing rapidly,” she said. As a former social worker, Owens knows what services are available and how to navigate them. “But there’s no re-source to connect me to here, be-cause I’m in a state where the gov-ernor doesn’t want to do this, for whatever reason.”

State legislators from Mississippi’s Delta region, which leans Democratic, have struggled to convince the state’s Republican leaders, who control both houses of the Legislature, to move forward with the expansion. Their hopes now rest on the upcoming governor’s election on Nov. 3, which will pit Bryant against Democratic candidate Robert Gray, a truck driver who himself does not have health insurance. Gray has promised to expand Medicaid if elected. He is considered the long shot.

“What shocks me is that Mississippi is known as the Hospitality State, yet we’re not being hospitable to each other,” state Rep. John Hines, a Democrat from the Delta, recently told me in his office at the

Photos by Mike Kane for Equal Voice News


state Capitol in Jackson, where the Confederate flag still flies as part of the Mississippi state flag. “I don’t want to say it’s a racial thing,” said Hines, who is Black. “But I can’t understand why a state would do this to its own people.”

WORRIED LIFE BLUES

The Delta is not, technically, a river delta, but a floodplain between the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, worn down over millennia by the regular floods of the Mississippi. The rich farmland is worked primarily by large-scale agribusiness, and poverty rates in the Delta are among the highest in the country.

Life expectancy in Mississippi is the lowest in the nation, and health outcomes are abysmal. For instance, the state has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the nation, and leg amputations — a gruesome outcome of advanced diabetes — are 70 percent more frequent in Mississippi than the national average.

Whitney Carter, 23, grew up in the Delta, and studies journalism at Delta State University, where she also works part-time in the university bookstore. Like Gloria Owens, Carter falls into the Medicaid gap — not eligible for Medicaid, but too poor to qualify for federal subsidies toward private insurance, which kick in for those making at least $11,490 a year.

Carter, who also suffers from diabetes, said that she routinely skips her doses of Metformin, a diabetes drug, to stretch the medication out. When we met in the DSU Student Union, she pointed out her visibly swollen ankles, a common symptom of diabetes and sometimes an early sign of kidney failure.

As a child, Carter had Medicaid through the children’s insurance provision, but aged out when she turned 19. “A lot of people may look down on it, but it really helped me,” she said of Medicaid. “Now I’m in my last year of college, trying

to do something with my life. It would be nice if I could do that.”

I DON’T WANT YOUR MONEY

The federal government pays roughly $11 billion a year to compensate hospitals for unpaid emergency room bills. One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act was to shift that spending toward health insurance, by extending Medicaid eligibility to those making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, and subsidizing private insurance for those making more than 100 percent. Proponents of the law hope to bring overall public costs down by promoting routine access to preventative health care.

Though the federal government has promised to foot at least 90 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion, the program is jointly administered by the states. In 2012, a Supreme Court ruling gave states the option to turn down federal funds to expand Medicaid

A long-defunct cafe sits near the house of Caesar Johnson in Beulah, Mississippi in August 2015.

A cemetery near Cleveland, Mississippi in August 2015.


eligibility. State governors and legislators who were politically opposed to the Affordable Care Act found they had a potent weapon to fight it.

Though Republican governors in Ohio, Arizona, and elsewhere have agreed to accept federal expansion funds, 19 states, all with Republican governors or Republican-controlled legislatures, continue to opt out. More than 3 million people across the country fall into the resulting gap in coverage: they make too much to qualify for Medicaid in their state, and not enough to qualify for federal insurance subsidies. Of those in the Medicaid gap, nine out of 10 live in the South. They are disproportionately Black.

“We have had tremendous resistance from the Republican

“People don’t understand how the economy works. It’s like a tree — you’ve gotta give water to the roots. If you don’t, it starts dying from the top down.”

It would be an understatement to call Gray a dark-horse candidate. When his mother went to vote in Mississippi’s state primary elections on Aug. 4, she was amused that one of the three nominees for governor had the same name as her son. She voted for him without realizing that she was actually voting for her own child.

Gray, a 46-year-old freight truck driver and former firefighter, had done no campaigning. He beat his opponents, both women who are active in state politics, by double-digit margins.

This unlikely candidate may be

Medicaid would remove a significant incentive to seek work. He also sees expansion as unnecessary from a health care perspective.

The crux of Bryant’s opposition has centered on costs, though. Mississippi currently spends 13 percent of its tax revenue on Medicaid, less than the national average of 17 percent. But state officials argue that expansion would squeeze out other services. “We can’t fund the Medicaid population we currently have without two things — raising taxes or making tremendous cuts, draconian cuts, in education, transportation, public safety and job creation,” Bryant has said.

Medicaid expansion would cost Mississippi’s state government $1.1 billion over the next decade, and would bring in an additional

leadership” to Medicaid expansion, said Mississippi state Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat from the Delta city of Greenville. “You started to get resistance before people even fully understood the provisions. That suggests it wasn’t about the actual law, it was about other things: race, and who’s currently in the White House.”

STANDIN’ AT THE CROSSROADS

In August, Mississippi voters shocked the state’s political establishment by nominating Robert Gray, a political unknown, as the state’s Democratic candidate for governor. Gray has made Medicaid expansion a key issue of his campaign.

“We’re gonna expand it,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Mississippi’s lone, quixotic hope for Medicaid expansion in the foreseeable future. Gray, who is self-employed, has long gone without health insurance over cost concerns. Though he isn’t certain, he thinks his annual income after expenses would put him “pretty close” to falling in the Medicaid coverage gap.

Gray, the son of a Black mother and a White father, hopes to appeal across racial lines by emphasizing the economic benefits of Medicaid expansion.

“Money is money. It’s not a Black and White issue anymore,” he said.

YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE, AND I’LL LIVE MINE

Bryant, Mississippi’s current governor, contends that expanding

federal contribution of $12.8 billion, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute, an independent research group.

Mississippi has long prided itself on fiscal conservatism and balanced budgets. But historically, state leaders haven’t seemed to mind accepting federal dollars, which account for more than 40 percent of the state’s annual budget — a higher share than any other state. Is this debate just about money?

One of the most vivid encounters I had in Mississippi was in the parking lot of a restaurant in Jackson, across the street from a state health department building. A woman in her mid 60s struck up a conversation with me and the photographer I was traveling with. She was slight, with feathered

“We have had tremendous resistance from the Republican leadership” to Medicaid expansion


gray hair and oval, wire-rimmed glasses.

When I told her we were reporting on the state’s Medicaid policy, she became animated. “The Blacks want everything, but who is going to pay for it? How is that fair?” She went on, “They don’t want to work for nothing.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong,” she added. “One of my best friends is Black.”

The woman, who asked not to be named, is not alone in her sentiment. In February, Mississippi state Rep. Gene Alday told a local newspaper reporter, "I come from a town where all the Blacks are getting food stamps…. They don’t work.”

The idea that public assistance programs only benefit non-Whites is a “commonly held belief,” said James M. Thomas, an associate professor of sociology at the

University of Mississippi. But in the U.S., 41 percent of Medicaid recipients are White, while 21 percent are Black. Those ratios are roughly reversed in Mississippi, where Black residents make up 38 percent of the population, about three times the national average.

Bryant, in a statement, called the idea that race plays a role in the Medicaid debate “reprehensible and utterly without merit.” Yet a poll from April found opposition to Medicaid expansion heavily split along racial lines in Mississippi, with more than twice as much support for expansion among Black residents (88 percent) as among Whites (44 percent).

Many of those most affected hear a familiar dog whistle in the Southern states’ refusal to participate in Medicaid expansion — racial animus of the kind that has driven the debate over public benefits since the days of the Great Society.

Whitney Carter, the journalism student who could not treat her diabetes, expressed frustration that a full-time student with a part-time job could not get adequate health care in the world’s richest nation. “Whose shoulders does that fall on?” said Carter, who is Black. “I feel like Black people are just tolerated, sometimes. We aren’t accepted, we’re tolerated.”

THE WATERFRONT

It was a bright Wednesday afternoon, and nothing was biting. Johnny Jenkins sat on an upturned bucket, fishing off the levee that slants sharply from downtown Greenville, a Delta town of 33,000, into Lake Ferguson, an oxbow lake curling off the eastern bank of the Mississippi River.

“There’s a whole different story to what they know in the capital and

Kids play near the apartment of Camelisha Thomas in Rosedale, Mississippi in August 2015. Thomas’ father, Caesar Johnson, has long been uninsured due to not qualifying for Medicaid and not earning enough to afford private coverage.


what’s happening in this world,” said Jenkins, 52. A former truck driver, Jenkins tried for years to get Medicaid coverage, until chronic hip problems forced him out of work. After staying out of work on disability for two years, he automatically became eligible for Medicare. He now has to have a double hip replacement, but at least he has insurance.

It’s a story I heard several times in the Delta — people who were forced out of work by untreated health issues gaining insurance coverage only after remaining on disability for two years.

Jenkins, who is Black, felt he’d been pushed out of the workforce by Mississippi’s health care policies. “The state of Mississippi is still back in the Jim Crow days. They can’t put on a hooded sheet anymore, and they can’t burn a cross in your yard, but they can still pencil whip you,” he said. “They can pencil whip you, and there ain’t nothing you can do.”

A NEW LEAF

After the Civil War, a group of freed slaves left the riverfront plantation of Joseph Davis, Jefferson’s older brother, and struck out into the Delta backwoods. The community they founded in 1887, Mound Bayou, remains intentionally and entirely Black.

“We have a unique experience that many Blacks cannot talk about,” Eulah Peterson, former Mound Bayou alderman and vice mayor, said in an interview at the First Baptist Church, where she’d requested we meet. “I never had to worry about could I go to school here, or I couldn’t go into that church.”

Peterson, 66, is a retired educator with a doctorate in special education administration, and speaks in the even, precise tone of a school principal who knows

From top: Two disabled men in wheelchairs converse at the Jackson Medical Mall in Jackson, Mississippi; Johnny Jenkins fishes on the banks of the Mississippi; Eulah Peterson stands in First Baptist Church in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.

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every excuse in the book. Her father moved to Mound Bayou in 1929 and worked as a printer. Her mother’s father was born into slavery, seven years before the end of the Civil War. “I’m that close to slavery,” she told me calmly.

In addition to a host of other civic activities that have filled Peterson’s retirement, she is lead human rights commissioner for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, which advocates on health care and other poverty-related issues.

“Health care as a human right is basic,” she said. The state’s decision not to expand Medicaid to include the working poor, she believes, “is creating a whole group of people who are on a slow death roll.”

Mound Bayou has long been a regional hub for health care. The all-Black Taborian Hospital operated here for four decades, before closing in 1983. Today, the Delta Health Center, a rural health clinic founded in the 1960s, sits on the western edge of town. The sliding-scale fee clinic served over 10,000 poor and low-income patients last year. Though most were Black, about 700 were White.

“I don’t know how we do it, but we need to flip that switch that makes White people realize that they’re being hurt too” by the failure to expand Medicaid, said Peterson, who like others, knows that cities suffer and long-term costs for everyone soar when health insurance is not an option.

“It’s not just for Blacks. You’re suffering, too.”

Keith Griffith is a freelance journalist in New York City. His work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader and Business Insider.

Gloria Elaine Owens stands for a portrait in an old school building in Yazoo City, Mississippi in August 2015. Owens has worsening health concerns due to her lack of insurance. She is rapidly losing weight and feels that her health is in great jeopardy due to not having better health insurance. For many years she had health insurance through her employer, but after she took a writing sabbatical she lost her coverage and was diagnosed with diabetes.


A dog walks near the house of Caesar Johnson in Beulah, Mississippi in August 2015.

Health care as a human right is basic,” she said. The state’s decision not to expand Medicaid to include the working poor, she believes, “is creating a whole group of people who are on a slow death roll.”

Caesar Johnson stands near his daughter's apartment in Rosedale, Mississippi in August 2015. Johnson has long been uninsured due to not qualifying for Medicaid and not earning enough to afford private coverage. He has many health issues including nerve damage and severe dental pain that are affecting his ability to work and help care for his grandchildren.


THE DIGNITY OF LIVING:AMERICA’S HOME CARE AIDES

Equal Voice NewsOriginally published June 9, 2015

Photos by Paul Joseph Brown for Equal Voice News


Each morning, Christal Boutte takes a moment to relax before her workday fills up. She might engage in yoga at home, if she has time, or pull out an alternative newspaper to read during her bus commute. One thing is certain--it is going to be another long day.

The Mount Holyoke College graduate is a home caregiver in Seattle, one of about 3.5 million such professionals in the country. She assists people in doing something that others may take for granted. Boutte, 30, helps four people lead dignified lives, regardless of circumstances, in their homes.

Boutte is working in a fast-growing segment of the U.S. economy. The country’s population is aging rapidly, and according to surveys, a great majority of people want to stay in their homes as they age. By 2020, one in six people in America will be over the age of 65, according to some projections.

Home caregivers help the disabled, the sick and the elderly with daily tasks, including dressing, bathing, managing medication, cleaning and cooking. They also provide emotional support and companionship.

In the U.S., nine out of 10 home care aides are women. A third are Black. About 16 percent of the workforce is Latino. Of all home caregivers, 25 percent were born outside the U.S.

The work has its rewards. Boutte enjoys a rapport with the people she

“There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those

who are currently caregivers, those who

will be caregivers, and those who need

caregiving.” - Rosalynn Carter

By 2030, a quarter of the U.S. population is expected to be over the age of 65. Home care aides will be in high demand, as more people say they want to grow older in their homes. The average pay for aides, though, is less than $11 an hour.

Christal Boutte pours milk on oatmeal for her client, Todd. His disability makes the routine of daily life difficult if not impossible.

In her work as a home care aide, Christal Boutte, left, works with four residents in the Seattle area. In the course of her work, she has become friends with the people she helps.

Health Care


Clockwise from top left: Todd, who is Christal Boutte’s client, is unable to get out of bed without her help. He has been in a wheelchair since a boating accident 20 years ago. Home care aides are trained to work with a full range of disabilities; Boutte earns $11.50 per hour as a home care aide in Seattle and lives with her uncle in a one-bedroom apartment. She is saving money for an apartment, but rent in Seattle can be expensive; Boutte visits with a client, a woman who suffers from anxiety and depression so severe that she is virtually unable to leave her apartment. Boutte becomes friends with her clients, who are often isolated by their medical conditions; Boutte’s client, Todd, requires assistance for many of the common tasks of daily living. Without the assistance of a home care aide, he would be unable to live independently and would need to live in a full-time care facility.


helps. Smiles brighten long days. The work can be challenging, too, both physically and emotionally. There is a high rate of workplace injuries. Health insurance is not a given. Only 25 percent of all home caregivers have health care.

On average, wages are below $11 an hour. A quarter of home health workers live in poverty.

Boutte works full-time for Full Life Care, a nonprofit agency, to help clients stay in their homes. She earns $11.50 an hour. She also has health care. To save money, she shares a one-bedroom basement apartment with an uncle, sleeping on the floor in a walk-in closet.

Some workdays start before dawn. Others end at midnight. The people she helps have a variety of diagnoses, including cognitive disabilities, paralysis and multiple sclerosis.

“I can help people who are isolated, who really need help with the tasks of daily living, to stay in their homes and keep their independence and to feel respected and valued,” Boutte says.

Rhonda, one of her clients, says that Boutte is doing more than that—more, in fact, than most people ever achieve. Boutte is saving lives, Rhonda says, one long day after another.

Paul Joseph Brown, a photojournalist based in Bellingham, Washington, contributed images, video footage and reporting to this package. He is a former photographer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Valerie Vozza, a Seattle-based videographer, helped with editing. Reporting for this project came from various sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "The Age of Dignity" by Ai-jen Poo and PHI.

Rhonda, left, has cognitive issues that make it difficult for her to manage the challenges of daily life. Christal Boutte, a Seattle caregiver, helps her keep her life organized and on track.

By 2022, the U.S. will need about 1.3 million more home care aides to help aging residents.

Elder Care

Photos by Mike Kane for Equal Voice News


Elders in America: Living on the Edge. Why We Should Care.

SEATTLE -- In a small brick building in sight of the Ballard Locks, which connect bodies of salt and fresh water in this Pacific Northwest city, the aroma of meatballs and tomato sauce wafts up the stairs. In about half an hour, 35 or so regulars at the Ballard NW Senior Center will dig into a meal of spaghetti with meatballs, salad and roasted zucchini, accompanied by lively conversation with their table mates.

Beverly Jaeger, 79, comes regularly for lunch. She lives a block away, and enjoys the center’s trips to see the daffodils up north, to museum exhibitions,

even to the casino. “It gives me something to do. My kids are grown up,” Jaeger says.

Jaeger and her lunch companions offer a preview of the “age wave” that is just now beginning to hit as the so-called Baby Boom generation — the more than 75 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – enters the retirement years. Ever since 2011, when the first Baby Boomer turned 65, more than 10,000 Americans celebrate that milestone birthday every single day. By 2030, demographers predict, fully one-fifth of the population will be 65

or older. Some estimate it could be 25 percent of all Americans by that year.

As Baby Boomers en-ter old age in increasing numbers, the need for services for seniors is ex-pected to grow. In King County, which includes Seattle and smaller cit-ies, the “age wave” has already arrived, accord-ing to a 2013 report from Seattle’s Aging and Dis-ability Services agency.

“The 2010 Census indi-cates that 312,624 people age 60 and above now live in King County, up 30 percent since 2000,” according to the report. “By 2025, the number of

Margaret Santjer | Special to Equal Voice NewsOriginally published September 22, 2015


Clockwise:The Ballard Senior Center in Seattle serves thousands each year. It is also sturggling for money.

Opposite page: Rose Cornicello, 95, a regular at the Ballard Senior Center in Seattle, walks down to the main cafeteria for lunch after volunteering to shred paper.

King County residents over age 60 will exceed 496,000. Nearly one in four county residents will be age 65 or older.”

As the number of seniors grows, so does the wear-and-tear on old facilities like the one that houses the Ballard Center. The peeling paint and other signs of disrepair reflect not a lack of effort on the part of the center’s dedi-cated staff and adminis-trators but a much larger issue: A national disregard for the rapidly growing senior population and an unwillingness on the part of a youth-obsessed culture to focus attention or resources on a group of people who, as Bal-lard Center Director Car-lye Teel points out, “are looked at as a problem” rather than a resource and knowledge base.

Teel, 68, has been at the helm of what visitors call “the friendly center” for 30 years. She loves her work, but fundraising is a constant struggle. Teel and her staff struggle simply to meet the daily needs of the 4,000 elders who pass through each year. Some come every day the center is open, others just a few times a year. Taken together, these existing clients keep the place humming.

Teel knows that if she could get money to stay open on Saturdays, the center would be busy then too. As it stands, the center could use more social worker time, more classes. And then there are those outdated sin-gle-pane windows.

“We’re only going to be needing more and more services,” Teel points out. “People are living longer. We’re really stretched.”

“THIS IS HOME.”

Rose Cornicello discov-ered the Ballard Center about a decade ago. The 95-year-old, who moved from New Jersey to be close to her son, says she became a member the day she walked into the center, then worked as the receptionist for 10 years, until her eyesight began to fail.

“If you want a happier place than this — no,” she says, as tables fill in the dining area. “I just walked in here and said, ‘This is home.’”

In the arts and crafts room, half a dozen wom-en listen intently to an instructor as they sketch and paint portraits. Down the tight hallway, a massage therapist fin-ishes up an individual session, while a visiting nurse arrives so clients can get their blood pres-sure checked. In another room, a silver-haired man taps away at a computer in the lab, while a current events class goes on next door.

This 1950 former apart-ment building, which


Top to Bottom: Seattle drag queen Sylvia O’Stayformore hosts Rainbow Bingo at the Ballard Senior Center in Seattle. Participants are of all ages.

Opposite page: A flier for Sylvia O’Stayformore, who helps run bingo events at Seattle-area senior centers, is seen at the Ballard Senior Center. O’Stayformore brings songs and humor to the events, as participants help raise money for seniors.

has housed the center for 43 years, is packed full of activities aimed at keeping older Seattle residents physically and mentally active. It also helps seniors do something that many say they want more than anything else: Remain in their own homes.

As jam-packed as the Ballard Center’s schedule appears, Teel says she’d love to offer more services to meet high demand. But funding for the nonprofit senior center depends greatly on how much money it can raise through events such as Rainbow Bingo, rummage sales and benefit concerts.

“Senior centers play a very important role in a community, and I wish every community

had one,” Teel says, describing the benefits of a one-stop shop that provides health and wellness services, social work, educational classes and the “fun and games” of parties and trips.

“As good as some nursing homes are, we try to keep people out of them,” she says.

“REALLY STRETCHED”

Seven centers serve se-niors in the King County area under the umbrel-la of Senior Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit orga-nization based in Seat-tle. Senior Services was formed in the late 1960s via United Way, which wanted to streamline the funding process for in-dividual senior centers. These centers operate as independent nonprofits

but affiliate with Senior Services for administra-tive functions.

Others senior centers in the area operate as pro-grams of city parks and recreation departments, explains Joanne Dono-hue, vice president of community development for Senior Services. Still, others are standalone nonprofits that don’t have the support of a larger or-ganization.

Each of the seven centers under the Senior Services umbrella has a distinct fundraising strategy, Donohue says. The Northshore Senior Center in Bothell, which is northeast of Seattle, for example, gets the bulk of its annual revenue by writing grants, she says. The West Seattle Senior Center has a thrift store

“Senior centers play a very important role in a community, and I wish every community had one.”


on heavily trafficked California Avenue that brings in $160,000 a year. The Central Area Senior Center, which is in Seattle, has a beautiful view of Lake Washington, allowing it to raise money through facility rentals, Donohue says.

The Ballard Center gets a large chunk of its $500,000 annual bud-get from Senior Services and another from the city of Seattle. To raise the rest, Donohue says, they “work their butts off do-ing events all the time.”

BRINGING ‘GLAMOUR’ AND BINGO

On a recent summer evening, Sylvia O’Stayfor-more - who proudly boasts of being a “drag queen who used to go to punk shows” - walks into the Ballard Center and proclaims: “The glamour has begun.”

It’s rainbow bingo night.

O’Stayformore has been hosting bingo fundrais-ers at senior centers in the Seattle area for about eight years and can spend hours in traffic getting to each facility during rush hour. “But they give me a love gift,” O’Stayformore says of the bingo-loving crowds and elders. “I love it. I just show up and keep things stirring.”

By 7:15 p.m., white num-bers on the center’s bin-go board are flashing. People flip over special bottles to mark numbers on their bingo sheets, as O’Stayformore calls them out. Periodically, O’Stayformore – wearing a flowing green-and-blue dress, Cat-Eye glasses and blue eyeliner – sings before this crowd of about 100 people of all ages: -

“Are you ready? Are you ready? To play bingo?”

On this night, turnout is so good that center staff lug out an extra table and m`ore chairs. As people play, O’Stayformore reminds the crowd about this bingo-for-a-cause event: Proceeds will go to keep the fans on and possibly could help get a new TV or two.

Helping O’Stayformore is Sister Paddleme Tooshie

with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The Abbey of St. Joan. Tooshie, who is wearing white makeup, a military-style cap and flowing red pants, points out the shoes beneath those pants are 7 1/2-inch platforms. As a result, Tooshie towers over everyone else in the room.

“This infuses new ener-gy into these facilities,” O’Stayformore says of the festive night.


Clockwise: Sister Paddleme Tooshie explains why Rainbow Bingo is important:”This is my neighborhood.” The center’s bingo board lights up. Sylvia O’Stayformore announces winner numbers.

At almost every turn, when the bingo players of all ages see O’Stayformore and Tooshie, smiles and laughter fill the center’s meeting room. “I’ve worked all summer on my figure,” O’Stayformore says. “We’re here to wrangle you kids into some fun.”

“I want to support Ballard seniors,” Tooshie says. “This is my neighborhood. This will be my senior center.”

As people win, screams of joy fill the room. Hugs go around. People wad up their bingo sheets and fling them in the air. It’s old school fun - and fundraising - in the era of the iPhone.

More of these events will be needed soon.

Financially, Senior Services supports each of the seven independent nonprofit senior centers, but it expects next year,

when United Way’s contribution is expected to drop by half, to be tight, Donohue says. “We’re bracing ourselves for a pretty significant cut next July.”

CENTERS’ STRUGGLES REFLECT NATIONAL PRIORITIES

Funding struggles for senior services aren’t unique to Seattle.

“It’s a country-wide phe-nomenon,” Donohue says. “It’s ageism, and people don’t want to think about death.”

Teel agrees. “I get very frustrated, to be honest,” she says. When people think about older adults, they think about ex-pense. When they think about children, they think about an investment in the future.

Older Americans are not all “crotchety and sick,” she adds. “They give, and they give so much. We could still change the world.”

Senior Services is working to simplify its current relationship with the centers, transitioning all of the senior centers to a centralized governing board, with each center retaining an advisory board, rather than governing themselves separately. Another independent center or two might join the group.

“It’s really hard for a stand-alone senior center to make it,” Donohue says. “The funding climate is so competitive, and they’re never going to be able to get to the scale they need to attract funding.”


Clockwise: Sister Paddleme Tooshie talks with bingo players at Ballard Senior Center. Below: Sister Paddleme Tooshie

“DUCT TAPE CENTER”

Today, Teel refers to her “friendly center” as a “duct tape center” instead. In some places, paint is peeling, and the place could use a major lighting upgrade.

Under its lease with the city of Seattle, which owns the building, the Ballard Center doesn’t pay cash rent but since the Great Recession, it has been responsible for maintenance. (The city has contributed to some repairs in the past.) That means paying to fix things when they break, including a $4,200 bill for an elevator, Teel says. Plumbing and electrical work are also costly.

The city, for its part, recognizes the great need that the senior centers fill with all their services and has more than doubled its funding to them since 2012, according to Evan Clifthorne, legislative aide to City Councilman Tom Rasmussen. But the city also notes the funding struggle and the age of some of the buildings.

Discussions are ongoing about whether it makes sense to transfer owner-ship of any of the three city-owned senior center buildings to the entities that run them, and also whether a remodel could incorporate much-need-ed senior housing.

“They’re very old build-ings that need a lot of

work. I think that’s part of the discussion,” says Clift-horne. At the same time, “There’s a great need for housing for seniors throughout the city.”

Despite all the challenges, Ballard Center’s Teel says she loves her job and isn’t ready to retire because she can still make a differ-ence in someone’s life.

During the lunch hour, as bowls of salad arrive at the tables, Teel makes the day’s announcements, reminding people that the visiting nurses are upstairs for blood pressure checks.

She asks if anyone has questions or comments, and gets no replies from the crowd.

“Not even a good rumor?” she jokes. “We’re slipping, people!”

Margaret Santjer is a writer, editor and communications professional in the Seattle area. She has worked for NBCNews.com and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Brad Wong, news editor for Equal Voice News, contributed reporting.


Opposite page: A Ballard

Senior Center visitor stretches

during a yoga class.

Current page: Ballard Senior

Center visitors participate

in classes such as French,

yoga, and improve balance.

They also socialize at lunch.

Ballard Senior Center Director

Carlye Teel has been working

at senior centers for over 30

years.

Charly Leundeu Keunang had this dream of becoming an actor. The native of Cameroon, a country in Africa, came to the United States in 1999 using a French passport with an assumed identity. He recited Shakespeare in his tent on Skid Row in Los Angeles and idolized Robert De Niro.

To those who knew him, Keunang seemed a gentle man who volunteered at Skid Row soup kitchens and set up his tent beneath a large cross outside a church so he would feel closer to God.

Keunang, however, gained fame not as an actor, but after his life came to an abrupt and violent end on March 1 under a brilliant noonday sun. Millions of people across the globe have viewed a witness’s cellphone video posted on Facebook of what appears to be officers pinning him to the ground, pummeling him, and shooting him at close range.

The 43-year-old Keunang’s fatal shooting – one of at least four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) killings of unarmed Black men since 2014, some of them mentally ill or addicted to drugs – enraged community advocates. They say LA police reach for their guns far too quickly instead of trying to de-escalate confrontations with suspects, particularly Blacks and Latinos in poor and low-income neighborhoods.

Now, amid widespread criticism over excessive use of force by the LAPD, the department is embarking on training for its 10,000 officers on “de-escalating” confrontations and recognizing and appropriately approaching mentally-ill people.

The five hours of training – some of it reality-based exercises conducted with officers using laser tag guns in a simulated village at a LAPD Academy location in the

WILL LAPD ‘DE-ESACLATION’ TRAINING FOR OFFICERS WORK?

San Fernando Valley – also will focus on taking cover and keeping distance from suspects; calling on backup to buy time; avoiding unnecessary confron-tations; and policing fundamentals, such as probable cause and reasonable suspicion.

In addition, LAPD Deputy Chief Bill Murphy, who is leading the training, said it’s designed to improve relationships with the poor and people of color, while also helping officers recognize and overcome their own “implicit” racial biases.

“The de-escalation of force, which we’re talking about here, is a big topic, and so is how you teach police officers to do that. The other one is how do you deal with a person suspected of having mental illness?” Murphy, who has served more than 30 years with the LAPD, said.

“Especially in officer-involved shooting situations, many times it comes up – and sadly, it’s after the fact – that we shot someone and later learn they were

Criminal Justice

Gary Gately | Special to Equal Voice NewsOriginally published September 1, 2015


dealing with mental illness. And so you need to know up front what signs you could look for to determine if that’s going to be a factor, so dealing with the mentally ill is very, very important.”

Murphy called officers’ verbal and nonverbal communication critical, including body move-ments, the pace, tone and clari-ty of words, and listening closely to suspects.

ACKNOWLEDGING THE PAST

The training also includes some of the LAPD’s shameful history, including police officers’ 1991 brutal beating of Rodney King, an unarmed Black man, in South LA, and the ensuing 1992 riots after four of the officers were found not guilty by a court in Simi Valley, which is a suburb of Los Angeles.

And in the late 1990s, scores of LA police officers either assigned to or associated with the anti-gang unit of the department’s Rampart division were convicted of offenses including unprovoked shootings and beatings, planting false evidence, framing people, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of the wrongdoing.

“We talk about how it hasn’t always been positive,” Murphy said. “We haven’t always treated people respectfully, especially people of color. So we paint the picture that we’ve learned some hard lessons.”

Among grassroots advocates, especially those of color, however, the new LAPD training is drawing decidedly skeptical responses. Advocates say they’re wary of policing that relies far too heavily on use of force, criminalizes people of color and the poor for routine infractions, and fails to deal adequately with officers’ racial and ethnic biases.

“The training is insufficient and it’s really a tokenized effort to address a bigger problem than five hours of training will do,” said Karren Lane, prevention network director for Community Coalition, an organization representing low-income residents in South LA.

“And if the city of Los Angeles wants to change the culture of law enforcement in the city, the very first thing that needs to happen is that officers need to be held accountable for misconduct and for excessive use of force in communities of color, in particular, and really this training is not going to get at the root causes of why we see brutality and excessive use in communities of color.”

After years of police abuses, including excessive use of force, with impunity, Lane said, “People have completely lost confidence in the LAPD.”


Erick Huerta of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE), which works with low-in-come, Black and Latino communi-ties in South LA, called the LAPD training a good first step.

“Police are acknowledging that there are some faults, some holes in terms of their training, in terms of how things work within the department from top down,” Huerta, who is SCOPE’s communications coordinator, said. “Any new training that they’re getting is good because it shows that the police are hearing us.”

Still, Huerta, who is Latino, knows racial profiling first-hand. He can’t count the number of times he’s been stopped merely for walking or riding his bike in a low-income neighborhood because he fit the profile of a person whom officers were seeking. He says he stays low-key and cooperates during encounters with officers, lest he become a victim of overzealous policing, like excessive questioning or being threatened with arrest.

PART OF A NATIONAL DEBATE

The LAPD’s training comes amid a national outcry over police killings of unarmed Blacks, including – just since August 2014 – in Ferguson, Missouri, New York City, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, North Charleston, South Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Police departments nationwide are rethinking their approaches to de-escalation and use of force, and policing is in a state of crisis even though crime levels are at their lowest points in decades, according to a February report from the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement policy group based in Washington, D.C.

“We want police officers to recognize that stepping back from a contentious encounter

and getting assistance from other officers is a sign of strength, not weakness,” the report said.

“In these situations, slowing down the encounter and using de-escalation and crisis-intervention skills can help prevent a relatively minor incident from cascading into a bad result that no one expected or wanted.”

In LA, Eric Ares, a community organizer for Skid Row-based Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), laid much of the blame for what he calls overly aggressive policing and escalation into use of force on what police call “community-oriented policing.”

Too often, Ares said, that amounts to harassment and officers handing out citations for jaywalking, tossing a cigarette butt, or other minor violations. Such situations can quickly land somebody in court facing misdemeanor


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“Keeping the Culture Alive”

charges for not paying fines or, worse, degenerate into escalation and use of force, he said.

Like other grassroots advocates, he said the LAPD receives a disproportionate share of the city budget – roughly $1.2 billion a year – and with each crime spike some city leaders request more money for the department.

That reflects misplaced priorities, advocates say. They are often told

of a lack of funds for summer school, programs for youths in recreation centers, housing for homeless and low-income people, treatment for the mentally ill and drug addicts, renovations and programming for city parks – all of which could ultimately reduce crime.

Ares also urged expansion of the LAPD’s System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team (known as SMART), composed of mental health experts who go out on calls with officers dealing with people suspected of having mental illness. (LAPD did not respond to several requests for information about SMART, its budget or requests about how much is being spent on the de-escalation training.)

“Why do we think we need police departments that require these insatiable budgets instead of talking about the root causes that lie beneath poverty and crime?” Ares said. “If Charly Keunang

FACTS REGARDING THE

LADP

had access to comprehensive mental health care or housing, he wouldn’t have been on the streets.

“And if he wouldn’t have been on the streets, there is a very good chance he’d still be alive today.”

Gary Gately is a freelance journalist based in Baltimore. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, CBS News, The Crime Report and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange.

Celebrating 20 years of organizing for worker and civil rights in New Mexico

L e a r n m o r e a t w w w. s o m o s u n p u e b l o u n i d o . o r g

Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama

(FOCAL)

P.O. Box 214| Montgomery, Alabama

36101-0214 (800) 300-0232 www.focalfocal.org

Celebrating 44 Years of

Service: Honoring the Past… Investing in the Future

FOCAL is at the forefront of every major legislative initiative designed to improve,

support, and promote accessible licensed child care in homes and

centers throughout Alabama. We are led by our members, and our mission is

to measurably improve the lives of children and families through child care

training, leadership development, advocacy and community organizing.

Visit: www.focalfocal.org, join and contribute!


Los Angeles Community Action

NetworkThe Mission of LA CAN is

to help people dealingwith poverty create anddiscover opportunities

while serving as a vehicle toensure they have voice,

ppower and opinion in thedecisions that are directly

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Learn more atwww.cangress.org

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled Charly Leundeu Keunang’s death at the hands of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers a homicide.

But, none of the officers who allegedly fired six bullets into the homeless man at close range on Skid Row March 1 have been charged. LAPD refuses to comment on whether the officers have faced departmental discipline.

LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck has said Keunang grabbed a rook-ie officer’s gun before being fatally shot by three officers. But, a cell-phone video posted on Facebook and viewed by millions of people worldwide appears inconclusive.

An enhanced version of the video analyzed by the Los Angeles Times showed Keunang reaching toward an officer’s waistband, while being punched repeatedly, but never touching a gun.

Perhaps the most damning evidence: Jeff Sharlet, a writer for GQ magazine, wrote that he

viewed footage from two officers’ body cameras that showed Keunang never reached for or grabbed any officer’s gun.

Police have refused to release body-cam footage or speak publicly about a $20 million lawsuit filed on Aug. 5 by Keunang’s family. After lawsuits are filed, government agencies typically present information in court.

The lawsuit said police had been told before the shooting that Keunang was possibly mentally ill. The autopsy revealed that Keunang had drugs in his body.

During a 14-year prison term for armed robbery, he spent time in the psych unit of a federal prison, but appeared to be trying to put his life back together, even contacting a relative from his native Cameroon about a family reunion.

According to the lawsuit, officers had been called to the scene after another man complained Keunang had assaulted him. However, video showed Keunang pushed the man’s

tent but did not assault him, the suit said.

Keunang spoke calmly with officers for about 3 ½ minutes and after that, the suit alleges, “Three of the police officers became instantly volatile, seizing the tent with Keunang inside.”

Officers fired Taser darts into the tent, punched Keunang, hit him with their batons, tackled him, dragged him out to the street, and pinned him to the ground before fatally shooting him, the suit alleged.

The suit, which names as defendants the LAPD, Beck and the three officers who allegedly fired the six bullets, calls for those officers to be charged criminally.

“The police have been allowed to use lethal force with impunity,” said Dan Stormer, an attorney representing the family.

“And it is a complete disregard for the lives of people of color and poor people. It’s basically operating under the policy that if the officer gets scared, he’s entitled to kill someone, and that’s obscene.”

Critic: Police Can ‘Use Lethal Force with Impunity’

Charly Keunang

Criminal Justice


Gary Gately | Special to Equal Voice NewsOriginally published Septemeber 1, 2015

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With the Aug. 9, 2014, anniversary of Michael Brown’s killing still in the minds of people throughout the country, it is time for housing activists to support and build bridges with the movement known as Black Lives Matter. This call to action should not elicit the jaw-dropping, what-are-you-saying response that it often does.

To begin with, working to end police violence against Black men is the right thing to do. The killings of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott and hundreds of other Black men by police are an intolerable outrage. They require us to take action.

Housing activists should join hands with Black Lives Matter because their work cuts to the core of the role that race plays in defining how one is treated in society. Race is an inescapable and unjust factor that determines the housing environment in which you live, and whether you need to fear being shot by the police.

If we truly want to work for hous-ing equity and make housing a human right, then racial disparity must be confronted.

In Chicago, the Marshall Field Garden Apartments (MFGA) is but one example of the role race

Housing


CONVERGENCE:HOUSING, RACE AND BLACK LIVES MATTER

John Bartlett | Metropolitan Tenants OrganizationOriginally published August 12, 2015

plays in housing in America. The apartment complex, which has about 625 units, receives support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It is an island, inhabited by mostly low-income Black women and their children, in a sea of White wealth on the Northside of Chicago. Its location is one of opportunity in an area many dream of living.

But for the residents, it is a night-mare. Its security system acts to shackle and control its residents. The two-square-block complex has one entrance that all the residents and their guests must pass through. Upon entering, the door closes and locks in residents and guests.

A security guard directs residents to pass through a body scanner and then to pass their hand through a biometric finger print machine. It is only then that residents and their guests are “free” to enter. To leave, residents and their visitors have to double back to the entrance and enter a code to open the locked door.

Observes Paul Burns, an organizer with Metropolitan Tenants Orga-nization: “As a Black man, I am ap-palled by this treatment. Entering these apartments is so dehuman-izing. It’s as if Marshall Field Gar-den Apartments is a practice field for prison.”

The MacArthur Foundation recently released a report that found Black women in Milwaukee are being evicted from their homes at the same disproportionate rates that Black men are being imprisoned. Black men in the U.S. are three-and-a-half times more likely to be killed by police than White men. Black women in Milwaukee are three times more likely to be evicted than White women.

That Black men are being locked up and Black women are being

locked out are not unrelated. Both poor housing and police misconduct thrive in segregation. Eviction and incarceration work together to keep communities of color poor and disenfranchised.

A family forcibly displaced by eviction often experiences a sense of despair, as well as a feeling of injustice. In Chicago, according to a study by the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, the average eviction takes just 90 seconds. Tenants rarely are able to tell their story, let alone inform the court of the impending harm the eviction will cause.

Tenants are assumed to be at fault. Most families will end up seeking a place to stay in a relative’s home or at a shelter. In either case, the overcrowded living situation and loss of dignity mean hardship, particularly on children. Parents often lose jobs and kids miss school.

In the same way that evictions result in a sense of despair and feelings of injustice, incarceration

Celebrating43 years

of working forjustice and equality

in Tennessee.


Chicago Coalitionfor the Homeless

Fighting for the human right to housing since 1980

www.chicagohomeless.orgFor free legal services,

please call (800) 940-1119

John Bartlett | Metropolitan Tenants OrganizationOriginally published August 12, 2015

Human rights are the social rights that allow everyone to enjoy life, liberty, equality, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and torture, and freedom of thought and expression. A society based on human rights not only offers hope for survival but a genuine path toward a society that values and supports every life in a community.

The way to win our human rights is through struggle. As Frederick Douglass said, “It is not the light that we need; but the fire, it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake.”

Today’s young leaders are taking the movement for human rights into the streets. It is time to demand massive investments in communities of color, so that everyone has a decent home, a decent job, a good education, good health and is free from the fear of state violence.

Black Lives Matter is a struggle for Human Rights that we all must support.

John Bartlett is the executive director of the Chicago-based Metropolitan Tenants Organization, which works with residents to have a voice in affordable housing and social justice issues.

of Black men results in identical feelings. The court system is stacked against them. Many people of color are represented by overworked and underpaid attorneys.

A prevailing view is that if arrested they must have done something wrong. Even the bail system is biased against low-income people of color. Unable to meet bail demands, they are stuck in the crowded institution called prison, miles from home. Many lose their jobs and their children lose a parent.

The “locked-up-and-locked-out” syndrome described in the MacArthur report creates a feedback loop that produces a crushing incidence of generational poverty. All of this devastates communities.

Having either an eviction or a criminal record makes it difficult to rent a decent apartment or find a good job. It forces families to rent in highly-segregated

neighborhoods where jobs are scarce, educational opportunities are rare, and crime is high.

People who can leave do so, which further erodes a community’s fabric and economic vitality. The only people left in these communities are those who can go nowhere else.

A history of racial injustice breeds false stereotypes and shapes the basis for this nation’s current state of affairs. It is a social order that is unjust and unacceptable.

This is why housing activists need to support Black Lives Matter. Black youth are leading a struggle for equality, while defining the role race plays in the denial of basic human rights. A human rights approach is a key to success, as it focuses on the broader rights of the community and the dignity of its residents.


www.urbanhabitat.org

Democratizing Power

Advancing Equitable Policies

Achieving Regional Equity

Graduate’s name: Alan Stanfield

Home city: Tupelo, Mississippi

Name of school or program: Parkway Elementary School

Year completed: Second grade

Alan Stanfield “My mom, Stephanie Stanfield, is helping me write this because I’m only 9. I’m Alan Stanfield, and I just graduated from second grade at Parkway Elementary in Tupelo, Mississippi. It was awesome to get a diploma and wear a cap and gown! Check out my picture—see that smile?

“Next year, I’ll be at Lawndale Elementary and third graders will have to pass a reading ‘gate’ to go on to the fourth grade. I’m lucky because my mom helps me everyday with school stuff. She makes sure I do my homework, and she talks to my teacher ALL the time—I mean, ALL THE TIME, about how I’m doing in reading and math (and whether I’m minding the teacher or goofing off).

“She meets with my teacher AND the principal when I’ve messed up, and she tries to make sure I get the help I need. I had a really hard time with reading in first grade but mom worked with me a lot at home and even asked a tutor to help me a little. It got easier this year, but I’m still working on understanding what I read. Mom helps my two brothers and two sisters, too, but mostly me.

“My mom LOVES education! She graduated from the Parents for Public Schools Parent Engagement Program so she could learn more about how schools run and how she could help me and other kids, too. Mom was worried that other kids weren’t ready for kindergarten. So, she helped start a class to prepare them.

“Last summer, my school held a ‘Splash Into Kindergarten’ program for new students to get them ready for school, and it was my mom’s idea! Of course, she got some other parents from Parents for Public Schools to help. Next month, they’ll have ‘Splash Into Kindergarten’ at all four elementary schools in Tupelo to help more kids.

“I know I am ready for the third grade because I worked hard, and Mom knew how to help me too! This won’t be the last time I wear a cap because I know I am going to graduate from high school. My mom and dad will be there, helping me all the way.”

Submission from: Nita Rudy from Parents for Public Schools. The organization, based in Jackson, Mississippi, works on strengthening public schools.

A 2nd Grader Who Loves HisMom’s Help

What is your education story?


Equal Voice NewsOriginally published June 23, 2015

Education


AMERICA’S NEXT LEADERS:Young People Making a Difference

Each story in the “America’s Next Leaders 2014” special series features a young person who contributes to his or her community and who has received a Sargent Shriver Youth Warriors Against Poverty Leadership Award. Each year, Marguerite Casey Foundation, which publishes Equal Voice News, honors young people with this award.

A Woman Wants Youth to ‘Dream Big’

Tracy Chacon was born and raised in one of the most impoverished areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Despite a childhood filled with adversity caused by poverty, she is a determined community member who is offering much-needed support to others so that positive change can take root.

In high school, her grades were strong enough to earn her a place on the honor roll. Since she was 17, she has been involved in efforts to make her city a better place. In her work with the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), an organization that focuses on

strengthening neighborhoods, Tracy learned of community needs and saw where improvements could be made. As a result, she devoted much time and effort to campaigns and projects that address social justice issues.

“As a youth organizer, I was able to see how much power I had if I used my voice,” Tracy says. “I have always known that we needed change in my community, but I never knew how to do it.”

Mikki Anaya, a community advocate who knows Tracy and her work, says the young woman's

Tracy ChaconNominated by:

SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP)

Youth

Maria Rigou | Equal Voice NewsOriginally published July 31, 2015

To see more photos

and videos, visit equalvoiceforfamilies.org


commitment to achieving social justice is based on experience.

Tracy is the first person in her family to graduate from high school and attend college. She also earned her master's de-gree in social work from New Mexico Highlands Univer-sity.

“Becoming a social worker has been my lifelong dream,” Tracy says. “Serving my community and creating change one person at a time is my calling.”

Mikki, who nominated Tracy for the Shriver Award, has seen her mentor New Mexico youth who struggled with applying for college and navigating the education system.

When helping these young people, Tracy does everything she can so that they will succeed. Mikki describes Tracy as a “self-motivated young woman who would be successful in any field she chooses.”

Throughout his life, Sargent Shriver, architect of the War on Poverty and visionary leader of Head Start, Peace Corps, Job Corps and VISTA – worked to provide opportunities for people to lift themselves out of poverty. The Sargent Shriver Youth Warriors Against Poverty Leadership Award was launched in 2012 to recognize and honor youths’ vision, passion and dedication to improving the lives of families and their communities.

ABOUT THE SHRIVER YOUTH WARRIORS AGAINST POVERTY AWARD

For Tracy, community work is where she wants to invest her energy and talent. She knows the need is there and that community

success is r e w a r d i n g .

With her award, Tracy will pay for her graduate school loans. When she was accepted to her master's d e g r e e program, Tracy p r o m i s e d herself that she

would do everything possible to complete her education.

“I love my community, and I want to model and be the change I believe is possible,” she says. “I want to inspire young people to dream big and never lose hope.”

Observes Mikki: “Tracy is a shining example of being the change she wishes to see in the world, and New Mexico is a better place because of that.”

As a youth organizer, I was able to see how

much povwer I had if I used

my voice


InnerCity Struggle promotes safe, healthy and non-violent communities by organizing youth and families to build power and influence in Boyle

Heights, El Sereno, unincorporated East Los Angeles and Lincoln Heights to work towards economic, social and educational justice.

When faced with adversity, New Orleans teenager Rahsaan Ison took what ultimately could have been a negative life experience and transformed it into something that could be used for positive change.

In January 2014, Rahsaan was a student at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), when he crossed railroad tracks and a parked train near his campus. He wanted to make it to class on time. To his surprise, he also violated a school safety policy which led to expulsion on the same day.

He was, as he says, dumbfounded that a childish mistake could lead to something that could haunt him for the rest of his school years. Rahsaan and his family took action.

He organized his classmates and launched a campaign to educate school administrators about harsh forms of academic discipline and how they disproportionately affect students of color and

l o w - i n c o m e families.

“I feel like every one should have a fair chance,

e s p e c i a l l y in America,”

Rahsaan, 16, says. “This is the place where we are free to be ourselves and create and be anyone we want.”

The fact that R a h s a a n c o n f r o n t e d

the experience and the issue of unfairness toward students of color has earned him praise from Ashley Shelton, a Louisiana community advocate who knows him. “It has been so rewarding to see Rahsaan turn this painful experience into an opportunity to educate his peers and create awareness of the challenges that some students face,” she says.

“He advocates for a voice and [works] with his fellow students to unveil the challenges that low-income students face.”

Rahsaan also became involved with Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), a New Orleans organization that works to help young people have better lives. Through his broader community work, Rahsaan established a chapter of Dignity in Schools, a national campaign that seeks to keep young people in classrooms and end harsh disciplinary policies that “push” them out.

“I started organizing my friends at school to lift up the disparities and lack of support for at-risk and disadvantaged students,” Rahsaan says. “This [inequality] is happening every day to African American and Latino children all over the United States.”

After he was expelled, he was able to reapply for the 2014-15 academic year. Now, Rahsaan – who is also an entrepreneur and entertainer – is studying media arts at NOCCA. He believes that his education at the school is “key to furthering his dreams.”

This year, Rahsaan and friends involved in the Dignity in Schools campaign finished an eight-track musical recording to raise money for youth programs at FFLIC.

“Kids who are getting expelled from schools for no apparent reason don’t know anything about due process or getting a lawyer,” he says. “I want to be the voice that helps them out.”

A Black Teen Campaigns for Dignity

Rahsaan IsonNominated by:

Families and Friends of Lousiana’s Incarcerated

Children (FFLIC)

Maria Rigou | Equal Voice NewsOriginally published August 28, 2015


SPEAK OUT. BE HEARD. CHANGE THE FUTURE..

www.equalvoiceaction.comJoin EVA today

WHERE CHANGE BEGINS

®

2015 SARGENT SHRIVER YOUTH WARRIORS AGAINST POVERTY

ROSHELL ROSALES AGUILAR, 16

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OSVALDO LOPEZ, 21

EDUARDO PACHECO, 18

MARCO MARES, 17

GUADALUPE JAZMIN RAMIREZ, 20

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CORLEONE HAM, 20 SARAH MOZELLE JOHNSON, 20

AMINAH ALI, 18 ANDREW BIGELOW, 24


www.caseygrants.org

Marguerite Casey Foundation is dedicated to creating a movement of working families advocating on their own behalf for change. We strive to bring humility and hope to our work. Our actions are guided by the firm belief that significant positive change is not only possible, but absolutely necessary. Within this framework, we seek to do the following: Support and nurture strong, vibrant activism within

and among families, enabling them to advocate for their own interests and improve the public and private systems that impact their lives.Examine, change and inform the advancement of social and economic policies and practices that promote the development of strong families and strong communities.Encourage the development of a coherent knowledge base for advocates, families and the organizations that serve them.Invest in system change and cross-system change in order to generate greater knowledge and provide effective working models for practice.

About Marguerite Casey Foundation

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Equal Voice Magazine, is a compilation of stories that originally appeared in Equal Voice News, an online newspaper published by Marguerite Casey Foundation.

equal voice magazine winter edition 2015

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