Head Start kids enjoy busy week

This hot, steamy week in Bloomington has been wet and wonderful for the  three- to five-year-olds who participate in SCCAP’s year-round Head Start program.

Classrooms 1, 3 and 4 are all holding Water Days this week in which kids bring their bathing suits and water toys, and play outside in the sprinklers.  

Room 1 went on a field trip to check out the planes and facilities at the Monroe County Airport. They’ll take another trip to Spring Mill State Park Friday.  Room 3 took a trip to the Monroe County Library today.

Room 4 has also been busy. They studied insects on Tuesday and watered their garden at SCCAP Wednesday. Their Water Day is today.

SCCAP helps WTIU raise more than $20,000

The South Central Community Action Program got the opportunity this month to help the local PBS station, WTIU, by donating our time to answer phones and take pledges for a few hours one night.

According to a letter we just received from WTIU Member Services Coordinator Laura Grannan, the help of volunteers this month enabled the station to raise more than $20,000 from 163 pledges during its June Fund Drive. The successful fund drive assisted WTIU in making its projected revenue goals for the year, Grannan wrote, and gives it a strong foothold in the new fiscal year.

This was the third time that SCCAP has participated in a WTIU fund drive. We appreciate the chance to help out the station and to bring some additional attention to our organization.   

Thanks to those of you who made donations during the fund drive!

Paul Krugman on poverty

Today, I ran across a New York Times column from last year about poverty. It’s titled ”Poverty is Poison” and written by Paul Krugman, the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.

If you haven’t seen this before, it’s worth a read. Click here to check out Krugman’s call for our country to fulfill the mission LBJ set out 45 years ago with his War on Poverty.

Here’s an excerpt:

“America’s failure to make progress in reducing poverty, especially among children, should provoke a lot of soul-searching. Unfortunately, what it often seems to provoke instead is great creativity in making excuses.

Some of these excuses take the form of assertions that America’s poor really aren’t all that poor — a claim that always has me wondering whether those making it watched any TV during Hurricane Katrina, or for that matter have ever looked around them while visiting a major American city.

Mainly, however, excuses for poverty involve the assertion that the United States is a land of opportunity, a place where people can start out poor, work hard and become rich.

But the fact of the matter is that Horatio Alger stories are rare, and stories of people trapped by their parents’ poverty are all too common. According to one recent estimate, American children born to parents in the bottom fourth of the income distribution have almost a 50 percent chance of staying there — and almost a two-thirds chance of remaining stuck if they’re black.

That’s not surprising. Growing up in poverty puts you at a disadvantage at every step.”

Taste of Bloomington Saturday

Hey SCCAP and its supporters, who’s going to the Taste of Bloomington Saturday?

As a B-Town native, it’s an event I’ve enjoyed since it started in 1981. For me, it’s a place I see old friends, sometimes for the only time all year,  and love checking out one of my favorites of Bloomington’s assets, its delicious variety and abundance of restaurants.

As a bonus, a portion of the proceeds for the event, which draws more than 5,000 people a year, are donated to the Hoosier Hills Food Bank and the Community Kitchen of Monroe County.

Here’s the scoop on this year’s event:

The 27th Annual Taste of Bloomington will take place on June 20th, from 3 to 11 pm at Showers Common (7^th & Morton Streets).

Tickets will be available on the day of the event.

Admission prices are $6 per person; children under 12 are free!

All food items will be priced at $3 or less.

Taste of Bloomington is a non-smoking event.

Parking is available in City garages at the following locations: 7th & Walnut Streets – 4th & Walnut Streets – 7th & Morton Streets

Circles welcomes Nick McLain

Thanks for the following contribution from SCCAP Circles Coordinator Bonnie Vesely:

The Monroe County Circles™ Initiative warmly welcomes one of our new AmeriCorps Volunteer Managers!  Nicholas McLain began serving with Circles™ on June 2^nd.  

He is already hard at work building our online presence and making many community contacts as part of his volunteer recruitment effort.  He is also bringing organization to our Youth Program.  Nick is a journalist with degrees in Journalism and Political Science, who was schooled at IU- Bloomington, and formerly wrote news, sports, columns and even movie reviews for the Mooresville-Decatur Times.  He has great tech skills, and we are grateful that he is getting us connected! 

Nick is an animal lover, particularly enjoying dogs, and has worked at kennels.  In his spare time he likes to visit pet stores, play with his dogs, hang out with his brother and friends, as well as play basketball, golf and tennis.   A true renaissance man, he also loves to read! 

Please contact Nick at 339-3447, ext. 263 if you’d like to volunteer with the Circles Youth Program, to prepare, serve and cleanup meals with a group of your friends at a weekly Circles Community meeting, or as a Circles Community Ally – he is eager to hear from you.  You can also contact Nick if you would like to schedule a presentation on Circles™ for your faith community, service club or other group.

The other half of the Americorps Volunteer Management Team, Thomas Henning, begins serving on July 1^st : look for news about Thomas on this blog!

SCCAP featured on WRTV 6 news

Energy Assistance Program Coordinator Mary Zimmerman did a great job yesterday in talking to Channel 6 about the need for the fans the station donated to SCCAP. You can check out the news broadcast with Mary’s comments at this link at the IndyChannel.com.

Here’s what Mary had to say to the WRTV viewers who donated money to buy the fans:

“I wish that they could see the families that they help because it’s terrible that some can get teary-eyed for a fan. But we have that happen because they really do need this assistance and they are so grateful for that help.”

WRTV 6 donates fans

Thanks to WRTV 6, the South Central Community Action Program will be able to provide fans to 50 clients who are elderly, disabled or have children five and under.

The fans will make the summer safer and more comfortable for those who receieve them. They will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis to clients who have been served in other SCCAP programs. There is a limit of one fan per household.

SCCAP Energy Assistance Program Coordinator Mary Zimmerman and Maintenance/Property Manager Edward Pate went to Home Depot in Greenwood Wednesday to pick up the fans, which were purchased with money donated by WRTV 6 viewers.

WRTV 6 has been donating fans to community action agencies across the state for many years. This year, it donated 650 fans statewide. We deeply appreciate this support for our clients.

 

On the air with Lare

South Central Community Action Executive Director Todd Lare was interviewed last week on the Kids Count Radio Show of the Indiana Youth Institute about the need for programs that truly enable families to get out of poverty.

Lare and Scott Miller, author of Until It’s Gone, a book about ending poverty in America, took part in a long interview relating to the Circles Initiative, a program that provides its participants with the resources, opportunities and a plan to get out of poverty. The program, which SCCAP has offered for about a year, also ultimately aims to eliminate poverty in communities.  

Miller said that despite the presence of numerous programs to help the poor with food, shelter, housing, job training and other needs, almost all of those programs are not set up to get individuals and families all the way out of poverty, which he said requires a family income of at least $30,000 or $40,000 in most communities.

“Our programs need to be designed to get people out of poverty,” Miller said. “Then we’ll come up with solutions, not band aids.” 

Lare  said he saw the need to offer programs like Circles after being hired by SCCAP close to four years ago. He saw the agency administering a series of programs that he was proud to offer to people in poverty, but without enough tying them together to enable permanent changes in the lives of clients.  

“I came on and said we’ve either got to live our mission statement or we’ve got to change it,” Lare said. “We’ve either got to provide opportunities, which is what our mission statement says, for people to get out of poverty or we need to be about the mission of helping them be comfortable where they are.

“If the latter is what we chose to do, I’m probably not the guy for the job. And so we’ve really tried to re-focus our efforts on what it takes for families to comprehensively use our benefits to plan their lives and move out of poverty.”

We’ll provide more from this interview in the next couple of days. Also, we’ve got the perfect opportunity for you to hear more about the Circles Initiative this weekend. Circles Coordinator Bonnie Vesely was interviewed this week for a program that will run on B97 FM in Bloomington this Sunday at 6:30 a.m. 

On the off chance that you won’t be listening to the radio at that time on Sunday, I’m pledging that after a night of hanging out at the Taste of Bloomington to raise money for the Community Kitchen and Hoosier Hills Food Bank, I’ll get up and record it so we can provide it here.

Employee Free Choice Act rally Friday in Bloomington

As reported in The Herald-Times today, supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act will gather at 2 p.m. Friday, June 19 in front of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce office at 400 W. Seventh Street.

The demonstration, according to the story, is being organized by South Central Indiana Jobs with Justice in response to the Chamber of Commerce’s lobbying efforts against passage of the federal bill.

According to a Web site for the bill, the Employee Free Choice Act is intended to:

• Help America’s working families improve their standard of living.
• Fix a broken system that gives corporations too much power.
• Restore fairness and the promise of the American Dream with a robust middle class, economic growth and shared prosperity.

Speakers at the rally in Bloomington, the H-T said, will include City Council Member Isabel Piedmont and President of the White River Central Labor Council Jackie Yenna. It will be facilitated by IU Professor Emeritus Milton Fisk.

Another sign of the times

SCCAP has seen a dramatic increase so far this year in the number of people receiving energy assistance through our Summer Cool Program in our four-county service area.

In the first two weeks of this year’s program, 1,501 households have received $77,790 in benefits.

Let’s compare that to last year. In the first two weeks of last year’s Summer Cool program, 278 households received $14,655 in benefits.

We have done a bit more this year to inform and remind potential participants about the Summer Cool Program, but we think the biggest change, unfortunately, is in the level of need being experienced by our clients.

Too poor to make the news

There was nicely researched op-ed piece in The New York Times yesterday about the devastating, but often overlooked, impact of the current recession on those who were already poor.

You can check out the entire op-ed, which is the first of a series, here. It was written by Barbara Ehrenreich, author, of “This Land Is Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation.”

Provided below is an excerpt that summarizes Ehrenreich’s conclusion:

“The recession of the ’80s transformed the working class into the working poor, as manufacturing jobs fled to the third world, forcing American workers into the low-paying service and retail sector. The current recession is knocking the working poor down another notch — from low-wage employment and inadequate housing toward erratic employment and no housing at all. Comfortable people have long imagined that American poverty is far more luxurious than the third world variety, but the difference is rapidly narrowing.”

Watch it Friday: Hard Life in South Central Indiana

This Friday, June 12, there’s a program on WTIU 30 documenting poverty in our area and people’s use of resources to help them overcome poverty.

The show begins at 10 p.m. Here’s its description in the WTIU guide:

“On any given day, there are people in south-central Indiana who need assistance with food, shelter and employment. In many cases, family and friends are the answer to those needs. In other cases, short-term public assistance can help.

But often, people need intensive and on-going support as they work their way back to a stable, secure and safe life. This program, by filmmaker Jo Throckmorton, is the story of three people who are on a journey of recovery.”

I haven’t watched this before, so maybe someone who has can give us his or her thoughts on it. I see from a quick trip to the Google that it received First Place in the 2008 Best in Indiana Journalism Award for “Best Social Justice Reporting.”

MCCSC officials: Daniels proposes to use federal stimulus funds targeted to low-income and special education students for general fund purposes instead

As reported in The Herald-Times today, Monroe County Community School Corp. officials are criticizing Gov. Mitch Daniels’ budget proposal because, among other things, it proposes to divert federal stimulus funds intended to serve low-income and special education students into the general fund of schools across the state.

Here’s an excerpt from the story by Andy Graham of the H-T:

“The federal money is earmarked for Title I services for low-income students and for special education. MCCSC officials said they cannot legally use that money for general fund purposes. ‘Basically, we’re being asked by the state to use our own (federal) funds illegally in the eyes of the federal Department of Education,’ said board Vice President Valerie Merriam.” 

A total of $444 million in federal stimulus funds make up most of the 2-percent state budget increase that Daniels has promised to Indiana schools, according to the story.

“The governor went on TV and said education was a top priority and that his budget would provide a 2 percent increase each of the next two years and he had to know, all along, that was wrong in real terms,” State Representative Matt Pierce of Bloomington said in the story. “You can’t take federal stimulus money earmarked for other purposes and apply that to schools’ general funds. So he wasn’t being straight with the people of Indiana.”  

Remembering the flood and the lives it changed

UPDATE (6/11): We’ve got another account of the flood and the ensuring clean-up effort today from SCCAP Maintenance Manager Edward Pate. Thanks, Edward! Please give it a read in the comments section of our previous post asking for flood stories.

UPDATE (6/10): We just received another personal account of the flood and its aftermath from SCCAP Operations Manager Chris Myers, who writes about fighting the flood damage on two fronts – at home in Brown County and at work at our washed-out office in Martinsville. She points out that all four counties that SCCAP serves are still feeling the flood’s impact a year later. Her account is provided in what’s currently the last comment in our previous post asking for flood stories. Like the earlier comments we received, it’s definitely worth a read. 

———————

In response to our invitation last week for people to share their memories of last year’s flood and their thoughts on its lasting impact, we received a number of poignant stories. You can read them all in the comments at the bottom of the post linked here.

Here’s the latest comment, posted today by Diane Jendrek, who writes about her cousin, Brian. When you think about Brian’s situation, and about many other people in our area facing similar situations over the past year, you get an idea of just how devastating this flood was to people’s lives.    

Thanks to Diane and everyone else who have shared your stories and thoughts about last year’s disaster.   

“The devastation of the flood occurred in the dark of night and almost too quickly for some to comprehend what was happening to them. My cousin, Brian, who lived in Martinsville, was awakened by his cat who had jumped into bed with him to escape the rising waters. When Brian sat up he was in water already to his knees. By the time he was able to get out of the house it had risen to shoulder height. Brian manage to get himself and the cats to higher ground and safety.

“He lost everything in the flood. His home was condemned with severe structural damage and his vehicles were total losses. Just 3 weeks ago he was able to move into a new home of his own. The last year was spent with insurance forms, endless piles of paperwork, disappoints,tribulations and the frustrations of countless deadlines to meet as he dealt with FEMA and other agencies trying to help him move forward with his life. The effects and memories of the events of that one dark night will be with Brian for the rest of his life.”

Join the Circles Facebook group

Our new SCCAP AmeriCorps member Nick McLain has re-launched the Facebook group for supporters of the Monroe County Circles Initiative.

If you have a Facebook profile, do a search on Facebook for “Monroe County Circles Initiative” to join the group.

For those not familar with the Circles Initiative, it is an intentional way for people to build relationships across class and race lines to end poverty in the community. It aims to:

- Change the mind-set of the community so that it wants to end poverty
- Change goals, policies, and approaches to end poverty, and
- Empower people in poverty to help solve community problems while transitioning out of poverty themselves.

Welcome, Nick, and thanks for re-starting this Facebook page and making it permanent so that it will be updated on an ongoing basis with information and photos relating to the Monroe County Circles Initative.

SCCAP working on proposal to expand Head Start

The South Central Community Action Program is working on a grant proposal to expand our Head Start Program to serve an additional 34 children. If we receive funding, we will add two classes that are year-round and six hours per day, which is the class format that has the longest list of families waiting to be in our program.

The proposal is due to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families on June 23. We will also be applying to the same funding source to establish an Early Start Program in Monroe County. That proposal is due on July 9.  

Head Start Expansion Goal: To provide comprehensive child development services to an additional 34 economically disadvantaged preschool children (ages 3 to 5) and their families in Monroe County. These Head Start services will aim to promote school readiness by enhancing the social, cognitive, physical and emotional development of the children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families. With this expansion, we will provide service for a total of 269 children, ages three to five, in Monroe County (a 13 percent increase).

Summary of Program Design: Services will be provided through two full-year, six-hour per day classes. One additional classroom will be located at SCCAP’s Lindbergh Head Start center. A site has not yet been identified for the second classroom. Children and their families will receive all of the services that are currently available through our Head Start Program.

Kurt Van der Dussen touched SCCAP, our clients and organizations throughout our community

I heard today the sad news that a friend and former co-worker Kurt Van der Dussen had died after a long battle with lung cancer.  

During his many years as a reporter at the H-T before becoming a copy editor the last couple of years, Kurt primarily covered county government, the justice system, the state legislature and auto racing. 

But in a career that spanned 32 years at the Bloomington newspaper, he also tackled more than a dozen stories that involved the South Central Community Action Program. In 1989, for instance, Kurt wrote about a change in which SCCAP’s former Project SAFE got a new name, the Energy Assistance Program, that it still has today.

A losing game for the poor

The Indianapolis Star has followed-up yesterday’s story that we linked on this blog about how wealthy counties receive more lottery proceeds than poorer counties with an editorial today saying that the system needs to be changed.

Here’s an excerpt from the editorial: 

“Given the social dynamics of lottery-playing and the hunger for state revenue, this tax on the poor figures to continue. What government must do is correct the inequity on the spending end.

“Rather than simply rewarding communities according to their level of consumerism, lottery proceeds could be applied to the state’s most basic needs. For nearly half the 43 states that run lotteries, that purpose is education.

“Hoosier folklore, coaxed along by politicians’ rhetoric, has associated the lottery with education for many years. The Daniels administration has advocated making that myth into reality, perhaps by funding college scholarships for the needy. With several prominent members of the legislature having questioned the fairness of the current system, the time may have arrived to make the best of a bad bet.”

You can read the entire editorial here.

SCCAP to work phones at WTIU tonight

Four South Central Community Action Program volunteers will answer the phones from 8 to 11 tonight as part of WTIU’s 2009 annual fund drive.

“We’re glad to be able to donate time to support public television in our area for the third straight year,” SCCAP Executive Director Todd Lare said. “We also appreciate the opportunity to draw attention to our organization.”

So call us at 856-9848 and contribute!

And if you see us on your TV screen at home, that will no doubt be even more entertaining than tonight’s outstanding WTIU 30 programming: 8 p.m. – Jazz trumpeter Chris Botti performs in Boston; 9:30 – Great Performances with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood.

Wealthy Hoosiers benefit most from lotto profits

“An Indianapolis Star review of the Hoosier Lottery has found that while lower-income players disproportionately fund the lottery, the state transfers lottery profits disproportionately to the wealthiest counties.” Read the Indy Star story here.

The inequity, according to the story, is ”caused by the formula used by the state. Lottery profits in Indiana are not returned to counties on a per-capita basis or based on where tickets are purchased.