Congressman Ellison – “Where are you?” National Urban League Writes National Leaders on Behalf of 27 Million Underemployed Americans!
Today at 11:35 a.m. on Facebook, the National Urban League delivered the following message:
The below letter outlining National Urban League’s plan for putting Americans back to work was sent to the following National Leaders:
Mr. Lawrence Summers, Director, National Economic Council
Honorable Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
Honorable Barbara Lee, Chair, Congressional Black Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives
November 24, 2009
Dear National Leaders,
I am writing to you on behalf of the over 27 million underemployed Americans in desperate need of full-time employment. This includes not only the 
unemployed, but also the marginally attached and those working part-time for economic reasons, all of whom are struggling to make ends meet during these difficult economic times. As you are well aware, the news that in October, the national unemployment rate exceeded ten percent for the first time since the early 1980s was a sobering wake-up for the leadership of this country even to the point of soliciting a call for a Jobs Summit to be held after the Thanksgiving holiday. While I applaud the Administration for publicly acknowledging the gravity of our nation’s employment situation, I would add that double-digit unemployment has been a reality for communities of color since last summer –for African Americans since August, 2008 and for Latinos since February, 2009.
As President and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream, I have firsthand knowledge of the tremendous obstacles these families have been facing, not just since national unemployment reached 10.2% in October, but for over a year now. In fact, demand for workforce development, business development and housing counseling services through the Urban League’s more than 100 affiliates located in 35 cities and the District of Columbia increased by 74 percent between 2006 and 2008. Our local affiliates are on the front lines of this jobs crisis and witness the devastating impact it is having on the individuals and families that walk through their doors. In response, the National Urban League went on record last fall drawing attention to the deepening unemployment crisis in urban America and calling for a second stimulus plan that would invest directly in job creation and training for the very communities we interact with and serve every day.
It is now a year later, and I am again calling on our nation’s leaders to invest in a long overdue plan for putting urban America back to work that is targeted, temporary and timely. The National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work meets these criteria. Targeted because it provides solutions for communities with the highest rates of unemployment and the long-term unemployed who often face the greatest barriers to getting a job the longer they are without one. Temporary in that the recommended investments require less than a three year commitment. Timely because the bulk of the plan involves direct job creation as a means of bringing recovery to those most in need more quickly.
Most economists agree that the pace of recovery will be slow. Yet, the individuals to which this plan is targeted are often the last to experience the effects of even a more rapid economic recovery. Therefore, the National Urban League’s Plan for Putting Americans Back to Work is a comprehensive six-point plan to make a direct investment of $168 billion over 2 years to address the most urgent needs of American families in economic crisis by investing in direct job creation, job training for the chronically unemployed, greater access to credit for small businesses and additional counseling relief for those caught in the backlog of the foreclosure process. The plan also proposes tax incentives for clean energy equipment manufacturers who employ individuals in the targeted communities. The plan proposes to do these things in the following ways:
1. Fund Direct Job Creation by offering financial support to cities, counties, states, universities, community colleges and non-profit community based organizations to hire the personnel necessary to provide critical services in communities across the nation. Eligibility for support will be based on local unemployment rates with a focus on the long-term unemployed. At least twice in American history, the government has responded to high rates of unemployment with investments in direct job creation – the 1935 Works Progress Administration, when nearly one-fourth of the labor force was out of work, and the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974, which established Title VI of CETA as a temporary countercyclical employment program at a time when unemployment was quickly approaching 9 percent. We propose an investment of $150 billion to create 3 million jobs, a number that represents only half of the current unemployed with a high school diploma or less.
2. Expand and Expedite the Small Business Administration’s Community Express Loan Program through a reduction of the interest rate to 1 percent targeted for those businesses located in areas where the local unemployment rate exceeds the state average. A ten-fold expansion of the program (from $1 billion to $10 billion) should make credit available to an additional 50,000 small businesses nationwide.
3. Create Green Empowerment Zones in areas where at least 50 percent of the population has an unemployment rate that is higher than the state average. Manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines that open plants in high unemployment areas will, for a period of three years, be eligible for a zero federal income tax rate and a zero capital gains tax under the condition that they hire and retain, for a minimum of three years, at least half of their workforce from the local area.
4. Expand the Hiring of Housing Counselors Nationwide by investing $500 million to fund housing counseling agencies nationwide to help delinquent borrowers work with their loan servicers to secure more affordable mortgages. Over the past 18 months more than $400 million in federal funds have been invested by the Administration to help mitigate the mortgage crisis through housing counseling and, according to a recent report by the Urban Institute, borrowers facing foreclosure are 60% more likely to hold onto their homes if they receive counseling and receive loan modifications with average monthly payments $454 lower than those who did not see counselors.
5. Expand the Youth Summer Jobs Program for 2010 by investing $5-7 billion to employ 5 million teens. While the unemployment rate for African-American youth is over 40 percent, the employment population ratio makes clearer the desperate situation faced by many urban youth. Since the late 1990s, this number has declined from a high of 33 percent down to 15 percent, and labor force participation for this group is now at a record low of 26 percent. A critical factor in eliminating racial and socio-economic disparities in unemployment is providing a solid foundation upon which African American youth can build positive future labor market expectations and experiences.
6. Create 100 Urban Jobs Academies to Implement an Expansion of the Urban Youth Empowerment Program (UYEP) to employ and train the chronically unemployed. UYEP, a four year demonstration project created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Labor in 2004, is a youth career preparation initiative designed for at-risk, out-of-school, and adjudicated youth and young adults between the ages of 18 and 24. With 27 Urban League affiliate sites and a total of $29.3 million, the program served 3,900 youth, 65 percent of whom either had job placements (paying an average wage of $9.32/hour) or completed their high school diploma or GED. Two hundred participants were placed in postsecondary schools or college upon completion of their secondary education. Scaling this program up to 100 sites would more than triple the program at a cost of $108.5 million.
At a time of the year when we traditionally give thanks and prepare to share generously with those around us, the American people are both frustrated and disappointed. When the financial industry was hemorrhaging, there was great urgency in devising the TARP plan for its rescue. Despite the ambivalence of most Americans with regards to spending billions of dollars to bail out the very businesses they felt had previously taken advantage of them, they understood the need to take swift and deliberate action to avoid a major national, or even global, financial crisis. We ask that the same urgency be given to the people experiencing a personal financial crisis in cities throughout this country. Recognizing the tremendous amount of work that is required to implement a plan of this magnitude in the most efficient and beneficial manner, I make myself available to meet with you to discuss the ideas proposed herein.
Sincerely,
Marc H. Morial
President and Chief Executive Officer
National Urban League
Stairstep Foundation – “What do you do?” A referral Agency? (with comments from Madison – watch the video at the bottom)
What do you do?
In a call to the Stairstep Foundation in north Minneapolis IBNN has found out that the Foundation is a referral service. Do you think General Mills and the Madison Urban League have been “Bamboozeled?”
In an email from someone that calls themselves, “Please Go To Minneapolis” with a Madison, WI IP address and email, they state the following: “Scott Gray has been leading the Madison Urban League for 3 years now and you want to talk about a puppet show? Please go to Minneapolis so that Madison has some hope for sound leadership …Good luck Minneapolis! Most likely, he will only stay long enough to get some credentials and then be off to a higher paying oppurtunity anyway … good luck and God surly is shining on Madison if Scott is being removed from this city!” Read the full story and comment at http://ibnn.org/?p=1288
The video below is proof enough that we do have a problem in north Minneapolis with local agencies orginally set up to build capacity for the under served community that have ventured off into the business sector and now have become nothing more than a referral service.
See the video here!
Minneapolis Urban League CEO/President finalist Pamela Coaxum (Tucker) withdraws!
Ms. Pamela Coaxum (Tucker)
In breaking news, sources say Minneapolis Urban League CEO/President finalist Pamela Coaxum (Tucker) has withdrawn her name for consideration for the position of CEO/President. Ms. Tucker whose LinkedIn page is accessible to the public, unlike Mr. Gray would have been the best candidate for the job. Remember, Minneapolis Black “Self-Appointed” leaders have a “Good Ole Boy’s Men’s Club” too! If they can’t control you – they go for the next best thing.
IBNN is awaiting a call back for an official statement.
This leaves the community with R. Scott Gray and questions of his criminal background and how the National Urban League could qualify him for a leadership role in a flagship organization. Read here for more. Actual felony report to be posted this week.
On Saturday, April 25, 2009 at the Minneapolis Urban League, board member and Insight News Editor and Chief Al McFarlane were confronted by audience members who felt that community should be able to speak directly to the finalists. Board chairman Cathy Wassberg assured IBNN that all questions would be read that were written on index cards. It didn’t happen, Mr. McFarlane screened and picked the questions and denied the community answers by re-arranging questions to meet his personal agenda.
In an attempt to question Mr. R. Scott Gray, who refused to answer any questions from IBNN on possible background issues and the collaboration between him and Alfred Babington-Johnson from the Stairstep Foundation, Mr. Gray declined but did tell others attending that Mr. Johnson was brought to Madison because of the fine work he’s done in Minneapolis?
Mr. Gray went on to say to IBNN that if we didn’t want to talk about “solutions” he had no comment. Our best solution for Mr. Gray would be to stay in Madison!
My question to Mr. Gray would be, “What is the fine work that Mr. Johnson has done in Minneapolis that you are referring to? Could it be the Dairy Queen you were talking about? Or could it have been the Tire Store?”
Or how about this: General Mills, for example, was so compelled by Bethel Seminary graduate Alfred Babington-Johnson’s vision for healing a broken African-American community that it offered funding and 100 volunteers to help create an award-winning soul-food manufacturer and packing company in north Minneapolis. Stairstep Initiative’s Siyeza Inc. employs 80 people (and expects to hire more than 175 at its peak capacity), 80 percent of them from poor neighborhoods.
The $4.3 million investment, created through an alliance of 49 black investors, General Mills, and US Bancorp, produced a $94,000 return at only 10 percent of factory capacity last year. (Circa 5/21/2001)
If this was the case and the “return” was so good at 10%, what happened to the company? “Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me!”
Oops!
The process of finding a new President/CEO was tainted from the beginning.
The Minneapolis Urban League has made a series of bad choices in people, programs and process. How much more will the staff of the MUL have to put up with before the doors are shut for good.
And by the way Mr. Gray – it’s never about statistics. The information you have is incorrect on the state of Black folks in the Twin Cities, but then again – we know where it came from….
When will the cycle stop?
IBNNNEW- The Death of North Minneapolis… Donald Allen
- IBNN Exclusive Report: Youth with weapon attempts to enter funeral of Alisha “Lele” Neely (Captured on Film) Donald Allen
- WCCO 4 (CBS) Television fails in journalistic integrity with “edited and spliced” tape of the Minneapolis Police Beating of Ira Stafford…rating F- Donald Allen
- MURDERAPOLIS – Code 4, No More Donald Allen
- Minneapolis’ Star Tribune newspaper’s bias reporting causes defamatory speculation at Internet marketing firm (Updated) Donald Allen
News Services
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