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
Time to Declare “Peace” on Youth Violence. The National Urban League makes a statement?
It’s interesting that the National Urban League is starting to address disparities among the Black youth of America. The St. Louis Urban League in cue to receive over $15 million in Stimulus dollars – what has happened to the Minneapolis Urban League, who reported at Wednesdays Board meeting that the Greater Twin Cities United Way will drastically cut funding to the fledgling social service agency. The Minneapolis Urban League will be cutting several jobs today(10/30). To those hard working staff members who lost their jobs at a once thriving flagship social service agency, we wish you the best and hope “change” will come in the form of “process with solutions” at the Minneapolis Urban League.
“With a commitment to solutions and no ears to listen, the Minneapolis Urban League continues to troll in deep water with a boat to big to keep float.”
The message falling on deaf ears from Marc H. Morial – President and CEO, National Urban League
If you’re reading this in your local urban newspaper, you probably encountered at least one story about youth violence in your community before finding your way to this column. But wading through reports of violence in the news pales beside the daily real life experiences of many young people across this nation. According to a recently released Justice Department report, “More than 60 percent of the nation’s youth have been exposed to violence within the last year. Nearly 1 in 2 was physically assaulted at least once, with more than 1 in 10 injured in an assault.”
While incidents like the 1999 Columbine massacre which caused the deaths of 13 people or the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage which took the lives of 32 make international headlines, we are in the grips of a largely silent epidemic of youth violence that is endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of children across this country every year.
A few weeks ago, the nation was riveted by a YouTube video of the senseless beating death of Derrion Albert, a Chicago high school honor student. Derrion was attacked on his way home from school as he innocently walked through a crowd of rival gang members. According to the New York Times, “Close to 70 students have been murdered [in Chicago] since the beginning of the 2007 school year.”
This level of violence is exceptional by any standard, but sadly, it is replicated at equally unacceptable levels in many of our major cities. As Attorney General Holder said during his recent visit to Chicago to address this issue, “Youth violence is not a Chicago problem any more than it is a black problem, a white problem or a Hispanic problem. It is an American problem.”
A problem this big calls all of us to action. In recent years, we declared “war” on drugs and “war” on terrorism. Today, I think it’s time we declare “peace” on youth violence. I was pleased that Holder and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan went to Chicago to begin what they called “a sustained national conversation” about youth violence in response to the Derrion Albert murder. Holder also announced a request for $24 million in next year’s budget for community-based prevention programs such as Ceasefire and Project Safe Neighborhoods. But stopping and preventing youth violence will take more than money. And it is about more than violence.
While young people who commit violent acts must ultimately be held accountable for their crimes, we cannot ignore the role that poverty, parenting, poor schools, guns, drugs, gangs and the lack of opportunity play in this on-going tragedy. We must invest both more money and more of ourselves in solving these problems if we want to dig out the roots of youth violence. As someone said to me recently, if we can find the votes and the money for a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, we ought to be able to summon the will and the resources to save our kids.’
Sabathani’s “Soild Rock” and Executive Director Ernest Johnson set to resign in December 2009
Sabathani Announces Leadership Change
Minneapolis, MN (IBNN) October 19, 2009 – Sabathani Community Center Board Chair Curtis Bell announced today that Executive Director Ernest T. Johnson will leave his current post to focus on his growing interest in the field of health and wellness. With his resignation, effective December 31, 2009, Johnson will conclude an eight-year tenure as a key administrative leader of the organization. He joined Sabathani as Chief Operating Officer in 2001 and was appointed Executive Director in October 2006, becoming only the fourth person to head Sabathani in its 44-year history.
Assisting with the transition and assuming the post of Interim Executive Director as of January 1, 2010, will be Mike Miller, Sabathani’s Human Resources Manager, who has been with the organization for three years.
Board Chair Curtis Bell expressed gratitude to Johnson for his dedication to Sabathani. “We have a very high appreciation for Ernest Johnson’s contribution to Sabathani and the commitment he has brought to the organization across the entire range of our programs and services. He is a man of great integrity who has given his all and earned our lasting respect. We accept his resignation with sadness, and we wish him the very best as he follows his heart in pursuing the next stage of his career.”
As Johnson explained, “When I took the Executive Director post in 2006, I had a three-year plan for leading Sabathani through a transitional period that we all knew would bring a variety of changes, following as it did on the 28-year tenure of the previous leader, James Cook. I thank the fine staff of Sabathani, also the Board, for working with me and contributing to successes we can all be proud of.”
Since taking Sabathani’s helm three years ago, Johnson has guided program managers to hold more responsibility not only for their own areas, including budgeting, but to advance well beyond that, functioning as a leadership team for the entire organization. He has initiated tighter financial controls, which were essential particularly in the post-9-11 and post-Katrina periods, and has brought program and operational budgets in line with income. He has been successful in achieving transparency in the organization’s accounting practices and performance—recognized by Sabathani’s first-ever accreditation by the Charities Review Council. Johnson has great personal enthusiasm for yet another Sabathani change during his tenure: the addition of a free pediatric dental and health clinic serving children in the Central and Bryant neighborhoods.
Johnson said, “We’ve made the progress I hoped for when I set my three-year goals, and Sabathani is now in a far better state of readiness for its next phase of service. Recently, as we began exploring variations in our business model, I realized that this was a perfect time for me to act on another wish, to transition from my current position to a greater focus on health and wellness in my next career move. I’m thankful for each of the years I was committed to Sabathani, and I aim to carry that same dedication to my next role in the non-profit community.”
Johnson continued: “I heartily endorse the selection of Mike Miller as Interim Executive Director after my departure, and I’m personally grateful to him for his willingness to commit additional time, skill and energy to Sabathani in his new post. Sabathani will be in good hands.”
Said Curtis Bell: “Ernest Johnson, Mike Miller and the Board of Directors all share confidence that this change will be managed smoothly. We are all driven by a deep love for Sabathani and by our common goal—service to Sabathani’s mission of strengthening youth, children and families and building the capacity of the community we serve.”
Sabathani Community Center
Sabathani was founded in 1966 as a small grassroots organization focused on serving African American youth in South Minneapolis, particularly the Bryant and Central neighborhoods. Today it is the hub of the community, offering a range of empowerment programs that focus on skill development and the ultimate goal of attaining self-sufficiency, serving both its original population and the area’s more recent arrivals, including Somalis, Chicanos/Latinos, Southeast Asians and Russians. The Sabathani building, a former school, houses its own programs and those of 35 tenant organizations with similar community service goals, and includes a conference center, auditorium,
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