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Pachuco
F L I N T O I D
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Hey I had an idea; there seem to be a good number of intelligent people on this site, so how about we all come up with a list of suggestions to forward to our City's Administration and Council Office. I'll do that maybe a week from now or something... Well I will start off...
Utilize neighborhood youth to help with Park and overgrown grass during warm Spring/Summer months, maybe partner with C.S. Mott Foundation, Summer Youth Initiative, local groups/churches/block clubs/businesses/residents etc to fund program.
Maybe offer a minimal membership fee per year to community centers (Like $5-$25 per year), to maybe receive special perks, newsletters, programs etc. to help fund community centers.
Allow people to advertise on City Website to help towards it maintenance and updating.
Lead collaboration between Flint's Public and Charter schools; local universities and colleges; Medical Centers; and businesses to possibly organize citywide internship program with college students offer tutoring, reading/writing program, mentoring, medical assistance, financial planning assistance at schools and community centers.
Offer tax breaks to Flint citizens who work, live, and children attend school within city.
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Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:08 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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those are all great ideas!!
i simply LOVE that internship idea
. lots of kids choose what they imagine a profession to be without really knowing what it entails. i really like that one!!!
there is a lady that does that lawn thing every year in the area bordered by lippincott, flint lumber (east and west), and clifford and howard (north and south). she employs young kids (who need something to do during the summer month) and takes care of seniors yards.damned if i can't remember her name but she campaigned with walling on his first campaign. she is very good, experienced and don't mess around with the kids!! i'm sure funding would be available somewhere.
i like the community center thing although i know many of those kids don't have access to any cash. i would suggest contractors in the city be cajoled to offer assistance to get the centers up and running. there are lots of contractors who
make money in the city of flint
, many sit on various city and county boards with power to make things happen.
i like offering tax breaks to city citizens (you
KNOW
that ain't gonna happen).
good stuff pachuco!!
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:15 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Back Again- The lady is Barbara Griffith-Wilson and she gets her money from the Land Bank Clean and Green Program. The city received a number of complaints about her ill treatment of some of her youth and the Land Bank had to implement new rules to protect these kids. A young man from Howard Estates with Sickle Cell Anemia became ill working for her because of dehydration. Then she fired him for being ill. The Land Bank refused at first to deal with the issues.
Much of what Pachuco advocates, such as mentoring, is already being done, although sometimes on a smaller scale. The money for summer jobs is being channelled through the Regional Chamber of Commerce and comes from the MottFoundation. The former GCCAA and OIC used to manage thousands of summer youth jobs with federal money.
It is easy to come up with plans that are already in place. Even Pachuco worked a Clean and Green program!
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:36 am |
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Pachuco
F L I N T O I D
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| Yes, But see the Clean and Green program only helps with Land Bank owned properties, not city parks and property(boulevards medians and the likes). And yeah The Regional Chamber does employ youth through the Summer Youth Iniative, but I'm just saying maybe the city could get involved with it as well.... Do you have any ideas Webs? |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:19 am |
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Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:47 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Bottom line for what you want is money. That means you have to write grants or find some funding source as many traditional sources have dried up.
You need to talk to union officials. They have to sign off on allowing other groups do some of the work you are addressing. Then there are the child labor laws which limits the work youth can safely perform.
Personally I would like to see someone finance a program where high school students could get paid or get credits for tutoring at risk children, either during school hours, during summer school, or in a special after school program. Sort of a "twofer", helping two at the same time.
Many of the youth training programs in the past were rife with problems and abuses. Labor laws made it difficult to place the youth in appropriate job settings. The best jobs in programs for low income youth went to youth who clearly did not meet the low income criteria. Cleaning up parks, etc, had to be done by hand as the younger workers could not use power tools.
Supervisors had to deal with illiteracy, aggression, and sexual harassment from both other participants and adults at the work sites. Most of these youth had no concept of a work ethic. Schools usually worked with many of the best participants.
I recently saw an ad on tv about the carpenters union training program. Flint has a Jobs Corps and a Youthbuild program. The State of Michigan also has a contractors training program in Flint. The problem for most of thes programs is a lack of outreach to tell our youth where these programs are and the number of opportunities are limited.
Permanent job creation is the best solution . Summer jobs for youth are only a ban-aid approach. |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:34 pm |
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Pachuco
F L I N T O I D
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| Hmm lol I gotta admit, you got a great point... So you have any
ideas or suggestions
? |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:20 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Read some other threads where education was discussed. Job creation can only happen with an educated workforce.
Get some books on grants writing and take some workshops. Design your own program and involve others of a like mind. Better yet, study what has worked in other communities. You don't have to reinvent the wheel.
But be prepared to deal with apathy. I and many others are tired of forums where a subject is discussd to death and there is no forward movement. The same tired old notions are constantly being revisited.
It takes lots of research to find a solution and tailor it to the needs of your community. Sometimes a smaller group is better than a large group. |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:29 pm |
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Pachuco
F L I N T O I D
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| Thanks. Hopefully we got a couple more, at the very least, to forward to the Mayor/Council Office. |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 10:35 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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damn web i didn't know that!!!!! jeeesss!!  |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:15 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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1. Get rid of half the "public tit" suckers
2. Make Flint more business friendly
3. Legalize home businessed
4. Smarter policing
5. Cut school administrators by 50%
6 Follow the city charter
7. Get rid of somne of Wallings campaign team who are cashing in.
8. Use our social welfare dollars more fairly.
9. Get rid of half to 90% of our ordinances. 90 to 100% are not inforced anyways. |
_________________
Adam
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Mysearchisover.com
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FB
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Jobs
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Thu Jan 07, 2010 3:26 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Goal No. 1 in Genesee County: Fight illiteracy
By Andrew Heller | Flint Journal
January 07, 2010, 6:00AM
Many of you can’t read this.
Or maybe that’s not true. You’re newspaper readers, after all, the salt and salvation of the earth, in my opinion. If you couldn’t read, you wouldn’t be holding the paper right now, not unless the bird cage needs changing.
So let’s put it this way: Many of the people you know and bump into on a given day in Genesee County couldn’t read this even if they wanted to.
We all know illiteracy exists, but I was stunned by the figures released last week by the National Institute for Literacy. Twenty one percent of the adults in Genesee County read at a first grade level – meaning they’d find a Dick and Jane book challenging.
See Andy cringe. Cringe, Andy, cringe.
Honestly, I had no idea things were that bad. I figured, I dunno, 5 percent maybe? Maybe 10 percent at most, and in the worst places?
But 21 percent? That’s beyond stunning. And in Flint, the number is worse – 36 percent. Think about that for a minute. One of every three people you meet would have trouble reading the comic strips herein.
I know you’re reaction because I’ve had the same reaction before: Ah, well. Whatcha gonna do?
Readers take the ability for granted. But imagine how difficult your life would be if you couldn’t read the newspaper or read a menu or read the instructions on a pill bottle?
You’d cope, I’m sure. People clearly do. But I’ll bet there’s a huge correlation between illiteracy and unemployment or under-employment.
And if so, that makes this a fundamental problem for Flint and Genesee County.
In the past year or so, even as the speed of the decline in Michigan increased, I’ve detected a new desire in Flint to change our local lot in life. People finally seem to feel we’ve reached rock bottom and maybe it’s time for us to start clawing our way back up.
If I’m right and that spirit does exist and I’m not just reading too much into the redevelopment of a few buildings downtown and the new election of a new, trustworthy mayor, then my friends I think we have ourselves a priority, perhaps even a crusade.
And by ‘we,” I mean local government. Township boards, village boards, the county board, Flint City Hall and more. I mean local foundations and charitable organizations. I mean churches, synagogues and parishes. I also mean – if I may nudge the hand that feeds me – this newspaper, and other media organizations.
After all, without literacy, what hope is there? When as many as a third of your citizens can’t read well enough to advance educationally and get a decent job, how can an area thrive much less re-birth itself?
I know some of my conservative critics will groan at that sentiment. “Hey, it’s their fault. Why should we care?”
But that’s callous and self-destructive. A society is only as strong as its weakest. You can’t rebuild Flint and Genesee County with a permanent, ignored educational underclass.
This is a fundamental problem. Improve literacy, improve Flint and Genesee County.
Simple as that. |
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Thu Jan 07, 2010 8:13 am |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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| Do you need to read to be on welfare? I think we have over 10,000 people that are literate that can't find a job here in Genesee county. |
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Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:39 am |
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Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
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| We need to get rid of this mayor. |
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Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:08 pm |
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Derrick1965
F L I N T O I D
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Dude i know lots of people who have a home office or business.
quote:
Adam schreef:
1. Get rid of half the "public tit" suckers
2. Make Flint more business friendly
3. Legalize home businessed
4. Smarter policing
5. Cut school administrators by 50%
6 Follow the city charter
7. Get rid of somne of Wallings campaign team who are cashing in.
8. Use our social welfare dollars more fairly.
9. Get rid of half to 90% of our ordinances. 90 to 100% are not inforced anyways.
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Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:09 pm |
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