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Miami-Dade’s Office of New Americans helps immigrants clear barriers to citizenship | Opinion
September 16, 2019
by Krystina Francois
From The Miami Herald
One of the secrets to Miami’s magic is its vibrant population of thriving immigrants. They are found in this community’s halls of power, classrooms and radio airwaves. With 53 percent of Miami-Dade County’s residents being foreign born, it is easy to see why Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the members of the County Commission joined Cities for Citizenship, a national movement, and became the first county to create the Office of New Americans (ONA) in 2015.
Four years later, it is clear that local officials and advocates understood that immigrant residents need guidance navigating the ever-changing path to citizenship.
From Miami’s earliest Bahamian settlers of 1790, to the first wave of Cuban exiles in the 1950s, in addition to each successive wave of immigration, Miami has become more lively, nimble and resilient. This is evident when we look at our entrepreneurial and small-business community, the heartbeat of our economy.
Almost 20 percent of entrepreneurs in Miami are immigrants. This is why ONA has partnered with the Cambridge Innovation Center Miami (CIC Miami) to launch Immigrant Powered, a nonpartisan, grassroots and inclusive initiative. The mission is threefold: to highlight the positive economic impact of immigrants in our communities; empower immigrant-powered businesses; and to connect small and medium businesses with opportunities for education around responsible immigration policy. We want to support and highlight immigrant-owned businesses, locally.
The Office of New Americans of Miami-Dade, nicknamed ONA, has helped more than 10,000 residents become U.S. citizens through its free naturalization clinics, citizenship classes and information sessions. With more than 400,000 legal permanent residents in Miami-Dade County eligible for citizenship, more resources need to be allocated to help them take the final step in making Miami, and the United States, home.
Financial barriers often are the largest obstacles to the American Dream, with application fees now at $725, in addition to legal fees. We have partnered with Catalyst Miami and Hispanic Unity of Florida to offer access to financial coaching and interest-free micro loans through Catalyst Miami’s Citizenship Lending Circles.
The second barrier is fear. Many are still traumatized or intimidated by their last interaction with the immigration system. In response, we have free weekly citizenship classes at local libraries, where we make the interview process less intimidating by preparing applicants for the test in U.S. civics and history, providing a welcoming place to practice their English and conducting mock interviews. We are combating misinformation and myths through our Information and Know Your Rights sessions throughout the year with qualified pro-bono attorneys.
Miami is a multilingual, multiracial, multicultural hub that represents all that is great about our country. This Citizenship Week, which runs through Sept. 22, we ask members of the community to reflect on the contributions of immigrants in their lives. As the proud daughter of naturalized Haitian immigrants, who was raised in New York, Port-au-Prince and Miami, I know that my story would not be possible anywhere else. Reflecting on my Miami story, my experiences in the United States and abroad have shaped my passion for people, especially for those trying to build community in their new home.
Join us by celebrating Miami Citizenship Week, grab a cortadito at 3:05 at your local ventanita. Take an African dance class at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. Visit the Thai temple in Homestead to meditate with the monks. Go to one of the remaining fabric stores downtown. Go to officeofnewamericans.org for more information.
Take part in the Miami magic.
Krystina Francois is executive director of Miami-Dade County’s Office of New Americans.
This article originally appeared in Miami Herald.
Santiago is Vice President of Evaluation & Learning at Catalyst Miami, overseeing evaluation for 30+ programs supporting Miami’s low-income residents.
“We’re not talking about iterating just for the sake of iterating.
We’re not talking about creating busy work.
We’re not talking about creating questions or problems where they don’t exist.
Really, we’re talking, just like many non-profits around the world, we’re talking about people’s lives.”
Catalyst Miami supports metro Miami’s 2.7 million residents to improve their health and financial security, become leaders in their communities, and build power and impact. In Miami, 20% of all residents live below the poverty line (1), and about 2/3 are “liquid asset” poor, meaning they do not have enough savings to live above the poverty line for three months if they lose a job, face a medical crisis or suffer an emergency that leaves them without a steady income (2). Catalyst Miami runs over 30 programs, like financial coaching, climate resilience education and leadership, and constituent trips to Florida’s capital during legislative session, to combat these issues. It’s Santiago’s job to figure out what impact actually means, how to measure it, and how to use that measurement to further support the organization’s work.
“How do we show the aggregated impact of our work? It’s one thing to create a journey map of how an individual could walk through Catalyst Miami’s programs and services, but then the other question is ‘what’s a meaningful change in somebody’s life as a result of this program and how do we aggregate that?’ [It] could be getting your credit score up to 650, which gets you access to different levels of capital and interest rates, having one or three months worth of savings in a savings account, speaking at a county commission meeting, voting in a local election, getting enrolled in health insurance, or re-enrolling in health insurance."
Throughout our chat it’s clear there are two things that are of particular focus and intrigue to Santiago in this endeavor. The first is how one can begin to define the impact of the work and actually measure it, what he calls “Milestone Moments”. The second is the role that behavioral economics, in particular our understanding of the impact of scarcity on people’s thoughts and activities, can have on improving results.
“There are moments of scarcity for the brain, and moments of abundance. What does that mean for our work? If we know that we’re trying to change financial capability and outcomes, that’s behavior change. There’s a whole systemic aspect to financial capability but on the individual level there are practices and disciplines that promote savings and asset-building. One of the data pieces we’ll be exploring is when people get paid, and how frequently they’re getting paid. If they get paid on the first of the month, we know that we should send [program participants] a reminder to save on the third or the fourth. Then they’re not worried about putting food on the table, they’ve got some bandwidth that they can work with. So we can time nudges to encourage people to save."
It’s rare, and delightful, to meet somebody who expresses genuine excitement about these two particular things with no hint of bitterness towards the less glamorous, stickier sides of evaluation work. Being excited about both implementing impact evaluation systems and nudge theory is the analytic equivalent of being excited about both broccoli and birthday cake. One has to be done to keep the lights on, the other is an intellectual treat, the cool stuff that everybody wants to do. Every step of the process has it’s own intrigue and pratfalls - procuring resources, consensus on metrics, rolling out and advocating for the use of collection systems, actually collecting data, changing culture, among others - though recognizing the importance of each, and being excited by it all is a real asset in this work. Maybe as great as actually liking broccoli. Maybe.
This article originally appeared in Analyst of America.
New coalition takes multifaceted approach to creating affordable housing in Miami | Opinion
August 21, 2019
By Alana Greer, Gretchen Beesing and Mileyka Burgos
From The Miami Herald
Clifford Johnson, 61, was homeless. Now the Liberty City native has rebuilt his life and is living at the Hampton Village Apartments in Brownsville, Florida.
Miami-Dade County has an opportunity to turn the tide on our affordable housing crisis, and an informal group of developers and grassroots organizations are ready to make it happen.
After convening at Catalyst Miami, organizing under South Florida Community Development Coalition and working in sub-groups, more than 20 organizations crafted a values statement and agreed to work in tandem to ensure Miami-Dade County and its municipalities adhere to using public land for public good.
The LAND (Land Access for Neighborhood Development) tool, unveiled in March 2019 by the University of Miami and Citi Community Development, reveals more than a half billion square feet of vacant or underutilized county, municipal and institutional land. While not all of it is viable for development, significant swaths can be mobilized to address soaring housing costs, the challenge of sea level rise, the need for green space and community preservation.
The information is similar to what for-profit developers have had for years. The coalition is committed to ensuring that it’s used in ways that open the door to more safe and affordable housing for all Miami-Dade residents.
The desire to seize this opportunity is what brought together affordable-housing advocates, developers and community stakeholders in the spring to develop a set of core values to guide the disposition of publicly owned land. The statement, dubbed “Public Land for Public Good,” defines the goals that use of this available land should further. These include addressing the affordability crisis; minimizing displacement; developing more affordable construction techniques and technologies; prioritizing resiliency and environmental sustainability; greening our community in conjunction with community development plans; preventing climate gentrification; and encouraging transit-oriented development. The statement also addresses how this should happen, highlighting the need for authentic community participation in decision-making and for incorporating equitable development and community benefit policies into land disposition processes in order to ensure equity.
.mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%}Affordable houses in the city of North Miami for under $400,000, July 19, 2019. By
Last, Public Land for Public Good specifies meaningful interventions, including intergovernmental and inter-institutional collaboration for assemblage of available land parcels; a transparent, equitable and accountable land conveyance process with set-asides for nonprofit and mission-driven developers; an improved permitting process to lower construction costs and speed development timelines; and investment in community control, economic sustainability, and ownership and generational wealth for low-income and communities of color.
The almost two dozen organizations and developers who are the initial signatories of this values statement include: Carrfour Supportive Housing; Catalyst Miami; Centro Campesino; Collective Empowerment Group of South Florida; Community Justice Project; Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida; Haitian American Community Development Corporation; Miami Homes For All, Inc.; Miami Workers Center; Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida; New Urban Development, LLC; Opa-locka Community Development Corporation; South Florida AFL-CIO; South Florida Community Development Coalition; South Florida Community Land Trust; Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH); The Allapattah Collaborative; CDC; The New Florida Majority; The South Florida Building and Construction Trades Council; University of Miami Office of Civic & Community Engagement; Urban League of Greater Miami; and Urban Philanthropies, Inc.
This broad, community-based support represents a call to action to our public officials and policymakers. It’s also a sign that support is coalescing around the need to achieve concrete progress. Public agencies that own available parcels should cooperate with each other to create larger assemblages that can make a real difference in Miami-Dade’s housing challenges. Our local policymakers should also prioritize passage of legislation that facilitates equitable development, environmental justice and a systemic, restorative rights framework.
The challenge of our housing crisis is big. But our community — as represented by this coalition — is equipped to tackle it, if our public agencies and institutions have the will to do so.
.mcclatchy-embed{position:relative;padding:40px 0 56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%}.mcclatchy-embed iframe{position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%}Housing advocacy groups and City of Miami officials released a new report on Monday about the city's housing crisis. The report identifies specific ways to rescue or build 12,000 affordable homes. By
To read the full Public Land for Public Good values statement or to participate, go to https://bit.ly/30rB2NN.
Alana Greer is co-founder of the Community Justice Project. Gretchen Beesing is CEO of Catalyst Miami and board chair of the South Florida Community Development Coalition. Mileyka Burgos is founder of The Allapattah Collaborative
Villa Aurora, a 76-unit building in Little Havana, was developed by Carrfour Supportive Housing, which is a member of a new affordable-housing coalition. MIAMI HERALD
This article originally appeared in Miami Herald.
Kresge Awards Climate Resilience Grants Totaling $1.5 Million

The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, has announced grants totaling $1.5 million to advance policy solutions aimed at improving climate resilience and reducing health risks from climate change in low-income communities across the United States.
Awarded through the foundation's Climate Change, Health & Equity Initiative, the planning grants will support the efforts of fifteen community-based nonprofits, working cross-sectorally with a range of partners, to develop multiyear plans that address community-defined health and climate priorities. Following the planning phase, Kresge will invite up to twelve of the organizations to apply for multiyear implementation grants.
Planning grant recipients include Catalyst Miami; Coalition of Communities of Color in Portland, Oregon; Eastside Community Network in Detroit; Homewood Children's Village in Pittsburgh; and Partnership for Southern Equity in Atlanta. The grantees will be supported by the Institute for Sustainable Communities, which serves as the national program office for the planning phase of the Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative's community-based strategy.
"High heat, more volatile and extreme weather events, and rising sea levels degrade air and water quality, threaten food supplies, and put people's homes in danger," said David D. Fukuzawa, managing director of the foundation's health program. "Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately at risk due to existing social, economic, and health inequities, and the dangers to which they are exposed will only become worse in the coming years. We at Kresge fully recognize that climate change is the newest — and arguably most important — social determinant of health."
For a complete list of grant recipients, see the Kresge Foundation website.
(Photo credit: Kresge Foundation)
This article originally appeared on Philanthropy News Digest.
Hurricane Dorian could hit during King Tide, and Miami is preparing to flood
August 30, 2019
By Alex Harris and Joey Flechas
From The Miami Herald
When Hurricane Dorian makes landfall in Florida, current projections show the powerful storm could come ashore near one of the season’s highest tides of the year — a king tide.
Higher tides, combined with the showers already drenching the coast, could worsen coastal flooding for what is shaping up to be a slow, wet storm. The latest update from the National Hurricane Center predicted Dorian will strengthen to a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Florida before slowing down just as it reaches the coast.
If the storm does park itself offshore, it could dump rain on the region for awhile. Current estimates from the NHC suggest Dorian could bring 6 to 12 inches of rain to the southeast coast, with some spots seeing up to 18 inches.
“We understand this could be a slow-moving storm event. That concerns us. The longer it stays in our area, the more water that will accumulate,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a press conference. “This hurricane is approaching us at a time when we’re experiencing king tides here. That’s making it worse.”
The National Weather Service warned Thursday that this king tide, the second of four expected for the east coast this season., could cause minor tidal inundation during high tide this weekend. Readings from Virginia Key’s tidal gauge show that this tide is already coming in up to eight inches higher than predicted.
Sea level rise has made these annual high tides higher over the decades and dramatically driven up the stakes for municipalities struggling to adjust to climate change. By 2060, South Florida officials are planning on two feet of sea level rise. And that’s not accounting for another of climate change’s deadly impacts, stronger hurricanes.
Although the peak of this king tide is expected on Sunday’s noon high tide, residents in low-lying Miami Beach were already reporting flooded streets on Wednesday and Thursday.
Zelalem Adefris, a South Beach resident, was visiting some out-of-town friends near 18th Street and Collins Avenue when she noticed the street was flooded up to the sidewalk with about six inches of water.
“It was after one of those 15-minute rainstorms that we get often in the summer,” she said. “It was funny because my friends were freaking out thinking it’s the hurricane when it’s really just king tide.”
Adefris, the climate resilience director for Miami-based advocacy group Catalyst Miami, said Miami Beach residents are used to king tide flooding despite the city’s expensive efforts to fix it.
The city has invested more than $100 million in anti-flooding projects — work designed to handle sunny-day tidal flooding that seeps up through the porous earth under the island. Administrators know heavy rainfall on top of a king tide will overwhelm there drainage system, forcing an army of permanent and temporary pumps to work overtime to keep water off the streets.
City workers were preparing the island city for Dorian this week, despite the uncertainty over where the hurricane will actually make landfall.
“This storm is a major rain event coinciding with king tides this weekend,” said Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales. “We have been doing things like, already over the last several days, cleaning out storm drains, vacuuming out our system to make sure its flowing as efficiently as possible. We’re locating 10 temporary pumps around the city. and 16 temporary generators for pumps that are already in place.”
The city of Miami’s government has expanded the capacity of one pump system and installed a new one in Brickell, the site of dramatic flooding during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Biscayne Bay overtopped the seawall and poured into the street from the bay to Brickell Avenue in low lying areas.
The city had already planned to clear out storm drains in advance of the king tides and prepare the city for tidal floods.
“We have gone and not only checked our own generators to make sure that our pumps systems are working and that there’s backup generator power,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, in a press conference. “With our vac trucks, we’re clearing our drain system, and we have three portable vac trucks that are on standby to continue to clear drains that are clogged.”
Since Irma, Miami has installed 32 tidal valves to keep expelled floodwaters from flowing back up through the city’s outfalls. Serious rainfall from a slow-moving hurricane will overwhelm the system and force administrators to keep the valves open to make sure pumps push water out.
“Those valves are meant to deal with king tide,” said Steve Williamson, Miami’s capital improvements director.
Miami’s resilience and public works director, Alan Dodd, told the Herald the city has already deployed three temporary pumps to the city’s lowest-lying areas and more are on standby if the forecast worsens. After the press conference, Dodd explained to senior administrators and commissioners that the high tides have exceeded NOAA’s predictions.
The tides set an uncomfortably high water level in the days before a hurricane threatens to dump at least several inches of rains — a worrisome prospect for a city that has not yet fully transformed its drainage infrastructure to deal increased flooding in the face of rising seas fueled by climate change. Miami has hotspots for flooding in Shorecrest, Fairview, Brickell and Coconut Grove.
At a press conference in County Hall in downtown Miami, county Mayor Carlos Gimenez said it’s too early to offer guidance on possible evacuation orders for the coast and other low-lying areas, but that Miami-Dade workers are focusing on mitigating the risk from flooding.
“All our crews are out are taking debris away from the storm drains, so they’ll flow,” he said.
It’s too soon to know how well these preparations will fare, as King Tide is expected to begin to peter out Monday, right as Hurricane Dorian approaches the coast. If the storm does shift more south, it’ll be a test of the millions of dollars these vulnerable cities have sunk into protecting their communities from the dangers of climate change-strengthened hurricanes and rising seas.
Miami activist groups, like Adefris’ Catalyst, has been pushing the city to look beyond concrete-and-steel answers to those problems and change policy that gets at the cause of climate change, emissions.
“We should be doing mitigation and cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. I see not that much of that and a lot of sea walls and infrastructure,” she said. “Ultimately we’re not going to be able to build our way out of stronger hurricanes and sea level rise.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this story.
Concerns Over High Electric Bills and the Environment raised as State holds hearing on shockingly low 10-year Energy Efficiency Goals
August 9, 2019
By Valerie Holford
From EarthJustice.org
[caption id="attachment_9887" align="alignnone" width="800"] Florida International University Solar House at Engineering Campus.[/caption]
Power companies propose goals of zero or close to zero for efficiency, drawing concerns about higher electric bills from ratepayers, cities, conservationists, businesses
Tallahassee, FL —
Community members, advocates, attorneys, and energy efficiency experts are convening in Tallahassee Monday in an effort to raise the ambition of the Florida Public Service Commission (“PSC”) during its energy efficiency proceedings. The PSC will decide whether to approve the alarmingly low utility energy efficiency goals — three of which are set at zero. Alternatively, they can require the utilities to set meaningful goals that help ratepayers save energy and money, and create thousands of new jobs across the state.
As required by the Florida Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, the PSC must update its energy efficiency goals every five years for the state’s largest electric utilities including FPL, Duke, TECO, Gulf Power, OUC, and JEA. Concerns have been raised this year regarding the lack of transparency and public engagement after the PSC rejected a request to let the public speak at the proceedings taking place August 12-13 in Tallahassee. In order to be heard, community members will provide testimony to a court reporter and submit official transcripts for the record on Monday, August 12, from 10:00am - 12:00pm.
Florida currently ranks second from the bottom in the Southeast for energy efficiency and well below the national average according to a recent report by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. An investment of just one percent of utility sales can create as many as 100,000 good-paying clean energy jobs, as evidenced by state programs in Arkansas and North Carolina.
Statements follow from an individual worried about his electric bills and representatives from the Florida League of United Latin American Citizens (an intervenor), the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (an intervenor), New Florida Majority, Earthjustice, the League of Women Voters Florida, Florida Interfaith Climate Actions Network, Catalyst Miami, The CLEO Institute, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action, Florida Conservation Voters and Industrial Components.
“As the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens in Florida is extremely concerned with the negative impacts of high energy burdens on Latinos, African Americans, and other communities of color in the state. According to reports, many low-income families pay almost three times more on their energy bills than their higher-income counterparts and the long-term impacts of higher energy burdens and this energy injustice translates into significant health and safety concerns. The public service commission must listen to the voices of ratepayers across the state and enact meaningful and robust energy efficiency goals that help lower costs for families already dealing with the impacts of dirty energy production, heat stress, flooding, severe weather phenomena, and other climate change related impacts.” - Mari Corugedo, State Director, Florida League of United Latin American Citizens
“In pursuing climate solutions, we all must strive for an equitable and just clean energy transition. New Florida Majority partners with and holds ourselves accountable to communities of color and communities that will be most adversely affected by the transition to a clean energy economy. No climate solution exists without frontline communities.” - Nancy Metayer, Climate Justice Program Manager, New Florida Majority
“For the past 23 years, Catalyst Miami has worked to identify and collectively solve issues adversely affecting low-wealth communities throughout Miami-Dade County. We have found that many of the low-income families that we work with are negatively impacted by high energy bills due to a poor quality housing stock. We urge the Public Service Commission to seize the opportunity to set meaningful conservation goals, thereby lowering bills and preparing communities for a clean energy future.” - Zelalem Adefris, Resilience Director, Catalyst Miami
“Income inequality is rising as fast as our rising seas (due to our changing climate) and many Floridians spend their whole lives working hard to give their families a better future. According to the United Way of Florida, in 2018, nearly half of Florida’s families “struggled to pay their bills and keep their heads above the fiscal waters. Setting robust energy efficiency programs not only will reduce bills for Low-Middle Income families, but will also reduce Florida’s energy costs while reducing its contribution to global warming” - Yoca Arditi-Rocha, Executive Director, The CLEO Institute
“Emphasis on increasing energy efficiency standards for utilities, now, would be the bold statement Florida communities suffering most under energy burdens need to hear. Such good news would be so liberating!” - David Sinclair, Member of the Steering Committee, Florida Interfaith Climate Actions Network
“Zero, or close to zero is not a goal,” stated George Cavros, Florida Energy Policy Attorney for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “If approved, the stunningly low goals would deprive over 6.2 million hard-working families access to utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs that help them reduce energy use and save money on bills — and cement Florida’s place at the bottom of state rankings of state’s that invest in energy savings for customers. We can and must do better.” - George Cavros, Florida Energy Policy Attorney, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
“If you live in Florida, chances are your power bill is a lot higher than it needs to be. Our state is also really hard hit from the climate crisis. There’s a solution right in front of us that is being ignored. Utilities are fighting hard to avoid energy efficiency measures that can save Florida families money each month and can help protect the climate. State officials should stand up for Florida families by telling the utilities that the Sunshine state must be a leader in energy efficiency.” - Bradley Marshall, Attorney with Earthjustice who will be participating in the hearing. Earthjustice represents the intervenors, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“Climate change is here and affecting our health, economy, and way of life. And we are running out of time to do anything about it. We need urgent action from the PSC to reduce our state’s reliance on dirty fossil fuels and implement meaningful and common sense solutions to save energy and money for Florida’s families. It’s time the utilities did their part to address the climate emergency instead of focusing solely on their bottom-line.” - Aliki Moncrief, Executive Director, Florida Conservation Voters
“It is critical that we make clean energy a priority for Florida. Utilities must refocus on bettering the lives of Floridians and protecting the planet from the eroding effects of climate change.” - Patti Brigham, President, League of Women Voters of Florida
“We know that energy efficiency is the quickest, cost-effective way to reduce harmful air pollution that threatens our health. As climate change increases the number of deadly hot days in Florida, we need to take every step to prepare and protect ourselves. I’ve worked with a patient who had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, she had to choose between paying sky-high electric bills or breathing medication. Both of these problems are made worse by power plant pollution, and both of them can be addressed by Florida’s utilities fulfilling their duty to help customers lower bills with meaningful efficiency programs.” - Dr. Cheryl Holder, Co-Chair, Florida Clinicians for Climate Action
“I’ve had to cut back on other things to pay for my high power bill. The last bill for my 1100 square-foot home was over $300. I know someone who can’t even afford to use her air conditioning. The utilities should do more to help people save money on their bills by increasing their energy efficiency. A small investment in energy efficiency from utilities will have a huge impact on people’s bills. Saving energy also means the utilities don’t need to build more expensive power plants, which customers wind up paying for.” - Eliseo Santana Jr., a retired veteran from Clearwater who used to work in the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
“We cannot wait another 10 years to do what is feasible now. The public-at-large needs serious energy savings to reduce their energy bills and save money on bills, which are skyrocketing right now due to increased Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning use based on the drastic rise of the number of extreme heat days in Florida. Goals of zero do nothing to help businesses or families.” - Albert Gomez, Vice President of Industrial Components
With rising energy costs, a climate crisis, and increasing energy challenges, Florida utilities need to step up their energy efficiency efforts to help customers save on their bills, reduce fossil fuel dependency, and build more energy resilient communities.
This article originally appeared on EarthJustice.org.
DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement Invests $2.8M in Oral Health Initiatives During Second Quarter of 2019
July 29, 2019
By Business Wire
From Yahoo Finance
[caption id="attachment_9794" align="alignnone" width="480"] DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement - 2019 Grants To-Date By Focus Area (Graphic: Business Wire)[/caption]
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--2019 grants now total $8.9 M to organizations working to improve oral health
The DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement (DentaQuest Partnership) today announced its investment of $2.8 million in organizations across the U.S. dedicated to improving the oral health of all. Today’s announcement captures grants awarded in the second quarter of 2019, with a total of $8.9 million awarded to-date in 2019 and additional funding to be awarded through the end of the year.
This press release features multimedia.
View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190729005398/en/
The DentaQuest Partnership’s grantmaking strategy focuses on investments that drive systems change in oral health through national and community-based initiatives in key focus areas (illustrated in the chart) and through partnerships and network development, including OPEN – the Oral Health Equity and Progress Network.
OPEN’s nearly 2,000 members advance changes that improve poor oral health outcomes and address significant health disparities against a set of collective goals. The majority of the second quarter grants supported oral health organization and stakeholder participation in OPEN at the local, state and national levels.“Right now, our health care system operates as though the mouth isn’t a part of the body, but oral health is in fact fundamentally tied to our overall health and well-being,” said Alison Corcoran, President of the DentaQuest Partnership.
“Through our grants program, we invest in the future of oral health and fund critical work being done across the country to improve the oral health care system. Our second quarter investments help our many partners participate in OPEN and join us in driving systems change.”
A few examples of organizations receiving grants this quarter include the Better Oral Health for Massachusetts Coalition, which advocates statewide for increased access and improved policies for oral health care; the Hawaii Public Health Institute, which advocates for better oral health coverage in Medicaid across the state; and Critical Learning Systems in Tennessee, which is working to expand a data-mapping tool on oral health needs. The full list appears below.
- Arizona: Senior Oral Health Outreach (SOHO), Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, Asian Pacific Community in Action and Children’s Action Alliance
- Arkansas: School Based Health Alliance of Arkansas
- California: Central Valley Health Policy Institute of California State University Fresno, California Primary Care Association, Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Children Now and Visión Y Compromiso
- Colorado: Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado, Colorado Community Health Network, University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Colorado
- Connecticut: Connecticut Oral Health Initiative (COHI) and Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, Inc.
- Florida: Catalyst Miami and Florida Association of Community Health Centers
- Hawaii: Hawaii Children’s Action Network and Hawaii Public Health Institute
- Idaho: Idaho Primary Care Association and Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
- Illinois: American Dental Association and The Oral Health Forum
- Indiana: Indiana Primary Care Association
- Iowa: Lee Country Health Department
- Kansas: Oral Health Kansas Inc., American Network of Oral Health Coalitions, Kansas Advocates for Better Care and Community Care Network of Kansas
- Kentucky: Kentucky Youth Advocates and Kentucky Primary Care Association, Inc.
- Louisiana: The Health Enrichment Network, EXCELth Inc. and Louisiana Primary Care Association
- Maine: Maine Primary Care Association, Maine Oral Health Coalition and Maine Equal Justice Partners
- Maryland: Mid-Atlantic Association of Community Health Center and Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (Office of Oral Health)
- Massachusetts: Better Oral Health for Massachusetts Coalition Inc., Community Catalyst and Primary Care Progress
- Michigan: Michigan Oral Health Coalition, United Health Organization and Health Net of West Michigan
- Minnesota: Apple Tree Dental
- Mississippi: Mississippi Oral Health Community Alliance (MOHCA) and Mississippi Dental Association Foundation
- Missouri: Missouri Coalition for Oral Health and Missouri Primary Care Association
- Montana: Montana Primary Care Association, Inc.
- Nebraska: Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Health Center Association of Nebraska
- Nevada: Future Smiles and ASTDD
- New Hampshire: New Hampshire Public Health Association
- New Jersey: American Academy of Pediatrics, NJ Chapter, New Jersey Primary Care Association and Advocates for Children of New Jersey
- New York: Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy and NYU College of Nursing
- North Carolina: NC Child, ABC2 and NC Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation
- Ohio: Oral Health Ohio and Ohio Asian American Health Coalition
- Oregon: Oregon Child Development Coalition
- Oklahoma: Southern Plains Tribal Health Board and Oklahoma Primary Care Association
- Pennsylvania: Put People First! Pennsylvania, Family First Health, and ACHIEVA/The Arc of Greater Pittsburgh
- Rhode Island: Rhode Island Kids Count Inc. and Rhode Island Health Center Association
- South Carolina: Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina Primary Health Care Association and South Carolina Office of Rural Health
- South Dakota: St Francis Mission Dental Clinic
- Tennessee: Tennessee Dental Hygienists Association, Critical Learnings Systems, Inc. and Tennessee Primary Care Association
- Texas: Texas Dental Association Smiles Foundation, Texas Oral Health Coalition, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy/Texas Impact Education Fund and South Plains Rural Health Services, Inc.
- Utah: Utah Dental Hygienists’ Association and Voices for Utah Children
- Vermont: Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center
- Virginia: Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Oral Health Coalition, United Way of Roanoke Valley, Smart Beginnings Virginia Peninsula and Harrison County Board of Education
- West Virginia: Marshall University Research Corporation
- Washington D.C.: Families USA, Justice in Aging, National Rural Health Association and Children’s National Health System
- Wisconsin: Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin
- Wyoming: Wyoming Primary Care Association
This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance.
Here's how Trump's new food stamp rule could affect Floridians
July 26, 2019
By Lautaro Greenspan
From The Miami Herald
That’s because the Trump administration proposed a new rule earlier this week that would curb enrollment in food stamps (formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) by 3.1 million people nationwide. Fueling the policy change — as explained by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue — is a perception that a “loophole” is making SNAP enrollment easy to game, keeping assistance from reaching only those who need it most.
Specifically, the USDA’s new rule cracks down on a policy used in 43 states — including Florida — called broad-based categorical eligibility, or BBCE, a provision that lets low-income people access food stamps more easily. Limiting BBCE would result, according to the USDA, in a budget windfall of $2.5 billion a year.
The eligibility guidelines currently used for SNAP let about 14 percent of the state’s population receive food stamp benefits — that’s just around three million people, many of them living in more densely-populated South Florida. In 2018, the amount of people in the Sunshine State whose incomes were below the poverty line also represented 14 percent of the population.
For the head of Florida’s Department ofAgriculture and Consumer Services,the new federal policy change is cause for concern.
“While 2.8 million Floridians struggle with food insecurity, including 850,000 children, reducing federal nutrition assistance is a step in the wrong direction,” Commissioner Nikki Fried said in a statement to el Nuevo Herald. “Helping families rise out of poverty through nutrition has long received bipartisan support. [...] Cutting food stamp eligibility will hurt 3 million working families seeking a hand up – not a handout.”
Right now, BBCE, the policy targeted by the Trump rule, lets states raise the threshold of eligibility for SNAP above the federal limit of 130 percent of the poverty line (that’s $33,475 for a family of four), to make room for more low-income working families.
When Florida implemented BBCE in 2010, it set the eligibility for most households at 200 percent of the poverty line — that’s the most generous eligibility threshold in the nation, shared by 15 other states.
“Having that little comfort zone between 130 and 200 percent of poverty really means a lot to these families, and it saves them from having to go off the benefit cliff where you lose all your benefits but you still don’t have enough income to make up for the difference,” said Cindy Huddleston, a senior policy analyst at the Florida Policy Institute. “If your income is over 130 percent of the federal poverty line, without [BBCE], that would be the end of the road for your SNAP eligibility determination. [...] And who that’s going to affect the most are the working poor, people who are out there working, and food assistance is what lets them survive.”
Another way BBCE lets more people enroll in food stamps is by letting states opt out of federal asset limits, which currently restrict SNAP eligibility to households (without older or disabled people) to $2,250 or less in savings — a measure that effectively disincentivizes poor people from saving. In Florida, because of BBCE, there is no asset test required for most families when it comes to SNAP eligibility.
“[BBCE] is not a loophole. It’s a policy that has been deliberately crafted by the federal government to help families that are about to lose their SNAP assistance but are still food insecure. So it’s not a loophole. It’s actually kind of looping needy families in,” said Huddleston.
As Huddleston points out, state governments exhaustively check SNAP applicants’ need for food assistance, including those applying under BBCE. “To receive SNAP, all households, including those eligible under BBCE, must apply, be interviewed, and document that their monthly income and expenses, such as high housing and child care costs, leave them with too little disposable income to afford a basic, adequate diet,” writes Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Of the more than three million people set to lose their food stamp benefits nationwide were BBCE significantly narrowed, Huddleston said “a substantial number” call Florida home, likely to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people.
WHO USES FOOD STAMPS IN FLORIDA?
SNAP benefits are reserved for people with social security numbers, and, as far as healthy adults with no dependents are concerned, for those who work. Those who aren’t working can only get food assistance for three months every three years.
“I think that one of the things that is interesting about Florida is we have a high percentage of low income workers who are relying on SNAP. One in seven workers in Florida receive SNAP, which is a figure that often blows people’s minds,” said Huddleston. “The reason families have to turn to SNAP to put food on the table is because they have lost their jobs or suffered some other crisis and they need short term assistance. I think people don’t realize that snap is composed of working families.”
In South Florida, many SNAP recipients work in the tourism industry, according to Santra Denis, the chief program officer at Catalyst Miami, a local nonprofit. “That’s anything from restaurant workers to hotel workers,” she said. “There’s a large service sector here in Miami-Dade County, a lot of people making minimum wage, and they depend on the SNAP program to really help them be able to meet their monthly expenses.”
In Miami-Dade, according to USDA data, a large segment of SNAP recipients live within Districts 26 and 27, represented by Democrats Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala, respectively. Hispanics make up an average of 85% of SNAP households within those districts.
IN FLORIDA, THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME BBCE IS IN JEOPARDY
If analysts can tell with confidence that the Trump administration’s new rule will hit Florida hard, it’s because they have the data to show for it.
Back in 2017, the Florida legislature considered a “family self-sufficiency” bill that, much like the new Trump rule, would have limited the state’s ability to enroll families in SNAP through BBCE. According to a House of Representative staff analysis of that bill, curbing BBCE would at the time have made 229,311 of SNAP recipients in the state no longer eligible because of income and asset limit changes. That would have been good for nearly seven percent of all Floridians enrolled in the food stamp program.
“At that time they also determined that the biggest group of people that would be affected would be children. Between eight and nine percent of all kids who were getting SNAP would lose their eligibility, and that would be well over 100,000 children,” said Huddleston. “The next group who would have mostly likely been affected would be people who are elderly or people who have disabilities.”
According to that same House staff analysis, the process of changing Florida’s SNAP eligibility rules would also come with significant administrative costs. The Florida Department of Children and Families, the agency responsible for administering the SNAP program in the state, estimated a cost range of $256,464 to $325,260 to implement the changes made by the 2017 bill, as well as a cost range of $7,553,489 to $23,638,824, annually, to contract for asset verification.
NONPROFITS AT THE READY
If adopted, the Trump administration’s new rule would mean a greater workload for the local organizations fighting hunger and food insecurity.
“The nonprofit network in these communities is going to have to step up to fill in an even larger gap for a lot of these families,” said Paco Vélez, president and CEO of Feeding South Florida, the largest hunger-relief organization in the region.
“Feeding South Florida has been very, very active in emergency response, whether it’s with hurricanes or any other emergency or disaster that comes our way,” added Vélez. “And so [the Trump administration’s new rule] is now something developing out there that we have to take seriously and start aligning our community [...] to get things prepared in case this thing goes through and we have to respond in a pretty significant way.”
According to a report released by Feeding South Florida earlier this year, 11.6 percent of the region’s population is already food insecure, meaning that over 700,000 do not know where their next meal will come from. When it comes to food insecure children, Miami-Dade County leads the rest of the region, with over 100,000 kids going to bed hungry.
As Vélez explained, the timing of the Trump administration’s BBCE announcement coincided with one of the times of the year in which hunger is greatest: summer vacation, when over half-a-million South Florida kids miss the reduced-price meals they get at school the rest of the year.
For some, those reduced-price school lunches could also go missing even when classes are in session. That’s because, if your parents no longer get SNAP because they no longer qualify through BBCE, you’ll no longer get a free school lunch.
Because the Trump administration can enact its new food stamp policy without congressional approval, it’s likely to take effect soon. First, though, the rule has to go through a public comment process. That process ends on September 23.
[caption id="attachment_9790" align="alignnone" width="768"] Carl Lewis stands in his market in Rankin, Pa., earlier this year. About half of Lewis’ customers pay with benefits from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. GENE J. PUSKAR AP[/caption]
This article originally appeared in The Miami Herald.
Can Employee Ownership Preserve Legacy Businesses in Communities of Color?
July 15, 2019
By Sandra Larson
By Next City
[caption id="attachment_9729" align="alignnone" width="749"] Sharif Abdur-Rahim, one of two founding brothers of West Philadelphia's African Cultural Arts Forum, stands in a second-floor workshop used to store African art and to produce the oils, incense and personal-care products they sell.[/caption]
Next City looks at year one of the SEED Fellowship, which educates small-business owners on how to craft succession plans and convert to employee ownership.
Hakim’s Bookstore, at 210 S. 52nd St. in West Philadelphia, is one of the oldest black-owned bookstores in the U.S. When founder Dawud Hakim passed away in 1997, the landmark establishment formed in 1959 might have closed if not for the efforts of Hakim’s daughter, Yvonne Blake, who kept the store afloat while juggling her own career and family responsibilities.
A half-block away, African Cultural Art Forum (ACAF), founded in 1969, sells art and jewelry by artists of African heritage and manufactures its own incense and body products in a building once occupied by the Aqua Lounge jazz club in the street’s entertainment center heyday in the 1960s and 70s. For more than 50 years, owners Sharif Abdur-Rahim and his brother Rashie Abdul Samad have provided summer jobs to generations of young locals.
Among the 264 businesses that line this stretch of 52nd Street between Arch and Pine streets, these stores exemplify the “legacy businesses” that 52nd Street Commercial Corridor Manager Tempest Carter sees as integral to the social and cultural fabric of the predominantly African-American neighborhood.
These business owners have weathered decades of economic and neighborhood ups and downs. But it’s an open question if and how such local mainstays will live on — or what might take their place — when aging founders retire, fall ill or pass away.
ACAF has a succession plan; a new generation of family members in their 20s and 30s is situated to take ownership. Indeed, this group has already guided the business into modern times, adding online sales capability and building an Instagram following.
But, Carter says, “That’s the minority. Most of my business [owners] do not know what they’re going to do. They’re just planning on working until they’re carried out.”
The percentage of black-owned businesses in Philadelphia is already small. Although 41 percent of city residents are black, only 2.5 percent of businesses in the Philadelphia metro area are black-owned, according to the latest Pew Charitable Trusts State of the City report. If current owners lack succession plans, odds are good that many of these operations will shut down, or be acquired by investors. This kind of turnover is sure to alter the types of businesses in these primarily African-American commercial corridors, which in turn would change the face of the districts.
“We are definitely in a space of massive transition right now,” Carter says. She notes that the 52nd Street area has become more “porous” demographically, with a shift toward more white and wealthy residents, adding, “What we’re going to get is a transference of wealth and assets from a historically marginalized community to a community that by and large is already well-equipped.”
A SOLUTION FOR THE LOOMING RETIREMENT CRISIS
Philadelphia and other cities across the U.S. face an impending wave of small business upheaval as Baby Boomer-era owners reach and pass retirement age. The majority of those owners have no clear succession plan, nor do they have a new generation ready and willing to assume ownership.
[caption id="attachment_9730" align="alignnone" width="749"] 52nd Street Commercial Corridor Manager Tempest Carter, standing in West Philadelphia's Malcolm X Park.[/caption]
As this “silver tsunami” approaches, one emerging strategy to prevent an exodus of community-anchored businesses and wealth is to transfer ownership to employees. The idea gained some momentum with the 2018 passage of the federal bipartisan Main Street Employee Ownership Act, which promises employee-owned businesses easier access to Small Business Administration assistance and loans.
Employee ownership can take various forms: It could mean a simple sale to a group of employees who know the business well. For larger firms, adopting a more complex Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) allows employees to reap some equity upon leaving the company. But the best way to broaden ownership, in the long run, could come from the worker cooperative model, which provides workers with both ownership and democratic control of the business.
Unfortunately, few business owners are familiar with the co-op model. Similarly, city economic development teams, small business advisers and capital providers often lack expertise in co-op conversion nuts and bolts. And yet no city leader would stand idly by and watch small-business revenue and jobs take a hit when these community mainstays disappear.
Enter the multi-city Shared Equity in Economic Development (SEED) Fellowship, introduced in 2018 to help city governments promote and support employee ownership. Organized by the National League of Cities and the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI), a national organization dedicated to worker cooperative development, the SEED fellowship program offers technical advising, peer information exchanges and visits by advisers and peer fellows to each of the four cities in the year-long program.
A recent report by the ICA Group and Capital Impact Partners examines the potential for scaling up co-op conversions. Among its broad recommendations: increase education and outreach to business owners; increase access to capital and technical assistance for co-op conversions; and support targeted geography-specific and/or industry-specific initiatives.
The SEED fellowship promises to bolster these types of assistance. The first year is intended as a time to build infrastructure, examine current policies, research local businesses and plan policy changes. In a second phase, after the formal fellowship ends, cities are expected to actually deploy policy changes and start to approach and assist businesses, with ongoing support from DAWI and NLC such as quarterly check-ins and pro bono trainings.
Through this outreach, education, and assistance to cities, the SEED program’s long-term goal is to build assets and wealth for people in communities of color, immigrant communities and low-wage sectors. The four cities in the inaugural cohort (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Durham and Miami) all chose to focus energies on preserving legacy businesses in communities of color.
“Employee ownership can be an anti-poverty, racial wealth gap-addressing tool,” says Zen Trenholm, SEED program manager with DAWI. While saving jobs is a success and employee ownership could take other forms, DAWI is devoted to the worker cooperative model, he says. “We don’t want to forget that it’s not just about saving jobs, it’s creating ownership. We are addressing a long history of people not having opportunities to build assets.”
ADAPTING SEED TO EACH CITY’S NEEDS
At the start of the program last summer, each city formed an initial SEED team of three city employees, who then recruited a community fellow — someone from a local nonprofit or philanthropic organization who would have on-the-ground connections with neighborhoods and small businesses.
The fellows converged at a June 2018 kick-off in Boston, a city notable for its recent equitable economic development work. Then, from September to December 2018, DAWI and NLC convened site visits in each city that brought together fellows from peer cities along with invited technical assistance experts such as business development specialists, capital providers and co-op conversion experts. A mid-year retreat brought fellows together in New York City.
Each city came to the inaugural SEED cohort with its own advantages, problems and potential solutions.
Atlanta set as its “North Star” the preservation of African-American owned businesses in Southwest Atlanta, particularly in Cascade Heights, the commercial hub of a middle-class African-American neighborhood, says Christina Cummings, SEED fellow and interim director of Atlanta’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
Seated at a large white work table with a few local community members at the Atlanta City Studio, a pop-up outpost of the city’s planning department in the heart of Cascade Heights, Cummings describes some of the anchor legacy businesses in the surrounding blocks.
[caption id="attachment_9731" align="alignnone" width="860"] The Beautiful Restaurant, in Atlanta's Cascade Heights neighborhood (Photo courtesy The Beautiful)[/caption]
Among them are Dr. Young’s Dental Clinic, owned by dentist and civil rights activist Dr. Walter Young, brother of former Ambassador and Mayor Andrew Young; Barlow’s Barbershop, whose founder once tended the hair of Atlanta luminaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mayor Maynard Jackson and Dr. Benjamin E. Mays; Ashmel’s Plumbing and Contracting, started in the 1970s by husband-and-wife owners Ashmel and Marie Williams, known as “Mr. Ashmel” and “Mrs. Ashmel”; and The Beautiful Restaurant, a church-owned Southern-food spot known for its macaroni & cheese and banana pudding as well as its mission to hire returning citizens and other people in transition.
“The Beautiful has had a vision for how to create jobs, create wealth, keep those dollars local, for 40 years,” Cummings says. With 50 employees and a growing catering business, the restaurant could be a good test case for the SEED team’s co-op conversion outreach.
The City Studio is where the SEED team convened 50 or 60 community stakeholders and business owners last fall during Atlanta’s technical assistance site visit. Cummings went door-to-door and invited business owners old and new to learn and share in the discussion with DAWI and NLC representatives and a panel of experts on small-business preservation and worker cooperatives.
By paying visits to local businesses and gathering that large and diverse group of stakeholders in the room during the site visit, her team has “built a bridge,” Cummings says, forming a base of trust for future discussions with local businesses — which she knows are not going to be simple.
“We’ll have to do a lot of education and community engagement as to what worker-owned businesses are and what that process looks like,” she says. “Not only do they need the knowledge and education, they need technical support and they need the money. Conversations could take two years, sometimes three years start-to-finish, to get someone ready for that model.”
In the other cities, too, local ecosystems helped define SEED project goals.
Durham has a history of strong black-founded enterprises that contributed to its “Black Wall Street” designation during the Jim Crow era. As Next City has reported, city officials want to build on that legacy while helping businesses climb back from the recession and respond to a new knowledge economy and gentrification pressures.
Philadelphia already had a robust infrastructure for co-op support, with its rich co-op history, dedicated city funding for co-op development and the presence of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), which had already done extensive work supporting the formation of new worker co-ops. With the SEED Fellowship, the Philly team sought to build systems for identification, outreach, education and support of legacy business owners on 52nd Street and other business corridors, tapping into its system of city-funded corridor managers such as Carter, who connect with local businesses on a regular basis.
In Miami, small business districts in Little Haiti and Little Havana have for years been subject to gentrification pressures as development spills over from the Design District and Wynwood areas. Some other historically vibrant but recently troubled lower-income neighborhoods such as Overtown and Liberty City are seeing increased interest from developers and new residents, adding to pressures on longstanding business owners.
“People are trying to move toward the urban core, which have not been the best neighborhoods in the past,” says Santra Denis, Miami’s SEED community fellow and chief program officer at the anti-poverty organization Catalyst Miami. “And there’s a trend toward moving back into the city. So there’s a lot of pressure that those communities are experiencing.”
ONE YEAR IN, THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS
The inaugural SEED year concluded in June with a closing retreat in Washington, D.C. Now that the first year has wrapped up, how effective was the program at spreading the worker cooperative gospel? The purpose of the fellowship is subtle — more to lay the groundwork for action than to achieve concrete results. But it has spurred some changes already, and others are in the works.
DAWI’s Trenholm says that for SEED organizers, the baseline success metric was that each city leaves the fellowship with a clear plan for implementing their project and with some initial steps taken based on the expert advising and feedback they received during the year. In his view, all four SEED cities have devised “clear plans, clear roles and good foundations for future business conversions.”
All of the cohort cities report some progress, including new processes and policies set in motion. Additionally, all emphasize the value of gaining new peer connections.
The Durham team points to a wealth of outcomes so far. They created their first-ever citywide business survey, a step toward creating a legacy business registry. The city has engaged graduate student fellows and interns to analyze data on local black-owned businesses to help target further outreach and assistance. Durham already had a strong small business advisory committee, and now they’ve been able to connect it with the technical assistance advisory group formed in the SEED project. They’re creating a website for small businesses that highlights succession plans and worker co-op information. And they helped form a new statewide 501c3 nonprofit, the North Carolina Employee Ownership Center.
“The seed has been planted,” says LaTasha Best-Gaddy, a Durham small business technical assistance provider and the SEED team’s community fellow.
Miami amended its economic development loan fund to authorize the use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to finance business conversion costs. In addition, it has provided grants to three technical assistance providers to help identify and support business owners ready to contemplate conversion. They added worker cooperative information to the Housing and Community Development Department website. To support outreach, they produced flyers to hand out to businesses with information on succession planning, employee ownership options and a list of contacts for further assistance — a simple idea that other SEED fellows are eager to replicate.
In Philadelphia, the SEED team honed its focus on the 52nd Street Corridor as a pilot area and is planning a full-corridor business walk to identify owners ready to explore succession planning options. The new co-op technical assistance advisory group built as part of the SEED year adds to the city’s existing small business and co-op support. In addition, commercial corridor managers are receiving training from DAWI to help them discuss the business conversion process with business owners.
The Atlanta team created a robust local business database — much admired by the peer city fellows — and used it to refine their focus on types and sizes of businesses most suited to co-op conversion. They are preparing to introduce statewide legislation to codify worker ownership models and are amending the city’s Invest Atlanta fund to provide “gap funding” for business conversions while making arrangements to funnel CDBG dollars toward business conversion loans.
One of the benefits SEED fellows describe enthusiastically was the opportunity to learn about other cities’ unique business ecosystems and share ideas and strategies.
“We began to look at things differently,” says Yvonne Boye, Philadelphia’s coordinating fellow and senior director of the city’s Office of Neighborhood and Economic Development. “Just talking with each other broadens our way of thinking. For instance, having the library as a partner — we got that idea from Atlanta. In Miami, they have a lot of different cultures and the way they approach that gave me some insights.”
Philly’s corridor manager system caught Atlanta’s interest, as did Miami’s use of CDBG funds. “I wanted to steal everything Miami was doing. I immediately came back and said, ‘We’re going to do it, we’re going to use CDBG funds,’” Cummings says. “So we were able to glean best practices from those sister cities and build a better, more comprehensive set of tools.”
THE LESSONS LEARNED AND CHALLENGES THAT REMAIN
Beyond the successful first steps and the pleasure of peer connections, this first cohort of SEED fellows gained acute awareness that legacy business outreach and co-op education will be a slow, painstaking journey. Not only is the co-op conversion process complicated for everyone involved to understand and implement, but the topic of succession planning can also be a sensitive one, just as discussions of life insurance or end-of-life care might be.
“In Miami, we’ve learned that that’s a delicate conversation. We don’t want people to think we’re trying to push them out,” says Denis.
“There is an educational disconnect in the small business community about what their options are,” says Cummings, adding, “We don’t have the same ecosystem they have in Philadelphia. We are in the infancy of exploring these ideas.”
The closing retreat for the inaugural SEED cohort also welcomed next year’s fellows from San Francisco, Louisville, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia. So SEED’s peer-to-peer network doubled in a flash, and the information sharing has already begun, with several fellows saying they were inspired by hearing about San Francisco’s legacy business registry and preservation fund.
In its second year, the SEED fellowship will run in much the same way, but with an increased focus on commercial rent stability and land affordability. “We have to talk about rent and property costs in addition to employee ownership,” Trenholm says. “Not as two different strategies, but a multi-pronged strategy. The core is employee ownership, but how does the city also address issues of property and stability?”
[caption id="attachment_9734" align="alignnone" width="860"] The African Cultural Arts Forum, on West 52nd Street in West Philadelphia, was founded in 1969, and is now housed in a space that was once the Aqua Lounge jazz club.[/caption]
So far, there are whispers of interest in the worker co-op model — or at least some type of shared operation — from some legacy and newer businesses.
Sharif Abdur-Rahim of Philly’s ACAF says he could see embracing a cooperative business model, once he knows more about it. “I don’t understand all the ramifications of that,” he says, “but there’s a real interest among small businesses in the city in trying to do something collective. We would definitely be interested.”
The Durham team reports being in conversations with two businesses that may be co-op conversion candidates.
In Atlanta, The Beautiful Restaurant’s CFO, Lucy Sims, expresses hesitant interest. “I do see that the city was thinking of all the employees wanting to be a part of it, and that’s not impossible. That’s something that’s doable,” she says, hastening to add that they are nowhere near thinking through the revamping needed to shift from the current church ownership.
Not far from Cascade Heights, in Atlanta’s close-knit Westview business district, The Good Hair Shop owner Kiyomi Rollins envisions shared ownership of commercial space as a way for currently renting businesses to survive and thrive in the face of potential gentrification effects from the nearby Atlanta BeltLine. And Cascade Heights resident Shanda Laws, who attended last fall’s SEED presentation and is preparing to launch a fresh produce market next door to Barlow’s Barbershop, is looking into making the market a worker cooperative.
CULTIVATE PATIENCE, RECOGNIZE THE URGENCY
Even with the steps forward and enthusiasm, a clear message from the SEED year is that co-op conversion is hard. Explaining it is hard. Initiating conversations about succession planning is hard. For nearly everyone involved, there is a lot to learn about how co-op conversion would work, in real life, for a particular business.
To implement greater support for co-op conversion, policies often need to change at the city or state level to formally recognize the worker cooperative model or to allot municipal funds. Education and outreach are imperative. Each business is different, each owner is an individual, and a great deal of forethought and cultural competence is necessary to create productive relationships between city officials and entrepreneurs, as the foundation for these conversions. This all takes time.
For those on the ground in vulnerable communities, new policies and funding to support legacy businesses can hardly come too soon.
“I think we’re at a really pivotal point,” says Carter, of 52nd Street. “Our people are already elders. I haven’t lost any of my businesses yet, but it could be any day now, where one of my owners passes away, and the business transfers.”
But even amid this backdrop of urgency, the spirit of SEED is to take the time to lay a strong foundation.
“We’re going to be hyper-attentive to the kinds of businesses and districts we want to target. We’ll start small, get a proof of concept, and when we see that we’re generating wealth, then we can expand,” says Reese McCranie, Atlanta SEED fellow and Deputy Chief Equity Officer in the Mayor’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
In Philly, a full-corridor walk, perhaps with city councilors along, is in the works for 52nd Street. It’s one step on a longer path. “We want to make sure to do as much as possible in advance to get it right. We haven’t been rushing it. It has to be part of a relationship-building exercise,” says Philadelphia SEED fellow Frank Iannuzzi, legislative director for At-Large City Council Member Derek Green. He adds, “The work that came out of SEED will perpetuate the broader conversation for much longer. Without the year of really concentrating on this, that wouldn’t be happening.”
Next City is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. Read more at BrokeInPhilly.org and follow us on Twitter @BrokeInPhilly.
UPDATE: This article was amended to clarify the statistical context regarding the percentage of black-owned businesses cited from the Pew Charitable Trusts report. The 2.5 percent of minority-owned businesses covers the Philadelphia metro area, not just the city itself.
This article originally appeared in Next City.
Presidential Candidate Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington Talks Climate Risk In Little Haiti
June 26, 2019
By Sherrilyn Cabrera
From WLRN
[caption id="attachment_9702" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Washington Gov. Jay Inslee with community leaders and activists in Little Haiti.[/caption]
Presidential candidate Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington visited Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood Tuesday morning on the eve of the first Democratic debate. His main focus: climate change.
Inslee and community leaders walked around the Little Haiti Cultural Center to pitch his 100 percent clean energy plan and his campaigns focus on climate risk to neighborhood business owners and residents.
“The first communities who are hurt by climate change, including a lot of communities of color, of poverty and indigenous communities ... are the first communities that are victimized — including those in Little Haiti,” Inslee said.
Inslee was joined by organizers from the social-services organization Catalyst Miami, public health experts from the University of Miami, and organizers from ReThink Energy Florida.
“I think it’s good for any candidate to come see the community especially those that are being impacted by those major challenges of climate change and gentrification and housing issues,” said Zelalem Adefris, resiliency director for Catalyst Miami.
Earlier this week, Inslee was in the Everglades to announce a plan that would combat fossil fuel pollution, called the “Freedom from Fossil Fuels” plan.
He referenced his clean energy plan and bid for president during his tour around the cultural center.
[caption id="attachment_9707" align="alignright" width="300"] Washington Gov. Jay Inslee meets with neighborhood business owners in Little Haiti.[/caption]
“That’s one of the reasons I’m fighting so hard to develop a clean-energy future, our only option is to defeat the climate crisis,” Inslee said. “We have to be victorious, because without victory there’s no survival.”
Inslee is one of 10 presidential candidates who will meet Wednesday night for the first round of Democratic debates, taking place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.
Inslee holds among the most detailed environmental plans among the Democratic candidates, including a plan for immigrants who have migrated because of climate change and climate resiliency for new transit projects.
Community leaders urged the importance of climate risk action. Dr. Armen Henderson, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami, called it an “existential crisis.”
“You have to take into consideration everything that’s happening ground zero in Miami,” Henderson said. “Including drinking water, development, gentrification and education.”
This article originally appeared on WLRN.