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WASHINGTON (February 2, 2011) – Despite decades of efforts to reform education, and billions of dollars of expenditures, the harsh reality is that America is still failing to prepare millions of its young people to lead successful lives as adults. Evidence of this failure is everywhere: in the dropout epidemic that plagues our high schools and colleges; in the harsh fact that just 30 percent of our young adults earn a bachelor’s degree by age 27; and in teen and young adult employment rates not seen since the Great Depression.

A new report offers full disclosure of the U.S. Government’s vision for job creation in America. The report notes that while the United States is expected to create 47 million jobs in the 10-year period ending in 2018, only a third of these jobs will require a bachelor’s or higher degree. Almost as many jobs – some 30 percent – will only require an associate’s degree or a post-secondary occupational credential. Given these realities, the report argues we need to broaden the range of high-quality pathways that we offer young adults. This would include far more emphasis on career counseling and high-quality career education, as well as apprenticeship programs and community colleges as viable routes to well-paying jobs.

We support the effort for new job creation and innovative job readiness training solutions to increase opportunities for economic balance in America.

Read more about our initiative > www.digipreneurship.com

Read the full report > http://bit.ly/jobcreationinamerica

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Salon ANA, based in Jacksonville, Florida, is the new kid on the block of a city that takes pride in beauty salons and the cosmetology industry for a successful career. Founder, Ammeco Nicole Alexander, is seeking to grow the salon from an independent venue to a full service salon in the next 6 months to one year.

Another website design by www.blacksonville.net !

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The stories of the freedom struggle and resistance to oppression that resulted in the milestones presented here would (and does) fill history books, civil rights museums and other institutes. A single webpage cannot document the details of those battles, but it is crucial to remember that from every act of oppression grew hundreds of forms of resistance and that every victorious milestone on the Freedom Road was achieved by prayers, blood, sweat, and tears.

The stories of the freedom struggle and resistance to oppression that resulted in the milestones presented here would (and does) fill history books, civil rights museums and other institutes. A single webpage cannot document the details of those battles, but it is crucial to remember that from every act of oppression grew hundreds of forms of resistance and that every victorious milestone on the Freedom Road was achieved by prayers, blood, sweat, and tears.

Two of the main issues addressed by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s:

(1) ending the “Jim Crow” system of segregation and

(2) winning the right to vote for Blacks, Women, Latinos, Native-Americans, Asians, and others) in the South and across America.

But the Freedom Movement of the sixties did not spontaneously spring up out of nowhere, nor did it disappear as of 2010. Many African Americans, Hispanics and others still face a life of ban in voting because of modern day “Jim Crow” laws within the criminal justice system. The Civil Rights Movement was but one episode in centuries-long struggle for human freedom and civil rights that continues to this day. The Movement grew out of what came before and evolved into the struggles being waged today. Nothing illustrates this point better than the long battle for voting rights.

In essence, the struggle for voting rights in America over the past two centuries has been a two-part battle. The first part was to win citizenship rights for blacks, and other minorities. But citizenship was only the first half of the fight. The second half was to win voting rights for all citizens regardless of gender, economic status, race, religion, or national origin.

Voting Rights Milestones that should act as a reminder and the importance of voting on November 2, 2010.

1776: Abigail Adams asks the Continental Congress to support women’s rights.
1776-early 1800s: Struggle to remove religious restrictions
1787: U.S. Constitution Adopted.
1820-1865: Abolition movement to end slavery.1
1836: Texas denies vote to Mexicans.
1848: Mexican-Americans are denied voting rights in the southwest.
1848-1920: Women’s Suffrage Movement.
1867: 14th Amendment extends citizenship to Blacks.
1868: Women petition that women’s suffrage be included in the draft 15th Amendment.
1920: 19th Amendment extends right to vote to women.
1924: Native-American citizenship.
1942-1952: Asian citizenship rights.
1945-1960: GIs fight for civil rights.
1960-1965: Civil Rights Movement demands the right to vote.
1964-1965: Freedom Summer and the Selma to Montgomery March.
1965: Passage of Voting Rights Act.
1975: Extension of Voting Rights Act to “language minorities.”

Today: Voting rights and the criminal justice system

• 1.4 million Black men (13% of adult African-American males) are denied the right to vote because they served time in prison. In 5 states (including Florida) more than one-in-four adult male African-Americans are disenfranchised. Latinos and Native-Americans are similarly affected.
• From 1980 to 2000 the number of prisoners in the U.S. increased by more than 300% (while total population increased by only 24%). At the present rate of incarceration, the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 6.6% of Americans born in 2001 will spend time in prison. This is the highest incarceration rate in the world.
• Despite having served their sentences and paid their penalties, many states disenfranchise ex-prisoners after their release: 14 states disenfranchise former inmates for life, 32 states disenfranchise former inmates while on parole and 29 states disenfranchise former inmates on probation.

Richard P. Burton, Sr., Director

PROJECT R.E.A.C.H., INC.

P.O. Box 440248

Jacksonville, FL 32244

Bus: 904-786-7883   Cell: 610-349-3358

E-mail richbrenfl@msn.com

http://projectreachinc.webs.com/

A non-profit 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) (Re-enfranchisement) Organization

Your Gifts And Donations Are Tax Deductible

We offer event speakers and facilitate criminal/juvenile justice workshops/forum

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(July 21, 2010) The number of minority-owned businesses increased by 45.6 percent to 5.8 million between 2002 and 2007, more than twice the national rate of all U.S. businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, the number of black-owned business increased by 60.5 percent  during the same period. The total number of U.S. businesses increased between 2002 and 2007 by 18.0 percent to 27.1 million.

These new data come from the Preliminary Estimates of Business Ownership by Gender, Ethnicity, Race and Veteran Status: 2007, from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 Survey of Business Owners. The preliminary report released today is the first of 10 reports on the characteristics of minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses and their owners scheduled for release over the next year.

Increases in the number of minority-owned businesses ranged from 60.5 percent for black-owned businesses to 17.9 percent for American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses. Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43.6 percent.

FULL ARTICLE > http://www.targetmarketnews.com/storyid07221002.htm

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National Sales Network Conference

Originally uploaded by Blacksonville Community Network

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If anyone is interested, tell them to send a resume and email cover letter to Josh Robinson jrobinson@emeraldwaste.com.

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The Emergency Fund, included in last year’s Recovery Act, has enabled states to create subsidized jobs for large numbers of low-income individuals who otherwise would be unemployed; more than 30 states are using the fund to create and preserve about 160,000 jobs (see map, below). The fund has also helped small businesses by defraying one of their key costs — employee wages —thereby enabling many firms to add staff they otherwise could not afford. In addition, the fund has strengthened overall consumer demand by enabling states to respond to the growing need among very poor parents and children for basic cash assistance and short-term, non-recurring needs.[2]

The fund is set to set to expire, however, on September 30, at a time when unemployment will still be very high and increasing numbers of individuals will have exhausted their unemployment benefits. States are already planning to start dismantling their subsidized jobs programs in anticipation of this withdrawal of federal financial help. If Congress fails to extend the fund, many of the 160,000 jobs it has helped create will be lost, and the additional subsidized jobs that small firms would create if additional funding were available will fail to materialize.

The fund’s expiration would also pose problems for small businesses. If firms participating in the program have not recovered enough to afford the wage costs, they will have to reduce staffing, and the individuals they hired with the help of the subsidy will again be unemployed. This would be a setback both for the economic recovery and for small firms participating in the program.

How the Subsidized Jobs Programs Work

Under the TANF Emergency Fund, each state — and in some states, each county or region — can design its own model of how subsidized job placements work, and states are using a range of models. This has enabled states and local areas to design their subsidized job programs in ways that best fit the needs of local businesses and communities.

Many states subsidize all, or nearly all, of the cost of the wages, while other states use a more modest, partial subsidy or one that declines over a period of months. Most commonly, states subsidize job placements that last six months; a few are shorter, and some are longer. States also have flexibility to determine who can qualify for a subsidized job. States need not limit participation to families receiving cash assistance, and a number of states are targeting a broader group of low-income unemployed parents, including those who are receiving — or exhausting — unemployment benefits. In all cases, the individual employer decides whom to hire, ensuring that firms are able to hire people who are a good fit for them.

How the TANF Emergency Fund Helps Small Businesses

Subsidizing all or much of an employee’s wage costs for a period of time is of particular help to small businesses that are not certain when they will be able to fully support the costs of hiring new workers. Although some TANF subsidized jobs programs require employers to hire the individual at the end of the subsidy period, others do not or simply encourage employers to do so. Either arrangement may actually be more beneficial to some small employers than the measures included in the jobs bill President Obama signed on March 18, which provides a temporary Social Security payroll tax suspension (equal to 6.2 percent of wages) through the end of the year and a $1,000 tax credit if the firm retains the new employee for a year.

The President observed when signing the legislation, “There is a lot more we need to do to spur hiring in the private sector and bring about a full economic recovery.” Extending the TANF Emergency Fund is one such step that can be especially beneficial to small businesses. The fund has helped small firms in three ways:

• Promoting business expansion. The recession has required many small firms to put expansion plans on hold. By reducing a portion of the costs (and therefore the risk) associated with expanding, the fund has allowed some small businesses to proceed with planned expansions. For example, Tennessee’s subsidized employment program enabled a pastry business to increase production, which in turn allowed the firm to expand its distribution area and purchase a packaging machine to increase its efficiency. This expansion proved successful; the firm found new customers — and the firm now plans to hire all of the workers it hired through the TANF subsidized jobs program as regular employees.
• Rehiring laid-off employees. Small businesses hit hard by the recession often lack sufficient reserves to keep valued employees during periods of weak demand for their products or services. The TANF Emergency Fund has allowed some small businesses to rehire laid-off employees sooner than they had planned. For example, a small rental company in rural Ohio was able to hire back an employee who had been laid off for an extended period and would otherwise have remained laid off. This employer is planning to keep the employee on staff after the three-month subsidy ends, in anticipation of a seasonal increase in business after the winter.
• Supporting new business start-ups. Starting a new business can be difficult during a period of weak demand because the risk of failure is much greater. This is unfortunate because new businesses are essential to the long-term economic viability of communities that have faced significant job losses before and during the recession. Some of these communities have been able to use the TANF Emergency Fund to attract new firms and to help businesses that are just starting to increase their chances of success. For example, a small city in Ohio worked with local business organizations to put together a package of incentives to encourage a new employer to move to the city. One of the incentives was TANF wage subsidies for new hires.

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AARP Foundation Women’s Scholarship Program

This scholarship program provides scholarship funds to women 40+ seeking new job skills, training, and educational opportunities to support themselves and their families.

The program is available to eligible individuals with moderate to lower incomes and limited financial resources.

To be eligible for the scholarships, applicants must be:

* Women;
* Age 40 or over by March 31, 2010;
* U.S. Citizens; Able to demonstrate financial need;
* Enrolled in an accredited school or technical program in the U.S., within 6 months of the scholarship award date.

The AARP Foundation will award up to 100 scholarships.

Deadline:
March 31, 2010

Award Amount:
$500 – $5,000

Website/Contact Info:
www.aarpfoundationwlc.org/?gclid=
COeKnvOUiZ4CFchn5QodR2xQpg

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More than half of black males between the ages of 16 and 19 are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that’s only counting those seeking work. Economists say legions of other young black men – nobody knows how many – have given up looking. Sitting in an empty classroom at the YouthBuild Charter School in Washington, D.C., Andre Johnson, 18, talks about his fruitless job search.

“I apply for jobs every day,” he says. “And usually I do it online, ’cause I know before when I used to go in the stores, they used to look at me actually different and weird, and they say, ‘Oh we don’t have no applications or nothing,’ and I never believed them.” Academics believe fewer than 14 in 100 young black men actually have jobs. Washington, D.C., has the worst teen employment rate in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A Disturbing Trend

Experts point to several reasons for the disparity. Allison Lee is a job placement specialist at YouthBuild, which helps teens complete their GEDs, gain job training and land internships and employment. She says she has seen discrimination from hiring managers firsthand. “They have told me on the phone or to my face that they are hiring,” she says. “And when I send a student in by himself who’s a young black male, they’re told, ‘No, we’re not hiring.’”

Discrimination alone doesn’t explain the entire problem. There are other reasons, like the fact that few African-Americans work in hiring offices. Studies show that when more blacks are in positions to hire new employees, more blacks get hired. Also, few networks exist in the young men’s communities to help them get jobs. Fewer of their parents, family and friends have jobs, so fewer connections are there to help them find work. It all sets up a disturbing trend.

Algernon Austin of the Economic Policy Institute says the job prospects for white, adult felons are higher than those for black male teenagers without any criminal record. In addition, older workers who have been laid-off from higher paying jobs are now taking the entry-level jobs many black teens apply for. In fact, more people 55 and older are working in this recession than were before.

Lingering Disparities, Long Term Effects

It’s not just low-income households that are hurting. Andrew Sum of with the Center for Labor Market Studies found that upper-middle-class black teenagers are less likely to be employed than low-income white teenagers.

Among black teens in households making between $100,000 and $150,000 a year, only 28 in 100 have jobs. Of white, non-Hispanic teens in households making less than $20,000 a year, 37 out of 100 have jobs. Generally, as family income increases, the rate of teen employment for those households rises. But even this trend can’t erase the lingering disparities in employment for black teenagers. Sum says that young people need to work during their teen years:

“These people who work a lot when they’re teenagers not only benefit when they’re teenagers, but they also will work more and earn more when they’re 25 years old,” he says. “The more you work now, the more you work tomorrow.” And working as a teen leads to higher high school graduation rates, steadier and higher-paying employment down the road, and lower rates of criminal activity.

Refusing To Give Up

Anthony Bishop, 18, is still looking for work. On his lunch break at the Building for the Future Charter School in Southeast D.C., he says young black men need to “dress for the occasion” when they apply for a job. “Some black people … they’ll just go on the job with baggy jeans, just try to apply for the job, but that ain’t the right way to go.” he says.

Back at YouthBuild, 19-year-old Isaiah Brown says the managers who wouldn’t hire him missed out on a good worker. “And you just missed out on a good opportunity for your business,” he says.

Corey Evans, another YouthBuild student, is optimistic in telling other black youths to keep trying. “Don’t let nothing hold you back,” he says. He says the best way to get a job is to not worry about the economy, or your color, even if others do.

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