Policy
The Kerner Commission Report, 40 Years Later
Harvey Hollins III, vice president for the government and community affairs at Wayne State University, greets guests at the Detroit hearing held on November 17.(by Elizabeth Conley / The Detroit News)
The Eisenhower Foundation is hosting a re-examination of the issues raised by the Kerner Riot Commission, beginning with forums in Detroit and Newark, two cities affected by the civil unrest of 1967. Read what the media says about these two public forums.
Detroit
The Detroit News - November 17
Detroit Free Press - November 18
Detroit Free Press - November 16
Lansing State Journal - November 17
Michigan Chronicle - November 15
Newark
Eisenhower Foundation gives early childhood education a boost.
(Baltimore, MD) The foundation used its communications department to share information with columnist Greg Kane of McClatchy Tribune regional news service and the Baltimore Sun about the awards being granted by Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer to two Maryland counties for their innovate preschool programs.
State school superintendent Nancy Grasmick says in the article “If I had my way, I’d do away with the senior year of high school and invest the money in early childhood education.”
While the Eisenhower Foundation doesn’t advocate doing away with senior year (nor does Grasmick really), we do support early childhood education. It is part of a critical continuum that is missing in many poor communities. We advocate multiple solutions to multiple problems funded to the scale of the problem: With a continuum of early education , after school for elementary students, quantum programs for high school students, quality prisoner reentry and training first not work first initiatives, community banking and community policing; entire communities can be stabilized and brought out of poverty. We salute the early child hood efforts of the two counties and Representative Hoyer for his support. Click here to read article
Eisenhower Foundation-The Sorbonne Forum Compares American, French and British Riots Over Poverty, Inequality and Race
Recent French Riots
(Paris) On June 6, 2007, the Sorbonne (the University of Paris) and the Eisenhower Foundation co-sponsored a one-day Forum in Paris on “Poverty, Inequality and Race: Forty Years After the Kerner Commission and Twenty-Five Years After the Scarman Report.”
The purpose of the Forum was to provide information that the Eisenhower Foundation could use in its upcoming fortieth anniversary update in 2008 of the final report of the 1968 Kerner Riot Commission in the U.S. (officially known as the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders). The Kerner Commission (named after its chair, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner) predicted growing inequality and racial segregation in the U.S. – a prophecy that has come to pass.
The June 6 Paris Forum on the anniversary of Europe D-Day, 1944, compared the causes and consequences of the uprisings in America’s impoverished inner cities during the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s to British riots in the 1980s amongst its urban poor, (which led to a British Commission chaired by Lord Scarman) to the recent French riots in predominantly poor, immigrant neighborhoods.
The presenters at the Sorbonne on June 6 included, in alphabetical order:
- John Benyon, Professor, University of Leicester, Leicester (UK).
- Sophie Body-Gendrot, Professor, the Sorbonne, Paris.
- Alan Curtis, President, the Eisenhower Foundation, Washington, DC.
- Jeffrey Fagan, Professor, School of Law, Columbia University, New York.
- Romain Garbaye, CEUMA, the Sorbonne, Paris.
- Fred R. Harris, Former United States Senator, Chairman, the Eisenhower Foundation, Washington, DC.
- Anne Power, Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, London.
- Vivien Stern, Member, House of Lords, London.
The Paris Forum follows the Eisenhower Foundation's National Forum on "Media, Poverty, Inequality and Race" (click here). The Foundation is preparing an update of the Kerner Commission which will be released on its 40th anniversary in 2008. The process will begin with comprehensive hearings in select American cities which experienced uprisings during and since the mid-1960s, revisiting many that were profiled in the original report. For more information contact Ms. Leila McDowell, Director of Communications at the Eisenhower Foundation at leilamcd@aol.com.
Leading Journalists Discuss Policy Impact of Media Coverage on Poverty, Race and Inequality
(Washington, DC) On December 12, 2006 the Eisenhower Foundation held the National Media Forum on Poverty, Inequality and Race. Over two dozen leading journalists, media critics and scholars spoke on these issues throughtout the daylong forum.
To frame the Forum, the Eisenhower Foundation Forum had posed the question: why has the quantity and quality of print and electronic media coverage on poverty, inequality, race – and effective policy to deal with these issues – declined so precipitously since the late 1960s, in spite of recent reporting on Hurricane Katrina and failed federal policy on the Gulf Coast?
Click here to view videos of the presentations.
Click here for the Forum agenda and here for bios of the panelists.
Click here to order a copy of C-SPAN's coverage of the event.
The Truly Disadvantaged and the Inner City: A Return to Education, Training, and Placement
(Washington, DC) November 6, 2006 -The Eisenhower Foundation held a day-long forum on employment training for youth, titled “The Truly Disadvantaged and the Inner City: A Return to Education, Training, and Placement.” Present at the forum were leaders from some of the most successful job education and training agencies in the United States (such as Job Corps, Youth Build USA, Vocational Foundation, Inc., Youth Opportunity Movement, Center for Employment Training, Remediation and Training Institute, and Alexandria Seaport Foundation).
The forum participants reviewed the underlying principals of the former Eisenhower Foundation funded Argus job training model for youth, and, by using the LaFrance Associates’ report as a starting point, discussed best practices in youth employment education, training, and placemen that could be used to enhance the Argus model and inform development of a new job training model by the Foundation. Click to read "Findings on Youth Employment Training Best Practices" prepared by LaFrance Associates.
Public-Morality Forum
Televised on C-SPAN
What Would Geno Do?
Father Baroni
at confirmation hearings in 1977
What is public morality? Many religious and secular leaders believe
it is more than personal morality – that it is about vision, and
what journalist Walter Lippman called “pursuit of the good society.”
How can we create a framework of public morality at a time when poverty
has increased four years in a row, tax breaks are being given to the rich,
domestic spending is being reduced, schools are becoming more segregated,
and the public sector has failed New Orleans after the devastation of
Hurricane Katrina?
One man who dedicated his life to the pursuit of the good society was
the late Father Geno Baroni, Assistant Secretary for Neighborhoods at the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development in the late 1970s and the highest ranking priest in the federal executive
branch of the government.
On what would have been Baroni’s 75th birthday, the Eisenhower Foundation
held a forum on public morality that gathered more than 30 government,
religious and secular leaders to discuss his legacy and explore ways it
can be put to practice today.
Recap of the two-day forum
Newspaper coverage
Summary of the "Baroni
Principles"
Commentary: Invest Hawaii tax surplus in poverty solutions
Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis and Trustee Jeff Faux of
the Economic Policy Institute spoke at Facing Hawai'i's Future: A Gathering
for the Common Good, a forum held by Faith Action For Community Equity
(FACE), a local coalition of churches, labor unions, grassroots groups,
tenants' organizations and native Hawaiian groups. FACE, the largest advocacy
coalition on the island, represents a constituency of over 38,000 that
engages in actions and programs that challenge the systems that perpetuate
poverty and injustice.
Curtis and Faux spoke on the growing economic rift in America and the
need for proven policies that help the truly disadvantaged, issues explored
in the Eisenhower Foundation book Patriotism,
Democracy and Common Sense.
As part of the Eisenhower Foundation capacity building program, the Foundation
provided critical media and organizing strategies to the coalition, helping
it to achieve coverage and legislative victories on housing and long
term health care. Read more about Eisenhower Foundation's
capacity building inititiave.
To read Alan Curtis' thought provoking op-ed in the major daily newspaper,
the Honolulu
Advertiser.
To read Columnist Jerry Burris' observations on Hawai'i's Next Social Revolution, click here.
Michelle Takemoto of FACE believes that Hawai'i's Middle Class is in Trouble. To read her Op-Ed, click here.
To read the Honolulu Advertiser's editorial regarding support for caregivers, click here.
New from the Eisenhower Foundation
Now available
in paperback
on Amazon and in bookstores
Ex-Offenders Find a Voice
at First-Ever National Summit
Ex-offenders and organizers convene the first national conference
of Previously Incarcerated Persons at Delancey Street in San Francisco.
In November 2005, the Eisenhower Foundation, in partnership with the Delancey Street Foundation and more than 20 other organizations around the nation, hosted a forum in San Francisco that brought together the concerns of previously incarcerated persons in America with the warnings of President Dwight Eisenhower a half-century ago.
Eisenhower's farewell address, drafted by his brother Milton, warned against the "military-industrial complex." Today, most observers agree America has a "prison-industrial complex" -- in which huge government prison-building expenditures are made as job-generating economic development grants to rural communities, disproportionately white.
In response to the prison-industrial complex, the Delancey Street Foundation and the Eisenhower Foundation seek to create a national movement that empowers previously incarcerated persons, advocates for the same rights people have in other industrial democracies, expands our replications of Delancey Street, and significantly reduces the American recidivism rate.
More on the first national summit of Previously Incarcerated Persons.
Amy Goodman Interviews Clare Short In Recent Democracy Now! Episode
Goodman, at left, and the Right Honourable Clare Short, MP.
Crusading humanitarian Clare Short, a member of the British Parliament, has been fighting against international issues of hunger and poverty during her entire career in government. A contributor to Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense, Short visited fellow contributor Amy Goodman at her Firehouse studio to tape a segment of Democracy Now! recently in New York. To read a transcript of the exchange or watch the segment (at 128k stream).
Poverty Rise, Katrina Damage:
Both Could Have Been Avoided
Our prayers go out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which wracked the U.S. on Aug. 29. The next day, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that a million more Americans had entered the brewing storm of poverty in America − which grew for the fourth straight year.
Next year, tens of thousands of Katrina's victims may be added to the list of those who live on less than $19,300 for a year family of four. The total is now 37 million Americans, with more well on their way there.
Eisenhower president Alan Curtis is featured in a nationally syndicated column by William Raspberry in the Washington Post, who writes that this fourth-year economic disaster could have been avoided – much like the catastrophic aftermath of Katrina. Read the full article.
Poverty Standard 'a Joke' In Costly American Cities
In response to the Census data, the San Diego Union-Tribune correctly observed that $19,300 can't go far for a family of four in a major city.
In San Diego, the average small apartment rents for $1,210 -- or $14,520 a year. Subtract that from $20,000, and that family of four will be having a pretty lean year. Trouble is, that $20,000 is above the poverty level. This will shut the door to most poverty assistance.
Experts agree that the real income needed to escape poverty in America is significantly higher than the 40-year-old federal standard.
Eisenhower president Alan Curtis told the paper that "the long-term trend is to ignore the realities of the poor." For a look at what it takes for a family to really break even, please click here for the full story.
From East Coast to West Coast, Outrage Over Poverty in America
After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the state of America's poor was vividly brought before us -- the face of a nation that many of us seem to avoid until disaster strikes.
As a nation consumed with the lives of the rich and famous, we rarely seem concerned about the 37 million Americans who live below the poverty level. Now will we remember these images of desperation, and work for change, or will the memories fade yet again?
On the West Coast, the San Francisco Chronicle discusses the recent shift in focus toward the poor. On the East Coast, Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher write of the new "celebrity poor" in The Washington Post. Eisenhower president Alan Curtis is quoted in both.
Panelists Urge Practical U.S. Policies for World Leadership
Joseph C. Wilson, left, with Richard Leone, Alan Curtis, and Clare Short at Eisenhower Foundation forum Feb. 15.
Many of the world’s current ills can be solved with sensible, mutually supportive policies – if its leaders could merely turn from immoral,
avaricious foreign and domestic policies to populist, democratic
policies that benefit average workers and their families.
For Dr. Curtis' presentation, please click here; for Richard Leone, click here; for Joseph C. Wilson, click here; and for Clare Short, please click here.
Concerns of Working America Addressed in Eisenhower Forum
Labor and the Eisenhower Foundation came together as one April 27 at the National Labor College for a major forum based on themes addressed in new book, Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense.
“The Eisenhower Foundation didn’t just write a book,” said Labor College president Sue Schurman. “This is part of a campaign to take our country back and make it what it ought to be.”
Dr. Alan Curtis, editor of the volume, was joined by noted economist Jeff Faux and Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, Labor College faculty member, on the panel moderated by Dr. Schurman during sometimes contentious question-and-answer.
Each presenter received a standing ovation.
Dr. Schurman told 55 labor leaders from around the U.S. about the foundation’s roots in the civil-rights movement. “That was your calling – the social-justice movement,” she told the authors of the book who comprised the forum panel.
“You found the labor movement a natural extension of that movement. And if labor is going to grow, and help take back our country and take back our movement, then we must make common cause with people like the Eisenhower Foundation and the ideas contained in Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense.”
Dr. Curtis received sustained applause from union leaders during a portion of his presentation that focused on “public morality”:
“It is publicly immoral for a fifth of America’s youngest children to live in poverty,” he stated to a round of applause. “It is immoral for America’s CEOs to earn 400 times more than America’s workers and 250 times more than its teachers” – a comment well understood by the unionists.
For a transcript of the proceedings, please click here.
Dr. Alan Curtis
Eisenhower Principals Get the Ear of Congress
Poverty, unemployment, poor education, racism, and the highest incarceration rates in the world remain American dilemmas that diminish the credibility and "soft power" of the U.S. in the eyes of other nations.
Yet cost-effective solutions exist, as illustrated by the Congressional testimony of two Eisenhower Foundation principals.
Testifying before the Congressional Black Caucus, Eisenhower President Alan Curtis concluded the issue is not lack of knowledge, but lack of will. "We already know what works for the truly disadvantaged and need to replicate it to a scale equal to the dimensions of the problem." For Dr. Curtis' presentation, click here.
Washington Standardized Test Gets Failing Grade from Students
Students in Washington state have a new hurdle to clear in order to graduate -- the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. It's a hot topic among parents, and students say the test "is an unfair addition to graduation requirements."
In some schools, almost half the students fail the standardized test, beginning in 9th grade. If you don't pass in your senior year, you can forget about a high school diploma. For the latest on the controversy, please click here for a new developments in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Social Security Going Broke?Immigration a Problem?
Maybe Not, Experts Say
Sen. Fred Harris
Rumors of the death of Social Security are greatly exaggerated, thanks in part to continuing immigration, experts said at a recent Eisenhower forum in Washington.
The thoughtful analyses presented at the forum are now available in The Baby Bust: Who Will Do the Work? Who Will Pay the Taxes?, edited by former Senator Fred R. Harris. This landmark book of essays by demographic, economic, and political science experts, examines the "birth dearth" and its causes, implications, and policy options.
When one looks at the Social Security system and immigration trends in the U.S., production is going to increase, not sharply drop as some predict. Wages will be going up, and as a result, the Social Security system will be as healthy as it has been in years.
At a time when both Social Security and Immigration Policy are center stage in the political debate, it is important to fully understand the sometimes technical and confusing issues.
For more information on the content of the book, Click Here.
To order the book from Amazon, Click Here or Click the book image above.
Full-text versions of two of the papers presented at the forum are available below:
The Baby Boom in Historical Perspective, by Herbert S. Klein
Latino Immigrants, National Identity and the National Interest, by Rodolfo de la Garza
Pablo's Court
Pablo Eisenberg, Senior Fellow with the Public Policy Institute of Georgetown University, tennis player extraordinaire and Eisenhower Foundation board of trustees member, writes regularly for the Chronicle of Philanthropy. We are pleased to share his ruminations on politics, principles and philanthropy with you. Here are his latest missives:
Americans Generous? Not Really: January 24, 2008
Government Must Move Quickly to Aid the Smithsonian: November 15, 2007
Bill Clinton's Book on Giving Misses the Key Issues: September 20, 2007
Newspaper Cuts Are a Threat to Charities' Accountability: August 23, 2007
Charities Should Remain Nonpolitical: June 28, 2007
Public Has Right to Know: April 5, 2007
Gates: Role Model in Need of Remodeling: March 8, 2007
Skyrocketing CEO Pay Raises Questions for Charities: Feb. 8, 2007
Congress Should End Special Tax Breaks for Art Gifts: Oct. 12, 2006
How to Stem the Nonprofit-Leadership Deficit: Sept. 28, 2006
Gates-Buffett Merger Isn't Good for Philanthropy: July 20, 2006
Why Don't Charities and Lawmakers Want to Curb Nonprofit Abuses?: Jun. 29, 2006
A Questionable Moral Decision: Mar. 20, 2006
After Katrina: What Foundations Should Do: Jan. 26, 2006
Philanthropy Loses Two of Its Giants:
Waldemar Nielsen and Alan Pifer: Nov. 24, 2005
When You Can't Trust the Trustees: Oct. 27, 2005
Philanthropy Must Challenge Corporate America: Aug. 18, 2005
Excessive Executive Compensation Needs to Be Stemmed: April 29, 2004
What Congress Can Do to Fight Charity and Foundation Abuses: March 18, 2004
The Public Loses Out When Charities Become Too Businesslike: June 10, 2004
Accrediting Charities Isn't Government's Role: Aug. 5, 2004
The Unsung Heroes of Philanthropy: May 1, 2003
Why Foundation Grants Shouldn't Mix With Politics: Feb. 6, 2003
The Buck Stops with the Board of Directors -- Or at Least It Should: Oct. 17, 2002
Programs
Japanese Officials Visit Gemeinschaft
(Harrisonburg, VA) - From June 25th to July 7th, 2007, officials from the Japanese Ministry of Justice, the Niigata Boys Training (one of the 53 Japanese national educational institutions for delinquent juveniles), the Nagoya Probation Office, Japan Lutheran College in Tokyo, and the Japan Association of Correctional Rehabilitation visited one of the Eisenhower Foundation’s best practice models for integrating previously incarcerated persons back into society – Gemeinschaft Home in Harrisonburg, Virginia (see Japanese Officials Visit Gemeinschaft). Ms. Jennie Amison, Eisenhower Foundation Director for Ex-Offender Integration, hosted the delegation as a follow-up to her trip to Tokyo earlier this year (see Re-Entry and the Rising Sun). In meetings with the delegation from Japan, Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis expressed interest in expanding exchanges between the Foundation and Japanese institutions, building on the Foundation’s successful earlier delegations that studied Japanese “koban” police ministration (see Peter Jennings ABC World News Tonight). The latter delegations led to the Foundation’s Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation replications (see Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation Programs).
Gemeinschaft Alum Earns Psychology Degree
(Harrisonburg, VA) May 7, 2007 - In 2002, Kirk Saunders was in prison, now he has a new life and a James Madison University degree in psychology.
Click here to read how a good program can make all the difference.
Vecinos Unidos turns ten
(Herndon, VA) April 24, 2007 - Vecinos Unidos, the Eisenhower Foundation's partner in replicating the Quantum Opportunities Program and Youth Safe Haven in Herndon, VA, celebrated it tenth anniversary.
Vecinos Unidos continues to address the educational needs of local youth and has worked with the Eisenhower Foundation since 2001.
Click here to read the article from the The Fairfax County Times.
Health Clinic Opens at Jackson Full-Service School
(Jackson, MS) April 14, 2007 – In a major step towards the implementation of a Full-Service Community School in Jackson, Mississippi, a new health clinic was opened at Lanier High School.
In partnership with the school, the Jackson Medical Mall and the Eisenhower Foundation, the clinic will target middle and elementary students from the Jackson Public Schools Lanier feeder pattern to identify health, social and environmental factors that might adversely affect these children’s ability to learn and be successful adults.
Click here to read continue...
Click here for local NBC News coverage of the event.
Reintegration in the Land of the Rising Sun
(TOKYO, Japan) Feb.1, 2007 – In the early 1990s, the Eisenhower Foundation looked to Japan when developing the Koban – Youth Safe Haven model. Now Japan is looking to the Foundation for help reintegrating prisoners into society.
Jennie Amison, Director of Replications for Previously Incarcerated Persons at the Eisenhower Foundation and Executive Director of Gemeinschaft Home spent two days lecturing and speaking with officials in Japan about the successes of the reentry program she runs in Harrisonburg, VA.
Click here to continue reading...
Gemeinschaft Home Graduates Excited and Anxious
(Harrisonburg, VA) January 25, 2007 - Here is an update on one of the models for previously incarcerated persons that the Foundation is supporting and that the Foundation may replicate.
Click here to read the article from the Daily News-Record.
Alabama Programs Need Support
(Birmingham, AL) January 21, 2007 - Elaine Jackson, President and CEO of the Birminham Urban League writes about why Congress should continue to fund programs that help the truly disadvantaged.
Click here to read the editorial in the Birmingham News.
A Call to Congress to Fund Programs
(Dover, NH) January 16, 2007- Thad Mandsager, director at the Seymour Osman Community Center and Youth Safe Haven in Dover, writes of the devastating impact federal budget cuts will have on programs like the Eisenhower Foundation's Quantum Opportunites and Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministations.
Click here to read this column in the Union Leader.
Funding Needed at a Desperate Time in Milwaukee
(Milwaukee, WI) January 17, 2007- Rev. Harold Moore, president of the Dr. Howard Fuller Education Foundation in Milwaukee, writes about the need for federal funding for programs in that city and other areas in desperate need of proven solutions to poverty, crime and inequality.
Click here to read his op-ed from the Journal-Sentinel.
Rays of Sunshine at Carver Terrace
Charlene Coleman and her sons Tyrone, 11, and Markee, 8, at their Carver Terrace home. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
(Washington, DC) December 21, 2006 - Charlene Coleman is a mother of two sons in the troubled Carver Terrace neighborhood in Washington, DC.
Ms. Coleman writes about how the Quantum Opportunities Program and Youth Safe Haven help give her children a better future.
Foundation's National Media Forum Prompts Discussion of Stereotyping
(Washington, DC) December 19, 2006 - USA Today columnist and panelist at the Foundation’s recent National Media Forum on Poverty, Inequality and Race, DeWayne Wickham writes in his column about how media tend to stereotype people dealing with these issues.
Much of the Forum also dealt with how media under-report stories of poverty, inequality and racism. Wickham presents a new movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, as a counter-example of where the media in the United States should be heading.
Click here to read Wickham’s column.
When a dream becomes reality in Charles County Maryland
For a number of years, students, families and the community have been served by the General Smallwood Middle School full-service community school.
Click here to read what the Maryland Independent newspaper says about the program.
Lanier High School Students Take On "Quantum Opportunities"
(Jackson, MS) December 14, 2006 - WLBT NBC in Jackson highlighted the success of the Quantum Opportunities Program at the Jackson Medical Mall.
Now in its second year at the Medical Mall, the Quantum Opportunities Program has shown much success.
Click here for the transcript and here for the video.
Rochester Youth Safe Haven Officer Honored by Jaycees
January 22, 2007 - Officer Anthony Macaione received the award for Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer for his ability to act as a mentor and role model as the department's housing officer.
"He has won the hearts of many children who have gotten the chance to see a police officer as something more than a cop with a gun," Bolduc said, reading Macaione's nomination from police.
Macaione said this was the first time he's received an award of this magnitude. He added he could not have done it without the support of the Rochester Housing Authority, Rochester Youth Safe Haven, fellow officers of the Rochester Police Department and his family. Click here for the story.
Bringing programs that work to Milwaukee
(Milwaukee) July 8, 2006 - In his column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Gregory Stanford explains how the Eisenhower Foundation is hoping to address what he calls Milwaukee's open sores, including - the high poverty rate, the black-white chasm, the uptick in crime, and the towering high school dropout rate. Read the editorial.
New Quantum Opportunities Program in Baltimore looks at the Success Seen in Herndon, VA
(Baltimore) May 22, 2006 - As preparations are underway to open a new Quantum Opportunities Program in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, the staff looks at the successes seen in similar programs, including one in the Northern Virginia city of Herndon. Click here to read the story by Gregory Kane of the Baltimore Sun.
Proven programs can give the poor chance at success
(Des Moines, IA) June 28, 2006 - The graduation rate for Des Moines is higher than the national average and climbing. For those students who are at risk of not graduating, there is hope in a proposed partnership between the YMCA and the Eisenhower Foundation. Read what this partnership will mean for the youth of Des Moines.
A Summer School Less Ordinary in D.M.
(BILL NEIBERGALL/THE REGISTER)
Mike Smith, 14, tries to spell a word during a word game at Harding Middle School's summer school program on Tuesday.
(Des Moines, IA) July 19, 2006 - "Early in the morning, 40 or more east-side kids in Des Moines tumble out of their summer slumber and hop on the bus or travel otherwise to Harding Middle School." This Full Service Community School is helping kids raise their grades. Read the story.
Read what a previous evaluation said about the impact of the program.
Commentary: Proven Programs Can Ease Our Problems
Michelle Takemoto
(Honolulu) June 13, 2006 - "The Eisenhower Foundation has worked for 25 years to bring solutions to the many problems facing this country's disadvantaged communities. Now, it hopes to bring more of its solutions to Hawai'i." Read Michelle Takemoto's commentary.
In just six months, young people's lives are being changed, for the better
Staff member Myron Evans assists Micael Taylor with Algebra
(Jackson) April 10, 2006 - Normally, the four year Quantum Opportunities Program requires at least a year to begin having a measurable impact on student attitudes toward education and their grades. However, it appears that Quantum students in Jackson, Mississippi are developing new, positive attitudes toward school, after less than six months. Read the story here.
Eisenhower program forges alliance with police, college students to offer safe after-school instruction
(Birmingham) March 20, 2006 - Students from the University of Alabama, Birmingham and Samford University have joined the civilian and police at the Youth Safe Haven in Southtown, to provide academic enrichment for 50 young people. To read more about this program, click here.
Building stronger youth
Graduates of the Quantum Opportunities Program traveled to Mississippi in May for their graduation trip. Students and advisors helped with the ongoing clean-up of the area affected by last year’s devastating hurricanes.
(Dover, NH) July 21, 2006 - Since 1994, Seymour Osman Community Center (SOCC) has served as a home away from home for Dover youth. Not only do the youth's grades improve by participating in the project, but they also learn the importance of service. Read more about the success of the programs.
Quantum Youth Help Katrina Victims
Liz Puchacz, Brandy Barshaw, Teresa Chapman, Cory Nachampassak, Alex Goodwin, Joe Caproni, Nathan Marsolais, Mark Baud, Chris Neslusan
(Dover, NH) June 28, 2006 - Members of the Quantum Opportunities Program recently journeyed from Dover, NH to Mississippi to construct and deliver storage pods to hurricane victims. Read the story.
Senator Gregg Honored at Nashua Youth Safe Haven
Senator Judd Gregg and Nashua Youth Safe Haven participants at the dedication of the "Senator Judd Gregg Library."
(Nashua, NH) October 16, 2006 - The Nashua PAL Youth Safe Haven recently dedicated its new library to Sen. Judd Gregg, who has long supported Eisenhower Foundation programs in New Hampshire.
The library, with $2,500 worth of donated books, will help participants learn the importance of literacy.
Read articles about the event from The Nashua Telegraph and The New Hampshire Union Leader.
A Time for Solutions
(Philadelphia) May 1, 2006 - "The statistical portrait of poor African-Americans in Philadelphia --- seems dismal." However, there are solutions available to address the problems. Click to read an editorial in the Philadelphia Daily News regarding the problems and their solutions.
Nashua Youth Safe Haven Visits DC
Program Director Debbie Fraser (left) and Senator Judd Greg (center rear) with YSH youths
Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) welcomes youths from the Nashua Youth Safe Haven Program. This is the second group of program youths to visit Washington DC this summer. Many of the youths are recent immigrants, who are learning first hand about their new home.
Clearing the way for learning
(Lancaster, PA) June 26, 2006 - Lincoln Middle School partners with agencies in a “community school” concept that helps kids cope with poverty, violence and other issues. Read how this program is helping the kids, the parents and the community.
Overcoming All Odds
Fabian Perez
(Herndon, VA) June 15, 2006 - "When Herndon’s Quantum Opportunities Program, a four-year after school tutoring program for Herndon High School students with below average grades, was launched, no one, not even the program’s founding director, thought that they would be able to help their students turn their academic lives around." Now 17 of 20 students are graduating. Read about the tremendous success.
No Doubt About the Success of the Quantum Opportunities Program
(Dover, NH) June 2, 2006 - There can be no doubt about the success of the Quantum Opportunities Program in Dover New Hampshire, according to an Op-Ed that appeared in Seacoast Online. Not only did the original group of students benefit, but local sources provided funding for additional students to participate. Read about the exciting outcomes of this four year program.
New Hampshire Quantum Youth to Lend a Hand for Katrina Victims
(Dover, NH ) May 29, 2006 - Four years ago, a group of at-risk students, with a low probability of graduating high school, joined the Quantum Opportunities Program. Now they are graduating and several are heading to Waveland Mississippi to lend a hand in the Katrina cleanup. Read about the success of these young people.
Uplift for Endangered Youths: Carver Terrace Program Works
The violence that once got this corner of DC the nickname 'Little Vietnam' is the home for successful youth programs, but they need help from the city. Read about these programs and what they need to succeed.
Youth Center Celebrates Year of Progress
Staff member Katie Canatsey and Joseph Colgan
(Herndon) April 13, 2006 - The Eisenhower sponsored Youth Safe Haven in Herndon, Virginia, is celebrating its first anniversary serving a diverse population of local and immigrant youths. Read the story here.
High School Seniors Prepare to Say Good Bye
Leigh Scott and Talesha Burke
(Herndon) February 13, 2006 - Quantum Opportunities after school program comes to an end as Herndon High School seniors prepare for graduation. Read more about the success of the program in the Herndon Connection Article.
Nonprofit groups work to combat high re-arrest rates
(Charelston-AP) February 20, 2006 - A coalition of non-profit and faith-based
groups is working with the Eisenhower Foundation to establish a substance
abuse treatment and career training program in Charleston, SC.
Read
the story from WIS TV10 news
City gets new tool in fight against crime
(Birmingham) February 19, 2006 - The director of the Bimingham Urban
League reminds city officials that in addition to their new Cease Fire
program, the city has a new Youth Safe Haven - Police Ministation program
that is the 'Right Tool' to deal with crime in the Southtown Public Housing
Complex just east of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's campus.
Read
the story in the Birmingham News
Full-Service Educators Gathered to Share Successes, Plan for the Future
Recently, the Foundation brought educators and parents from full-service
community schools across the country together in western Pennsylvania.
The East Allegheny Middle School, an Eisenhower Foundation-funded full-service
school, were gracious hosts to our Sixth National Cluster Workshop. The
theme of the workshop was "Sustaining our Work-Creating Structures
of Permanence." Around 50 participants shared their experiences and
listened to speakers from other successful community schools.
To read an article from the McKeesport Daily News about the workshop.
Foundation Offering Hope, Opportunities in the South
New Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministations
in Birmingham and Tuskegee, Ala; Quantum
Debuts in Jackson, Miss. and Birmingham
Students from Lanier High School in Jackson, Miss., are the new beneficiaries of Eisenhower's tested and proven Quantum Opportunities Program, which uses computerized tutorials to help high-school students catch up -- and stay -- in school.
An hourly stipend doesn't hurt, either. Columnist Eric Stringfellow writes about this unique, four-year, educational enrichment program for ninth- to 12th-graders in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
For an additional report on the brand-new, first-ever Quantum Opportunities Program in Jackson.
A week later, Quantum Opportunities began at the first of the school year in Birmingham, Ala. at the city's Urban League headquarters -- and the city also received a new Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation at the SouthTown housing community.
Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministations also grow in South
With new Safe Haven-Police Ministations in D.C., New Hampshire, Virginia and elsewhere, the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation continues to expand its after-school youth-development initiatives in the South -- with first-ever Safe Haven-Police Ministation sites in Tuskegee and Birmingham, Ala.
To read the Montgomery Advertiser's report about our most recent success in Tuskegee, click here.
For an account in the Tuskegee News, please click here.
Brand-New Safe Haven to Benefit Nashua Youth
The Nashua, NH PAL (Police Athletic League) opens a new Youth Safe Haven: from left to right is Debora Pignatelli, Executive Councilor; Matt Lahey, Assistant to Sen. Judd Gregg; Chief Timothy Hefferan of the Nashua Police Department; Mayor Bernie Streeter; Joseph Guliano, Superintendent of Schools; Joseph Laplante, Nashua PAL Board of Directors; Christopher Faye, Eisenhower Foundation; Mike Green, NH National Guard. Cutting the ribbon is Aldonys Reyonoso.
Students in Nashua, NH, have a new place to go after school – a new Youth Safe Haven sponsored by the Eisenhower Foundation at the Police Athletic League there. It will be a cooperative effort involving local police, the Nashua School District, the Nashua Housing Authority, and the New Hampshire National Guard.
Many local notables turned out for the ribbon cutting in March, including the mayor, police chief, and others. For the story, please click here.
U.S. Senator Judd Gregg was on hand at the Seymour Osman Community Center in Dover to receive the Champion of Children award. The Eisenhower Foundation funds programs in three New Hampshire communities: Rochester, Dover, and Somersworth. See Full Story.
National Cluster Workshop Gathers Problem-Solvers from Across the Country
Leila McDowell, Director for Capacity-Building Replications, helps participants to become more media savvy -- and thus more effective with members of the news media.
The Eisenhower Foundation theme of “Multiple Solutions for Multiple Problems” was on demonstration at the famed Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. in June as the foundation hosted more than 60 partners from around the country to the National Cluster Workshop on Youth Safe Haven and Quantum Opportunities Program replication initiatives.
While the three-day workshop was designed to focus on youth safe haven/police ministations on the Quantum Opportunities program for high school youth, participants also took part in panel discussions on grant writing, media training, effective youth development strategies and better policing in public housing.
“These people represent the front-line of Eisenhower programs around the country,” said Johnnie A. Gage, Eisenhower Foundation COO. “The forum gives participants the opportunity to share their experiences and problem-solve," he said. "We want to act as a clearinghouse to impart information and discuss lessons learned.” Please click here for scenes from the workshop.
Herndon Youth Safe Haven Offering Alternative to Gangs
Congressman Frank Wolf holds a $75,000 “check” from Eisenhower CEO Alan Curtis, left. At right is Vecinos Unidos president Chris Griffin and Herndon vice-mayor Darryl Smith, far right.
HERNDON, Va. (April 1) – The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, with the help of U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), opened a new Youth Safe Haven here today – with the twin goals of improving academics and giving young people an alternative to street gangs. For the full story, click here.
Previously, Congressman Wolf had joined Eisenhower Foundation staff, Herndon police officials and students from Herndon High School to celebrate the opening of the Quantum Opportunities Program there.
Above, Congressman Wolf and Dr. Alan Curtis, Eisenhower CEO, discuss how the Quantum Opportunities Program will help Herndon's high-school youth with its four-year, computer-based model.
Below, Some of the youth being helped by the Quantum Opportunities program.
Action-packed dedication underscores . . . Urgent Need for Safe Haven
Residents and patrons of Carver Terrace Community Center gathered outdoors on Saturday, April 16, to dedicate it as the Patsy B. Hartsfield Center – as Mayor Anthony Williams’ mother, Virginia Williams, prepared to sing “God Bless America.”
It was a beautiful day to celebrate a remarkable public-private partnership effort between the Eisenhower Foundation and Telesis Corp., despite the early threat of rain. The Rev. Terry O. Corbin – brother of the late “Miss Patsy” Hartsfield – prepared to make his introduction while about 60 audience members enjoyed the fine weather.
Then, about 30 feet away at the intersection of 21st and Maryland NE, three police cruisers broke the stillness of the morning by converging at once, tackling three young pedestrians and handcuffing them, face-down on the ground.
“It was as if it was staged. People asked me: ‘Did you hire actors to do that?’” said D.J. Ervin, an Eisenhower analyst. “The timing was amazing.”
It was as if circumstances converged to underline – in bold – the urgent need for the Youth Safe Haven that Eisenhower established at Carver Terrace two years ago.
For the rest of the story, please click here.
Carver Terrace Opening a Boon for Northeast DC
With much fanfare and song, the Eisenhower Foundation opened the nation's newest Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation in Washington D.C.'s Carver Terrace complex in 2003.
The gathering, covered by both of Washington's daily newspapers, attracted community members including Virginia E. Hayes Williams, mother of Washington D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, police officials and Eisenhower Foundation staff members.
Youth Center Offers, Haven, Hope
Program Aims to Unite Police, Community
Allen Lengel, The Washington Post
A Safe Haven Begins Where Maryland Avenue Ends
Adrienne T. Washington, The Washington Times
New York Times Opines on Quantum Opportunities
For teens in poor communities, The Eisenhower Foundation is replicating the Quantum Opportunities Program, for at-risk teenagers that has won the praises of education experts, policymakers and The New York Times. The program offers academic tutoring, computer based learning, stipends and money towards college. Initially, Quantum will be replicated in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Virginia.
View our Replication Manual for more information
Positive Youth Development and the Youth Safe Haven -Police Ministation Program
The service components of the Youth Safe Haven/Mini-Police Station programs are based largely on a theoretical framework known as Positive Youth Development, which focuses on the developmental needs of youth and building the assets that are required in order to make a successful transition to adulthood. Read our recent report on this program which provides an overview of positive youth development theory and shows how it is related to major features or strategies that serve as a foundation for effective programs.
Full-Service Community School Replications
"Community schools" or "full-service community schools" are partnering with private non-profit agencies to provide whatever services people need, from GED and job training classes to family therapy, homework help, and after-school programs.
Click here for the full article.
Kobans and Robbers
Chief Charles Austin
An obscure Japanese import, the Koban, is racing across America -- reducing crime and increasing safety along the way.
Effective Capacity Building
Alan Curtis, President and CEO
"Thirty six months with a group is the threshold time period for good outcomes" finds the Eisenhower Foundation in a new report Lessons from the Street, an assessment of capacity building and technical assistance provided by the foundation to over 80 non-profits during the past ten years. (Click here for the executive summary)
Eisenhower People
Reggie serves potluck with Cpl. Alfred Stewart at the Carver Terrace housing community in northeast DC.
Reginald Grant is one of many people who make Eisenhower Foundation programs run on time. Reggie is site director for the Carver Terrace Youth Safe Haven-Police Ministation in Washington, DC, as well as its Quantum Opportunities Program. To find out why Reggie is so remarkable, please click here.
Officer Triano and his family
It takes a special kind of police officer, like Tony Triano, to work with kids as their primary job. Though a promotion means he isn't working directly at the site, he still contributes to the welfare of the youth. To find out more about one of the dedicated officers that have worked with Eisenhower Youth Safe Haven / Police Ministation programs, click here.