When most of us picture a public park, we see a vision of squealing kids climbing around on playground equipment and adults jogging and walking their dogs.
But UCLA professor Madeline Brozen, who directs the school’s Complete Streets Initiative, and her colleagues are challenging communities in the U.S. to form a new idea of how parks can contribute toward keeping a rapidly aging population healthy.
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, collaborated with Brozen on an award-winning toolkit that advises communities how they can create mini “parklets” in urban areas without a lot of green space. During that time, she realized that seniors weren’t using public parks as much as other age groups. The team wondered if this is because, unlike some in Asia and Europe, U.S. parks are almost never designed with the needs of elders in mind — instead emphasizing playground equipment and ways for younger adults to recreate.
So Loukaitou-Sideris, Bronzen, and other colleagues are now working on a project that will investigate what seniors need from public parks and how to design parks in order to attract those in their golden years. They plan to pay particular attention to the needs of low-income, urban seniors who don’t have a lot of recreational options.
“What we are trying to do with this project,” Loukaitou-Sideris tells Sharon Hong of UCLA Newsroom, “is, first of all, find knowledge from different fields about what an open space or public park for seniors should look like, how it should be different for different groups of seniors, incorporate some of the voices of senior citizens, create guidelines for future such spaces, and hopefully even apply this knowledge towards the creation of a park.”
With the population of Americans aged 65 or older expected to double between 2000 and 2030 to 72.1 million, this kind of thinking about people who are often forgotten by city planners is a must.
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Tag: Low-Income Communities
Through This Simple Household Task, Volunteers Show Their Love for the Low-Income and Homeless
If you’re lucky enough to have someone else washing your clothes for you, chances are that person loves you. (And it’s probably your mom, dad or spouse doing the dirty work.)
A volunteer mission called Laundry Love, however, spreads the affection beyond the immediate family to help the needy get the clean clothes that otherwise might be hard to come by.
According to the nonprofit’s website, Laundry Love began about 12 years ago when members of a church in Ventura, Calif., wanted to know what they could do to help a homeless man known as T-Bone. He said, “If I had clean clothes I think people would treat me like a human being.”
Since then, many other churches and volunteer groups have joined the effort, renting out a number of Laundromats across the country for a night to wash the clothes of homeless and low-income people, while also getting to know them and trying to help them in other ways.
Krysta Fauria of the Associated Press spoke to Victoria Mitchell, who began coming to Laundry Love gatherings in Huntington Beach when she was living in her car with her baby daughter. The volunteers took up a collection to help her rent an apartment. Now Mitchell has a steady job, too.
“You’re not just checking a box to give a donation. You’re spending the whole evening with these people and getting your hands dirty and it’s intimate — you’re doing people’s laundry,” Mitchell’s friend and Laundry Love volunteer LuzAnna Figueroa tells Fauria.
Some of the volunteers were once down on their luck, too. Christian Kassoff, founder of the Huntington Beach Laundry Love chapter, was once addicted to heroin and living out of his car. Now he leads an enthusiastic group of volunteers helping others. “I’m not wealthy, but I have the gift of time and a heart for it, so this fits,” Kassoff tells Fauria.
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When Food Is Left Unharvested, This Organization Gleans It and Feeds the Hungry
Dotting the Maine countryside are small plots growing more fruits and vegetables than the farmers who work the land could ever pick. But despite this bountifulness, some of the state’s residents forgo buying produce because of tight budgets.
This is where Hannah Semler, the coordinator of the gleaning initiative for the nonprofit Healthy Acadia, steps in. Semler leads a team of volunteers to pick whatever is left after farmers have harvested as much as they can.
In Blue Hill, Amanda Provencher and Paul Schultz of King Hill Farm welcome her regularly to their fields. “We just don’t have time to pick everything we grow, so we’d just till it right back into the soil or feed it to the animals, but it’s still totally good food,” Schultz tells Seth Freed Wessler of NBC News. “Hannah is identifying a resource that we have that otherwise we just would not be utilized because there are not enough hours in the day.”
At King Hill Farm and 18 other Maine farms, Semler and the volunteers for Healthy Acadia glean 30,000 pounds of food a year that would otherwise go to waste. They deliver it to food pantries for the needy and to the Magic Food Bus (sponsored by Healthy Peninsula), which delivers produce to schools and housing complexes for elderly people.
According to Wessler, about 40 percent of American crops are never harvested. Meanwhile, 15 percent of Americans are food insecure (i.e. they don’t have enough healthy food).
Rick Traub, the president of Tree of Life, a Maine food pantry that distributes food that Semler collects, tells Wessler, “Poverty here is everywhere. I go to the grocery store and the person who cashes me out, I see her the next day at the pantry. The problem of hunger in the U.S. has very little to do with a scarcity of food. There’s far more food available around here than people to eat it. The problem is really about access.”
With a team of volunteers using their time and muscle to harvest good produce that otherwise would go to waste, access to nutritious food is expanding in Maine. Let’s hope this practice spreads to other states, too.
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How Birthday Cake Is Improving the Lives of Needy Children
Whether it’s chocolate, angel food, or rainbow sprinkled, a birthday cake is pretty much a necessity when celebrating someone’s special day.
But as Lisa Ray and Patty McTighe of Bowling Green, Ky. realized, not every kid enjoys the privilege of receiving this annual confection. So they started Celebration Cakes Ministry, using the kitchen of First Baptist Church to provide low-income children with personalized cakes for their birthdays.
Ray and McTighe aren’t professional bakers; everything they needed to know about decorating cakes, they learned from Internet videos and trial-and-error. In less than a year, they’ve already baked and delivered 140 cakes, all the while leading a group of 20 dedicated volunteers who meet several times a week.
Each cake is customized for its recipient, incorporating the child’s favorite characters, colors, or activities. (Check out the group’s Facebook page for photos of some of their whimsical creations, featuring such kid favorites as Elsa from “Frozen,” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Elmo.)
Celebration Cakes learns about deserving local youngsters from social workers, schools and other organizations that work with needy children. “These kids, some of them are going through a hard time, and just one little thing like a cake can brighten their day, and that’s what makes it worth it,” Ray tells Laurel Wilson of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
These volunteers’ unique efforts are already gaining notice. Volunteers in Action gave Celebration Cakes the Rookie Volunteer award and Western Kentucky University named it the 2014 Emerging Nonprofit Organization of the Year.
As much as the cakes brighten the children’s birthdays, they make the volunteers happy, too. Cynthia Jones started baking after watching the Celebration Cakes crew enjoy themselves as they worked. “Once I started,” she tells Wilson, “I was hooked. It brings back childhood memories of playing with Play-Doh. I love it, because when I was a child…I can’t remember having a birthday party. I just think even if kids cannot afford a cake, they deserve to have a cake they like.”
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Which Northern City is Selling Homes for $1?
A pack of gum. A candy bar. Something off of a fast-food menu. That’s about all you can purchase with a dollar.
And although it sounds absurd, in Buffalo, N.Y., you can now get a house for $1. (Yes, you read that right.)
It’s all part of the Urban Homestead program, which is dedicated to preserving houses in Buffalo. Across the city, old homes are being demolished, and this program is working to save them by selling them for a single. All the buyer has to do is prove they have the resources to repair the residence and promise to live in it for at least three years.
Currently, Buffalo has about 4,600 vacant homes and another 1,600 vacant lots. It costs $15,000 to tear down a home – valuable money that could be put back into the house for repairs. On average per year, eight to 10 homes are bought for a dollar, while hundreds remain on the demolition list.
Buffalo isn’t the only community with this type of initiative. Last year, Gary, Ind. launched their Dollar Home with the sale of six houses. In addition, other cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit have similar programs where people can buy homes for very little money.
The downside? Even though a house may only have a price tag of a dollar, the renovations can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
For Creighton Randall who bought a dollar home back in 2008, it’s been a struggle. He’s been working on it off and on for the past six years and doubts that it’s worth the investment he’s put in.
“If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t,” Randall tells Governing. “I should have just bought one of the houses on sale for $13,000 and saved myself a lot of time.”
However, for others, the investment has been worth the hassle. David Torke and Mike Puma have been leading this movement, and their work showcases the positives that arise from it.
Torke bought his first house back in 2006, and since then, has rejuvenated many homes. Where old, falling down homes used to stand on Coe Street, a freshly painted orange Queen Anne and a brown Victorian with a deck and garden have taken their place.
Similar sights can be found around the city where old homes in high crime areas are getting a second life thanks to some fresh paint, gardens and a few jungle gyms.
“We’re reintroducing new life into these properties,” Puma tells Governing. “Not only are you taking a stand against demolition, but you’re taking a stand on what happens in this city.”
And his neighbors can’t help but agree. Kevin Harris lives across the street from the house Puma is currently working on. For him, it’s a welcome sight.
“At one point, I thought they were going to tear that house down,” Harris says. “But they’re really working their butts off over there, and it’s a beautiful thing. I’d rather see that home than an empty lot any day.”
So, the next time you pull that dollar out of your wallet, pause for a moment. It can go a long way in the world. How will you spend it?
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America Claims to be the Land of Opportunity. But Do The Numbers Support that Moniker?
It seems that whenever the federal government releases a new statistical report providing insight into the state of our country, the numbers feel negative. Some indicate the number of people living in poverty while others detail the federal deficit.
However, one man is looking to change this, or at least supplement it, with the addition of so-called “social mobility” statistics. With this measure, the U.S. would be able to quantify something it has always claimed to be the land of: opportunity.
And that’s exactly what Richard Reeves want to call this government department: the Office of Opportunity. Reeves is a fellow in economic studies and the policy director for the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution.
How would social mobility be measured? Well, the government has a few options available. One idea is to analyze the proportion of children born in lower quintiles of the income ladder who move to the top two. Another option is to look at high school graduation rates of students with a GPA of 2.5 and higher. Or the government could use the number of four-year olds in preschool, the number of 25- to 49-year olds who work or the number of births within marriages.
All of these numbers would provide insight into the social mobility stats of the country. The government could also look to the U.K. and New Zealand for help in crafting it. These two countries already have similar programs established, such as the U.K., which uses 17 indicators to track long-term mobility.
Ultimately, Reeves hopes to create a dashboard of indicators that can be analyzed yearly in an annual report. This data, in turn, would help the government create informed polices.
The Office of Opportunity would function similarly to the Congressional Budget Office. It would be small and independent, making it a reliable and viable office that both Republicans and Democrats can trust. Reeves estimates that it would cost about $10 million a year to operate.
While, the federal government has yet to display serious interest in its creation, some cities and states, like Colorado, are considering the idea. And that may be the best thing — start local and build up.
According to Reeves, all that is left is for the government to decide if it is worth it.
“Adopting an official mobility measure is unlikely to require vast new data collection — though some investments would need to be made,” he writes in his Brookings proposal. “It’s more of a question of deciding mobility is worth measuring and promoting.”
So, what do you think – is it?
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Meet The Councils Putting Local Food on Tables Nationwide
It goes without saying that America is a melting pot of different cultures, customs and people. Traveling from one state to another or one region to another can be like entering a new country. But for all of our differences, we’re united by one thing: Our love of food.
And although the type of food varies by state, we all want access to the best — which, for many, means local food. But for others, that isn’t a viable option due to the lack of access or inability to afford it.
That’s where food policy councils come in. A phenomenon found in every state in the country, these conglomerates of stakeholders work to create policies and laws to help develop the economic, environmental and social infrastructure needed in a local food system.
Of all of the councils in the county, Sustainable Cities Collective recently highlighted their top six champion councils. Here’s a look at a few of these pioneers.
1. Knoxville-Knox County Food Policy Council, Knoxville, Tenn.
This group got things started back in 1982, as the first food policy council in the world. It was created by a government law, and when first recruiting members, it had three main criteria: “ties to government, working knowledge of food industry and experience in neighborhood and consumer advocacy.”
Since then, it’s definitely proved its worth. In order to make grocery stores more available to its citizens, it expanded the city and county bus routes and mapped out the local grocery stores. It also worked in the schools, expanding breakfast and lunch programs for students. Local food projects such as farmer’s markets and community gardens have been supported by the council as well.
The Council hasn’t stopped there, though. In addition, it has worked to pass ordinances to ease the local food movement, such as allowing residents to grow hens on their property.
2. Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition, Cleveland, Ohio
In 2007, the Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition popped up. Their focus has been on legislation, as well as creating and operating food programs.
So far, the coalition boasts Urban Garden District Zoning and Farm Animals and Bees legislation and an Urban Agriculture Overlay District Zoning policy on its list of accomplishments. And that’s just at the legal level.
As far as programming, the coalition is working to make farmer’s markets more accessible for low-income residents. Farmer’s markets now accept EBT (electronic benefit transfer) and SNAP as payment. Further, under Produce Perks, customers who use EBT at the market can get up to a $10 match on what they purchase.
Additional resources for residents include community food assessments and guidebooks such as Local Food Guide and Cleveland’s Healthy Food Guidelines.
3. Milwaukee Food Council, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Milwaukee Food Council is another group focused on policy and programming. It’s responsible for the 2010 honey ordinance allowing residents to keep bees and the 2011 eggs ordinance giving people the ability to grow chickens for eggs.
In addition to partnering with many local groups, it works with the University of Wisconsin Extension and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with which it created the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Audit that finds the possible legal barriers to urban agriculture.
And through its Healthy Food Access Work Group, it works to make local food accessible to low-income residents through incentives and programs.
To check out the other top councils, click here.
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If Low-Income Families Can’t Settle Their Unpaid Bills, This Cable Company Provides Affordable Internet Access
It’s back-to-school time. And while parents still need to load up on traditional school supplies such as pencils, notebooks and erasers, there’s a more expensive item that’s increasingly a necessity for students: Internet access.
Several companies and communities have provided inexpensive Internet access to low-income families. But when bills mount and are left unpaid, the service is often turned off, leaving kids unconnected and falling behind their peers in technology.
Three years ago, Comcast launched Internet Essentials, a program that gives low-income families Internet access for $9.95 a month and discounts on PCs. To apply, families must have at least one child qualifying for the federal school lunch program and any outstanding bill they have with the cable provider must be settled — the latter requirement leading some to criticize Comcast for punishing the poor.
In response, Comcast recently announced that it will forgive unpaid bills that are more than a year old and allow these families to sign up for the program. It will also waive the first six months of fees for those new to the program, which will get families well into the school year before any money is due.
But as Re/Code, the Washington Post, and others have pointed out, the timing of this magnanimous gesture is questionable as it might have something to do with Comcast’s desire to curry favor with the Federal Communications Commission so that its bid to buy Time Warner Cable will be approved.
“While Comcast should be applauded for trying to bridge the digital divide, they are clearly benefiting from the promotion of this program,” said Hannah Sassaman, a policy director at a Philadelphia community organizing group, Media Mobilizing Project.
In an interview with Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post a few months before the unpaid bill waiver was announced, Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen said that criticism over the company’s ulterior motive for the program, “makes me sigh. You can criticize us for data consumption caps. You can criticize us because cable bills are too high. You can criticize us because the acquisition of Time Warner Cable will make us too big. I can understand that. But every once in a while, even a big company does a good thing for the right reasons.”
While Comcast’s reason to forgive unpaid bills will never be known, it will get more families online at home and improve low-income children’s chances at being successful at school. And that’s an outcome that’s anything but questionable.
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Despite Adverse Weather Conditions and a Transient Population, a Garden Sprouts in a Desert
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. While some find rolling hills and crystal clear lakes attractive, it’s an abandoned Las Vegas parking lot for others.
That’s the situation with Rosalind Brooks. Looking at the vacant lot across the interstate from Las Vegas’s moribund downtown, she saw the potential for something foreign in that area: a community garden.
Brooks has a degree in business, a master’s in education, has worked at various jobs and has two children, but from the moment she laid eyes on that lot, she knew this garden was her calling.
That vision came to fruition when the Vegas Roots Community Garden opened in March 2010 — becoming the first community garden in Las Vegas. Run entirely by volunteer labor, the garden covers an acre of land and produces organic herbs and vegetables as well as chickens. Most of the produce is either sold or donated to youth groups and senior centers.
The garden also boasts a demonstration permaculture garden run by the Greater Basin Permaculture. In this garden, artichokes, thyme, Echinacea, lettuce, sunflowers and pomegranates flourish. The garden isn’t just for the group though. Greater Basin Permaculture also hosts classes and weekly work parties to teach participants important gardening skills to keep the crops alive.
And while it hasn’t been difficult to keep the crops alive in the 115 degree Fahrenheit heat of Las Vegas, growing a supportive base in the area has been. Las Vegas isn’t a place where most people settle; rather it’s a place boasting a large turnover rate.
Because of that, many of the garden’s volunteers are from other places in the metro area. But this isn’t a discouraging factor for Brooks. The recent economic crisis has meant that more people are staying in the area.
Beyond that, though, the garden has served as an inspiration for others. Across the city, gardens are popping up in schools and churches, giving kids the access to healthy food, exercise, nature and job skills. In addition, there’s a growing farmer’s market scene.
For Brooks, all of the hard work has been completely worth it and her expectations for the future keep getting higher.
“I see the hand of God in every single thing we’ve done,” she told Grist.
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In This Tough Chicago Neighborhood, Kids Are Choosing to Box, Not Fight
The Chicago Youth Boxing Club (CYBC) is tucked in a church basement in the Windy City’s Little Village neighborhood, providing one of the area’s few after school activities. Since it was founded in 2006, the gym has become much more than a place for kids to hang out. “It isn’t enough to get kids off the street,” says Ana Patricia Juarez, programming manager for CYBC, “you have to build them into leaders and people who will eventually give back to their communities.” The boxing club now provides counseling, nutritional education, and college readiness programs.