Daily Archives: November 1, 2021

Supplier Inclusion Program

At Kroger, we know that a diverse supply chain strengthens our business, improves our customer experience and supports our communities.

We take an intentional approach to fostering the growth and development of certified minority- and women-owned business enterprises through our award-winning Supplier Inclusion Program. The program streamlines Krogers procurement process, helping connect businesses of all sizes and sectors with the appropriate decision makers within our enterprise. Over the past 30 years, the program has played an important role in developing Krogers diverse supplier network by helping businesses:

We believe this holistic approach results in strong partnerships and better business outcomes.

A U.S. privately held company that is at least 51% owned and operated by a minority, woman, veteran, person with a disability or a member of the LGBT community.Krogers Supplier Inclusion Program recognizes the following minority classifications:

As Kroger continues to grow, we are committed to doing our part to ensure that diverse businesses have equal footing when partnering with our family of companies, shaping the Kroger customer experience and growing their business with us. Kroger has numerous opportunities for diverse suppliers and our approaches to supplier inclusion are as varied as the businesses and individuals with which we partner.

In 2019, Kroger:

It is the policy of The Kroger Co. that certified Minority-Owned Business Enterprises (MBEs),Women-Owned Business Enterprises (WBEs) and other Diverse-Owned Business Enterprises (e.g., Veteran-Owned Business Enterprises; Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Business Enterprises; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender-Owned Business Enterprises, People with Disabilities Enterprises (DBEs) have the opportunity to participate in the performance of Kroger contracts.

Krogers Supplier Inclusion team works hand-in-hand with prospective and established supplier partners to:

We partner with the following national certifying organizations to further our supplier inclusion goals and develop diverse supplier relationships:

Kroger recommends prospective diverse suppliers pursue certification with the appropriate organizations for their business. We also recognize certification from national, state and/or local third-party certifying agencies.

To join our family of suppliers, start with these three steps:

Contact us at 513-762-1582 or supplierdiversity@kroger.com.

See the original post:

Supplier Inclusion - The Kroger Co.

Students are back in their classrooms, but those classrooms arent the same ones they left in March 2020. There are physical reminders that their schools are different masks, social distancing, health screenings. And then theres the invisible weight that each of us carries from a year and a half of stress.

Ive seen students feeling lethargic, overwhelmed, and still very cautious to be back. When the school doors reopened, students opened up too. Some of their stories were more difficult than others. This fall, my work has been focused on addressing students increased needs and helping them cope as best as possible.

As a counselor and coach with the nonprofit Communities In Schools, I helped students navigate remote learning, and I will continue supporting them now. But the trauma that students have endured concerns me, especially as I know firsthand how the feeling of being disconnected can lead young people off track.

My story growing up was like the stories of too many young people in Chicago. Both of my parents were locked up when I was a little kid, and I spent years in foster care. Theirs was a low-income home near Chicago and Kedzie avenues, but my foster grandmother did her best to help me succeed. She enrolled me in religious schools, thinking the discipline and structured learning environment would help me focus and excel. But inside, I was hurting. I was angry my parents hadnt been there for me. And when they were finally released from jail, I was confused about where they fit in my life.

As a defense mechanism, I goofed off in class and got into fights with other students over petty things. I had the smarts to make straight As, but my report cards were crammed with Cs and Ds. In the middle of seventh grade, I left foster care, moved in with my dad, and transferred to another school.

I still remember how nervous I felt on my first day at Ella Flagg Young Elementary. Id never attended a Chicago public school. Would I fit in? Would I have the same discipline problems? I remember telling myself, dont mess this up. But truth be told, I didnt know how to do that.

In hindsight, that seventh grade year was a fork in the road. I had to choose how I wanted my life to be.

Thankfully, with the help of a few caring adults, my life took a U-turn. My father dedicated himself to helping me get ahead, and my homeroom teacher, Ms. Jones, also took me under her wing. After long days in the classroom, shed stay after school to help me catch up in math and reading. With her guidance, I made new friends and began to thrive. I was accepted to Prosser Career Academy for high school and graduated four years later as valedictorian. I was college-bound.

During my sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I took a social work course and found my calling: I wanted to help children struggling as I had struggled.

Today, many of the students I work with carry burdens no young person should bear, including food insecurity, homelessness, and the violent deaths of friends and family members. Now, our citys young people also have to deal with new stressors brought on by the pandemic.

Our students need their communities caring adults inside and outside the school building to come together for them, using the example of Ms. Jones as our guide. They need to feel seen and heard.

Supporting students this year is a very vulnerable space for me. I realize that although they may be looking to me as the expert and the one with the right answers, they are experts too. They are surviving a pandemic just like me.

So I work with them to determine the best way forward. I empower them to advocate for themselves, and I believe they can conquer anything that stands in their way.

My mantra for students this year is you owe yourself consistency and effort, and I also owe my students that. Caring adults show up for students by building positive, developmental relationships, being inquisitive, and championing young peoples resilience.

It is a privilege to be able to contribute to the growth of future generations. We must be intentional about helping them feel supported, cared for, and capable.

Diamond Howard is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker currently serving as a student supports manager for Communities In Schools of Chicago. She is a first-generation college student and a Posse Scholar. She received her bachelors degree in Spanish and social work and her masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Original post:

Caring adults helped me turn my life around. Heres what I owe the next generation. - Chalkbeat Chicago

The Honorable Antony BlinkenSecretary of State USDepartment of State

The undersigned US-based social justice, civil rights, and human rights leaders and organizations write to demand that you immediately and unequivocally condemn the Israeli governments recent decision to outlaw and criminalize six Palestinian human rights and community-based organizations.

The Palestinian organizations currently targeted under the Israeli governments draconian2016 Counter-Terrorism Lawform part of the bedrock of Palestinian civil society that has been protecting and advancing Palestinian human rights for decades across the full spectrum of issues of global concern, including childrens rights, prisoners rights, womens rights, socio-economic rights, the rights of farmworkers, justice and accountability for international crimes.

They are: Defense for Children International - Palestine, Al Haq, Addameer, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and Union of Palestinian Womens Committees. They are trusted partners in our collective work to secure human rights for all.

The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed a commitment to center and promote human rights worldwide and protect the role of civil society. These actions by the Israeli government are a clear attack on human rights. As such, we urge you to issue a swift rejection of this unprecedented attack on Palestinian human rights organizations and the attempt by the Israeli government to shut down, delegitimize, isolate, and chill a growing human rights movement. We agree with17 UN Special Rapporteursthat the freedoms of association and expression must be fully respected in order to enable civil society to perform its indispensable work, and cannot be undermined by the manifestly egregious misuse of counterterrorism and security legislation.

Smearing the promotion and defense of human rights as "terrorist" activity is a dangerous, well-worn tactic of authoritarian regimes and a shameful political maneuver to undermine the vital work of these organizations. In ajoint statement, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called the move appalling and unjust and an alarming escalation that threatens to shut down the work of Palestines most prominent civil society organizations and linked Israels emboldened authoritarian actions to decades of inadequate responses by the international community to Israels ongoing grave human rights abuses. This should change.

As groups committed to social justice, civil rights, and universal human rights, we have seen first hand the ways that the charge of terrorist and the so-called war on terror threatens not only international human rights defenders, but also social movements and marginalized communities here in the US: Indigenous, Black, brown, Muslim, and Arab activists and communities have similarly faced silencing, intimidation, criminalization and surveillance under such baseless charges. A threat against the Palestinian human rights movement is a threat against movements for social justice everywhere, and in order to protect human rights and human rights defenders, all states must be held accountable for taking such manifestly unjust actions. While our government has long offeredunconditional support to the Israeli government, our movements and organizations will always stand first and foremost with the rights and safety of people.

Therefore, we the undersigned organizations and individuals, call on you as Secretary of State, to:

Sincerely,

National Organization Signers

About Face: Veterans Against the WarAction Center on Race & the EconomyActionAid USAAdalah Justice ProjectAlliance for Water Justice in PalestineAmerican Friends Service CommitteeAmerican Muslim Bar AssociationAmerican Muslim Empowerment Network (AMEN)American-Arab Anti-Discrimination CommitteeAmericans for Justice in Palestine ActionArab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC)BackYard MishkanBeit Sahour USACatalyst ProjectCenter for Constitutional RightsCenter for Jewish NonviolenceCharity & Security NetworkCivil Liberties Defense CenterCoalition for an Ethical PsychologyCODEPINKCommittee in Solidarity with the People of Syria - CISPOSCorporate Accountability LabCouncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)Detention Watch NetworkDisciples Palestine Israel NetworkDissentersDonkeySaddle ProjectsDSA BDS & Palestine Working GroupEpiscopal Peace FellowshipEpiscopal Peace Fellowship - Palestine Israel NetworkEyewitness PalestineFamily Farm DefendersFellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA)Feminists for Justice in PalestineFight for the FutureFree Democratic Palestine MovementFreedom ForwardFriends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)Friends of the MST (US)Front Line DefendersGlobal Justice CenterGlobal Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of ChristGrassroots Global Justice AllianceGrassroots InternationalHindus for Human RightsHistorians for Peace and DemocracyHuman Rights WatchICAHD-USAICNA Council for Social JusticeIfNotNowIndigenous World AssociationInternational Association of Democratic LawyersInternational Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)International Indian Treaty Council (IITC)Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)Jahalin SolidarityJewish Liberation Theology InstituteJewish Voice for Peace ActionJewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council (JVP HAC)Jews for Palestinian Right of ReturnJust Foreign PolicyJustice DemocratsJVP Havurah NetworkKairos USALabor for PalestineMADREMediaJusticeMedia Education FoundationMiddle East Children's AllianceMosquito FleetMovement for Black LivesMovement Law LabMPower ChangeNational Association of Democratic Lawyers (South Africa)National Family Farm CoalitionNational Iranian American CouncilNational Lawyers GuildNational Network for Immigrant & Refugee RightsNational Students for Justice in PalestineNetwork in Solidarity with the People of GuatemalaNOVACT International Institute for Nonviolent ActionOn Earth PeaceOur RevolutionOur Sacred Circles (OSC)Oxfam AmericaPalestine LegalPalestinian Alliance for PeacePalestinian American Organizations NetworkPalestinian Christian Alliance for PeacePalestinian Feminist CollectivePalestinian Youth MovementPARCEOPartnership for Civil Justice FundPax Christi USAPeace ActionPresbyterian Church (USA)Progressive Democrats of AmericaProject SouthQuaker Palestine Israel Network-PortlandRachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and JusticeReThinking Foreign Policy, Inc.Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity NetworkShowing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)Sunrise MovementThe Presbyterian Peace FellowshipU.S. Labor Against Racism and WarUnitarian Universalist Service CommitteeUnitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle EastUnited Church of Christ Palestine Israel NetworkUnited Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)US Palestinian CouncilUSA Palestine Mental Health NetworkUS Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)US Campaign for Palestinian RightsVeterans For PeaceWin Without WarWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom USWorld Cant WaitWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Local Organization Signers

1for3.orgAgroecology for All - CaliforniaAmerican Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC)Arab American Civic CouncilAZPalBay Area Women in BlackBlack Christians For PalestineBlack Lives Matter PhillyBrooklyn For PeaceBrooklyn Society for Ethical Culture Ethical Action CommitteeCalifornia Scholars for Academic FreedomCentral Florida Popular FrontChavurah for a Free Palestine of Kehilla Community SynagogueChicago Committee Against War and RacismChristian-Jewish Allies for a Just Peace for Israel-PalestineCoalition of Anti-Racist Whites - SeattleColorado Immigrant Rights CoalitionCommittee for a Just Peace in Israel and PalestineCommittees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism - Corvallis ChapterCommonWealth KitchenConcerned Families of WestchesterCorvallis Divest from WarCorvallis Palestine SolidarityCoulee Region Coalition for Palestinian RightsCulture and Conflict ForumD8 for JusticeDallas Palestine CoalitionDelawareans for Palestinian Human RightsDemilitarize Portland-to-PalestineDream DefendersEast Side JewsEcumenical Peace Institute/Clergy and Laity ConcernedFalastiniyatFlorida Palestine NetworkFood in Neighborhoods Community CoalitionFriends of Sabeel-ColoradoFriends of Wadi FoquinGay Liberation NetworkGenesee Valley Citizens for PeaceGood Citizens Of DFWGreen Mountain Solidarity With PalestineGreen Party of Yavapai CountyHarvard Black Graduate Student AllianceHuman Rights Awareness: Palestine Israel/CD3 (HRA:PI/CD3)Indiana Center for Middle East PeaceInterfaith Movement for Human IntegrityIsrael Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)Ithaca Committee for Justice in Palestine-Jewish Voice for PeaceJewish Alliance for Economic JusticeJewish Voice for Peace - AustinJewish Voice for Peace - BostonJewish Voice For Peace - Central OhioJewish Voice for Peace - Central OhioJewish Voice for Peace - ChicagoJewish Voice for Peace - DetroitJewish Voice for Peace - Hudson ValleyJewish Voice for Peace - IndianaJewish Voice for Peace - KnoxvilleJewish Voice for Peace - Las VegasJewish Voice for Peace - Los AngelesJewish Voice for Peace - New HavenJewish Voice for Peace - New York CityJewish Voice for Peace - PortlandJewish Voice for Peace - SacramentoJewish Voice for Peace - San DiegoJewish Voice for Peace - Santa BarbaraJewish Voice for Peace - SeattleJewish Voice for Peace - South BayJewish Voice for Peace - South FloridaJewish Voice for Peace - TacomaJewish Voice for Peace - Triangle NCJewish Voice for Peace - TucsonJewish Voice for Peace - Twin CitiesJewish Voice for Peace - UCLAJewish Voice For Peace - WestchesterJewish Voice for Peace - Bay AreaJewish Voice for Peace - PortlandJewish Voice for Peace- Central New JerseyJewish Voice for Peace - ClevelandJewish Voice for Peace - Vermont/New HampshireJews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)Jews Say No!Justice for Muslims CollectiveKairos Puget Sound CoalitionKavod BostonKehilla Community SynagogueKeshira haLev FifeLinn-Benton Pacific Green PartyLutherans for Justice in the Holy LandMadison-Rafah Sister City ProjectMain Street Legal Services, Inc.Meet a MuslimMiddle East Crisis ResponseMinnesota Peace ProjectMissourians for Justice in Palestine (MJP)MSA WestMujeres Unidas y ActivasMuslim Justice LeagueNevada Green Party USANevadans for Palestinian Human RightsNew Hampshire Palestine Education NetworkNorCal SabeelNorthern New Jersey Jewish Voice for PeaceOccupation Free DCOccupy Bergen CountyOregon Coalition for Land and Peoples' RightsOur Revolution - Colorado Springs CD5Our Revolution - FloridaOur Revolution - Northern VirginiaPacific Green Party of OregonPalestine Solidarity Committee - SeattlePalestine Teaching TrunkPalestinian American Community CenterParable of the Sower Intentional Community CooperativePATOIS Film Festival, New OrleansPeace & Planet NewsPeace Action - Chicago AreaPeace Action - New York StatePeace Action - WisconsinPittsburgh Palestine Solidarity CommitteeProgressive Jews of St. Louis (ProJoSTL)Progressive Peace CoalitionQueer Mikveh ProjectReject Raytheon AshevilleRural Education Action Project, DBA Rural VermontSacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian RightsSacred Monsters HavurahSchaumburg Area ProgressivesShowing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) NYCSt. Louis Friends of BethlehemStudents for Justice in Palestine - Harvard Divinity SchoolStudents for Justice in Palestine - Rutgers New BrunswickStudents for Justice in Palestine - Seattle UniversityStudents for Justice in Palestine - Tufts UniversityStudents for Justice in Palestine - UMass AmherstSURJ Lower Columbia & SWWASustainable Agriculture of LouisvilleSyracuse Peace CouncilTackling Torture at the TopThe Holy Land Ministry at Spirit of Grace, Beaverton OregonThe Lace MidrashThe Whatcom Peace & Justice CenterTikkun Olam ChavurahTree of Life Educational FundTuck Away At Global Village FarmTzedek ChicagoUnite OregonUnited Methodists' Holy Land Task ForceUniversity of the WildVA ProgressivesVeterans for Peace - Chapter 157 EisenhowerVeterans for Peace - Hector Black ChapterVeterans For Peace - Smedley Butler Brigade Chapter 9Veterans For Peace Linus Pauling Chapter 132Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR)Voices for Justice in PalestineWashington Advocates for Palestinian RightsWatertown Citizens for Peace, Justice, and the EnvironmentWe Refuse to Be EnemiesWellstone Democratic Renewal ClubWESPAC Foundation, Inc.White People 4 Black LivesWomen Against Military MadnessWomen of a Certain AgeWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom - Minnesota BranchYemeni Liberation Movement

Partial list of individual signers - affiliations listed for identification purposes only

Professor Richard Abel, Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLADr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State UniversityHuwaida Arraf, Co-Chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine SubcommitteeZeina Ashrawi HutchisonGina Belafonte, Executive Director at Sankofa.org, Civil and Human Rights ActivistProfessor Amahl Bishara, Tufts UniversityState Senator Jabari Brisport, New York State SenateSen. Dwight Bullard, Former Florida State SenatorProfessor Marjorie Cohn, Past President, National Lawyers GuildCraig Corrie, Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and JusticeJamil Dakwar, Adjunct Professor, Bard CollegeRoy Eidelson, Past President, Psychologists for Social ResponsibilityHassan El-Tayyab, Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor, Rutgers UniversityStefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace ActionProfessor Lisa Hajjar, University of California - Santa BarbaraDr. Marc Lamont Hill, Temple UniversityLauren Jacobs, PowerSwitch ActionDatra Dee Dee Jackson, BYP100Dove Kent, Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism Project USADima Khalidi, Director, Palestine LegalLara Kiswani, Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC)James Lafferty, Governing Board, ACLU of Southern CaliforniaAllan Malkis, Congregation Or EmetAssemblymember Zohran Mamdani, New York State AssemblyAssemblymember Marcela Mitaynes, New York State AssemblyMari Morales-Williams, Educators for Consent CultureRabbi David Mivasair, Ahavat Olam SynagogueGreg Nammacher, President, SEIU Local 26Loubna Qutami, Asian American Studies, UCLATarso Ramos, Political Research AssociatesApril Rosenblum, Author, The Past Didn't Go AnywhereDr. Penny Rosenwasser, Kehilla SynagogueDr. Alice Rothchild, Jewish Voice for PeaceProfessor and Dean Emerita Vida Samiian, Linguistics, CSU FresnoDaniel Segal, Professor of Anthropology and Professor of History, Pitzer CollegeRafael Shimunov, Athena Coalition, Board of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Cofounder of The Jewish VoteYasmine Taeb, Human Rights Lawyer and Progressive StrategistRebecca Vilkomerson, former Executive Director, Jewish Voice for PeaceMargaret Zaknoen DeReus, Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)

Read the original:

Letter to Secretary Blinken from US Organizations and Leaders in Solidarity with Palestinian Civil Society - Human Rights Watch

Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

(CBM) When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the Black community owned less than 1% of the United States total wealth, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans was told during its fourth meeting.

Mehrsa Baradaran, a professor at the University of California Irvine, School of Law, shared the statistics during the Racism in Banking, Tax, and Labor portion of the two-day meeting on Oct.13.

From her perspective, the power of wealth and personal income is still unequally distributed. And that inequality, in her view, has always been allowed, preserved and compounded by laws and government policy.

More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged, Baradaran told the Task Force, tracing the wealth gap from the period after the Civil War when President Lincoln granted formerly enslaved Blacks their freedom to the present day.

The gap between average White wealth and Black wealth has actually increased over the last decades. Today, across every social-economic level, Black families have a fraction of the wealth that White families have, she said.

Baradaran has written a range of entries and books about banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap. Her scholarship includes the books How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, both published by the Harvard University Press.

Baradaran has also published several articles on race and economics, including Jim Crow Credit in the Irvine Law Review, Regulation by Hypothetical in the Vanderbilt Law Review, and How the Poor Got Cut Out of Banking in the Emory Law Journal.

A 43-year-old immigrant born in Orumieh, Iran, Baradaran, testified that her work on the wealth gap in America was conducted from a research angle and she respectfully submitted her testimony in that light, she said.

In her research, Baradaran explained that she discovered an intentional system of financial oppression.

This wealth chasm doesnt abate with income or with education. In other words, this is a wealth gap that is pretty much tied to a history of exclusion and exploitation and not to be remedied by higher education and higher income, Baradaran said.

According to a January 2020 report, the Public Policy Institute of California said African American and Latino families make up 12% of those with incomes above the 90th percentile in the state, despite comprising 43% of all families in California.

In addition, PPIC reported that such disparities mirror the fact that African American and Latino adults are overrepresented in low-wage jobs and have higher unemployment rates, and African American adults are less likely to be in the labor force.

Many issues support these activities that range from disparities around education, local job opportunities, and incarceration to discrimination in the labor market, according to PPIC.

While Californias economy outperforms the nations, its level of income inequality exceeds that of all but five states, the report stated.

Without target policies, it will continue to grow, Baradaran said of the wealth gap. And I want to be clear of how this wealth gap will continue to grow. It was created, maintained, and perpetuated through public policy at the federal, state, and local levels. Black men and women have been shut out of most avenues of middle-class creations. Black homes, farms, and savings were not given the full protection of the law. Especially as these properties were subjected to racial terrorism. The American middle-class was not created that way (to support Black communities).

A June 2018 working paper from the Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute written by economists familiar with moderate-to-weak Black wealth backs up Baradarans assessment.

Published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the authors of the report wrote that strategies to deny Blacks access

to wealth started at the beginning of the Reconstruction era, picked up around the civil rights movement, and resurfaced around the financial crisis of the late 2000s.

Authored by Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick, and Ulrike I. Steins, the Income and Wealth Inequality in America, 1949-2016 explains a close analysis of racial inequality, pre-and post-civil rights eras.

The economists wrote that the median Black household has less than 11% of the wealth of the median White household, which is about $15,000 versus $140,000 in 2016 prices.

The overall summary is bleak, the report states. The historical data also reveal that no progress has been made in reducing income and wealth inequalities between black and white households over the past 70 years.

Baradaran recently participated in the virtual symposium, Racism and the Economy: Focus on the Wealth Divide hosted by 12 District Banks of the Federal Reserve System, which includes the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

There are some positives that are not typically included in discussions about the challenges Blacks have experience historically in efforts to obtain wealth, Baradaran said. Many African Americans, specifically in California, were able to subvert the systems that discriminated against them.

Black institutions have been creative and innovative serving their communities in a hostile climate, Baradaran said. Ive

written a book about the long history of entrepreneurship, self-help, and mutual uplift. Historically Black Colleges and Universities have provided stellar education and Black banks have supported Black businesses, churches, and families.

Californias Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, titled The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans, created a nine-member commission to investigate inequity in education, labor, wealth, housing, tax, and environmental justice.

All of these areas were covered with expert testimony during the two-day meeting held on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13. The task force is charged with exploring Californias involvement in slavery, segregation, and the historic denial of Black citizens constitutional rights.

Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act eliminated racial discrimination in lending, the Black community continues to be denied mortgage loans at rates much higher than their White counterparts.

Banks and corporations have engaged in lending and hiring practices that helped to solidify patterns of racial inequality, Jacqueline Jones, a history professor from the University of Texas told the Task Force.

The Racism in Banking, Tax and Labor segment also featured testimonies by Williams Spriggs (former chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University. Spriggs now serves as chief economist to the AFL-CIO), Thomas Craemer

(public policy professor at the University of Connecticut), and Lawrence Lucas (U.S. Department of Agriculture Coalition of Minority Employees).

The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans will conduct its fifth and final meeting of 2021 on Dec. 6 and Dec.7.

CBM exists to facilitate communication between the black community, media, grassroots organizations, and policy makers by providing fact-based reporting to a network of over 21 Black media outlets on leading public policy issues

Related

More:

Reparations: How Intentional Gov't Policy Denied Blacks Access to Wealth - Sacramento Observer

Universities are at the forefront of technological development in agriculture, fostering creativity among students and faculty members.

The recent OnRamp Agriculture Conference presented in part by the Nebraska Department of Economic Development; The Combine, a statewide initiative supporting high growth entrepreneurs in food and ag; and gener8tor, a startup accelerator and turnkey platform for connecting founders, investors and corporations featured a panel discussion from Midwestern universities about their own entrepreneurship and startup programs, some of their successes and the challenges that slow things down.

Tom Field, director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Nebraska, said that UNLs program was initiated because of a question posed by the parents of a recruit. The parent asked, Are you going to turn my child into an employer or an employee?

With financial support from ag entrepreneur Paul Engler, a new program was founded to build people who could build companies that were going to contribute to great communities, Field said.

The core of our whole program at UNL, which by and large is focused on undergraduates, a few grad students and alumni in the work that we do, Field said, we had to get really intentional about being purpose driven.

He said, Our whole model is to embolden our people on the courageous pursuit of their purpose through the art and practice of entrepreneurship.

Once that mode was established within the program, Field noted that it was amazing how many companies big, small and medium, as well as nonprofits, private folks and people within the financial sector wanted to help out, because they love that notion of the purpose-driven entrepreneur.

They also love the fact that the program could build a whole new generation of employers who wanted to build communities as part of the work that they do. Thats our unique little approach, Field said, that we have merged into a traditional model of higher education.

Kevin Kimle, Rastetter Chair of Agricultural Entrepreneurship at Iowa State University, heads up a rural academy program that allows students to work on their entrepreneur business opportunities over the summer months.

The first step in working with undergraduate students, which is a lot of what we do, is approaching entrepreneurship as a life skill, as a mindset, he said. Some of that can come from courses and certain traditional programs at a university, but several years ago, we discovered a lot of students have an existing internship or they go back to the farm in the summer, but they would like to continue to work on their business.

ISU started the Rural Entrepreneurship Academy, which is a part-time program where the students are set up in a cohort where they can work on their businesses.

Its really pretty basic, Kimle explained. We have the students work on one question or problem each week, and they talk to two other people to try to help them solve the challenge. Being a part of a cohort, whether it is in the academy or back on campus, is a great way to help entrepreneurial young people continue to make progress.

Kimle said mentoring is at the heart of their academy program. Mentoring is at the core of everything we do, because it is the people you meet that change your life, he said.

At the University of Illinois, Kimberlee Kidwell, dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, said having a research park contingent to campus has fostered a strong spirit of innovation for entrepreneurial students on campus.

The students themselves can have hands-on learning partnerships with industry at our research park, Kidwell said.

The challenges for universities, agreed on by all three panelists, can be in paperwork involved in startup businesses, in licensing and patenting, and carrying some of the startups from faculty or students into commercialization. Also, making sure faculty members are on board with entrepreneurial innovation is crucial, Kidwell added.

The crisis of the pandemic moved us along faster, she said. We learned by doing that moving forward we can be nimble. We have learned that we can move faster over the last year and a half.

Kimle said that the community aspect of a student cohort is fun to watch. Building such a community of innovation between agriculture faculty, students and investors, and private industry is the goal of each of the entrepreneurial programs at UNL, ISU and Illinois, according to the panelists.

Read more:

Universities at forefront of ag innovation, startups - Farm Progress

FORT LEE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cross River Bank (Cross River), a technology-driven financial services organization that provides core infrastructure and embedded financial solutions, today announced, as part of its Making Waves with Cross River program, expanded partnerships with both Operation HOPE and The Memorial Foundation in order to bring access to financial resources and increased economic inclusion to communities across the country.

Our partners at Operation HOPE and The Memorial Foundation have dedicated themselves to empowering individuals and communities to deliver a more inclusive future for all, said Gilles Gade, Founder, President, and CEO of Cross River. For Cross River, giving back comes first, and we are grateful for the opportunity to double down on our commitment.

Cross River and Operation HOPE have been partners for more than five years, and now, the two will expand their community-based approach to financial wellness, specifically through HOPE Inside, an award-winning model of community uplift at another location. HOPE Inside brings coaches to bank branches, providing in-person and virtual financial coaching, educational content, and solutions through financial dignity programming to empower individuals with the financial knowledge and tools they need.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Cross River and Operation HOPE partnered to provide resources to individuals and community partners, which included virtual financial literacy courses, small business development workshops, and the joint Entrepreneur Training Program (ETP), from which over 100 entrepreneurs have already graduated. Having seen the success of these programs in its Brooklyn, New York branch footprint, Cross River and Operation HOPE are now expanding these programs to Cross Rivers Teaneck, New Jersey branch to deliver these life-changing services to more individuals to help them solve every day financial challenges and create a more secure future.

For so many Americans, these are trying times. Through our partnership with Cross River we are providing critical virtual financial literacy and coaching services to help them navigate the economic impacts of COVID-19, said John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Operation HOPE. We remain committed to equipping individuals and business owners with sustainable tools that allow them to tackle their unique financial challengesand ultimately thrive.

Cross River also announced an expanded partnership with The Memorial Foundation to support the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Social Justice Fellowship Program, which unites like-minded emerging leaders from across the nation who share an unwavering commitment to social justice and who have embraced opportunities to advance change through leadership. Fellows possess a strong entrepreneurial spirit with a focus on improving the conditions of underserved communities and are empowered to build an intentional coalition of support with leaders across the nation, explore high impact practices that impart change, and develop an understanding of leadership and advocacy for long-term, sustainable community advancement. Last Wednesday, the Foundation hosted its anniversary gala in Washington titled Moving the Dream Forward ...Forever a Stone of Hope, celebrating the foundation's inaugural class of social justice fellows.

As we celebrate our 10th anniversary and the work of Martin Luther King, we are also celebrating the foundation's inaugural class of social justice fellows, our leaders of the future, said Harry Johnson Sr., President and CEO of The Memorial Foundation. Dr. King represented justice, opportunity, and most importantly, change, and we are immensely grateful to our community partners like Cross River for their unwavering support in continuing his mission.

These two initiatives are part of Making Waves with Cross River, a campaign dedicated to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Coming off the success of Cross Rivers 2020-2021 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the campaign is specifically focused on supporting diverse small businesses and empowering entrepreneurs who are serving their communities and creating jobs. It encompasses a number of initiatives in conjunction with community partners including grant programs, fellowships, events, and small business support.

To learn more, and to get involved, please visit http://www.crossriver.com/making-waves.

About Cross River

Cross River is a fast-growing financial services organization that merges the forward-thinking offerings of a technology company with the established expertise and traditional services of a bank. Since its founding in 2008, Cross River has developed strategic partnerships with leading technology companies, marketplace lenders and payment providers, while maintaining a strong focus on regulatory compliance and consumer protection. Cross River provides a highly secure, API-based banking platform and comprehensive suite of products encompassing lending, payments, risk management and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings to deliver responsible financial solutions that empower businesses and consumers anytime, anywhere. Cross River Bank is a New Jersey state-chartered FDIC insured bank. For more information, please visit Cross Rivers website at http://www.crossriver.com or Twitter @crossriverbank.

About Operation HOPE

Since 1992, Operation HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to "silver rights" with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserveddisrupting poverty for millions of low and moderate-income youth and adults across the nation. Through its community uplift model, HOPE Inside, which received the 2016 Innovator of the Year recognition by American Banker magazine, Operation HOPE has served more than 4 million individuals and directed more than $3.2 billion in economic activity into disenfranchised communitiesturning check-cashing customers into banking customers, renters into homeowners, small business dreamers into small business owners, minimum wage workers into living wage consumers, and uncertain disaster victims into financially empowered disaster survivors. For more information: http://www.OperationHOPE.org. Follow the HOPE conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

About The Memorial Foundation

Located in Washington, D.C., The Memorial Foundation, Inc. exists to promote awareness of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and its tenets of democracy, justice, hope, and love. The 501C3 nonprofit organization also supports the general upkeep of the Memorial, which as the 5th most-visited memorial on the National Mall sees more than 3 million visitors per year. Learn more at http://www.thememorialfoundation.org.

Link:

Cross River Bolsters Its Commitment to Expanding Financial Services and Economic Inclusion to Underserved Communities - Business Wire

Harrisburg, Pa. -- The idea of Gerrymandering is as old as the country itself. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, "Gerrymandering describes the intentional manipulation of district boundaries to discriminate against a group of voters on the basis of their political views or race."

Pa. has long been politically gerrymandered at the hands of politicians whose only goal is to stay in power, and members of the Pa. Redistricting Advisory Council have been holding listening sessions across the state to gather public feedback on congressional redistricting.

The opinions of Pennsylvanians must be heard as the legislature prepares to draw new congressional district boundary maps," said Gov. Tom Wolf.

"The decisions made through the redistricting process will affect every person and community in Pennsylvania for the next decade. Reviewing the maps is one of my most important acts as governor and I take that responsibility extremely seriously," Wolf said.

Related reading:Pa. redistricting panel rolls back new policy to count incarcerated people in home districts, not state prisons

Related reading:How to get involved in Pa.s pivotal redistricting process

Created by anexecutive ordersigned by Wolf on Sept. 13, the six-member council is comprised of redistricting experts who will provide guidance to Wolf and assist his review of the congressional redistricting plan, which will be passed by the state legislature later this year.

The administration said the council will review redistricting processes in other states that reduce gerrymandering, develop factors to determine if a plan improves the integrity and fairness and prevents the dilution of a persons vote, then offer "recommendations to ensure that districts are compact and contiguous to keep communities together and ensure people are proportionally represented."

"I have long believed that gerrymandering is wrong, and politicians should not use the redistricting process to choose their own voters. That is why I have tasked the advisory council with listening to people and providing their expert advice to me so that I can better evaluate the maps in the best interest of all Pennsylvanians," Wolf added.

In addition to the council and the listening sessions, the Wolf administration said they created aredistricting website the public can use"to submit proposed maps, outline communities of interest, and submit comments to help shape the outcome of this critical part of our democratic process."

The release by the administration said Wolf "has long fought to modernize our elections to remove barriers to voting, and improve the process for citizens and election officials."

In 2019, Wolfsigned a law"with the most significant improvement to Pennsylvanias elections in more than 80 years." Act 77 of 2019, "created the extremely popular option to cast a ballot by mail without an excuse and provided more time to register to vote, among other enhancements," according to the administration.

The administration secured $90 million to assist counties with purchasing new voting systems with a paper trail and modern security. The state also created the option for people to register to vote, or update their registration online for the first time, which more than 3 million people have used, the release from the administration added.

State College:

When: Monday, Nov. 1 at 11:00 a.m.

Where: Penn State Main Campus at HUB-Robeson Center, 201 Old Main St., University Park, Pa., 16802

Mansfield:

When: Wed., Nov 3 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Manser Hall at Mansfield University, 31 S. Academy St., Mansfield, Pa., 16933

To attend the public listening session, citizens are asked to RSVP with your name and event date to the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs atOIARSVP@pa.gov

Our content is free, but our journalists work hard. 100% of your contribution to NorthcentralPa.com goes directly toward helping us cover the important news and events in our region. Thank you for saying that local news matters!

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Do you know what Gerrymandering is? A public comment session on Congressional Redistricting will be held in State College and Mansfield -...

Former Boston Red Sox player Jerry Remy, wearing an oxygen tube, throws a ceremonial first pitch before an American League Wild Card baseball game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on Oct. 5. Remy died of cancer Saturday. He was 68. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Good morning. It's Monday, Nov. 1, and the beginning of the season of gratitude. Patch launches a month-long initiative, "30 Days of Gratitude," with the story of a young tenor who lost his golden voice and nearly his life in an accident 50 years ago and clinically died, but made an "irrevocable contract" to live his life with intentional gratitude.

Here are some of the other stories we're following:

Dan Knight "died" half a century ago. He coded during his long recovery from a motorcycle accident. A drunken driver had hit his bike hard, crushing his dreams, and his leg.

Before the accident, he had a promising future as an opera singer. A full-ride scholarship was practically a guarantee for a spot with The Met, the famed opera company in New York City.

He was clinically dead for a few minutes. As many people before him have described, he recalled hearing a voice that told him it wasn't his time to die. "I felt this energy almost like I had on suspenders," he said, "and it yanked me back into my body. What happened, literally, is it flipped a switch for me, and when I came back, I came back in hyper mode ... with a far deeper and far broader sense of purpose."

Today, Knight, 68, is an accomplished pianist and composer. It isn't the path he intended, but it was paved with intentional gratitude. Read his story in the first installment of 30 Days Of Gratitude, and come back to Across America Patch every day through November for more stories about living with gratitude. Opera Singer 'Died,' Lives On As Pianist: 30 Days Of Gratitude, via Across America Patch

Jessica Stephenson does live in a three-bedroom colonial-style house in majority Black neighborhood in Milwaukee. She hasn't had it moved across town during the past decade. But the 2020 Census says the house is not there. Stephenson doesn't live there, either.

It's not an anomaly. From her majority-Black neighborhood in Wisconsin to a community of Hasidic Jews in New York's Catskill Mountains to a park outside Tampa, Florida,It's not a magic trick but rather a new statistical method the bureau is using called differential privacy, which involves the intentional addition of errors to data to obscure the identity of any given participant.

But the change could significantly affect redistricting and how federal funds are distributed to cities. People, Homes Vanish Due To 2020 Census' New Privacy Method, via Across America Patch

American Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday at the end of a three-day Halloween weekend riddled by about 1,800 cancellations. The airline said normal flights will resume for the most part Monday, although there will be "some residual impact from the weekend."

By Sunday afternoon, American had already canceled more than 100 Monday flights, according to the FlightAware tracking service. The more than 900 flights canceled Sunday represented one-third of the airline's schedule for the day. American Airlines scrapped nearly 900 flights over the previous two days. American Airlines Cancels Hundreds Of Halloween Weekend Flights, via Across America Patch

Jerry Remy, the former Red Sox player who went on to become even more well known as a broadcaster, died of cancer. He was 68. Remy took a leave as color commentator for NESN's Red Sox broadcasts on Aug. 4. His last public appearance was Oct. 5, when he threw out the first pitch before the American League wild card game against the Yankees. Red Sox Broadcaster, Former Player Jerry Remy Dies, via Boston Patch

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art, was exhibited to the public for the first time on Nov. 1, 1512. The painting is considered one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, via History.com.

Patch is in more than 1,000 communities across America. Find your community and see what's happening outside your front door.

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Census Disappearing Act: You And Your Home May Have Vanished - Patch.com