Profiles





Profile: DAYNA BALLANTYNE

Each week Dayna Ballantyne orchestrates the incoming donations of food from the pockets in the community that aren’t empty. There are cans of vegetables, chili, tuna and soup which are collected by various community groups—their donation drives are staggered throughout the year, attempting to keep a steady supply of basic foods, but in the last year the shelves in the store room are in short stock by mid-month. To try to increase donations, Ballantyne must continually search for new ways to stimulate giving, all in a time when many of the folks who ordinarily give are suffering from ‘empathy fatigue’ or their own financial concerns. Ballantyne has added a major food drive in mid-summer called Thanksgiving In July, and there is a new trend in cans collected at the entrances to rock concerts.

Ballantyne spent six months in the mid-nineties working in Zimbabwe as a village health coordinator before finishing her graduate studies in social work. The link between health and poverty is a key concern and at the Food Bank; Ballantyne works closely with local non-profits devoted to pre and post-natal health and with county extension agencies who provide educational outreach in people’s homes—knowledge about nutrition and the health conditions people in poverty face. The United States is not a third-world country, but sometimes the efforts to reach the community, those who have as well as the have-nots, take a similar kind of cultural expertise. And Ballantyne has a natural gift for conducting the converging donations: the food that sustains the poor and the care with which it is shared.

Profile: ROSS WILBURN

Like Barack Obama, Wilburn lost his mother to cancer as a young man; Shirley Wilburn was a role model for his dedication to community service. Since accepting public office Wilburn has developed a wide and enthusiastic following in Johnson County and beyond, often referred to as a ‘renaissance man.’ Early on, he wanted to be an astronomer then went on to master classical and jazz clarinet—his favorite compositions are by Carl Maria Von Weber, and he is a distantly cousin to the first African-American to perform a solo piano recital at Carnegie Hall. He plays with various groups, one of which always rocks the Crisis Center benefits. Perhaps because of the pressure of reality-driven concerns, his literary tastes run to the ‘Tolkein-esque,’ and he is a longstanding Star Trek fan.

As the first in his family to finish college and as the first African-American mayor in Iowa City, Wilburn realizes he is a role model, but remains a humble one. He claims he’s ‘not the most outgoing’—even in his own family. “There are so many people more charismatic, more intelligent than I am. I show that you don’t have to have extraordinary talent or speaking ability, just the desire to participate in change.” It is the problems Wilburn has witnessed that compel him to testify, to speak up for others who are otherwise occupied with the struggles of living. “I'm not perfect," Wilburn adds, "But I think in terms of someone who's concerned, tries to be dedicated to the community I live in.”

When asked by a local paper what three wishes he would want granted, Wilburn confesses he would like to bicycle in all 50 states, witness the cure for cancer and, (in an uncharacteristic political revelation) be granted three more wishes after the first two. But it is this thinking ahead, realizing the needs of stewardship long after initial progress is made in founding a project, that make him someone capable of truly changing the world in a thoughtful, lasting way. “If I, as an ordinary person, can get involved,” he says, “then everyone else can see that they can too.” His logic works—most people who hear him speak or watch him work want to join the ranks, become part of the solution. In his endurance and commitment, he is in fact ‘exceptional’ and bound to reach an ever widening audience in the years ahead.

Profile: JOHNSON COUNTY FOOD BANK

The Food Bank is an impressive place with a large back storeroom, bustling with volunteers and a colorful front waiting area full of folks who have stopped by for food. Its receiving doors roll up to take in canned goods from the ‘faith community,’ from civic groups like Kiwanis and Mail Carriers, Boy and Girl Scout food drives and supermarket donation bins. All must be sorted and stored on supermarket-style shelves. There is a daily delivery of perishable foods from a smaller non-profit Table To Table that gathers dairy products, bakery items and produce from groceries, and leftovers like baked potatoes and packaged salads from restaurants, cafes, and the University cafeteria system. Donations by local farmers and gardeners come in crates and bags throughout the summer and fall. Non-food items like dish and laundry soap and other bulk items like oil are divided into sterilized soda bottles by volunteers and shelved with all the other non-perishables at the back of the storeroom. A walk-in cooler and freezer off to one side hold boxes of the fresh foods until the doors to clients open at noon. A bagging crew comes in the evenings before to fill paper bags according to number of people in each household: 1 to 2, 3 to 4, up to 7+, so that they can easily and quickly be given out. Bags contain pyramid proportions of carbohydrates (macaroni or rice), protein (tuna or beans or peanut butter), canned vegetables, soup, and fruit. They are tailored to basic food preferences (vegan, vegetarian, Muslim and Kosher) and dietary restrictions (gluten-free, low sodium, etc.). In addition to the pre-packed bag, Food Bank clients get a few perishable items each week and can request up to two special items: for instance toilet paper, pastries or hygiene products. They must go through a preliminary interview with a volunteer who guarantees them anonymity and privacy while capturing basic statistics about what has brought them there.

As the year draws to a close, Americans everywhere are coming together for lavish holiday meals while the shelves at the Food Bank grow increasingly bare. Staff and volunteers are working with other groups to pull together holiday food baskets, but the daily/weekly staples that folks depend on are in short supply. While the upcoming election could change national priorities and address the long-term needs of the poor, the immediacy is felt most keenly here by people who are living day-to-day.

Thumbnail Profile: IOWA CITY

‘River City’ is Iowa City’s fictional name in The Music Man, prominently referenced in a billboard for the ‘River City Beefstrow’ that welcomes you into town with an invitation to an old-fashioned steam table buffet, In the musical, Meredith Wilson’s song ”Iowa Stubborn” begins with a warning of initial inhospitality here: “Join us at the picnic. You can eat your fill / Of all the food you bring yourself.” but it ends with what better characterizes the citizens of this Midwest town: “We’ll give you our shirt / and the back to go with it / if your crops should happen to die.”

As a university town with a greater metropolitan population of around 140,000, Iowa City has employment opportunities in more fields than many small communities. It has charming tree-lined streets and handsome public buildings: a sandstone courthouse with castle turrets, a power plant painted charcoal gray and deep red like a Charles Sheeler painting and in between are the classic steeples of brick and white clapboard churches. It is home to MCI Mass Markets, Oral B, Proctor & Gamble, and Rockwell International. ACT and Pearson Educational Testing, key players in the “No Child Left Behind” initiative, are also headquartered here. Layoffs in Iowa City have become more frequent in recent years. Some jobs, like those with MCI, have been outsourced to India. Others simply disappear when factories like Pop Secret, close down altogether. While Iowa is corn country— producing roughly 20% of the US total— farms near Iowa City have gradually shifted from family-run acreage to sprawling corporate factories raising hybrid and genetically-altered grain for food, cattle, and industrial products like Ethanol.

Profile: SIMULATION AND REALITY

Barbara Erenreich, in Nickled and Dimed, was one of the first to suggest how empathy can grow through exposing oneself to the hardships of being poor. It is rapidly becoming a popular means of self-education for politicos trying to connect with their constituents. Representatives Barbara Lee, (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jim MCGovern (D-MA), JoAnn Emerson (R-MO) Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Oregon Governor Ted Kulongolski recently joined the ‘Food Stamp Challenge” living on the same weekly ration that needy citizens receive. They got great publicity for their hardship. In a more comprehensive approach, in an act of ‘trading places,’ the Walk A Mile organization pairs low-income constituents with policy-makers over a longer period of time. The policy maker visits the welfare office with their partner, goes grocery shopping with them, and experiences living on food stamps for a month. The low-income constituent, in turn, attends public hearings, a press conference or a legislative session with their policy partner. At the end of the month they are invited to a joint reception and press conference to share their perceptions. For policy makers with the time and interest, this would no doubt increase their knowledge and empathy, but few presidential candidates have the time. A few hours in full view of the media serving food in a homeless shelter is standard—poverty becomes one of their ‘stops’ on the campaign trail. Hopefully they will stop to really talk, to listen to the difficulties and concerns of the people who are caught in the economic struggle that is not new, is growing daily, and is a national problem of crisis proportion.

Profile: JOHNSON COUNTY NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS

Iowa City and Johnson County have excellent support structures in place to deal with poverty—they are simply struggling for funds to meet the increasing needs.

The Broadway Street Neighborhood Center is a well-kept small building near the Cedarwood Apartments. They are federally-funded housing unit near Broadway Street south of Highway 6 with 64 2-bedroom units and a long waiting list to get in. . The Center welcomes you with its flourishing community garden begun on its only scrap of available soil—roughly twice the width of a highway meridian. Funded by Community Development Grants, the Center opened in 1990 and is impressive in its infant-care and day care facilities. The decor is colorful with nametags for each child, along with an abundance of donated cribs and playroom equipment. There are pre-school and after-school programs, summer camps, a well-used playground with its own small children’s garden, and a growing library with two modest computer stations. Everything about the Center is set up to help people who want to change the course of their lives, but they have to be employed to receive most of its services. Personal instruction on nutritional and child-rearing topics, resume-writing and employment training, ESL and GED classes, and family literacy programs are always available. The Broadway Center’s primary role, though, is as a gathering place for families in the neighborhood. Sue Freeman, the director at Broadway for the past 10 years, has been instrumental in helping many of the influx of young mothers obtain additional education and jobs. The support of the Center in child-care is absolutely crucial to their chances for success. Freeman explains that it is not without problems, “Urban strategies for survival are different, particularly for young people, and we try to help sort out new ways of dealing with the cultural challenges here.” They work with other local agencies, including the police department, the MECCA drug rehabilitation agency, the schools and school districts, and United Action for Youth—an organization for keeping young people engaged in activities that enrich instead of harm. With the waiting list to get into housing, and the constant influx arriving from urban zones, government support is desperately needed to sustain the Centers services.

Pheasant Ridge is the other subsidized housing project, not too far from the UI stadium off Mormon Trek Road. It has larger apartments than Broadway and many are open to those who qualify for elderly, handicapped or disability benefits. It is also home to the growing immigrant populations from Africa and the Mid-East, particularly the Sudan and Jordan. Unlike the Broadway Neighborhood Center, the Center at Pheasant Ridge sees many more political refugees who have higher levels of education and who organize themselves along cultural lines. And because it is in the middle of Pheasant Ridge Apartments, a university housing complex, the interaction has raised awareness of the plight of world events in Africa and the Mid-east. The problem of refugees, particularly from the zones of the world where the United States is involved in armed conflict, is another American secret, hidden for the most part from public view and national funding efforts. Religious groups have been instrumental in helping many relocate to the United States.

Nahia Ali, who is from the Sudan, estimates there are at least 70 other families from the Sudan living in Iowa City, many of them at Pheasant Ridge. Her husband, Shihabedin Ali, in a recent interview, said: ‘This is typical for the Sudanese community. We have a very strong social capital. In Sudan, we have to cooperate just to survive. We still carry that here in the United States.’’ For the first six years after they arrived, Shihabedin drove a cab to support his family. Now he is a college graduate, vice president of the Sudanese-American Community for Social Services and Nahia, is in college studying finance.

The support of Pheasant Ridge Neighborhood Center has been crucial to the incoming immigrant community, offering a wide variety of services similar to the Broadway Center, including full day child-care for infants, toddlers, pre and after school programs and summer camps. Four of the staff members speak Arabic, along with a variety of other languages. For adults there is educational support: English classes, assistance in completing the GRE and beginning college courses, and a computer lab with on-site training. The Center hosts family events, cultural celebrations and also has created a community garden. A monthly newsletter is published in English and Arabic and a neighborhood advisory council plays a large role in the atmosphere that welcomes new arrivals.

Both Centers struggle with limited funds and the upcoming election could determine whether they will survive, and whether they can continue to meet the growing needs in the Johnson County/Iowa City area.

BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN TO END POVERTY

JOBS
Expand Transitional Jobs and Career Pathways Programs
Ensure Freedom to Unionize
Help Youth Connect with Growing Job Sectors
Improve Transportation Access to Jobs
Increase Access to Capital in Underserved Communities
Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators
Promote Digital Inclusion through widespread broadband access
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports

INCOME
Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
Raise the Minimum Wage
Support Low-Income Families Through Child Tax Credit to wider base

FAMILIES
Promote Responsible Fatherhood
Support Parents with Young Children
Expand Paid Medical Leave

EDUCATION
Increase Funding for Head Start
Place High-Quality Teachers in Low-Income Classrooms
Extend Summer School Opportunities to Low-Income Students
Make College More Affordable

HOUSING
Create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Combat Mortgage Fraud and Subprime Loans
Create Fund to Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosures
Fully Fund the Community Development Block Grant

HEALTH CARE
Provide Universal Health Care and Lower Health Costs
Fight Health Disparities through studies of race and ethnicity
Foster Healthy Communities through the Healthy Places Act

TACKLING CONCENTRATED URBAN POVERTY
Create a White House Office on Urban Policy
Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community
Establish 'Promise Neighborhoods' for Areas of Concentrated Poverty
based on the Harlem Children’s Zone

ADDRESS RURAL POVERTY
Build Roads, Airports, and Infrastructure
Reinvest in Rural Technology Resources
Encourage Investment in Rural America

REBUILD NEW ORLEANS
Strengthen Accountability on Behalf of Katrina Victims
Expand and Streamline the Child Tax Credit
Passed Legislation for "Special Needs" Disaster Planning

details on Obama’s plan can be found at:
http://origin.barackobama.com/issues

HILLARY CLINTON’S PLAN TO STRENGTHEN THE MIDDLE CLASS
Make health care affordable and accessible to every American.
Reduce the cost of energy and make us energy independent.
Expand access to affordable, high-quality child care.
Make college more affordable.
Protect families from predatory lenders and help them avoid foreclosures.
Increase the minimum wage.
Create good jobs with good wages to expand the middle class.
Balance the federal budget so we don't pass today's massive debts to the
next generation.
Reward savings, protect pensions, and provide greater retirement security.

HILARY CLINTON’S PLAN FOR SUPPORTING PARENTS AND CARING FOR CHILDREN
Attracting and supporting more outstanding teachers and principals, and
paying them like the professionals they are.
Reforming the No Child Left Behind Act.
Giving new parents support and training to promote healthy development
for their children.
Increasing access to high-quality early education and helping to create
Early Head Start.
Passing legislation to provide respite care for caregivers of elderly and
disabled Americans.
Helping to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act to enable new parents
to take time off without losing their jobs, and expanding it to make
it available to more parents and to provide for longer leave.
Advocating for adoption and for abused and neglected children
Promoting programs, like Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, that provide new parents with support and guidance in caring
for their children.
Protecting children against violence and sexual content in the media and
studying the impact of electronic media on children's cognitive,
social, and physical development.
Providing meaningful support to households, called "kinship care"
families, where grandparents and other relatives are raising
children.
More information at: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues

JOHN EDWARD’S PLAN TO END POVERTY WITHIN THIRTY YEARS

Rewarding Work:
Make Work Pay by raising the minimm wage
Create One Million Stepping Stone Jobs
Create Opportunity in Rural America with investment and jobs]
Strengthen Labor Laws to make it easy to join Unions
Enforce Workplace Protections
Overhaul Housing Policy:
Create a Million New Housing Vouchers
Revitalize Devastated Neighborhoods
Fight Abusive Lenders and Help Working Families Save:
Create New Work Bonds through new tax credit
Expand Access to Bank Accounts
Defend Homeowners against Predatory Mortgages and
Foreclosure]
Protect Families from Abusive Financial Products
Limiting Irresponsible Credit Card Practices
Banning the Most Abusive Payday Loans
Strengthening Our Schools:
Strengthen Public Schools.
Promote Economic Diversity
Create Second-Chance Schools for High School Dropouts
Expand College Opportunity through a College for Everyone
Program
Support Responsible Families:
Encourage and Reward Responsibility from Fathers
Fight Teen Pregnancy
Home Visits for New Parents
Invest in Family Literacy

More information at: http://johnedwards.com/issues/poverty/

THE CONFERENCE OF MAYORS TASK FORCE REPORT ON POVERTY: REPAIRING THE ECONOMIC LADDER

INVESTMENT STRATEGY # 1:
INVEST IN HIGH-QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR TOMORROW’S WORKERS

TOP FEDERAL ACTION STEP: INVEST IN HIGH-QUALITY PRESCHOOL FOR EVERY CHILD.
To maximize the benefits of early childhood education, the taskforce recommends making an initial investment of $22.9 billion in universal early childhood education grants to state programs.
• Rigorous educational standards for preschool providers, including class size, staff ratios, and staff qualifications (a minimum of a B.A. degree for the head teacher and an associate’s degree for the assistant teacher)
• Extended hours of service to accommodate the schedules of working families
• Subsidized services through the summer for children of lower income families
• Expanded access to quality preschool, particularly among three-year-olds for whom enrollment is substantially lower than among four-year-olds.
• Adopt the federal policy recommendations made by the National Academies to improve K-12 science and mathematics education by recruiting more qualified teachers and setting higher standards for students.
• Reform the No Child Left Behind Act to address disincentives for high-quality teachers to teach at poorly performing urban schools.
• Fully fund English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in public schools
• Fund demonstration projects designed to improve teacher quality across all grades of public schools.

TOP STATE AND LOCAL ACTION STEPS: INVEST IN HIGH QUALITY WORKFORCE TRAINING FOR TOMORROW’S WORKERS
For these reasons, the taskforce recommends that states and local government provide up to $650 per student in a K-12 public school, or about $32 billion in total spending across the states, for schools that adopt the high-quality, standards-based
Career Academy curriculum.
• Adopt state policy recommendations made by the National Academies to improve K-12 science and mathematics education by recruiting more qualified teachers and setting higher standards for students
• Fully fund ESL in public schools
• Fund demonstration projects designed to improve teacher quality across all grades of public schools.
• Consider options for reforming K-12 education bureaucracies to achieve savings and greater effectiveness.

TOP PRIVATE-SECTOR ACTION STEPS: INVEST IN K-12 WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.
• Invest in workforce education and career exploration counseling to high school students.
• Encourage employees (especially within large businesses) to participate in workforce development programs available in high schools, particularly those with lower college attendance rates.
• Work with local leaders to develop appropriate curriculum that is responsive to regional workforce trends.
• Collaborate with state education and workforce leaders to identify key regional job trends.
• Work with educators to develop appropriate curriculum.
• Support federal and state standards-based education.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY #2:
INVEST IN THE LIFE-LONG EDUCATION AND SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT OF TOMORROW’S WORKERS

TOP FEDERAL ACTION STEPS: INVEST IN A LIFETIME LEARNING SAVINGS ACCOUNT FOR EVERY CHILD
• Increase the value of the Pell Grant for today’s low-income students who cannot participate in lifetime learning accounts.
• Consider consolidating existing higher education tax credits, such as the Hope Scholarship, the Lifetime Learning Credit, and the higher education deduction, into a single consolidated College Tax Credit that could be used at accredited colleges or universities by students and workers seeking to start or continue their educations; and in conjunction with the lifetime learning savings accounts.
• Significantly reform the Workforce Investment Act by increasing funding, strengthening regional and private-sector coordination, and improving outreach to immigrants.
• Provide tax credits to employers and financial institutions that match savings of low-income employees and consumers.
• Increase 401(k) participation by encouraging companies to auto-enroll employees.

TOP STATE AND LOCAL ACTION STEPS: MAKE BANKS AND CREDIT UNIONS ACCESSIBLE TO TOMORROW’S WORKERS Therefore, the taskforce recommends that state and local leaders work with their private-sector partners to designate underserved neighborhoods, and leverage the value of the federal savings account investments (and other incentives such as the
New Markets Tax Credit and Banking Development Districts) to bring more branches and responsible banking products into those neighborhoods.
• Consider adopting New York’s Banking Development Districts program.
• Evaluate how effective state regulations have been in deterring abusive practices in the financial services industry.
• Fund statewide evaluations of financial education curricula to identify best practices.
• Build financial education criteria into high school graduation requirements, so that students understand how to use and maximize the potential of their lifetime learning savings accounts.

TOP PRIVATE-SECTOR ACTION STEPS: MAKE FINANCIAL SERVICES EASILY ACCESSIBLE TO ALL AMERICAN WORKERS
In exchange for this benefit from government deposits, the taskforce recommends that banks work with state and local leaders to identify lower-income neighborhoods that are underserved by mainstream financial institutions and open branches in a sample of these markets with appropriate products for underserved markets.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY #3:
INVEST IN ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR TOMORROW’S WORKERS

TOP FEDERAL ACTION STEPS: BOOST THE EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT AND MINIMUM WAGE
For these reasons, the taskforce recommends that the maximum benefit for childless, single adults be increased from $399 to $1,600 and that two-income households be allowed to deduct the lower of the two incomes from their eligibility. We estimate that these policy changes would cost an additional $19 billion if fully implemented.
• Make the mortgage interest deduction available to those who do not itemize their deductions
• Increase and make refundable the federal Saver’s Credit, which provides matching contributions to families, providing further incentives for families to save.
• Consider the federal adoption of California’s “ReadyReturn” program, which would greatly simplify tax compliance for the great majority of Americans who do not itemize their taxes.
• Create a single, consolidated Jobs Tax Credit to create jobs in high-poverty areas.
• Pass strong mortgage lending protections based on state regulations, which guard against price-gouging practices by unscrupulous brokers and lenders.

TOP STATE AND LOCAL ACTION STEPS: REBUILD COMMUNITIES WITH ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
To take full advantage of this opportunity, the taskforce recommends that state and local governments use their power to encourage the development of diverse neighborhoods that hold greater economic opportunities for tomorrow’s workers.
In addition, the taskforce recommends these state and local priority actions:
• Leverage underused assets in inner-city neighborhoods, particularly those neighborhoods with unmet market demand.
• Work with private sector partners to identify state and local regulatory barriers to economic development.
• Use federal tax incentives to promote well-paying jobs and economic development.
• Make resources available to connect families to the work supports that they are eligible to receive including the EITC, food stamps, energy assistance, and childcare assistance.
• Consider funding Housing Trust Funds to ensure that sufficient affordable housing exists for America’s working families.

TOP PRIVATE-SECTOR ACTION STEPS: RE-EVALUATE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES IN UNDERSERVED MARKETS
• Explore nontraditional methods to assess market demand in underserved, lower income markets.
• Study successful business models in lower income, emerging markets.
• Commit a share of venture capital and other capital investments to new, lower income markets.

More information at www.usmayors.org.

rev. December 10, 2007 21:05 CST [gmt - 06:00]