By Alexis Zimberg | May 8, 2013

DETROIT—Freshwater Transit founder Neil Greenberg has a passion for collaborative transit solutions in southeast Michigan. The high-energy advocate-cum-entrepreneur’s novel thinking is amplified by quick talking and a booming voice.

“The current policy is thin on context,” he shares from his seat on the program’s four-speaker panel. “We want to help RTA with customized, technical solutions that are understood. The emphasis is on customization and understanding.”

Monday’s Lunch and Learn, hosted by the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, brought together local advocates to discuss the future of transit in southeast Michigan and the realities of the newly formed Regional Transit Authority. In addition to Greenberg, the panel also included Shauna Rushing of the Metro Coalition of Congregations, Joel Batterman from the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, and Carmine Polombo who is the RTA Representative for Southeast Michigan Council on Governments.

Polombo was a last minute addition to the program, an add-on that instilled nervous anticipation in the ambitious Freshwater Transit team, who—for the first time—could publicly address the RTA on their desire to build a professional and collaborative relationship.

As with any great gathering, the meeting began with food. Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue’s Executive Director Anna Kohn introduced and thanked the panelists for their participation. We were there to live tweet the event (see a transcript below).

The event was organized as a roundtable discussion led by open forum questions. Some queries touched on the formation of the RTA, including its financial sources, while others focused on the bigger racial and social implications of transit decision-making in our region.

Twitter Transcript May 6, 2013

12:25: Carmine of @SEMCOG: “We’re really looking at how to design systems and provide people with transportation that they want and need.”

12:30: @IADSdetroit Pres. Leor Barak: “Transit is an issue that divides us as a region. RTA to bring us together to live, work, and play.”

12:34: @fwtransit Neil on fares: state and local cash directed to service, federal dollars generally toward infrastructure. #MITRANS #RTA

12:36: Deshean McClinton: “Transit could tear down the walls of segregation. What is preventing this from becoming a reality?”

12:41: @SEMCOG Carmine: “DDOT’s problem is not capital, it is operation dollars. We have new buses but nobody to drive them.” #MITRANS

12:43: David Calton: “Does progress demand mass enlightenment?” Carmine: “We need agreement on what we want and need.”

12:46: Joel of MI Trans in response to Deshean: “Segregation is parallel in this transit debate.”

12:50: Daveed: “Is the RTA a policy-making or administrative entity?” Carmine: “In future has ability to run transit but not in mandate.”

12:52: Yodit: “We are asking for the public input, which is good. How to ensure that the people are not fatigued as this debate continues?”

12:56: Shauna from Metro Coalition: “We try to create a loud and united citizen voice so that policy-makers HAVE to pay attention.”

1:01: Neil @fwtransit: “The current policy is thin on context. We want to help RTA with customized, technical solutions that are understood.”

1:05: Jon Koller: “How do you see places transforming to accommodate transit when they have no experience with transit?” #MITRANS

1:06: Koller x2: “Dan Gilbert shuttles employees to a parking lot in Corktown b/c their cars cannot fit. We need business sector support.”

1:09: Neil @fwtransit: “We cannot expect the private sector to just open their pockets for us or we will be waiting for a long time.”

Tweet-Sized Takeaways

Neil: “Put the T in the RTA.”

Shauna: “Use your own voice and join with other voices.”

Carmine: “Stay involved.”

Joel: “Need to gradually build a regional civil society.”

The event panelists answered a lot of questions for folks in the audience. But ultimately it did not solve the transportation issues at hand. While we continue to discuss the future of transit in southeast Michigan, our buses fail to run on schedule and our neighborhoods remain disconnected.

At transit meetings, the finger is frequently pointed at the wealthier suburban populations that, allegedly, fail to recognize the value that public transportation could provide for them and their neighborhoods. We have a long way to go in figuring out how to design systems that provide us with the transportation and unification that we want and need, but the first step is opening dialogue between all types of taxpayers, advocates, and riders.

DETROIT MAY 6, 2013 - The Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) is partnering with YOUTH VOICE to begin a peer-to-peer suspension prevention program in Detroit Public High Schools. The program is a part of YOUTH VOICE’s campaign to break the School to Prison Pipeline, a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

YOUTH VOICE is investigating successful programs across the state and country to find what parts will work best in Detroit. They are also drafting a budget to see the cost of a peer-to-peer suspension prevention program pilot in five Detroit Public High Schools.

DHS, a strong ally to suspension prevention, launched their Pathways to Potential program in Summer 2012, which put Family Resource Centers and caseworkers in elementary schools in Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and Saginaw. YOUTH VOICE will be collaborating directly with the team that implemented these programs.

“What a pleasure it was to meet with this group of aspiring leaders, to hear their well-thought out proposal and to begin to work together to put practices in place to derail the School to Prison Pipeline,” said Terri Gilbert, Michigan Department of Human Services Director of Child Welfare Funding and Juvenile Programs. “What a great group of young men and women.”

“We need to focus on prevention. We need a culture shift that focuses on student achievement and gets at the core of a student’s needs. When you engage youth, ask questions and figure out why a student is misbehaving, you can give them the power to not become a statistic,” said Kayla Mason, YOUTH VOICE Lead Organizer.

The partnership between YOUTH VOICE and DHS is a product of the attention and momentum that YOUTH VOICE received from the Detroit YOUTH Takeover, a 450 person march that launched the organization’s campaign against the School to Prison Pipeline. Following the march, Maura Corrigan, Director of Michigan Department of Human Services, arranged the meeting with YOUTH VOICE to partner and discuss the future of the movement.

Photo YV.jpg - YOUTH VOICE meeting with the Michigan Department of Human Services. Left to right: Trevon Stapleton, YV Student Fellow; Kari Johnson, YV Organizer;  Rasul Zakie, YV Student Fellow; Maura Corrigan, Director MI DHS; Cheyenne Walker, YV Student Fellow; Quentin McKinnon, YV Student Fellow; Kayla Mason, YV Lead Organizer; Terri Gilbert, Director of Child Welfare Funding and Juvenile Programs MI DHS.

Detroit News

Ferndale — A group of parishioners debated transit issues Sunday during a community forum aimed at identifying regional transportation concerns and funding priorities.

St. James Catholic Church was the site of a session, an effort by the Metro Coalition of Congregations and Transportation for Michigan that has spanned Roseville to Hazel Park and Warren in to obtain regional feedback on transportation needs.

“I’m overwhelmed with the issue,” said Pam Strzalkowski, a 50-year resident of Ferndale. “I guess the issue is there’s no money. It’s a social justice issue.”

Luke Allen, lead community organizer for the coalition, said the meetings began this month and come after the creation of the new Regional Transit Authority, designed to improve regional transportation and find ways to pay for improvements such as a bus rapid transit system or high-speed and light rail.

Participants at Sunday’s forum talked about bus service, visibility issues for pedestrians, identifying key concerns and the importance of sharing findings with the city’s elected leaders.

“As a senior, I’m very concerned about transportation,” said church member Michael LaBrecque, noting his worries about bus services in the area.

Regional Transit Authority meetings are monthly and rotate among Wayne, Macomb, Oakland and Washtenaw counties.

Below is the speech David Hecker, President of the American Federation of Teachers Mich., gave to the Michigan Prophetic Voices April 23 Clergy Breakfast attendees. 

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Thank you for the invitation to speak today. Thank you for reaching out to different faiths.

Thank you for coming together to advocate for social justice be it increasing the EITC, working against youth violence, or stopping the school to prison pipeline.

I obviously inherited my religion from my family. More importantly I inherited the values of my faith and based on these values my responsibilities.

But that I inherited my faith and my values begs the question as to why my forefathers and foremothers had these values.

My paternal grandparents (my maternal grandparents were deceased before I was born) came to America in 1911 from the Shtetls, the Jewish ghettos of Eastern Europe, in their case Poland.

In Poland my grandfather was a member of the Bund, the Jewish labor organization. In New York City he worked in the sweatshops of lower Manhattan making women’s hats. He was active in his union and like so, so many Jews from Eastern Europe my grandparents voted socialist until World War II when the socialists party were isolationists.

So what in Judaism led my grandparents and parents to have their values? What in Judaism has Jews voting overwhelming Democratic, although for a portion of the Jewish community it means voting against their own pocketbook?

I don’t mean to say Jews are a monolithic block. Certainly, the Orthodox view the world through more conservative eyes, as do others. But data tells us that overall Jews are more progressive on a variety of issues than the population as a whole. I think we arrive at these values as a result of Jewish teachings and the Jewish experience. Like with every religion, our historical teachings emphasize helping others.

The body of classical rabbinic teachings codified circa 200 A.D., the Mishnah, uses the term Tikkun Olam: Repairing the World. The Mishnah, for example, refers to social policy legislation providing extra protection to those potentially at a disadvantage—governing, for examples, just conditions for the writing of divorce decrees and for the freeing of slaves.

The phrase Tikkun Olam is included in the Aleinu, a Jewish Prayer that by the most observant is recited three times daily. For more Jews it is recited at weekly Shabbat services.

In the Torah and in later literature there are rules about justice, equality before the law, loving-kindness, social welfare, the ideals of  peace and political freedom.

In Exodus we are reminded “do not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, for once you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” In Deuteronomy:  “For the poor will never cease out of the land;  therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.” The examples as you know far better than I, are numerous.

The Talmud contains an inexhaustible fund of moral ideas perhaps the best known are the words of Hillel: “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me.  Yet, if I am for myself only, what am I?  And if not now, when?” But I would suggest that while these teachings are the foundation of Jewish values, I believe these teachings combined with experience have resulted in cementing and taking action on these values.

When you were once slaves, you would naturally despise slavery. 

When you experienced the expulsion from Spain, you would naturally oppose any people being ostracized. 

When you experienced the pogroms, you would be disgusted by any people being massacred. 

When you were the primary target of the Holocaust when almost the entire world did not speak up, you would pledge yourself to always speak up.

When you learn of President Roosevelt forcing the ship the St. Louis to turn around and return Jews to Europe and the gas chambers you would support immigration rights.

When you were not allowed to live in certain neighborhoods or allowed to climb the ladder in corporate America or attend certain universities you would come to the conclusion that all forms of discrimination must be eliminated.

Jewish teachings and the Jewish experience shaped my family’s values and my family’s commitment to advancing those values. 

And as I mentioned in the beginning the teachings of Judaism are the teachings of all faiths. And this fact is why an alliance between the faith community and the labor movement makes perfect sense.

We believe in the same things—justice, freedom, helping others, helping others help themselves. People of different faiths can honor and respect our differences—if they are differences in some of our religious beliefs or differences in being a person of faith or not being a person of faith. Heck, this nice Jewish boy was in church this past Sunday at my great niece’s baptism.

But as to why you are here today, all faiths and the labor movement have at our cores a fundamental belief in Tikkun Olam—Repairing the World, making it a better place for all. So let’s do it together.

The Creating Change in Battle Creek Neighborhoods (CC) organization has been chosen as an OMNI Gives Back Grant recipient. The group brings residents together to make improvements in their community. Residents are trained to become empowered leaders who reach out to others to make needed change. Currently, CC is running a Block Captains Program in the Post-Franklin and Freedom Acres neighborhoods, along with the Tenants Organization in Triangle Trailer Park. The Block Captains for the Post-Franklin and Freedom Acres neighborhoods are working with the Chief of Police to increase neighborhood safety and decrease crime in key areas of the city. Block Captains for the Triangle Trailer Park are working on improving basic services, such as a properly working sewage system, clean water and parking lights.

We are proud to work with an organization such as CC, said Ted Parsons, OMNI CEO. These people are truly coming together to make the community a better place and we are so pleased to be a part of that through this grant.

OMNI is now accepting applications for the grant program and has committed to provide $50,000 in grants in 2013. To apply visit www.omnigivesback.org.

OMNI Community Credit Union has over 32,000 members across SW Michigan with $304 million in assets. For five consecutive years, OMNI has given a Cashback Rebate of $4 million dollars to say thank you to members. The credit union continually reinvests in its membership and the communities they serve with new branches, some of the area’s best interest rates on loans and savings accounts, no fee checking, low fees, over 28,000 free ATMs, OMNI scholarships and is involved in over 40 community events annually. Anyone in Southwest Michigan can bank with OMNI. To find out how you can join, call 866-OMNI-WOW or visit www.omnicommunitycu.org.

By Valerie D. Lockhart

SUN EXECUTIVE EDITOR  

Armed with bullhorns, signs and a determination to break the school to prison pipeline by changing zero tolerance suspension policies, more than 450 Detroit students marched last month from Cass Park to the new Wayne County Jail.

Uniting their voices along the 1.5 mile path, students, collectively known as Youth Voice, loudly chanted, “Jail no, we won’t go” and sang their own version of “When the Saints Go Marching In”, changing the words to “Oh when the youth go marching in, we’re going to win our education, when the youth go marching in.”

Since its founding in 2009, Youth Voice has been empowering Detroit youth to create positive change by engaging in the political process and developing strategies to resolve community problems.

The youth say one major problem they are confronted with is being deprived of an education, when they are suspended for harmless non-violent offenses.

“Students are getting suspended for not having their IDs or not having on the right colored pants,” says Quentin McKinnon, 17, Youth Voice president and a senior at the Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody High School. “The whole purpose of school is to educate. You’re giving the ultimate penalty of depriving students from an education by suspending them for not having an ID.”

Members of the group, which represent about eight schools in Detroit, are calling for changes in the zero tolerance policy and for more resources to keep students off of the streets and ultimately out of jail.

“The School to Prison pipeline is basically a system in which they’re funneling kids out of school, because they’re suspending them instead of giving them the resources that we should have in our schools,” explains McKinnon. “If somebody yells at a teacher or somebody is not listening, they suspend them instead of sending them to a therapist or counselor. They just kick them out of school, which defeats the purpose of going to school to get an education. We need resources such as justice and peer mediation, instead of real suspensions so you can still get your education.”

According to statistics released by the Detroit ACLU, Detroit Public Schools suspended 25,534 students out of 70,000 enrolled during the 2011-2012 school year.

“That’s like 35 percent of students out of school. That’s a lot of students,” adds McKinnon. “The zero tolerance policy was supposed to be made for guns. Instead they’re using it for insubordination or getting into an argument with a teacher.”

In the State Board of Education resolution to address school discipline that was adopted June 12, 2012, the board recognized flaws in the zero-tolerance policy.

“Many students who have been suspended or expelled have no alternative opportunities for learning or other productive activities,” noted the resolution. “When students are repeatedly suspended, they are at substantially greater risk of leaving school altogether, and current rates of expulsion and suspension in Michigan public schools are unacceptably high. Further, studies show that certain groups of students, including African-American children, Latino children, and children with disabilities, are suspended and expelled in rates disproportionate to their population. Zero-tolerance policies are significant contributors to these disparities, primarily because of subjective enforcement.”

Youth Voice also says there is a disproportionate amount of funds being spent on building new prisons and on incarceration over education.

Governor Rick Snyder’s budget for 2013 calls for spending $2.1 billion with the Michigan Department of Corrections, which currently houses 43,000 prisoners. The Michigan Department of Education will receive $330.3 million this year.

A report compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice reveals that Michigan pays about $40,000 a year on housing one inmate. The Michigan Department of Education reports that $8,000 is spent per student.

“When I saw the 2013-2014budgets for Michigan with $2 billion in planned spending on the prison system, I was heartbroken,” said Cheyenne Walker, 19, a Youth Voice member, who attends the Detroit Institute of Technology at Cody High School. “I started this school year with seven classes on my schedule, but I only had a teacher in three. So for four hours, when my peers and I should learn math, English, communications and technology, we were hanging out playing cards and talking. Anytime someone misbehaved, they were given detention or suspended. When you aren’t in school, you are in the streets. I feel our state policies care more about incarceration than our education. If $2 billion is proposed, shouldn’t some of those funds be used to prevent youth from committing violent behaviors by having more resources in our schools? Why is it that adults care more about enforcing discipline policies than educating us? Why are our brains worth so little?”

While Walker and other youth cry out for answers, some adults are listening and are willing to join in the call for justice.

“The government is actually building prisons based off of third grade reading levels primarily for African American and Latino males. However, young women are not exempted from this initiative,” says Ray Winans, founder of Keeping them Alive. “If you’ve ever been upset behind a child or a relative being wrongly incarcerated, I strongly suggest that you support this initiative. We all can make a difference. Let’s pull together as a community. It’s going to take everyone getting involved. Children are the future, and I know that the children’s future is better than a cell in Jackson, Michigan, a cell in Milan, Michigan, a cell oxford Wisconsin. It takes a village, so where are our villagers?”

Village leaders are being called upon to provide funding for counseling and other programs needed to keep students in school and out of jail.

Behavioral problems that are linked to Attention Deficit Disorder, homelessness, mental illness, depression, cyber bullying, sexual abuse, and violence all contribute to suspensions. Addressing these concerns is critical to student achievement and breaking the school to prison pipeline.

As protestors approached the Wayne County Jail, they were given a visual reminder of what could become of them if the pipeline is not broken and booed in outrage. 

“We are going to take a moment of silence. Some people who are here (in jail), do not belong here,” shouted one protester interrupting the booing. “Some people who are here were supposed to be here (with us).”

For those who were fortunate to stand outside of the prison walls, they carried a strong message to those inside and other youth in the city.

“We have a chance to change something,” said Michael Reynolds, president of Cody APL’s YOUTH VOICE Chapter. “We have a chance to show people that youth can come together as one.”

For additional information on Youth Voice, visit www.tubmanorganizing.org/youthvoice.

YOUTH VOICE was on Detroit Public Television’s American Black Journal yesterday. The episode will be on again Thursday 4/18 at 5:30pm.

Detroit high school students are taking a lead in challenging the New Jim Crow and the school-to-prison pipeline, write Aaron Petkov and Marie Buck.

By Steve Thorpe
Legal News

After a rally and march last week that drew more than 450 participants, the organization Youth Voice has another event planned for today they hope will draw attention to what they call the “School to Prison Pipeline.”

The group, along with the University of Detroit Mercy Law ACLU Chapter, the ACLU of Michigan Metro Detroit Branch and the National Lawyers Guild are hoping to address what they call a lack of options for urban youth that funnels students from school directly into the criminal justice system.

The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law will host the program today from 5 -7 p.m. 

UDM Law student Macie Tuiasosopo is one of the organizers of the event and saw first hand how school policies like mandatory expulsions can put students on the wrong track.

“I grew up in Los Angeles and had experience with the Los Angeles school system and also other systems in the area,” she said. “I had four cousins I went to school with and I was the only one who ended up graduating. A couple of them ended up in prison.”

The panels at today’s event will include Professor Sarah J. Forman, Director of the Youth Justice Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law who will provide an overview of the School to Prison Pipeline; Kayla Mason, Lead Community Organizer at the Harriet Tubman Center, who will highlight, “The Need For Restorative Justice” issue; Professor Peter Hammer, Director of Damon Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State Law School, who will speak on race and education; and Rodd Monts, ACLU of Michigan Field Director, who will explain how to address the legal issues.  

Most importantly, at the event Youth Voice students will explain what the School to Prison Pipeline means to them.

Youth Voice has 10 chapters based in southwest, north, northwest, Brightmoor/Cody Rouge, and east Detroit and is developing a new chapter in Ypsilanti. During weekly meetings, the youth select issues, learn organizing strategies, conduct research and build relationships with city officials like Mayor Dave Bing. They were also instrumental in a violence reduction program called Ceasefire, which secured $1.5 million from the Department of Justice.

Tuiasosopo’s involvement with Youth Voice began at a movie screening.

“I got involved with Youth Voice as part of my involvement with other progressive organizations at the law school like the ACLU and the Center for Social and Economic Justice,” she said. “We were all at a viewing of a movie about the prison system and Youth Voice was there. They talked about the school to prison pipeline, which was one of the issues I’ve handled at the ACLU. They invited me and a colleague to see what they are and what they’re doing.” 

Tuiasosopo believes that the coming together of two organizations for the event  will make for an especially strong program.

“It’s a collaboration of two different law schools,” she said. “UDM is primarily bringing the juvenile justice component and then Wayne State is bringing the racial and education components and then the Youth Justice kids are actually the potential victims. I think the collaboration of those different groups has made it something special.”

The program will be in Room 226 of the UDM Law downtown facility today from 5 -7 p.m. and a light dinner will be provided. The event is free and the public is welcome. For more information, contact Macie Tuiasosopo at 520-204-4519 or macietui@gmail.com.