The New Super Advocates Coalition!

by Bryan Troupe

On Saturday, September 3^rd, 2011, a groundbreaking event occurred. The group, Super Advocates Coalition, was officially formed during a meeting discussing how to empower students to advocate on behalf of civil rights issues, such as healthcare, economic empowerment, and education. The meeting was held at University of Miami (UM) and those attending were Catalyst Miami founder and CEO Daniella Levine, Amber Walker, Charlyn Stanberry, Imri  Yekutiel, and myself, Bryan Troupe. 

The purpose of Super Advocates will be to empower UM and FIU students to serve as advocates for their community. This coalition is primarily targeted to undergraduates and graduates, however is open to anybody that is interested in advocating for their community. Some of the organizations that will be targeted are organizations within Florida International University and UM as well as community organizations throughout Miami-Dade County. 

This type of advocacy is important and needed for communities of Miami-Dade. Citizens should be educated and informed about issues that will have an impact on them and their communities that they live in. One of the goals of this coalition is to ensure that communities and citizens have a voice that is heard by those who have power to make decisions affecting their future. 

Super Advocates Coalition will be meeting every three weeks; the next meeting will be held Saturday, September 17^th, on UM campus.

Volunteer Rates in Miami the Lowest in Country

by Bryan Troupe

When it comes to citizens who volunteer, Miami ranks dead last. This is an extraordinary and sobering statistic. How could this happen? Aren’t citizens of Miami interested in giving their time for a fellow human being?

According to www.volunteeringinamerica.gov, 15.2% of Miami residents volunteer, which ranks 51^st out of 51 large cities. Out of that miniscule amount of citizens that do volunteer, the average amount of time that citizens volunteer is only 17.8 hours – which ranks 50^th out of 51 large cities.

The Miami New Times writes that Miami's older citizens are a big reason behind such paltry numbers. Miami New Times goes on to say that 9.9% of older Miami citizens volunteered in 2010, compared to a national average of 23.7%. Once again, this is another category where Miami ranks dead last.

Here are some of the factors that influence volunteer rates in the city of Miami:

·         Attachment to the community (ex. Homeownership)

·         Poor transportation conditions (long commutes discourage volunteers)

·         Education (lack of education can mean low volunteer rates)

·         Unemployment (the higher the unemployment rate, the lower the volunteer rate)

·         Foreclosures (the higher the foreclosure rate, the lower the volunteer rate)

Here is more food for thought: The study, A Tale of Two Cities: Civic Engagement in Miami and Minneapolis, reports that there are distinct contrasts between Minneapolis –St. Paul, (where civic engagement is ranked the highest in the nation), and Miami, (where civic engagement is lowest in the nation.)

For example, 42% of St. Paul citizens trust their local government, while only 24% of Miamians trust their local government. Another interesting fact is that the infrastructures of nonprofit facilities in St. Paul are much more extensive and better resourced than those in Miami.

Catalyst Miami is combating the low volunteer rates of Miami-Dade County head-on. One of the programs that Catalyst Miami has created is ReServe Miami. ReServe Miami matches continuing professionals age 55+, (ReServists), with organizations that need their expertise. These ReServists come from all walks of life, and include marketing managers, social workers, artists, administrative assistants, HR professionals, and financial analysts, as well as people who have worked at all levels in health care, banking, advertising, education and government.

The low volunteer rate of Miami is not news that Catalyst Miami will take while lying down.

Interns For Impact: BRYAN TROUPE

Since the time that I could remember, my mother instilled upon my brother, sister, and I the habit of being selfless and having an extremely strong work ethic. We grew up poor, and were raised on WIC and welfare until my early teen years. My mother, a single parent, managed to put herself through a trade school, and therefore earn enough money so that she could take care of her children without needing government assistance. Although we were still pretty poor, as kids we never really knew that we were poor. We never went without food, clothing, shelter, or love. 

My brother and I are both pursuing Bachelor’s degrees. My sister, the first in my family to graduate college, currently has a job working for the government.  

I am currently attending college at Florida International University (FIU), majoring in Public Administration. I hope to graduate in the summer of 2012, after which I will pursue my Master’s degree. I personally believe that there are many conditions in poverty communities that can be fixed, and my mission is to solve these issues in order to give everyone a fair chance at living a decent life. 

I begin my internship at Catalyst Miami because I believe the programs that the organization offers to the community are exactly what I think are needed for disadvantaged communities to better themselves. I was brought in to start my internship by our Communications Director, Cheryl Mizell, with the approval of our CEO, Daniella Levine. There is a great deal of experience and knowledge that I can gain from all that are involved with Catalyst Miami and I have enjoyed working with every single person in every single department of this organization. The amazing thing to me has been that working here feels less like a job and more like a family. 

There has never been a day that I have dreaded walking into the offices of Catalyst Miami, because I know that every day, whether directly or indirectly, I have an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.

Democracy Summer 6th Session

written by Bryan Troupe

Democracy Summer Session 6, hosted by Catalyst Miami, was very edifying and enlightening. There was a panel discussion which was facilitated by Catalyst Miami CEO, Daniella Levine.  The panel members were: Mario Artecona, CEO of Habitat for Humanity; Paul Hunt, Board Member of the March of Dimes Foundation; and Julia Dawson, Board Member of the Civil Liberties Union.

One of the questions posed by Daniella Levine to Mario Artecona was, “What would you recommend to nonprofit leaders in order to engage their board and advocacy directly; or to get their support for their staff to do advocacy?”

Mario’s response was that staff does not participate in board meetings enough, and should participate more. Staff members need to tell board members what it is that they need. Board members also need to know up front exactly what is expected of them and be provided a clear mission.

Paul Hunt was asked by Daniella, “What is the biggest challenge in promoting advocacy in your staff?”

Paul’s answer was one of the challenges “is having a clear agenda and one that is staff-oriented.”  Mr. Hunt also stated that staff needs to build a relationship with policymakers, which helps the staff to better advocate their position.

Daniella introduced Julia Dawson as “an icon of women’s rights.”  One of the points that Julia made during the panel discussion was that it is important for board members to know that they should help constituents, and important to find board members that are actually interested in the organization.

Wendy Wilson, Project Attorney for Dade Legal Aid, said this: “I really liked the panel discussion on board development because it emphasized the necessity for having specific goals for board members…”

The goal of Democracy Summer is to build strong social justice analysis, skills and strategy into the nonprofit sector of Miami-Dade County.

There are two more fantastic sessions to go! Session 7 of Democracy Summer will be held next Thursday, August 18.

Democracy Summer Session 5

by Bryan Troupe

Democracy Summer Session 5 hosted by Catalyst Miami started with a hilarious and illuminative “public stoning” exercise between all of the members. The exercise was headed by Lori Deus, Community Engagement Coordinator for Catalyst Miami, and Gretchen Beesing, VP of Communications for Catalyst Miami.

The members of Democracy Summer were split into three groups for the first presentation, “It’s Raining Rocks.” The first group was labeled the extremely rich, the second group was the Servicers, and the third group was the Villagers. The group labeled the extremely rich had the “idea” to build a casino, but wanted to build on the same land that the Villagers lived on. The concept of the exercise was to create dialogue or find a way for all three parties to be satisfied. The end result was a chaotic scene of groups not being able to correlate with each other, much less with the other groups. The extremely rich threw balls of paper, “rocks”, at the Villagers to chase them away, which was the hilarious part of the exercise. 

 

LaRhonda Odom, Policy Director of Catalyst Miami, gave the second presentation which entailed members of the Democracy Summer event to consider ways of campaign planning. Members proposed ways of how they would go about organizing and reacting to the current issue of CBO funding being cut by local officials in Miami Dade County. This was a great exercise as it brought together knowledgeable individuals with experience to discuss viable ways to protest or build dialogue with local officials. This definitely showed the importance of communication and cohesion between nonprofit organizations. 

Susan Rubio Rivera, founder of the organization M.U.J.E.R., expresses her feelings about the Democracy Summer session:

The goal of Democracy Summer is to build strong social justice analysis, skills and strategy into the nonprofit sector of Miami-Dade County.

POLITICS VS. THE POOR

by Bryan Troupe

Over $50 million which was promised to the state of Florida by the federal government has been rejected. Who would reject $50 million in the midst of such turbulent economic times? The state of Florida would – specifically Florida’s governor and legislators.

The $50 million was part of the Affordable Care Act: the healthcare reform bill that the Obama administration passed into law in 2010. The money granted to Florida would have gone to programs such as:

• $40 million for construction of community-health centers

• $8 million for programs to promote wellness including help with chronic diseases such as diabetes

• $3.4 million for in-home visitations for at-risk families

• $2.1 million for consumer assistance office to educate Floridians about health insurance

• $2 million for hospice care for children

• $2 million for helping low-income seniors pay for Medicare premiums and prescription drugs

• $1 million to help the state plan a health-care-exchange system that would let consumers compare insurance plans.

• $1 million to help the state insurance agency monitor rising health-insurance rates.

Why is Florida rejecting these federal dollars?

Because these federal dollars are associated with the Obama Administration’s health reform package, (Affordable Care Act), Florida GOP legislators and even Florida Governor Rick Scott refuse to accept the money. 

According to the State Committee Child Abuse Death Review Committee, Florida taxpayers pay about $64,377 a year to care for an abused or neglected child. On the other hand, Healthy Families Florida (nonprofit organization), prevents the costs of child abuse and neglect for $1,671 a year per child, saving taxpayers millions of dollars. Here are some additional quick stats:

• In 2010, Florida was ranked 49th out of 50 states when it came to geographic health disparity.

• Florida ranked 48th in nation of uninsured: 21.2% of Floridians are uninsured (over 4 million Floridians – 24 states have fewer people than Florida has uninsured).

• Florida is ranked 48th when it comes to individuals with infectious diseases.

• The average premium of Florida families have increased by 88%Does Florida really need Health Reform?

To give much needed service and assistance to disadvantaged Florida citizens, nonprofit and social service organizations are in desperate need of adequate funding.

To stay informed and learn what you can do to help, sign up for CHAIN Reaction www.floridachain.org

Democracy Summer 4th Session

 by Bryan Troupe

So, just how good was session 4 of Democracy Summer?

Participants have consistently given each session high marks, and Susan Rubio Rivera, Executive Director of M.U.J.E.R., summed up Thursday’s experience saying that the 4^th session was the best one to date!

Session 4 of Democracy Summer, hosted by Catalyst Miami, was full of activities in which everyone present interacted with one another.   

Gretchen Beesing, VP of Communications at Catalyst Miami, led an interesting presentation which involved the audience discussing the meaning of three words: activism, advocacy, and service. Attendees were asked to write one word that came to mind when thinking of each word. (For example, for the word “advocacy” one person wrote the word “hippie” next to it.)  One of the positive outcomes of this exercise was its ability to show the many different ways that different individuals can perceive the same three words: activism, advocacy, and service.

This session was really special for me because I was given the opportunity as an intern to facilitate a fantastic panel discussion that took place. The four panelists were:

·         Linda Carmona-Sanchez of Alliance for Early Care and Education

·         Ana Obregon of M.U.J.E.R.

·         Juan Rodriguez of Florida Immigrant Coalition

·         Anjali Sardeshmukh of Mobile Midwives

Linda Carmona-Sanchez spoke first, referring to a trip that her organization took to the State Capitol in Tallahassee. She said that this was many of the organizers first time ever being to the State Capitol. “They were able to see that their Congress people were actually human; they talk, breathe, and sleep just like us.”

Ana Obregon was the second speaker. She spoke about her experiences with the organization M.U.J.E.R. and what the organization was able to do for individuals in the community. One of the great points she made was that M.U.J.E.R. “empowers women to bring co-partners to be part of change.”

Juan Rodriguez presented next, and showed a touching video that left hardly a dry eye in the room. Juan spoke of his experiences of family members being deported and the long road to his gaining citizenship. The video that Juan presented put actual faces on the issue of immigration.

Anjali Sardeshmukh gave an eye-opening presentation about birth justice. Her organization, Mobile Midwives, was able to prevent Jackson Hospital South from being shut down. One of the interesting facts that Anjali gave was that Black babies are twice as likely to die in infancy than white babies, which is why her organization believes so strongly in providing midwives to these disadvantaged neighborhoods.

After such a strong Democracy Summer Session 4, Session 5 promises to be even more outstanding!

Democracy Summer is a program whose goal is to build strong social justice analysis, skills and strategy into the nonprofit sector of Miami-Dade County. We will do this by strengthening the role of nonprofit service organizations as sites of movement building, organizing and mobilization for progressive social change.

Here are some of the websites of attending organizations:

M.U.J.E.R. = www.mujerfla.org

Alliance for Early Care and Education = http://www.myaece.org

Florida Immigrant Coalition = http://floridaimmigrant.org

Mobile Midwives = http://www.mobilemidwife.org

                                 http://birthjustice.blogspot.com

Democracy Summer 3rd Session

by Bryan Troupe

As promised, the 3rd session of Catalyst Miami’s Democracy Summer session delivered a wealth of ideas to all in attendance. Participants were broken into smaller groups of three, which enabled each individual’s separate ideas to be molded into one voice before being presented to the entire group.

Gretchen Beesing conducted the first section, Concepts for Social Change. She presented five methods of social change: direct service, self-help, education, advocacy and direct action organizing.

The second presenter, Caitlin Maclaren, did a fantastic job explaining the Pennywise Campaign. An interesting point that Caitlin made was that local officials should not make cuts that could be damaging in the long term for the community.

Here are sample quotes from those who attended:

“I always leave with concrete ideas of things that I can implement right away.” Kamalah Fletcher, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida

“It was really energizing to be able to talk about issues going on in communities. I look forward to the day for everyone to truly come together and move a movement forward.” Sharayna Douglas, who works with at-risk youth

SURVIVING IN A DOWN ECONOMY… the recap

 By Bryan Troupe, Catalyst Miami Communications Intern

Today's Tip of the Iceberg roundtable discussion, hosted by Catalyst Miami and co-sponsored by Allegany Franciscan Ministries, was informative and thought-provoking. Discussions in the meeting ranged from cuts of federal funding to nonprofit organizations collaborating with one another. 

Daniella Levine, CEO and President of Catalyst Miami opened the Tip of the Iceberg roundtable discussion. During her opening she introduced a new program entitled “Nonprofit Leadership and Training Institute.” This program fits squarely in Catalyst's mission, to build individual leadership and strong organizations that work together to improve health, education and economic opportunity in all communities.The program will be launched in September 2011. 

Daniella also discussed how the attending organizations need to work together and form a platform for collaboration. 

Miguel Milanes of Allegany Franciscan Ministries gave a great quote by JFK: “When the word crisis is written in Chinese, it uses two characters. One character represents „danger‟ and the other represents opportunity.‟ He added, “This is an opportunity today to do something about this issue.”

Here is what some of the other individuals who attended said about the discussion:

“We need to continue meeting like this to bring forward nonprofit organizations--we need to collaborate more.” - Darryll Gaschler of Americorps Alums Chapter

“We need to be our own best advocate. “ - Harry Horgan, CEO of Shake-A-Leg Miami

“Participants had to think about what “real” collaboration is and how we can improve.” - Mario Coryell of NewOrg 

The second speaker, Patricia Robbins, is the Founder and Chairperson of Farm Share, Inc. Robbins is the only CBO who had increased funding in the last county budget because of the increased need and tremendous efficiency that her organization provides. However, she was just given a devastating budget cut from the state. She discussed how her foundation has given fruits and vegetables to those in need in cities around the state of Florida, including Miami Dade. Robbins also expressed, “We need to collaborate more to get a share of federal dollars. Our community is hard hit.”Robbins is referring to the state funding for FarmShare and its statewide network of nonprofit distribution affiliates. On May 26, Governor Rick Scott eliminated all state funding for Farm Share, $750,000, half the organization's budget.

“This will have tremendous negative effect on Miami Dade – up to a 50% cut,” Robbins says. The Tip of the Iceberg roundtable discussion gave great ideas for organizations to collaborate with each other in order to make an even bigger impact on specific issues. Attendees will be sure to speak of the discussions with their organizations in the upcoming days.

Empowering Families through Financial Literacy

By: Bryan Troupe, Catalyst Miami Communications Intern 

Maisah Williams is a Certified Financial Counselor with Catalyst Miami's Prosperity Campaign. The campaign's aim is to assist families and individuals in long term stability. "We don't provide just a quick cover up," Maisah says, "We are solution oriented. We help people get to a level in life where they are self-sufficient, meaning they are able to not only locate resources, but to maintain those resources as well." ...A young high school graduate of inner-city Miami has been accepted into Miami-Dade College - but her family cannot afford it.

“Tonya” and her family lack the financial knowledge and resources needed to assist in financial aid or grant opportunities.  Through a friend of a friend, Tonya finds out about the Prosperity Campaign, which can assist her with financial aid and other financial resources for college. Tonya meets with Maisah, who is able to assist Tonya with completing her financial aid report and give her additional financial education. The story does not end there.

Tonya then speaks about her mother with Maisah. Tonya’s mother is currently unemployed, and combinations of a weak economy and having to use unemployment compensation to support a family have her mother depressed. With only a high school diploma, finding a job in Miami Dade County is almost impossible. The mother, “Vivian”, comes into the office the next day to speak with Maisah, who is able to enroll the mother into Miami Dade College and help her set up financial aid.

“One of the great ways we are able to benefit and educate the community is through word of mouth.” Maisah says.

The Prosperity Campaign does not only focus on financial education. Some of the other components of other organization include: helping individuals with their Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps), free tax preparation, financial budgeting, and savings planning.

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The Second Session of Democracy Summer

By Bryan Troupe, Catalyst Miami Communications Intern

The second session of Democracy Summer was a success! Participants discussed a variety of different topics ranging from a neo-liberalism (headed by Jake Coker-Dukowitz) to the dos and don'ts of lobbying (presented by our CEO Daniella Levine). Democracy Summer’s goal is for nonprofit organizers to be able to advocate more efficiently after completing the 8-week program.

There were several group activities that kept the members of the group interested in the opportunity to learn a lot more about each other. One of the activities, aptly named "Six Degrees of Separation", consisted of each individual making a list of things that they liked, and then finding others in the group that liked at least five of those same things.

LaRhonda Odom headed another great activity. This one aimed to show how the wealthiest 10% compared to the bottom 90% of income owners. Ten participants were seated in a line of ten chairs, when suddenly six of those seated were made to stand as their chairs were given to one person - who represented the top 10% of the wealthiest members of society. An observation that many of the group made was that those removed from their seats appeared to have a difficult time organizing themselves in order to get those chairs back that were owned by one person. This seemed to identify with the top 10% of today's most wealthy individuals being given preference in the tax system, while the rest of society are not able to properly organize themselves in order to create a level playing field.

This informative group session ended Week 2 on an incredible and positive note. The following session is titled "Organizing Concepts." Week 3 here we come!

Democracy Summer is a program of Catalyst Miami being offered by our Civic Life Academy through the sponsorship of the Allegany Franciscan Ministries.