Some of the pictures are of kids playing in the neighborhood but others just show a very negative view of the area. Included in these photos are a photo of a House that had recently burned.
This type of portrayal of these Neighborhoods is not accurate - and focuses on the problems without focusing on successes.
Urban Ventures should be seeking private funding for their project - in the same way that Mary Jo Copeland is seeking private funding for her youth center in Eagan.
How does Urban Ventures numbers for reversing this trend of high dropout rates for African American males compare to other programs that try to intervene in the same way?
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There are a couple of good points here.
We have to look, and look well at some of the big ideas that parachute into our communities advertised as "help" to focus on long standing needs. We have Urban Ventures, and now the Beehive, and the Itasca Project. Well meaning? Perhaps. But the big ideas coming from powerful individuals also have the opinion that they know better than we do what is best for our neighborhoods and our communities.
And, there is the idea to take things private while the public schools and the public libraries get cut.
True, they want money thrown at the problem, but with that comes their idea of how to solve the problem. They have the answer for us. That's the Achilles' heel in all these big ideas.
We have had other big ideas, such as Success by Six. Who knew that the agenda was anti-choice?
And any number of apprentice, job creation, job training, youth empowerment, etc. etc. ideas coming from places like the Chamber of Commerce that were supposed to help kids in the neighborhoods do better.
Today, we have even less distribution of wealth than when these schemes were hatched in the 1980s. Today, wealth is concentrated among fewer individuals.
But those few think they know what is going to solve the neighborhood problems.
Don't want to be today's flavor of guinea pig? Don't want to live in a company town?
Then don't let the Colin Powell Trojan Horse into the neighborhood.
Best,
Laura Wittstock
Laura Waterman Wittstock MIGIZI Communications, Inc. 3123 East Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55406 612.721.6631 ext 219 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.migizi.org
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