PPA/OneAthens community meeting

Partners For A Prosperous Athens/OneAthens will hold an important
community meeting on *Monday, March 31, 2008, from 6:30-8pm at the
Classic Center* (lower level Grand Hall South).
For the past two years our community has worked to develop comprehensive
strategies to break the cycle of poverty in Athens, the results of this
effort will be presented at the meeting on the 31^st .
The details of the OneAthens Implementation Strategies are posted on the
website at www.prosperousathens.org

We need your support to make these recommendations a reality. We look
forward to seeing you on March 31^st .

OneAthens planning meeting

Dear friends,

I encourage you to join us on Friday, March 14 at 9 a.m. at Clarke County DFCS when our monthly Interagency Council meeting will be a OneAthens Listening Session, specifically seeking feedback from service providers about the OneAthens initiatives (you can review the status of the ten recommendations at http://www.prospero usathens. org/initiatives/ index.html) and the attached proposal.

Attached is a draft, from the UGA staff who have been involved with OneAthens, proposing a new OneAthens Community Collaborative with a board of 30 members (one appointed by each of the six co-conveners, one representing each of the ten initiatives, the rest at large) and one employee. Its proposed responsibilities would include:

1. Provide an annual joint strategic assessment of progress toward implementing the PPA recommendations.

2. Obtain sufficient resources to employ an ombudsman.

3. Oversee the prioritization and implementation of the OneAthens strategies over a five year period.

4. Oversee the development and implementation of a Community Issues Forum with responsibility for providing an open opportunity to discuss ideas, develop new approaches, and learn new leadership skills. The emphasis will be on building civic capacity.

Please note that this proposed new entity is not the OneAthens Community Foundation, which is a separate organization with its own Board (already created).

What do you think of this proposal?

What do you think of the status of the initiatives?

What's good?

What's bad?

What should be included that isn't?

What shouldn't be included that is?

What should be done differently?

Please join us Friday morning, March 14, 9 a.m., Clarke County DFCS (park in the rear parking lot off Bray Street and enter through the meeting room door) to share your thoughts and to learn the thoughts of others.

And please be frank and constructive in your participation. This is a great opportunity and is too important to give less than our best.

Thanks!

- Tim Johnson, executive director, Family Connection/Communities In Schools of Athens

OneAthens meeting in ABH

OneAthens met with skepticism as plan revealed

Residents say they hope anti-poverty initiative isn't all talk

By Blake Aued | blake.aued@onlineat hens.com | Story updated at 12:06 AM on Sunday, March 2, 2008

Val Freeman's seen it before: a big group of people who see a problem, in this case poverty, and talk it to death.

Freeman, like many other black Athens residents who attended a OneAthens community meeting on poverty Saturday, likes some of the group's ideas, but is skeptical of its ability to follow through.

"It could work, but I don't think it really will work," the East Athens resident said of OneAthens' plan to reduce the city's 31 percent poverty rate, one of the highest in the nation.

"I've noticed in Athens, people meet, meet, meet, and talk, talk, talk," but nothing ever seems to get done, she said.

Freeman's cynicism is exactly what OneAthens Chairman Steve Jones and Vice Chairman Red Petrovs are trying to avoid. Over and over, they've emphasized that they and hundreds of other volunteers didn't sign on to write a plan that gathers dust on a shelf, but they faced plenty of skepticism from a crowd of about 100 at First AME Church.

"It looks very good on paper," East Athens resident Dee Lewis said. "I just want to make sure that it's not just words, that there is something to it."

Jones responded by asking for the audience's help.

"You back me up and I'll get it done," he said to applause. "Can y'all help me? Will y'all help me?"

Although some people still have doubts about OneAthens' ability to succeed, the group is getting more support from black residents than it did when it formed in 2006, Jones said.

"I'm sensing this can work," he said. "They're not completely on board yet, but it's better than it was two years ago."

OneAthens held the meeting to gather input on its 60-page implementation plan that addresses issues like education, housing, health care, teen pregnancy and economic development. They also touted some of their accomplishments to date, including a new Clarke County School District sex education policy, forming a community foundation to raise money to fight poverty and convincing the University of Georgia to lift a ban on hiring felons.

Participants broke out into groups, facilitated by UGA government students, to talk about what they consider to be the biggest barriers to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Lurleen Tomlinson said she likes the group's $3 million plan to provide affordable health care to the uninsured and advocated vocational training as a way to keep students in school and give them skills to find work.

"Everybody is not academically inclined," she said. "We need masons. We need bricklayers. "

Involving families and churches in schools and inexpensive health care are important, Robert Harrison said.

"We can offer the best care," he said. "The question is can people afford it, not whether it's available."

Freeman's top issues are gentrification - new development is driving up property taxes in poor neighborhoods - and a lack of good jobs, she said.

"I tell all the young people, if you want to accomplish something, you need to leave Athens," she said. "There's not a lot of opportunities here for black people. I'm just calling it like it is."

One Athens will give another presentation on its plans at a Federation of Neighborhoods meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Presbyterian Student Center, and will hold a community-wide strategy session March 31 at the Classic Center.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 030208

You can compare the story to this article.

health and a movie - march 20th

OneAthens Health Team Invites You:

On Thursday, March 20, the OneAthens Health Team and UGA's Grady College are presenting a discussion of healthcare access in Athens and a sneak preview of Unnatural Causes- a PBS documentary exploring America's racial and socioeconomic inequities in healthcare.

There will be two panel discussions/showings on March 20th at Cine- located downtown at 234 West Hancock Street. The first show is at 5 pm and is FREE for students and high school teachers (with i.d.). A youth panel featuring high school activists and teen health experts will follow the screening.

The second show will start at 7pm. The screening will be followed by a reception and conversation with community leaders and public health experts. A portion of the $25 admission will be donated to the OneAthens Community Foundation.


***** Details of the OneAthens Health Team's recommendations are posted at www.prosperousathens.org We look forward to hearing your feedback and thank you for your continued support. For more information, please email Delene Porter dporter@fanning.uga.edu *****

upcoming monthly meeting

The next monthly meeting of the Economic Justice Coalition is on March
27 at 7:00pm, unless you hear otherwise. Please plan on that time and date.

What should we have on the agenda?

- ray