Category: Uncategorized

As busy as I am planning a wedding, perfecting motherhood, mentoring, 9-5 ing it and the 100 other things I fit in my life, I’m always up for some good ole networking and community support.

Check out these events and pass them along.

Gimmie D.A.P.
Vision:“Recreating the World, One Vision at a Time” 

It’s Official Nick Henton Founder of Gimmie D.A.P. is watching his dream of inspiring a generation come true. Please support my brothers mission to mentor/guide the minds and hearts of young adults: exposing them to the idioms of society, their gifts and shaping their future.

Our young girls are being abused in ways non of us would like to believe. We can not sit back and allow these lost young men to damage our girls futures.

I’m so hurt, angry and inspired to help. Our girls need us. Don’t ignore the girls in your neighborhood any longer. Offer to do their hair and talk to them about education, decision making, inpiration.

Let them know it’s ok tell if someone has touched them or threatened to touch them. Offer a ear to listen.

Let’s Get Involved Today!

Call your local police department or township for programs in your area.

Gang Rape of 11-year-old Girl Recorded on Cell Phones

CNN

5:03 p.m. CST, March 9, 2011
ktla-gang-rape-texas-girl
CLEVELAND, TX — An alleged sexual assault of a Texas girl involving nearly 20 people was recorded on cell phones, and a video of the alleged incident was circulating among students in her school district, according to court documents obtained Tuesday.

As of Monday, 13 adults and five juveniles had been arrested as part of the investigation, authorities said. A defense attorney for one of the suspects told CNN affiliate KPRC that the number of suspects could increase.

“I don’t know the exact number of people involved,” James Evans said. “I’ve heard as many as 28 or more.”

The case has sharply divided the community, according to CNN affiliate KHOU, which reported the girl was 11 years old.

Darrel Broussard, assistant police chief for the Cleveland, Texas, Police Department, said Monday that the investigation into the incident “is continuous,” with more significant developments possible. Cleveland is about 50 miles northeast of Houston.

“There have been leads during our investigation that have alerted us to other possible persons of interest,” Broussard told CNN. “The investigation is ongoing.”

The 18 individuals charged thus far are between 14 and 27 years old, he said. Those who are adults were indicted last month on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

On Friday, the Cleveland Police Department announced that four students in the Cleveland Independent School District had been arrested on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. The juveniles appeared Monday in a Liberty County court in the town of Liberty.

Police noted that some but not all suspects are students at Cleveland High School.

Mike Little, the district attorney in Liberty County, said police would likely decide whether more people would be charged. He offered few other details, saying Monday, “We are very careful about pretrial publicity.”

The incident allegedly happened November 28 at two residences in Cleveland, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by CNN on Tuesday.

The girl told a school district police chief about the incident, who notified Cleveland police on December 3, the affidavit said. The chief then interviewed employees of the Cleveland Independent School District who had heard of the incident, according to the documents. One employee spoke with several students “who had seen the cell phone videos or heard of the incident,” according to the affidavit.

The girl told a forensic interviewer from a child advocacy center that one suspect called her “and asked if she wanted to ride around” on that day, the affidavit said. Three of the suspects picked her up and took her to one residence where a fourth suspect lived. The fourth suspect told her to take her clothes off, she said, adding that “he would have some girls ‘beat her up’ or she would not be taken back to her residence if she did not comply.” the affidavit said.

The girl said she engaged in sexual acts in the bedroom and bathroom of the residence. While in the bathroom, she said, she heard one suspect on the phone inviting other people over to have sex with her, and said when she came out of the bathroom four men she did not know were there, the affidavit said.

The aunt of the suspect arrived home, however, and “the victim and the other individuals left the residence in haste through the rear window of the house,” according to the affidavit. After leaving, the girl said she and the others went to an abandoned trailer where the sexual acts continued, the affidavit said.

“Victim stated that digital still images and digital video images of the sex acts were recorded by one or more individuals using cellular telephones,” according to the affidavit.

Broussard told CNN on Tuesday that it took authorities months to investigate the incident and obtain indictments and arrest warrants. “To put together the case, it takes time to do that,” he said.

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=living/2011/04/08/cnn.heroes.latiker.extra.cnn

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=living/2011/04/07/cnnheroes.latiker.cnn

Chicago (CNN) — In Roseland, one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, many residents stay off the streets to protect themselves from rampant gang violence.
But one grandmother opened her door and invited gang members to come inside.

“They say I’m a nut because I let kids into my home who I didn’t even know,” said Diane Latiker, 54. “But I know (the kids) now. And I’ll know the new generation.”

Since 2003, Latiker has gotten to know more than 1,500 young people through her nonprofit community program, Kids Off the Block. And she hopes that by providing them with support and a place to go, she is also bringing hope to a community in crisis.
“We are losing a generation to violence,” said Latiker, who started the program in her living room.

According to Chicago Public Schools, 140 of its students have been shot since the school year started in September.

“How can a kid get a gun like he can get a pack of gum? It’s that crazy,” Latiker said.
Latiker, a mother of eight and grandmother to 13, has lived in Roseland for 22 years. She said she was once “young and dumb,” dropping out of high school and having seven children by age 25. But she said that by 36, she had turned her life around: She got remarried and earned her GED. She had also given birth to her eighth child, Aisha.

This time, she said, she was determined to do things right.

Diane Latiker, 54, has become a mentor for local youth in her Chicago neighborhood.
But when Aisha became a teenager in 2003, Latiker worried that Aisha and her friends would fall in with a gang. After all, gang members lived next door, and there weren’t many safe things for teenagers to do.

“I started taking (Aisha and her friends) to swimming and movies and whatever,” Latiker said. “My mother saw that, and she said: ‘Diane, why don’t you do something with the kids? They like you and respect you.’ “

Latiker was hesitant at first. She wanted to focus on being a grandmother and rebuilding her relationships with her older children. But after thinking and praying about it, she decided to make use of the natural rapport she had with young people.

“I invited them into my living room,” she said. “They all started saying: ‘I want to be a doctor. I want to be a rapper. I want to be a singer.’ They didn’t want to be out here running up and down the street. They wanted to be involved in something.”

Latiker told them her house was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They could come over for food, or homework help, or just to talk about their hopes, dreams and fears. Kids Off the Block was born.

“It doesn’t matter where they come from, what they’ve done,” Latiker said. “We’ve had six gangs in my living room at one time. … But that was the safe place. And you know what? They respected that.”

As Latiker began to see positive change in many of the kids, she quit her job as a cosmetologist to focus on them full-time. She set up tutoring sessions with teachers and retired educators. She provided job interview training and opportunities to play football, basketball and soccer. Latiker and volunteers also started taking the kids on field trips to museums, movies, skating rinks, water parks and professional sports games.

In 2004, the group started traveling to other cities across the country, including Detroit and St. Louis, so they could talk to the young people living there.

The experiences “let them know there is something beyond their block,” Latiker said.
Latiker has also made many personal sacrifices along the way. She sold the family television to put extra money into the program, and she gave away her dining room set to make room for a computer station.

“We moved into the dining room, and then we moved into one of my bedrooms,” she said. “(At one point) there were 75 young people in my three rooms.”
Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2011 CNN Heroes
In 2008, just when Latiker thought her home would burst at the seams, some potential donors came to her home for a visit. Impressed, several of them pooled their money to buy a bus for the program. But a few days later, Latiker learned the building next door was for sale — for the same price as the bus.

“I prayed about it and finally called the donors and asked if the money for the bus could be spent on the building next door instead,” Latiker said.
Her prayers were answered. The building was hers, and Kids Off the Block opened the doors of its new home on July 15, 2010.

“We call it The KOB Youth Community Center, and we invite everyone — all of the youth in the community — to come,” she said.
With 301 members from Roseland, Latiker said the center has brought community outreach to “a whole new level.” Every day, 30 to 50 young people show up at the center for tutoring, counseling or activities such as sports, drama, dance or music.

“KOB” caters to people age 11 to 24, but 80% of those in the program are male, Latiker said. She emphasizes activities that target males because they are most often perpetrating or confronting the violence of the streets.
Maurice Gilchrist, 15, is one teenager who credits Kids Off the Block with turning his life around. Gilchrist joined a gang when he was 12, and he says life in a gang meant looking behind his back every day.

“We always used to jump on people, rob everything, steal,” he said.

Gilchrist discovered Kids Off the Block when he went to Latiker’s house after school with a friend, Latiker’s grandson. There, Gilchrist connected with others his age, ate pizza, did his homework, and talked with Latiker, who invited him to join the group.

Today, Gilchrist’s grades have improved and he has set his sights on playing football in college. Without Latiker and her program, “I would be locked up, (or) dead, somewhere beat up, in a hospital,” he said. “You name it, I would be there.

“Miss Diane, she changed my life. I love her for that.”
For Latiker, opening up her door was the first step toward change. And she hopes other people will follow her lead.

“If we came outside, we could change so many things,” she said. “This community — if it was once vibrant and safe — how did it get to this point? Because people started going inside.”
To help “shock the community” into action, Latiker set up a stone memorial in front of the community center for all the young people who have lost their lives to violence since 2007. There are 220 stones lining the memorial, each representing a victim, and Latiker said they are still 150 stones behind.

Through her efforts, Latiker has become a voice for local youth and she wishes more people would take the time to listen to them.

“Our young people need help,” Latiker said. “All of them are not gang-bangers. All of them are not dropouts. But the ones that are, they need our help. Somehow or another, something ain’t right here. And why don’t we ask them about it?”

Want to get involved? Check out the Kids Off the Block website at http://www.kidsofftheblock.bbnow.org and see how to help.

CNBC aired an informative segment about The New Black Overclass. African American’s  document their Rise2Power and struggles to carve a new generation of business savvy professionals.

http://www.hulu.com/embed/B9sOZDmJVYs6D1yr7kZYuw

Provided by: The Grio

Christine Armario, Associated Press (February 2, 2011)

The current U.S. education system is failing to prepare millions of young adults for successful careers by providing a one-size-fits-all approach, and it should take a cue from its European counterparts by offering greater emphasis on occupational instruction, a Harvard University study published Wednesday concludes.

The two-year study by the Pathways to Prosperity Project at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education notes that while much emphasis is placed in high school on going on to a four-year college, only 30 percent of young adults in the United States successfully complete a bachelor’s degree.

While the number of jobs that require no post-secondary education have declined, the researchers note that only one-third of the jobs created in the coming years are expected to need a bachelor’s degree or higher. Roughly the same amount will need just an associate’s degree or an occupational credential.

“What I fear is the continuing problem of too many kids dropping by the wayside and the other problem of kids going into debt, and going into college but not completing with a degree or certificate,” said Robert Schwartz, who heads the project and is academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Almost everybody can cite some kid who marched off to college because it was the only socially legitimate thing to do but had no real interest.”

The report highlights an issue that has been percolating among education circles: That school reform should include more emphasis on career-driven alternatives to a four-year education.

The study recommends a “comprehensive pathways network” that would include three elements: embracing multiple approaches to help youth make the transition to adulthood, involving the nation’s employers in things like work-based learning, and creating a new social compact with young people.

Many of the ideas aren’t new, and leaders, including President Barack Obama, have advocated for an increased role for community colleges so the country can once again lead the world in the proportion of college graduates.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered opening remarks at the report’s release in Washington on Wednesday, saying career and technical education has been “the neglected stepchild of education reform.”

“That neglect has to stop,” Duncan said.

But the idea of providing more alternatives, rather than emphasizing a four-year college education for all, hasn’t been without controversy. Critics fear students who opt early for a vocational approach might limit their options later on, or that disadvantaged students at failing schools would be pushed into technical careers and away from the highly selective colleges where their numbers are already very slim.

“Nobody who spends much time in America’s high schools could possibly argue that they are focused on college for all, or ever have been,” said Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “Most schools still resist that idea, instead continuing long-standing, unfair practices of sorting and selecting like an educational caste system — directing countless young people, especially low-income students and students of color, away from college-prep courses and from seeing themselves as ‘college material.'”

Schwartz said efforts should be intensified to get more low-income and minority students into selective institutions, while also strengthening the capacity of two-year colleges.
“You’ve got to work on both fronts at once,” Schwartz said.
The study recommends that all major occupations be clearly outlined at the start of high school. Students would see directly how their course choices prepare them careers that interest them — but still be able to change their minds. Students should also be given more opportunities for work-based learning, such as job shadowing and internships.

Students, the researchers recommend, should get career counseling and work-related opportunities early on — no later than middle school. In high school, students would have access to educational programs designed with the help of industry leaders, and they’d be able to participate in paid internships.

The report notes that many European countries already have such an approach, and that their youth tend to have a smoother transition into adulthood. And not all separate children into different paths at an early age. Finland and Denmark, for example, provide all students with a comprehensive education through grades 9 or 10. Then they are allowed to decide what type of secondary education they’d like to pursue.
Barney Bishop, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida, said he would advocate for an approach that provides more alternatives and greater inclusion of the business community.

“The problem for the business community is where you have kids who don’t have the rudimentary skills, and you have to take the time and effort to train them, get them some of the rudimentary skills, plus the special skills,” he said.

Sandy Baum, an independent higher education policy analyst, said she think there needs to be more counseling in advising students about how to make the right choices.

“I don’t think the problem is too many people going to four-year colleges,” she said. “The problem is too many people making inappropriate choices.

“What we’d like is a system where people of all backgrounds could choose to be plumbers or to be philosophers,” Baum added. “Those options are not open. But we certainly need plumbers so it’s wrong to think we should be nervous about directing people in that route.”

–Rise2Power Project
“Inspiration for the Grind”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640