April 15, 2011
CAJE issues: Youth homelessness, ex-offenders, public transit
Rev. Larry Rasco of Nazarene Baptist Church in Evansville poses a question to mayoral candidate Rick Davis. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
The answer was “Yes” — with added emphasis.
The question was posed to Vince Bertram, superintendent of the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, at the annual Nehemiah Assembly of Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment.
An estimated 500 EVSC students have no home to go to after school, and CAJE — an org-anization consisting of some 20 congregations of various faith traditions — wanted EVSC to take direct action to help.
The question had several parts: “Will the EVSC investigate the need for additional social workers in the school system, explore possible funding sources, come up with a plan to meet this need by the fall of 2016, and report that plan to CAJE at its spring 2012 Nehemiah Action Assem-bly?”
The answer was “Yes” from Bertram, who quickly added a qualification — that 2016 was too late. A plan is needed sooner, he said.
The assembly applauded the “Yes” answer from Bertram. And then they heard from him that he had personal experience of growing up poor, wondering about his next meal.
Bertram said “Yes” to all of the questions related to youth homelessness, one of three is-sues being tackled by CAJE.
The “Nehemiah Assembly” was held at Crossroads Christ-ian Church. Among the 1,300-plus in attendance were Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Luth-erans, Unitarians, members of non-denominational Christian churches, Muslims and Jews.
Catholic parishes represented included the Evansville churches of St. Anthony, St. Mary, St. John the Apostle, Nativity and Holy Redeemer, and St. Bene-dict Cathedral; St. Wendel Church in St. Wendel had a large delegation, as did St. John the Bap-tist Church in Newburgh.
The first question to Bertram — and his first response of “yes” set the tone for much — but not all — of the evening,
Questions included the following:
“Will the EVSC train all school personnel before the start of school in August 2011 on identifying and responding to homeless children and youth with appropriate referrals?”
The answer was “Yes.”
“Will the EVSC provide classes in essential life-skills that would prepare young adults for independence, particularly for those who are homeless and those aging out of foster care?”
Bertram’s answer was “Yes” to all five questions.
Earlier in the evening, a 17-year-old resident of Evansville, Jenny Roy, told the assembly that at one time she had lived for about a month in a car with her father. She begged the assembly to make sure no one else had to live the way she did — unnoticed by the general public, falling through the cracks.
The two other issues were the problems faced by ex-offenders who are trying to return to society after serving their prison terms, and the lack of public transportation north of Evansville along U.S. Highway 41.
The “Nehemiah” name of the assembly comes from the ac-count in the Old Testament, re-garding what happened to the people who returned to Jerusa-lem after the Babylonian captiv-ity. Some of the people were exploited by their own kinsmen — charged high interest rates, even sold into slavery to pay debts.
Nehemiah called “a great assembly” and challenged those in power to act in justice to end the exploitation. CAJE uses the name to invoke a similar function.
Returning from prison
Ex-offenders are often stymied as they return to society and try to find jobs. In response to a question from CAJE, Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel — who did not attend the assembly — sent word that he agreed to “ban the box” — removing a question from city job applications, “Have you been convicted of a felony in the past seven years.”
The removal of the question does not take away the city’s need for a background check. The background check will be used after an applicant’s qualifications are considered. Appli-cants with a felony conviction may be considered for a job where they will not be in contact with a vulnerable population or responsible for money. (Police and fire department applicants would continue to be asked about felony convictions.)
Three candidates for mayor of Evansville also agreed — but not completely — with “banning the box.” Lloyd Winnecke, a Republican, along with Troy Tornatta and Rick Davis, Demo-crats, responded with a mixture of “yes” and “no” to a series of questions about job applications and felony convictions.
While all agreed to “ban the box” from city applications un-der certain circumstances, the candidates had some reservations about related questions. The three did not agree, for example, to promise to draft an ordinance requiring vendors who do business with the city to have the same sensibility.
Improving public transportation
Among speakers encouraging transportation improvement was Elliott Kavanaugh, a parishioner of St. Mary Church in Evansville and co-chair of the CAJE Trans-portation Committee.
He noted that “Today, we have a reason to celebrate. Warrick County has taken visionary steps in public transportation.” He explained that Warrick County last year had created a bus route to connect Evansville and Newburgh. “Then, they extended it to Chandler. And, today, the Warrick County Transit System has expanded service to Boonville. It’s a great achievement.”
He challenged Vanderburgh County “to follow in the footsteps of our neighbors” and take the “opportunity to invest in our people.”
He concluded with a request to act with urgency.
“Waiting patiently at a bus stop for a bus that isn’t coming is not an option for workers who need access to work, access to school, and access to essential services now.”
Since 2009, improving public transportation north of Evansville along U.S. Highway 41 has been a CAJE priority.
Some employers located on the North Highway 41 section of Vanderburgh County, who were surveyed in 2009, said they could employ more people if transportation was available to workers. Those who were surveyed include Buehler’s Buy Low, Ameriqual, Berry Plastics Warehouse, Evansville Regional Airport, Shoe Carnival Distribution Center and ARC Industries — who they all said would benefit from bus transportation.
CAJE has also pointed out that students attending after-school programs at the new North High School and Middle School, and also school employees, now have no public transportation to the facilities which are nearing completion on North Highway 41.
At the CAJE assembly, all three Vanderburgh County commissioners — Lloyd Winnecke, Stephen Melcher and Marsha Abell — said “Yes” to making the necessary appropriation re-quest.
While not agreeing to a specific amount of money for public transportation improvement, the four County Council members who were present said “Yes” to work toward improvements at a reasonable cost.
The four County Council members present were Council President Joe Kiefer, Stephanie Terry, Ed Bassemier and Mike Goebel. (Three did not attend: James Raben, Tom Shetler Jr. and Russ Lloyd Jr.)