Last week I found myself with a last-minute invitation to become a fly on the wall of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Since the last conference in June 2011, an widespread movement called Occupy Wall Street has arisen to protest the fact that 99% of the country does not have meaningful access to their government. As a member of the 99%, and without hesitation, I used the last of my credit and favors from friends to arrange for my child's care and my own accommodations in DC, and I hopped on a flight to the Capitol 12 hours later.
The U.S. Mayors Conference is where the 99% can find the leaders with the most realistic solutions to our nation's problems; those who are charged with carrying out the federal, state and local policies that most directly affect our families. Standing alone they are just bricks, but twice each year they come together to make a very powerful wall.
Comparatively speaking, most mayors are in fact accessible on the local level, however, the tragedy of our media industry is that the politicians and programs that are effective rarely receive adequate coverage.
Attendance at this particular conference was up, undoubtedly because at the helm of the organization now sits President Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, California. Villaraigosa's commitment to drawing in more leaders and using innovative solutions to the problems faced by municipal leaders was clearly reflected by the conference itinerary as well as an impressive list of speakers from President Obama's Cabinet, Congress, and the media -- even the comedian Jimmy Tingle's performance at the gala.
On Tuesday, we heard from various mayors about their juvenile delinquency and youth and families programs, and we also heard from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about the new summer youth employment initiatives. The Department of Labor has announced that it will be investing hundreds of millions of our tax payer's money to fund jobs for youths between the ages of 16-24 this summer. If done well, this could be very good for our country's youth, who might otherwise spend the summer relaxing.
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, perhaps the most impressive woman in politics I have ever met, hit the nail on the head when she stated, "Make sure that the people you are hiring for the summer youth programs are qualified, enthusiastic, safe, and actually want to work with children."
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson quickly became my hero when he presented his excellent work on education and keeping children actively engaged in school. Rather than focus on the things wrong with the system, he chose to recognize the diverse leadership strategies of the mayors by highlighting the many excellent early childhood education programs in different cities that effectively reduced delinquency and increased proficiency of students and teachers. It costs $230 per day to keep a child in juvenile detention center. The biggest indicator of a child's success in life is their level of engagement in their education, and Mayor Johnson's work was a solid answer to the concerns of parents and educators faced with flagging budgets.
Several mayors raised legitimate concerns that the Department of Justice is going to allow the banks to cut a deal that leaves municipalities holding the bill while the 1% and banks receive immunity and bail outs. If you watch the tapes of conference presentations on C-SPAN, you can feel the tension in the air as the mayors confronted speakers from the new consumer protection board. The general consensus was that "the foreclosure rate in my town has become unmanageable as banks become overly aggressive to collect on mortgage payments from struggling families who are unemployed. What can we do to help them stay afloat?"
The answer to the mayor's concerns about the banking, housing, and jobs crisis from the Obama administration is, of course, "never again" and the Department of Labor's Summer Youth Corps grants. But is the goal of the DOL programs really to revamp the economy and train youths, and if so, what are we really training them to do? What will their unemployed parents be doing while the children work?
As a parent, I have serious concerns about the summer youth programs. The DOL programs will be run in tandem with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, whose track record with youths could use improvement. Despite the fact that the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect found that children are six times more likely to die in the State's care than those with their parents, it is still assumed by some politicians that if you are poor, then you must need the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services programs to tell you what's best for your own family.
In the back of every parent's mind is undoubtedly the "Kids for Cash" scandal, and more recently the Penn State scandal which brought to light the deficiencies in our mandatory reporting laws. Has HHS addressed these concerns to ensure our young people are going to be safe this summer?
For the following reasons, rather that invest more grant money into "old reliable," I think that the mayors in the country should pressure the Obama administration to invest a little more hustle into selecting mentors for the summer jobs program. In addition, I recommend the following to promote government integrity and protect American families:
New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman spoke at the lunch on Wednesday. He said in order to survive in the 21st century, America needs to become the place where inventions are imagined, not just made; that being busy is not enough to sustain our position as world leaders, that somewhere along the line we lost our innate sense of "hustle" to wheel and deal.
Mr. Friedman may be right about the global economy, but it is my opinion that Americans are now required to purchase the right to express any innovations they may have at a financial cost they cannot afford. This includes innovative mayors whose campaign war chest donations are filled by the people, not corporations. I think there should be a law that for every dollar a corporation or political action committee donates to a candidate, they must donate three dollars to the public schools in the state in which they are registered. That way the poor kids experiencing "lack of free speech" will have a better chance of purchasing their First Amendment rights as they get older.
On the whole, I found the convention inspiring. On an average day, I am in my home office using government reports and databases to discover whether grants coming from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services actually reach the children they are intended to benefit in an efficient and effective manner. Quite often I do find fraud, corruption, and grant steering, even child trafficking, but my ultimate goal is to use the ideas from the convention to figure out a way to change the laws to improve these programs to protect the children affected and increase their opportunities in life. It was an honor to be there.
"Promoting Fatherhood" (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/factsheet/giving-a-hand-up-to-low-income-families) exploits Dads; makes states pay to audit program fraud (http://www.auditor.mo.gov/press/2004-90.htm), even creates orphans "in the best interests of the child," but family law's not even on the radar of the DOJ's recent 13-person "Children Exposed to Violence" Taskforce --- Coincidence?
Special-interest groups close to Congress dreamed this up, brought in their cronies, and forced everyone to adjust, however invasive, expensive, degrading, or ridiculous: http://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/another-reason-besides-its-innate-irrationality-to-shelve-the-national-healthy-marriage-movement-its-running-out-of-acronyms/.
Next year, Mayors, please no podium, no sponsorship, no privileges -- for Annie E. Casey, Scotts Miracle-Gro, or any other collaborators with Bush-era policies.
END the bastardized 1996ff welfare-as-we-NOW-know-it, dismantle the corrupt OCSE (there just to test theories and steer grants anyhow) (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pol/AT/1999/at-9907.htm), and FIRE any experts, including AFCC judges, with more bright ideas like calling crime "parental conflict," "fathering courts," etc.
KNOWing this, AFCC and friends throw their collective weight into transforming juvenile & family law fields into an outcome based, not rights-based, or facts-of-the-case based process--which obviously "highly conflicts" with what the public still expects and wants in their courtrooms, which THEY pay for.
Other policy test areas include prisons, child support system, incarcerated youth, foster care, head start, etc. We've become a nation of designer institutions; of policy makers & their professional hacks vs. the traumatized demonstrated upon (who are not told).
Fatherhood, marriage/abstinence promotion in an HHS funded grants system attract the extreme religious element and dishonest elements. The "MIA" funds & poor oversight are well-known; even the GAO knows that suspended corporate status doesn't mean no more grants. Groups just skip the state, regroup, rename & reapply. Nonprofit trade associations form just to help members (often themselves existing HHS grantees) confer(tax-writeoff) & get more. And the middle-class working public naturally wonders why aren't these social services ever fixing the problems? What's wrong?! with those poor, those divorcing parents, the schools; why the familicides, why are we broke?
The dirty secret is that ongoing poverty & abuse really are desirable and for too many, great career path.
*AFCC (origin L.A.) is an international lobbying trade group of judges, attorneys and mental health professionals which almost single-handedly invented (and still drives) the family law system nationwide.
CRC (David Levy, origin closer to D.C.) works with thru/child support system & runs "access" centers. Personnel circulate among related spinoff groups, like dispute resolution, collaborative law, etc. CRC is a group that will lobby to haul a mother with children fleeing abuse internationally back to the US & jail her, but doesn't do this consistently when fathers abduct.
Meanwhile, so-called protective groups actually profit (professionally) from keeping mothers clueless; they LOVE to expose the custody disasters, confer & march -- but systematically misrepresent the operating system that creates them, omitting the federal financial incentives. Historically they just won't tell, leaving it to independent bloggers with depleted resources, ongoing divorce cases, missing children to force their hand.
I sought REAL intervention for my family after leaving a violent marriage & then having a custody challenge -- but found only technical assistance, media campaigns, and train the trainer groups. Finally, I noticed an obscure, low-profile website (NAFCJ.net) again, & it proved true, that . . . . .
Does anyone know the percentage that goes to the "Middle-Man-Services", before it goes finally goes directly to support Youth and Families?
Can anyone ID the practical meaning of the "Middle-Man-Services"?
Do I understand it correctly that there are some UNIQUE agencies that hide under the auspices of "Protecting Others" to saliently and surely take the money away from its source?
Is this America or is this Clever Financial Evil?
At "http://familycourtmatters.wordpress.com" I publicize the nonprofit program fraud in family law, in the honorable, under-reported, and NON-federally-funded tradition of Liz Richards (NAFCJ.net), Richard Fine, whose work I'm sure Mayor Villaigrosa knows about, Cindy Ross, etc. Fine's work intersected with family law when he filed to force the L.A. District Attorney to actually distribute about $25 million in collected child support.
Firing Sebelius won't change HHS. It's about systems, not personalities!
Anne, the Manpower para. is mixed up -- First you link to MDRC*, then to
TAGGS database, with 15 "manpower" grantees showing MDRC only got $5.8 million (not "hundreds") and last, Global Horizons Manpower is not an HHS grantee, contracts farmworkers and is not doing fatherhood programs; please keep facts straight. Perhaps scope of reform is a little too broad?
But yes, MDRC, is deeply entrenched with "interlocking directorate" of corporations & foundations -- as is the Mayors Conference. Annie E. Casey, got a seat at the conference. For example, the recent MDRC/HHS (and another group's) "Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS)" SERIOUSLY ??? On my dime?
And let's keep the custody courts on the front burner and under a microscope -- they are where Title IV programs are ignited.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19844865
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWkJgdjkbo0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb6cwYehRTQ
It is time to demand all federal funding for CPS all discretionary spending is cut from the budget.It is time to close the doors of CPS. CPS case workers who have covered the abuse by using scapegoat coercion and intimidation tactics. You can see it in their own reports. CPS is abusing and neglecting the children’s. A crime is a crime. NO MORE IMMUNITY. These people need to be held accountable. CPS prosecutes behind closed doors, on trumped up fabrications against the innocent. MY children have been legally kidnapped, extorted and abused. I have been entrapped. Our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have been taken from us without due process. CRIMINAL matters are to be handled in Criminal Courts. This includes crimes against CHILDREN. I have stood at the grave side of parents burying their child as a result of this, child protective services paid the expenses, they were the ones who spoke and ran the services. This corporation is KILLING children and robbing families. I NEED $26,000.00 TO BUY MY CHILDREN BACK THIS IS WRONG IT IS ABUSE AND NEGLECT. I am as willing as Nancy Schafer to risk my life to see this corruption is STOPPED. My children have been victims of these crimes; they are killing my family from the inside out!!
From Marlon Crump, writer/journalist