Broad Shoulders Update

Nominate someone you know who has made a significant contribution to our organization's success over the years and whose work is an integral part of Active Trans’ history. The Active Transportation Alliance Hall of Fame is reserved for members and volunteers who have moved our mission forward from within through their hard work, dedication and passion for better biking, walking and transit. Hall of Fame announcements will be made at our annual Member Meeting. Do you know someone who would be a good nominee? Deadline for nominations is Aug. 8. Fill out the Hall of Fame Nomination Form.

DuPage County board has set up a citizen survey to solicit input from the public on budget priorities. The County budget funds trail maintenance activities (e.g., surfacing, signage, etc.), trail improvements, and matching funds necessary to secure state and federal grants for major construction projects. Major trails covered by the County include the Great Western Trail, the Illinois Prairie Path, and portions of the Southern DuPage County Regional Trail. If you are interested in providing input to county officials on budget priorities, go here

Congrats to our good friends at I-Go Car Sharing, Chicago's nonprofit car sharing service. Thanks to a stimulus grant, they will be adding all-electric cars to their fleet in 2011. Add that to their combination smart card that allows members to check out cars AND take the CTA, I-Go is really stepping it up for green transportation. Check out the full Tribune article on the electric cars here.

Photo Courtesy of Coalition for Community Schools Flickr feed

In the comments over at the PNI blog, Marty Blank — President of the Institute for Educational Leadership and Director of the Coalition for Community Schools — weighed in with his support. Blank’s comment was so incisive, we thought we’d highlight it on its own post.

Here it is:

The lucid critique of the Brookings Institute report by Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children Zone nips in the bud an effort to once again create a false dichotomy between effort to improve the academic performance of students and the need to address an array of social- emotional and family and community circumstances that research tells us DO influence student performance. Surely we need high quality teachers and engaging instruction, but research also tells us that social supports are also needed for our youth to succeed in school and in life.

The evidence is clear. Students who suffer from health and economic barriers do worse in school. Charles Basch’s recent report, Healthier Students are Better Learners, connects health issues to academic achievement and Paul Barton’s Parsing the Achievement Gap: Baselines for Tracking Progress demonstrates similar results.

We can only get these results when youth are provided with the supports they need to learn. No matter how exceptional the curriculum and instruction are, the fact of the matter is that a hungry student will have trouble concentrating (how many adults can accomplish this feat?) and a student with poor vision will not be able to see the chalkboard.

As a country it is time we move beyond the “either- or” arguments if we are to truly address the realities that face our students and families. Community schools are doing this every day to ensure high academic performance. Bailey Elementary – a community school in Providence, RI – boasts an improvement in 3rd grade reading, from 27 % proficiency in 2007 to 41 % in 2009. Providence Public School District’s Superintendent, Tom Brady said, “Teachers can’t do it alone. Unless community organizations begin to address some of the myriad social issues affecting a child’s academic progress, urban schools in particular will never fulfill their promise.”

This type of socially just education reform will move our country in a direction where EVERY student graduates high school ready for college, career, and citizenship. The Coalition (www.communityschools.org) will continue to work closely with the Harlem Children’s Zone to make sure this happens. The Coalition is an alliance of over 150 partners including the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Marty Blank
President of the Institute for Educational Leadership and Director of the Coalition for Community Schools

Tomorrow, a Senate subcommittee will vote to determine the future of the Promise Neighborhoods program.

Today, your voice is more crucial than ever. Sen. Tom Harkin – the chairman of that key subcommittee – needs to hear from you.

Call Sen. Harkin at 202-224-3254

Tell Sen. Harkin:

• Fully Fund the Promise Neighborhoods program at $210 million for FY 2011
• All children deserve the opportunity to benefit from the lessons of the Harlem Children’s Zone
• This is a proven, pragmatic solution to childhood poverty

Today, we will be hand-delivering to every member of this key subcommittee the more than 1,000 supporter letters we have received so far.

Your voices have been loud and strong. With one phone call, you can help ensure millions of children benefit from the Promise Neighborhoods program.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Our good friends at the Equity & Inclusion Campaign are hosting another community meeting to discuss real solutions to the problems plaguing the Gulf Coast since the BP Oil Spill. Here are the details:

As the BP Horizon disaster continues to unfold along our coastline and a legislative response moves to the floor of the Senate, E&I is once again poised to take a delegation of community leaders to Washington, DC to advocate on behalf of coastal and inland communities.

While July 30th will mark the 100th day of the crisis in the Gulf, advocates will spend the two days prior meeting with leaders in Congress and the Obama Administration to advance solutions critical to response and recovery.

From meetings with senior officials in the Department of Energy, the Interior, Homeland Security and the Council on Environmental Quality to Congressional leadership staff, it is once again that community leaders from the Gulf will carry the message of resiliency, promise and a recovery measured by citizen participation and transparency.  For those of you with national offices, allies and partners, please invite your friends and colleagues to join us for

Community Voices from the Gulf:

A Briefing on the Ongoing BP Horizon Disaster

Wednesday, July 28th, 2:00 pm
Longworth House Office Building, Room 1324

July 30th will mark the 100th day of the BP Horizon Disaster. For those most impacted across the Gulf Coast, conditions continue to change as the full range of impacts makes landfall upon coastal and inland communities.

The Equity and Inclusion Campaign, a coalition of community and faith-based organizations throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, invites you to hear firsthand reports, engage in dialogue, and uplift legislative solutions to meet the needs of the Gulf Coast.

Featuring:

James Crowell: Biloxi NAACP

Deborah Delgado: The Repair S.H.O.P., Inc

David Gauthe: Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing (BISCO)

Michael Fischer: Bay Area Women’s Coalition

Diane Huhn: Bayou Grace

Casey Roberts: Gulf Restoration Network

Grace Scire: Boat People S.O.S.

Aaron Ahlquist: Delta Working Group

Angel Truong: Asian Americans for Change

Elisabeth Gehl: Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations

Dana Ennis: The Urban Conservancy

Active Trans is excited to offer a new member premium as a token of our appreciation for our members’ generous support. You can now choose to get a free copy of the new book Carless in Chicago by Jason Rothstein when you join or renew at the $100 Ascender level or higher. The book is a great resource for anyone who supports our mission, whether or not you own a car. It offers tips for navigating the region on foot, by bike and by transit, and it covers the many benefits of car-free or car-light living. It also includes a fantastic guide to the neighborhood attractions around each CTA station and selected highlights on each Metra line – a wonderful tool for exploring our region by train.

Author Jason Rothstein was featured on Chicago Tonight on July 22 -- video of the segment is embedded below.

Get a free copy of Carless in Chicago when you join or renew at the Ascender level online: http://www.activetrans.org/membership .

Image Gallery: 

Our good friends at the Community Media Workshop, a nonprofit that helps nonprofits communicate and secure media coverage, invited Margo O'Hara (Active Trans communications director) and me (marketing guy) to present at a brown bag lunch yesterday.

It was a great opportunity to share some of our marketing and communication successes like Open Streets and Chicagoland Car-Free Day with other nonprofit communicators. We really enjoyed it and we got lots of great questions afterwards. It was also good to meet and connect with some of our peers.

We found out that there are people out there doing advocacy that ISN'T bike, walk or transit related...very cool!