Medill Reporters On The Case
I wanted to use this post to single out some of the excellent reporting my fellow Medill colleagues have been doing this week on issues related to this blog.
On Tuesday, Erin Halasz wrote about Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s proposed $150 million initiative that would invest in community development and summer jobs for young people in low-income communities. The money would be broken down in the following ways:
- $30 million to create jobs for up to 20,000 teens and young adults
- $20 million for after-school programs in high-crime areas
- $50 million in grant money for organizations that help put people to work or redevelop high-crime areas
- $40 million for local community development groups, financial institutions, venture enterprises and businesses or communities that can demonstrate immediate job growth from their projects
- $10 million in grant money for local police departments to purchase equipment
While the plan sounds good on paper, doubts are still in the air, given the govenor’s track record of political grandstanding and not being able to come through on his promises. The financial troubles of the state are also worth considering. Mayor Daley, who last week announced his plan for youth summer jobs during his State of the City address, made his own doubts public regarding the governor’s plan.
Another angle on the governor’s proposal was followed up the next day by Josh Pollock. He looked at one of the groups that, surprisingly, was left out of the gov’s new funding: CeaseFire. In a year, CeaseFire has seen its locations shrink from 25 to only four, despite many successes. The sharp reduction in operations is due to state funding that was discontinued. CeaseFire now receives its money mainly from the Department of Justice and private organizations.
Today, Chloe Wiley covered a local organization near the Cabrini Green housing development that reaches out to give local kids an alternative to the streets. The Alliance for Community Peace is a faith-based organization that states in its mission:
seeks to improve academic performance and school attendance of students; to provide opportunities for demonstrating postive social skills,interactions, and relationships through educational, recreational, cultural, and other program activities, to adopt positive decision making skills that discourage negative risk taking behaviors through life skills application; and to develop meaningful work experiences leading to career and vocational fulfillment for students, adults, and families.
Big propos to all three for peeling the layers off this onion and doing the work many in our field still won’t do.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:00 am
go Medill!!
All three we great stories.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:25 am
It’s been just three weeks since I wrote that violence funding story, and there hasn’t been any mention of it since. What’s one week’s news is easily swept under the rug the following week.
We haven’t heard of any new developments in getting something together to actually fund Gov. Blagojevich’s idea. And now, they are rushing in Springfield to get things done (as we saw by the Board of Ed cancelling their meeting to lobby for funding) before the session is adjourned.
When are promises from this administration going to be kept?