Published: August 25, 2001

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S AGENDA

 For the City of Cleveland

 Urgent and Priority Issues

 URGENT AND PRIORITY ISSUES SUMMARY

Health

African American women want all governmental entities to be committed to increasing the availability and quality of healthcare services.  Black women face unique health challenges.  Breast and cervical cancer death rates are, respectively, 11% and 80% higher for Black women than White women; African Americans are 3 times more likely to die from a treatable disease because of a lack of preventive and affordable healthcare; and 60% of all reported Cuyahoga County female HIV cases are among Black women.  Governmental entities must address the alarming HIV rate among African American women.

Housing

 African American women want governmental entities that view housing as a basic human necessity.  Confronted with a community need for 30,000 units of affordable housing for low income Clevelanders; confronted by the reality that too many are spending more than 50% of family income on housing; confronted with the fact that 7,000-10,000 Cleveland school children are homeless; governmental entities must develop an initiative to increase the number of affordable, code-approved housing units; eliminate predatory lending practices; work with banks to expand beyond existing guidelines, the Community Reinvestment Act; create partnership landlord/tenant programs to maintain and upgrade properties; and assist all homeless adults and children in securing safe and adequate temporary shelter, and thereafter find and maintain permanent housing.

Employment

 African American women want governmental entities that recognize that jobs with living wages and health benefits sustain healthy Cleveland families.  With the poverty rate among Blacks in Cleveland at a scandalous 56%; with the percentage of single heads of households in some Cleveland neighborhoods reaching as high as 78%; with the reality that the Black poverty rate for high school graduates is higher than the White poverty rate for high school dropouts, governmental entities must be tenacious in expanding job opportunities that provide living wages, with health benefits, and free from workforce racism and sexism.

Education

African American women want governmental entities that are fully committed to improving the quality of education for all Cleveland’s children.  Between the school years 1996-97 and 1999-2000, 17,961 students who were expected to graduate, did not graduate.  Governmental entities must support strong public schools, high academic achievement for all students and expand the City’s role in education.  Governmental entities must promote incentive-based programs to bring certified teachers to our schools, and build community and business linkages for educational excellence.  Governmental entities must promote innovative school-to-career initiatives that attack the problem of low high school graduation rates by working with employers to guarantee career path jobs for high school graduates.  Governmental entities must ensure that the school building bond funds provide opportunities for community job creation, using trade union apprenticeship programs as a vehicle. Governmental entities should encourage parental leave for city employees to attend school conferences, and make early literacy a priority for Cleveland.

Child Health and Safety

African American women want governmental entities that will act decisively to keep our children safe.  Over the past four years, 42 children – 11 girls and 31 boys – have died in firearm-related deaths, caused, in 45% of the cases, by other children. And a slow killer is destroying the health of our children:  out of 1,638 children screened for lead in Glenville, 649, or 40%, had lead poisoning.  Governmental entities must unite parents, families and neighborhoods to make the health and safety needs of children a top priority.  Governmental entities must act to decrease the availability of guns and weapons to children and improve environmental safety programs.

Youth Crime and Law enforcement

African American women want Governmental entities that will stop criminalizing our youth.  With African American teens 300% over-represented in Ohio’s youth corrections system, and with 80% of incarcerated youth functionally illiterate, governmental entities must promote alternative sentencing and diversion programs instead of incarceration, and work with families and community agencies to integrate juvenile offenders into our communities.  Governmental entities must expand youth recreational and educational alternatives, utilizing the recreation department to establish after-school programs in elementary and middle schools.  Governmental entities must take steps to increase citizen confidence in law enforcement, and put an end to racial profiling and injustice.

Senior Citizens

African American women want governmental entities that will commit to improving the quality of life for senior citizens.  One third of the senior citizens living in poverty are African American women.  With the high cost of prescription drugs, affordable health care, and lack of access to “normal life” services, these statistics will continue to rise.  Governmental entities must maintain and expand access to prescription drugs; create a senior citizen commission to establish senior service sites throughout the city; organize and monitor the delivery of senior services at these sites; and assign a police representative to each site.

Decision Making and Entrepreneurship

African American women want governmental entities that acknowledge the under representation of women in local government; that understand the importance of increasing the number of women on boards and in directorship positions; and that are committed to increasing the number of Black women business owners.

Urgent/Priority Issues Facts and Actions:

Health Care Facts:

Too many Clevelanders still lack access to health care on a regular preventive basis.

In Cleveland in 1996, the mortality rate for Black babies was 16.7 deaths per 1000 births – almost twice the mortality rate for White babies.

In 1998, more than one in five Black working adults lacked health insurance, compared to one in ten White working adults.

Over 60% of all reported female cases of HIV/AIDS in Cuyahoga County are among African American women.

African Americans are 3 times more likely to die from a treatable disease because of a lack of preventive and affordable health care services.

For the years 1993-1997, the Ohio death rates for breast cancer and cervical cancer were, respectively, 11% and 80% higher for Black women than White women.

Health Care: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that are committed to improved health care and expanded services for all Cleveland residents.  

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Clearly define the city’s role in health care and health insurance coverage, and how that role is to be administered.

• Appoint a medical doctor to head the Department of Public Health.

• Clarify the city’s role in health care enforcement and monitoring of safety and environmental codes, including the city’s responsibility for removal of toxic lead paint.

• Increase financial support for Primary Health Care Facilities and Trauma Centers.

• Ensure that the prosecutor’s office reactivates an empowered domestic violence department.

• Establish a Woman’s Health Care Commission (WHCC) to promote health care that includes education and prevention services for physical, emotional and mental health.  The WHCC should maintain a special focus on diseases disproportionately impacting Black women, and its membership must include, without being limited to, religious, business, and labor leaders; community activists; and health care providers.

• Raise awareness of HIV/AIDS; enhance HIV prevention and treatment programs; and expand inpatient services for people with HIV/AIDS.

• Identify, through the Cleveland Public School system, children at all grade levels who are without health insurance, and advise families of health insurance options available for their children.

Housing: Facts

Tens of thousands of Clevelanders cannot find and retain safe, affordable housing.

Half of Cleveland households pay more than 30% of their income for housing – a level the federal government considers a disproportionate burden on family stability.

A recent study by Cleveland State University estimated the shortage of affordable housing for low-income Clevelanders could exceed 30,000 units.

The Case Western Reserve University Center on Urban Poverty and Social Change found that close to 2/3 of those who had stopped receiving welfare benefits were paying more than 50% of their income for housing.  “The rent burden for families leaving welfare in Cuyahoga County is severe and far exceeds the capacity of the current system of public and subsidized housing,” the report concluded.

Housing: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that will develop an initiative to eliminate predatory lending practices; decrease the shortage of affordable, code-approved housing; create mutual landlord/tenant incentives to maintain and upgrade properties; and establish a structured approach to secure housing for homeless adults and children.

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Provide assistance in maintaining current housing stock.

• Encourage financial institution compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act.

• Implement strategies to hold landlords and tenants fully accountable to all existing laws, statutes, and codes.

• Expand incentive programs for first-time homeowners.

• Eliminate predatory lending practices.

• Create incentive programs for landlords and owners to maintain the health, safety, and security of properties.

• Increase the number of affordable, code-compliant housing units.

• Work with the Housing Court to step up enforcement of existing codes.

• Implement a structured plan to address homelessness, including, but not limited to, utilization of currently vacant properties, and strategies to serve Cleveland’s 7,000-10,000 homeless, school-aged children.

Employment: Facts

The poverty rate among Blacks in Cleveland is 56%; over half the Black population is poor.

The Black poverty rate is twice as high as the White poverty rate of 28% – which is, itself, also unacceptable.

The Black poverty rate for high school graduates is higher than the White poverty rate for high school dropouts.

While the wage gap between men and women continues to exist, there is a significant wage gap between White women and Black women.

 Employment: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that recognize the complex nature of unemployment, and are committed to expanding job opportunities that provide living wages, health benefits, and freedom from workplace racism and sexism.

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Create an environment that is conducive to job growth, new business development and retention of existing businesses, that is essential to provide opportunities for all, especially African American Women, and to provide revenues to support desired city programs.

• Develop mechanisms through which chronically poor Clevelanders, can gain living wage employment that includes health benefits.

• Establish a gender pay equity program, free from racism and sexism, for employers in the City of Cleveland.

• Establish apprenticeship programs to help train skilled workers, utilizing the opportunities inherent in the new construction and rehabilitation of Cleveland Municipal School buildings.

• Establish and monitor the performance of aggressive, creative and productive job career centers.

• Ensure labor market driven city-funded job training programs. 

• Establish, as the only realistic goal, living wage employment as the outcome for training at career centers, and provide, in order to meet that goal, training center supports that address the needs of women, such as child care and transportation.

• Establish home-based service delivery programs that focus on mental health, job readiness, and GED assistance.

• Expand programs for women re-entering the community after incarceration, addressing the mental health, substance abuse treatment, education and job training, and records expungement needs of program participants.

Education: Facts

Only a third of the students in the Cleveland School District have been graduating in recent years.

Among African American and female students who started 9^th grade 4 years earlier, fewer than 40% graduated.  Between 1996-2000, 17,961 students did not graduate.

The academic achievement gap between Black and White students is significant and ongoing.

In 1999, only 53% of White children passed the 4^th grade science proficiency test; only 30% of Black children passed the same test.

Quality of education is directly linked to future earning ability.  Ohioans with less than a high school education earned a median wage of $7.80 an hour, compared to $10.68 for high school graduates and $17.31 for college graduates.

Education: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that are committed to improving these appalling statistics and the quality of education for all of Cleveland’s children.

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Encourage parent involvement in education by offering parental leave for city employees to attend school conferences.

• Promote early literacy and make literacy, technology, vocational education and academic achievement – all essential for self-sufficiency – among the City’s highest priorities.

• Promote school/community linkages in the provision of social services to needy students and families.

• Promote remote innovative school-to-career initiatives in partnership with business and labor. 

• Promote youth and adult access to after-school programs in technology, job training and life skills.

• Promote linkages with the cultural and arts community to develop adequate fine arts programs in all schools.

• Ensure that school building bond funds provide opportunity for community job creation for community residents, using trade union apprenticeship programs as a vehicle.

Child Health and Safety: Facts

Black children today are more likely than they were in 1980 to be poor, become teenage parents; and they are less likely to graduate from high school, or attend college.

In Cleveland more than 4 of every 10 families with children live at or below the poverty level.

The rate ranged from 4% in Kamm’s Corners to almost 95% in the Central neighborhood.

The percentage of students who are low-income and who qualify for the free school lunch program in Cleveland schools is now 74%.  This is the highest percentage of any of the 613 schools in the state.

In the Fairfax community, 9.3% of teenage girls (10-19) had a baby in 1996.  This is more than 20 times the rate of Kamm’s Corners (0.465%).

Over the past four years, 42 children – 11 girls and 31 boys –have died in firearm-related deaths, caused, in 45% of cases, by other children.  

A slow killer is destroying the health of or children:  out of 1,638 children screened for lead in Glenville, 649, or 40%, had lead poisoning.

Child Health and Safety: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that will act decisively to eradicate poverty and “leave no child behind.”

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Include funding for youth health and safety as a permanent line item in the City budget.

• Expand lead poison screening to eliminate lead poisoning risk in Cleveland.

• Promote gun safety and strict enforcement of gun laws.

• Promote parenting education and support services.

• Work with the county to ensure that young children receive quality early education and care

• Promote the expansion of crisis intervention programs for youth who witness or are victims of violence.

• Initiate and promote mentoring programs that enhance youth self-esteem and personal competence.

• Expand use of recreational centers by improving staff/youth ratios and staff training; and by increasing program offerings to include youth clubs that are academically challenging, culturally sensitive, and that enrich character and values.

• Work with the Cleveland City Council to implement a coordinated approach to community prevention programs.

• Promote the dissemination of information and resources on sexuality to youth, which would include abstinence and pregnancy prevention strategies.

 Youth Crime and Law Enforcement: Facts

Our inner-city communities continue to suffer the disproportionate effects of gangs, drug abuse and neglect.

For too long our youth have been “overexposed” to examples of individual and community self-destruction, and “underexposed” to effective examples of personal development and success.

African American teens are 300% over-represented in the youth corrections system.

Eighty percent of youth in the juvenile detention centers are functionally illiterate (read at or below a fifth grade reading level).

Black males represent only 6% of those enrolled in Ohio’s public institutions of higher learning.

Youth Crime and Law Enforcement: Actions 

On this point, action is simple: African American women want these horrific statistics turned around!

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Provide a community focus on positive expectations for Cleveland youth by developing a citywide vision statement and actively promoting it.

• Provide cultural sensitivity training for all law enforcement officers and stop racial profiling of youth in Cleveland.

• Promote aggressive family and youth services that provide drug prevention and treatment, anger management programs, mediation services, and negotiation training.

• Promote juvenile diversion programs to rehabilitate rather than incarcerate youth, adopting model programs such as those now operating in Shaker Heights and Parma.

• Promote, when incarceration does occur, education at all youth facilities so that studies may continue, thus enabling post-incarceration continuation of education or job employability.

• Provide more alternative programs in recreation centers and extended day programs in public schools.

• Intensively monitor the findings of the office of professional standards for police, and publicize their decisions.

• Involve Black women on committees, boards and other decision-making bodies to develop laws, rulings, guidelines and programs impacting youth who are, or who are at risk of becoming, involved in the criminal justice system.

Senior Citizens: Facts

One third of senior citizens living in poverty are African American women.

This poverty critically reduces the ability of older citizens to purchase costly prescription drugs, and to afford long-term health care. 

In addition, the recently passed State Budget cuts senior transportation, meals on wheels, and adversely affects the health and quality of life of our seniors.

Senior Citizens: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that will commit to improving the quality of life for senior citizens.

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Establish a Senior Citizen Commission comprised of seven commissioners, at least 60% of whom are aged 55 or over, and 60% of whom are women. 

• The commission should be charged with

• Maintaining and expanding Cleveland’s prescription drug plan for senior citizens.

• Organizing and monitoring the decentralization of senior services by establishing service sites throughout Cleveland, including the Central, Fairfax, West Park, and Tremont neighborhoods

• Ensuring, through decentralized sites, the provision of
• Assistance with paperwork such as insurance forms;
• Technology assistance such as basic computer familiarization and liaison with Para-transit services;
• A City of Cleveland website link to the Ohio Department of Aging site at www.ohio.gov/age;
• Assistance with service access; and personal and community advocacy training.
• Assuring direct communication to seniors about all senior issues and activities through newsletters, regular columns in the Call and Post and Plain Dealer; and quarterly public meetings of the Commission held at different locations.
• Ensuring direct access to, and communication with, police officials by housing a police representative in each senior site.

Decision-Making and Entrepreneurship: Facts

Decisions about the health, welfare and well-being of African American women are too frequently made by those who have no stake in, or understanding of, the unique issues and circumstances affecting this group of citizens.  And with thousands of women heading families, working, and surviving at poverty levels, creative entrepreneurial initiatives are needed to help increase self-sufficiency, civic involvement, and leadership for African American women.

Decision-Making and Entrepreneurship: Actions

African American women want governmental entities that value and celebrate diversity, and who are creative in addressing the shortage of Black women who own and manage businesses.

African American women want governmental entities that will:

• Establish a Women’s Advisory Committee on business development.

• Ensure that any policy-making committee or board has African American women and other minorities as members.

• Change the culture of City-governed boards to include women who will introduce issues of concern to Black women and families.

• Promote the inclusion of Black women on governing bodies impacting every aspect of civic, social, economic and political life.

• Ensure Black female representation in relation to the Port Authority, the Cleveland Public Library Board, the Small Business Administration, CMHA, the Regional Transit Authority, the Growth Association, the School Board, and the Regional Boards of Election.

• Child Health
• Decision/Business
• Education
• Employment
• Health
• Housing
• Preamble
• Senior Citizens
• Youth Crime/Law

Issues Facts & Actions

Facts:

• Child Health
• Decision/Bus.
• Education
• Employment
• Health
• Housing
• Senior
• Youth Crime/Law

Actions:

• Child Health
• Decision/Bus.
• Employment
• Health
• Housing
• Seniors
• Youth Crime/Law