Media Clips November and December 2011
Website: Misinformation.com Date: 11-1-11 Re: JCCI’s work Link to online story: http://mizinformation.com/2011/10/17/radical-accountability/ Value: $0 Publication: Folio Weekly Headline: Yes, We Can: Jacksonville’s mayor may yet accomplish what the president cannot Date: 11-8 thru 14-11 Re: Mention of JCCI Link to online story: Not available Value: $15.00
Headline: City Notes Date: 12-6-11 Re: City Finance Implementation Release Calendar Listing Link to online story: No longer available Value: $24.00
Outlet: WJCT 89.9 FM Radio Date: 12-7-11 Re: City Finance Implementation Release Link to online story: http://www.wjct.org/radio/listen/news/december_6_2011 Value: $200.00
Headline: Report states budget cuts won’t cut it for city’s future Date: 12-7-11 Re: JCCI’s City Finance Implementation Release Link to online story: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=535108 Value: $48.00 With future budget shortfalls looming for the City, the latest Jacksonville Community Council Inc. report states that the City won’t be able to cut its way to a balanced budget.
Part of JCCI’s “Our Money, Our City: Financing Jacksonville’s Future” study is the City Finances Advocacy Task Force final implementation report. Its top recommendations include raising revenue through increasing the millage rate and/or examining untapped sources of revenue, funding infrastructure requirements, eliminating unfunded pension liability and sharing risks, developing long-term community vision and defining core functions, establishing benchmarks and weighing outcomes, inviting greater transparency and public involvement and improving accountability and oversight. “(Jacksonville is) the lowest-taxed city per capita by far among cities of like size,” said J.F. Bryan, chairman of the study. “Cutting expenses and increasing revenues will allow us to offer the City service that our citizens expect. If we are going to invest in our future we need to do some revenue enhancements,” he said. The study recognized that Mayor Alvin Brown was elected on a “no tax increase” platform, but pointed out, after the latest round of budget cuts, the City staff is working at “bare-bones” levels. With the strong likelihood that the City will face another budget shortfall in 2012-13, City departments will be cut back further if additional revenue isn’t created. John Anderson was chairman of the subcommittee that studied recommendation No. 1, and the committee suggested the City move toward multiyear budgeting to proactively address budget needs. “The committee provided some progressive recommendations to help shape our local politics,” said Anderson. The report also encouraged City Council and the mayor to tackle the growing pension issue. “The real elephant in the room when it comes to the City’s financial health is the employee pension programs,” said Bryan. The City is facing more than $1.3 billion in combined unfunded liabilities among three employee pension plans and it will continue to occupy a larger portion of the City budget if not addressed. The report did present some good news regarding the pension issue. “The unfunded liability is considerably larger due to obsolete and/or inaccurate actuarial assumptions. Once a new actuarial study is completed this fall, we will have a more accurate assessment of just how deep the abyss is,” said Bryan. The report is posted at www.jcci.org or call 396-3052. jwilhelm@baileypub.com
Headline: Plan announced to reduce northeast Florida’s teen pregnancy rate Date: 12-8-11
Re: JCCI’s Teen Pregnancy Study Link to online story: http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2011-1208/story/plan-announced-reduce-northeast-floridas-teen-pregnancy Value: $100.00 Carlisa Morris is 31 and has five children, the first of which arrived when she was just 14. But she fought her way beyond teenage motherhood and off the welfare rolls and will graduate in March with a nursing degree. Morris has regular conversations with her 16-year-old daughter about how to avoid teen parenthood, conversations she wished she had had with her absent parents. “Don’t make the same mistake,” she said she tells her daughter and any other teen who will listen. “Don’t give your life up. It is hard with children.” Morris was a compelling voice at the podium Wednesday, helping the Northeast Florida Teen Pregnancy Task Force announce a five-part strategy to decrease the region’s stubborn teen birth rates. For 20 years, the numbers have been declining but still remain higher than state and national numbers. After conducting a year-long study that included focus group meetings with teens, task force members developed an action plan. The target areas are parent education, community-based teen pregnancy prevention, health services such as teen clinics, curbing repeat teen pregnancies and public policy changes such as having more sex education in public schools, they said. “We are … taking the next steps to see how we can work together,” said Peter Racine, president of the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation, a task force member. “We hope all teens choose to abstain … but we also know that all teens are not going to honor that hope.” The parent education target area would help address a longtime problem — the failure of parents to talk with children about sexuality. That issue was identified in the last regional teen pregnancy study, conducted by JCCI in 1992, and again by the task force. “It was so loud and clear, how teens want parents to talk to them,” said Carol Brady, executive director of the Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition, which launched the task force in 2010. “It was almost heartbreaking.” The 1992 study led to the establishment of The Bridge of Northeast Florida, which serves families living in some of Jacksonville’s most distressed neighborhoods. Among its programs are showing youth that the world has far more options than what they see in their neighborhoods, such as teen mothers. All students who attend its programs for more than 60 days avoid pregnancy. Jada Scott, 20, is a success story of The Bridge. She has no children, is a student at Florida State College at Jacksonville and has big plans to work in the nonprofit world and then become a politician. She was raised by her grandmother and both of them learned from The Bridge how to steer her away from teen parenthood. “I learned … I can do this, I can have a dream,” Scott said. “It’s OK to believe in something outside of your environment.” Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/health-and-fitness/2011-1208/story/plan-announced-reduce-northeast-floridas-teen-pregnancy#ixzz1jBO7ls6T
Website: Ppmrn.net Date: 12-12-11 Re: Blog article written for ppmrn.net by JCCI President and CEO Ben Warner Link to online story:
http://www.ppmrn.net/blog/articles Value: $100.00
Headline: Teen pregnancies: Hope is the solution Date: 12-14-11 Re: JCCI’s Teen Pregnancy Study Link to online story: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2011-12-14/story/teen-
pregnancies-hope-solution Value: $100.00 By The Times-Union Raising a child is difficult enough, which is why so many American families only have a few children these days. But to raise a child when the parent is little more than a child, too, is setting up the family for failure. The statistics tell the tale about teen pregnancy: - Teen mothers are less likely to receive prenatal care. - Infants born to teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and die in the first year. - Teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to live in poverty. - Teen mothers also are less likely to plan their pregnancies, so that 1 in 5 teen mothers give birth to a second child before they leave their teen years. Positive trend Thankfully, teen pregnancies have been declining in recent years, though Florida has a higher rate than the nation and Northeast Florida has a higher rate than the state. In addition, Baker County has the highest rate in the state. Those are just some of the serious facts that led The Northeast Florida Teen Pregnancy Task Force to study the issue for a year to address the high rate of teen pregnancy in the region. Besides examining the research, the task force went on a listening tour with teens in the five-county region. The result is an impressive report that ranks with a report from Jacksonville Community Council in 1982. So given all the difficulties, why would a teenager have a baby before she is even a legal adult and fully able to take care of herself? First, in some neighborhoods, it’s commonplace, part of the local culture. Second, having a baby is not only the most meaningful act of a woman’s life, it may appear to be the only positive act for someone in difficult circumstances. Finally, one former teen mother described it as “a way out.”
A 16-year-old mother and her child are practically growing up together. While experience is the best teacher, it can be taken to extremes. Life need not be so desperately difficult. Into that void comes the kind of programs run by the Bridge of Northeast Florida. These programs give young women hope, a future and the desire to delay gratification and motherhood for more appropriate times. Five goals The task force came up with five major recommendations: Engaging parents: Parents need help in talking to their teens about sex and life. The task force has proposed various workshops and training sessions for parents. Involving the community: Teens still are not receiving information about sex from reliable sources but from the streets. While abstinence is the best policy, it is only part of a comprehensive sex education curriculum. At least half the teens in the state are having sex, according to the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The task force has been working on implementing a sex education curriculum in the Jacksonville Housing Authority and through Girls Incorporated and using faith-based courses. Better health care: This is not primarily a health issue, but that is not to underplay the importance of access to good health care for teen women. Adolescents are in that twilight stage between childhood and adulthood. They need special care. Preventing repeat pregnancies: A total of 17 percent of teen pregnancies in Northeast Florida in 2010 were to teen mothers who had a previous pregnancy. Teens at high risk to become pregnant can be referred to Healthy Start programs for a mentor or visiting nurse. There also are support groups at Shands Jacksonville. Public policy changes: Comprehensive sex education programs such as Healthy Teen Florida need more support. The abortion factor An additional point needs to be made. Better family planning will help reduce abortions. Estimates by the Guttmacher Institute are that about one-third of teen pregnancies end in abortion, even though the abortion rate has declined since 1986. To the extent that these teen pregnancies occur in high-poverty neighborhoods, they are out of sight to the more fortunate in the area. But the impact on the families involved is too significant to ignore. Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2011-12-14/story/teenpregnancies-hope-solution#ixzz1jBPLJScz Print Publication: Community Foundation News Letter Headline: Foundation Supports JCCI Study on Early Learning Date: Holiday 2011 Re: JCCI’s Children: 1-2-3 Study Link to online story: Not available Value: $0
Headline: City Notes Date: 12-26-11 Re: JCCI’s Children: 1-2-3 Study Link to online story: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/citynotes.php?id=535246 Value: $24.00 • Jacksonville Community Council Inc.’s “Children 1-2-3” study committee resumes from 8:15-9:45 a.m.
Jan. 4 at JCCI offices, 2434 Atlantic Blvd. For information about the study and JCCI, visit www.jcci.org.