Enlarge Tony Marciano of the Charlotte Rescue Mission. (Photo: Charlotte Observer.)

Posted: November 17th, 2011 Lee Howard

Stories worth sharing this week:

• Mayor Anthony Foxx and fellow Democrats swept this past week’s elections, and Republicans blamed a poor voter turnout among their constituents. But it ain’t necessarily so. According to election results, 19.2 percent of Democrats voted, 18.9 percent of Republicans voted and 11.4 percent of unaffiliated people voted. Race and geography were at least as significant as voter turnout.
• And this past week’s election marked a milestone for Charlotte: The city elected its first openly gay council member, LaWana Mayfield. Mayfield is a longtime community activist whose credentials range from supervising relief work after Hurricane Katrina to serving as a board of advisors member for the Charlotte Lesbian and Gay Fund. She bettered incumbent Warren Turner in the primaries and Republican Ed Toney in the general election.
• Many honored our service people on Veterans Day this past week. But vets returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding their sacrifices are largely unappreciated by the current job market. Unemployment among vets returning from the Middle East is more than 12 percent, compared to 9 percent nationwide. Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont is trying to help with a training and job placement program aimed at vets seeking work. It’s called Operation Independence.
• The Charlotte Rescue Mission is trying to raise $300,000 to buy furnishings for the 120 rooms at its new Dove’s Nest residential recovery center. The center, which should be complete in August, is being designed to help homeless women who suffer from addiction, says Tony Marciano, the mission’s executive director. For more information, call 704.333.4673, then press zero.
• The Charlotte Area Transit System took a beating from the feds this past week for failing to adequately include minority and women businesses among its suppliers. The Federal Transit Administration released a report that, among other things, said CATS did not consistently provide a directory of women- and minority-owned companies to prospective bidders and contractors.

Posted: November 16th, 2011 Brandi Williams

Immigrants, refugees, asylees, internationals (collectively referred to as IRAI) and their supporters gathered on November 14 for the “Accessing Political Power & Increasing Civic Engagement” workshop hosted by Crossroads Charlotte’s Many Cultures One Community engagement effort.

The workshop's message? Charlotte-Mecklenburg is a diverse community where minorities are the new majority and they have the power to create change, but that change can only come when we value our diversity, respect each other and address our challenges as human rights issues and work together to create change.

A Shift in Demographics Sets the Environment for Change
The latest Census statistics shows a growing diversity of Charlotte’s population. Using statistics from the 2010 Census, Angeles Ortega-Moore, a partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, explained just how diverse Mecklenburg County’s population has become.

According to Ortega-Moore, the 2010 Census showed that Mecklenburg County’s Asian population grew by 84 percent, the Hispanic population in grew by 111.1 percent, and the black population by 17.9 percent. In addition to the population growth, Moore said races have started to integrate more, which was proved by a 99.7 percent growth in people self-identifying as biracial/mixed. 

“[What this shows is] we are no longer a community that is black and white,” said Moore. “We have to a multi-cultural community and we have to serve the needs of everyone.”

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Posted: November 10th, 2011 Lashawnda Becoats

Charlotte is home to a rich population of immigrants, refugees, asylees and internationals. It is a mosaic that enriches the lives of everyone here. Yet, the city hasn’t always done a good job of making these new arrivals feel like they are a part of the larger community.

Two years ago, Crossroads Charlotte organized a meeting of Charlotte’s IRAI (Immigrant, Refugee, Asylee and International) communities. Representatives from these communities met at the International House. They shared their personal stories about their new lives in Charlotte, frustrations with the city and hopes of living in a city that recognizes and appreciates the smorgasbord of cultures flourishing here.

Since that gathering, Crossroads Charlotte has been participating in a collaborative community engagement effort with the IRAI communities and service providers who support them. The goal is to increase access for all and build trust.

To help increase access, these organizations are launching The Mecklenburg Access Portal (The MAP). It’s a web-based resource directory for healthcare and social service providers to access information and resources. The portal will link the IRAI communities to much needed services and link service providers to underserved populations.

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Posted: November 9th, 2011 Lee Howard

Stories worth sharing this week:

• The aftermath of North Carolina’s attempts to control “undesirables,” something euphemistically known as “eugenics,” is prompting state officials to consider compensation for thousands wronged by state-mandated sterilization. The program started in the 1920s to prevent the mentally ill, epileptics and the “feebleminded” from procreating. It lingered into the 1970s and has become a vicious scar no longer buried in the state’s past.
• History or sacrilege? It depends on your perspective. More than 14,000 tickets have been sold for the opening this coming Friday of Discovery Place’s Mummies of the World exhibit, a local record. But showing the mummified remains of people who have not given their consent could raise ethical questions for some religious, cultural and moral reasons. Will you be going to see this exhibit?
• With minority high school graduation rates lagging in Mecklenburg  County schools, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte has stepped up with a new program targeting students in local high schools with the lowest graduation rates. The local Y has formed a branch of a national youth club called Y Achievers. Workshops offer minority and underserved students assistance with character development, leadership and community service.
• New voting district boundaries, recently drawn up by Republican lawmakers, violate the state constitution, or so says the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC. The various groups have filed a lawsuit alleging racial bias in the new voting district boundaries. It seems the newly drawn districts meet federal requirements, but don’t meet state law, the suit alleges.
• A toothache hurts anyone, but if you’re homeless and have no access to dental care, it can wear away at your overall health.On Nov. 5, Shelter Health Service provided a dental van at Center of Hope, a Salvation Army emergency shelter for women and children, staffed with professionals from Landmark Dentistry in Matthews. Landmark, which made its services available for free, hopes to offer the mobile clinic on a quarterly basis for the next year.