Sustainability or Big Government?

Where do we go from here?

“After many conversations and personal interviews with current and future leadership of Jacksonville,  I am prepared to share a few ideas on the steps we must take to re-development urban institutions that build generational leadership and increases city wide, higher wage employment.

Twenty-first century social development (further defined in the book “Born in Struggle, 1819-1860: Formation of the Black Community”) must embrace technology to empower under-served and emerging markets. The Leadership continues to look the other way for the necessary relationships that will we have the potential to nurture right here in our backyard. I am 100% autodidactic when it comes to computers. Anyone can learn.

DISCOVERY: Before sharing my assessment, it is necessary to provide an overview of the critical status of Florida’s business and education sector, as well as a devasting national economy. In a nutshell, the working class is at the crux of loosing ground to a whirlwind of job cutbacks, economic distress and national security factors. All of this may not affect the “majority” as much as the “minority”, but the effects will be overwhelming for many with a negative impact on local sustainability and community empowerment.

More of what we can expect >

Extreme Education Fund Reduction at the middle/high school level. The benefit of this storm is that more funds will support advance Pre-K and Early childhood development. However, there is definitely a strong need for curriculum that meets the culture of an increasingly diverse student, teacher, parent population.

Increase in Energy Efficiency to combat the wave of environmental issues that challenge Florida, not to mention the tourism craze. How can we leverage Go Green in the hood?  Increase community park utilization, community activities, community gardens, and public spaces.

Reverse Politics that has failed to build Trust not only in the Voting Process, but within local public sectors in most need of Change

Health Care Malpractice and Racial Disparities – creating an open door policy backed by inclusion and more workforce diversity to oversee day-to-day practices would do Jacksonville a whole lot of justice. We also need an honest look at the legal system and insurance fraud that backs up race/gender discrimination, violation of human rights, and a perpetuation of poor service to residents of impoverished communities.

Poverty and crime has been the dynamic duo that layed the foundation for Florida’s “Quality of Life” for hundreds of years. It is no mystery then, so it should be no mystery now. Since slavery, “Cowford” has not changed its local economic policy of cheap labor and white wealth. The subject of white privilege MUST be placed in its proper context before any progress is made for unilateral equity.

Restoration of Indigenous Human Rights who suffer from generational genocide and mass miscegenation will solve many of the cultural deprivation and morale issues that affect the next black/latino generation. Their are so many Seminole and Creek Indians walking around with I.D. categories of ‘black’, ‘white’, ‘non-white’, ‘hispanic’, etc. we don’t know what the hell we are! The missing chapters of history are steady revealing themselves and their is a pyramid of knowledge concerning black origins in the Americas long before Cristobol Columbus. Does Jacksonville REALLY want racial harmony, inclusion, and global intercultural exchange?

Florida’s Justice System is corrupt and must be exposed through an ongoing process of accountability, community policing, and freedom of speech that is nurtured by mass media conglomerates, including Clear Channel, Comcast, and Bellsouth.

• Small Business Development is the cornerstone of Florida’s economy and our nation. More capacity building and sustainability should focus on leveraging Private Capital and Pension Funding for increasing the “double bottom line” of every city in Florida so as to promote a more socially conscious and responsible citizen who can connect the dots between Education, Career, and Social Development.

STRATEGY I: To further this dialog over the next few weeks we will post UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL audio interviews with 10 of Florida’s most innovative minds from multi-disciplinary fields of learning. The interviews will be posted for further comments and forwarded as an eblast to Blacksonville’s Subscriber Database for immediate response from the local community. So MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD! You must self-determine the implementation of New Solutions.

A few cadres we have identified to interview, include:

INTERVIEWS: Extraordinary men and women who possess quality research and clinical wisdom for new levels of understanding the value of cultural diversity inside and outside the workplace/home. They are the gatekeepers of a the next generation of new leadership and  the mastery of Self and corporate productivity and efficiency.

SOLUTION: We seek to leverage their contributions and international relationships to build new social entrepreneurs in Jacksonville as a development model for building new leadership and highly skilled entrepreneurs.

* Noted interviewees include:

1. Dr. Richardson and Dr. Stewart Washington – Black Psychologists
2. Mortlake Nembhard - Founder of BCN & Associates & Chairman of the Florida Black Business Investment Board
3. E. Lance McCarthy, Economists and President of the Orlando Metro Urban League
4. Eddie Staton, Pastor and National President of M.A.D.D.A.D.S.
5. House of Representative, Congresswoman Corrine Brown
6. Susan L. Taylor, Former Editor of Essence Magazine, Founder of the National Cares Mentoring Initiative
7. Willie Gary, renown attorney and founder of the Willie Gary Foundation

STRATEGY II: Blacksonville and Partners will sponsor a series of Diversity and Lecture Summits in partnership with self-sustainable non-profit organizations that share the goals and objectives of capacity-building in under-served communities. Our panel with reflect the diversity of the community we aim to serve and provide balance with “producers vs. consumers” for the purpose of working together more efficiently through local empowerment-based programs.  We will record (audio/video) the knowledge shared by presenters and the interview people fortunate to the attend the forums. Forums are currently scheduled for the remainder of the year with new additions soon to come. Please review the Calendar to the right for registration and details.

Our benchmarks are three prong:

1. Certify a minimum of 225 professionals in African Centered Certification and Proficiency and to acquire endorsements from the corporations and institutions they work on behalf.
2. Establish new Diversity Partners with Corporate executives and professionals of the Banking, Media, Technology, Financial, Nonprofit and Small Business sectors.
3. To leverage the use of tools and resources from the most relevant new media (visit www.newmedia.org for facts, stats and analysis; and www.pewinternet.org for demo/sociographics) for ongoing education, training and discussion, including the book “The Covenant”, videos such as “Africa Unite”, “Eyes On The Prize” (also see Yale Curriculum and Videos), “State of Black Union”.  We will strive to emphasize culture-specific content/data (including past archives from Blacksonville.com from 2000-2008) as a benchmark to support consciousness-raising within and without the community.
4. Exploration of the proper steps to build a Community Review Board that will oversee Crime and Media Propaganda that ill-effects the overall Community.

GOVERNMENT
We should combine our Accountability and Evalution Plan with an in-house PR/Marketing Strategy through Blacksonville’s Network with Community Partners/Clients to ensure the Collective meets compliance with key stakeholders and reach fiduciary and application goals, brand/image development, and fundraising success.

We can also leverage a 12 pt Sankofa Program as a standard of Evaluation and to motivate participants through interactive programs on and offline

- Identity – Purpose – Knowledge – Truth – Collective Economics- Understanding – Forgiveness – Reconciliation – Responsibilty – Unity – Faith – Creativity

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Blacksonville is making the call for volunteers to engage in Community-wide Support and Inclusion in ongoing think tanks, focus groups, conferences, and planning meetings. We hope to leverage discovery from your reviews and the information you share to produce the first Black Paper on “Simple Solutions to Epidemic Problems in the Urban Community”.  Black-on-black crime is running rampant in our country and we cannot expect change from the top down. Our strategy is to leverage opportunities to communicate with the people most affected by racism, crime, poverty, discrimination, and employment that there voice may be heard by those seeking to help.

We will target various community agencies and groups, including:

- NBHS, DCHD, JDC, CRC, The Bridge, Communities in Schools, YMCA, Great Debaters, etc.

Our aim is to compile a database of community resources and organizations to foster ongoing relationships in the community.

COMMUNITY HUBS
There are a number of locations within every community that can be leveraged for organizing similar initiatives. We can begin programming at the local EWC Library or Schott Center from 6pm- 8pm, FCCJ Technology Center, Beaver Street Enterprise, The (OLD) Library, and many more to develop the initial core Focus Groups from Blacksonville, J.C.C.I. and other Volunteer-driven groups that have an interest surrounding the critical issues that affect our community.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

RECRUITMENT - On-site visits to local high schools and their in-school programs, such as Gear Up, Job Corps, the Bridge, MADDADS Sankofa Program, Project Reach, etc. will afford us immediate access to over-achievers and challenged students in need of leadership development.

KEY PARTNERS - The First Coast African American Chamber of Commerce, ABPsyi, EWC, Blacksonville, KAMKOM backed by local Council persons and state representatives like Mia Jones, Reginald Gaffney and Corrine Brown, should join the fight for community-wide technology intergration in schools and throughout our community institutions with an emphasis on Wireless hubs (Cisco) for new equipment/community security to help manage a solid digital divide plan.

BUSINESS MODEL – The introduction of a “B Corporation” is a new business structure for “for-profit corporations” and “not-for profit corporations” who seek to produce a “Double Bottom Line” within the markets they serve, i.e. financial and social development. Blacksonville is currently under re-structuring its enterprise to leverage private capital investments and endowment funds for development of Community Technology Centers (CTC) (also see this link on CTCs) statewide.

EVALUATION:

A. Cultural Diversity/Certification – Development of an African-centered curriculum as a framework for Inter-Cultural Learning and Diversity training, including the introduction of the ABPSYI certification process

B. Mentoring - A Grassroots approach to mentoring and youth violence intervention

C. Community Impact -  Our ability to bridge generational and racial gaps for students, business persons, educators, institution figure heads, ex-felons and the overall community.

D. Educational Impact - Target feeder middle schools, high schools and HBCUs, as well as sister organizations such as FAASA, Progressive Black Men and heads of Black Studies Depts/Associations to institute Think Tanks and Public Debate Forums in their annual conferences.

FUNDING:

Our funding strategy will be supported by Private donations, corporate gifts, and grants to minimize the time and resources to get the work done. Blacksonville is also re-structuring its Revenue Model to help funding from “profit ventures”, i.e. printing, events, etc.