Man Brings Hope To Poor Communities Of Chicago

Jahmal Cole started his organization ‘My Block My Hood My City’ to uplift some of the neighborhoods and youth in Chicago. The organization volunteers have worked on various community improvement projects like clearing trash, mowing overgrown lots, trimming trees, and shoveling snow on a block where elderly people live. Cole wants to expose disadvantaged young people to the world outside their neighborhoods as well. He started an ‘explorations’ program of “twice-a-week trips that take teenagers to different parts of the city, sometimes to learn about a business or profession, sometimes to visit an ethnic neighborhood and sample the food” (Christian Science Montior). The kids know they can rely on Jahmal Cole to care about them.

You can read the full article ‘Block by block, a community activist builds a better Chicago’by Richard Mertens, here. And here is ‘My Block My Hood My City’ website.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blogfest that “seeks to promote positive news. There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world. ” To learn more about #WATWB and sign up to participate.

The cohosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Uppal, Peter Nena, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.

Featured image of ‘South Side of Chicago’ photo of 1973 from US National Archives on Flickr.com

Expectations

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Isn’t it frustrating when stuff that usually works without delays or glitches suddenly doesn’t work. Like when your internet connection goes down. That happened to me recently and boy did I miss the internet. It is such a big part of my day. My connection to the world. Then about a week ago my browser had really slowed down to a snail’s pace and I decided to clear my cache. Later that day I wanted to sign into my WordPress account and guess what, WordPress did not recognize me and could not find my account. That was pretty upsetting because I didn’t expect to be cut off from my blogs and all my stored posts. It was like I did not have an account and never had a blog, the ‘twilight zone.’ Around the same time another blogger friend, Dan Antion, was posting about glitches on WordPress, like the ‘comment’ section not working. I realized I had noticed other people’s ‘Like’ function not working. It would say, ‘loading…’ and then not load. I discovered that if I refreshed the page the ‘Like’ feature would work. But then I thought it probably hasn’t been working on my blogs either and maybe several people were not able to ‘like’ my posts because the ‘Like’ button was broken,(that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it). It took me what seemed like a very long session with the Support person on WordPress and then I was transferred to the Happiness Engineers and we finally got me back to my blog site. So all good, and life returned to normal, at least on WordPress. But this morning I go to sign in and I am having problems signing in and then my Reader page, with the other blogs I am following , is not loading. I am getting this message in a red square with an exclamation point to boot, that ‘sorry we are unable to find the posts you are following’ or something like that. So more time with Support person and then after some crazy voodoo, I don’t know what we did, I am able to sign in and see who I am following.

by rawpixel on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt “for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “xp.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “xp”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!”

Scribble

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It can be good to let go and scribble. Let the color go outside the lines and see where it takes you. It always bothered me when I would hear someone make an issue with children about coloring inside the lines. I guess it is a good exercise for fine motor skills but doesn’t do that much for creativity.

by anarosadebastiani on Pixabay.com

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is “rib.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “rib”in it. As always, use any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Featured image background by Choupette 455 on Pixabay.com altered by me.

Let The Sunshine In

Time Slips By

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Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

I have been looking back across generations quite a bit lately and discovered so much about my family tree. I have connected with cousins in Ireland who were wonderful to share a copy of the family tree and another who helped me do research. At first we did not know we were related but discovered his great-grandmother on the family tree. Two volunteers, Margaret and David, at ‘Ireland Reaching Out’ helped me connect with my cousins and with research. Geraldine at The North Tipperary Genealogy Center with rootsireland.ie was a great help with questions about records. I met another cousin who spotted my posting on a message board and met a more distant cousin through Ancestry.com whose family came from the same county in Ireland as my great-great grandparents. I found the grandchildren of two of grandmother’s sisters. I have found the grandchildren of my Great Aunt and much more. Other Ancestry members have been generous with their help as well.

Now I need to pause and look at my own life as I am living day-to-day and the people living in it. I don’t want to lose track and let it all slip by. Lifetimes pass much too quickly.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “lip.” Use it as a word, or find a word with “lip”in it.

Fabulous

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I made an exciting discovery in my search for members of my family tree. In the late 1970s my aunt wrote in a letter information about my father’s family. She told me about my paternal grandparents and their siblings. At that time, my aunt still corresponded with a cousin back in Ireland. She told me what she remembered about her aunts and uncles. She said three of my grandmother’s siblings had remained in Ireland and her two youngest sisters had emigrated to Canada. She mentioned that one of the sisters had 3 children and other had none. At the time I received the letter there was no internet and I never thought I could access databases to locate family members. I envisioned myself making a trip to Ireland or Canada in search of ancestor records and maybe living relatives. I did not ask any follow-up questions about the married name of the sister or where they lived in Canada. When I recently started doing genealogy research I was amazed by all the information I could find online. But because my great aunts names were common I could not be sure of the records. I thought I might never find out what happened to them. After I had been researching for a while I decided to have a DNA test because I though it might make it easier to identify ancestors. I did have several cousins confirmed through DNA that I already knew belonged on my tree. I have used the DNA matches with various surnames to try to find answers when the records are not clear or not available. During a recent search for DNA matches and surnames a new name popped up on my match list. Ancestry was saying our DNA match was extremely high and this person could be my first or second cousin. I contacted him through Ancestry and as I read his answer I became very excited. It turns out he is the grandson of one of the sisters who emigrated to Canada. Through him I now know who my great-aunt married and the names of her children. I am in touch with her descendants and to me this is just fabulous.

‘Wild Irish Rose-Royal Canal’ by Peter Mooney on Flickr

Stream of Consciousness Saturday, #SOCS, is hosted by Linda G Hill. The ” prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fab.” Use it as a word or find a word beginning with “fab.”

Let’s End Ageism

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In America there is a big elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. All the talk of booming economy and reduced unemployment that completely leaves out a large segment of our society who have not fallen through the cracks but down a humongous sinkhole.

ProPublica did a report in December 2018 focusing on a big elephant: ” If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours.”

ProPublica and The Urban Institute analyzed date from the Health and Retirement Study that followed ” a nationally representative sample of about 20,000 people from the time they turn 50 through the rest of their lives.” Their findings were “that between the time older workers enter the study and when they leave paid employment, 56 percent are laid off at least once or leave jobs under such financially damaging circumstances that it’s likely they were pushed out rather than choosing to go voluntarily ….only one in 10 of these workers ever again earns as much as they did before their employment setbacks.”

Here is another story about someone feeling the effects of the above reality and how the ‘gig economy’ is not such a wonderful panacea for us all, “Surviving on $3 a Day and Hope, the seven lessons I’ve learned living in poverty.”

Age discrimination is the parent of this elephant and I don’t think it helps to get new skills or a new hairstyle without efforts to change attitudes of employers and society toward older people. I do think policymakers need to take a realistic look at this and what policies might help like lowering the Medicare enrollment age so employers would not use the excuse that older workers will cost them more with their health problems, (which is an ageist stereotype), and people who are unable to find secure employment would not lose their health coverage. While I was looking for programs offering solutions, I came across an article from American Society on Aging, “Ageism in Action! Ageism Inaction!”

In it the author mentioned an organization, Boomers Leading Change, that states, “We mobilize, connect and empower Adults 50+ to utilize your skills, passion and energy to create positive, lasting social change.” This organization based in Denver, Colorado, recruits people 50+ to utilize their skills to help their community.

“Our volunteers receive highly valuable education and training and then are connected with service opportunities in one of our programs – The Volunteer Program, our AmeriCorps Encore Program or our Boomers Advocacy Academy. In addition, our Connect for Health Coverage Guides help individuals and families learn about health insurance that fits their needs then find coverage through Colorado’s insurance marketplace.” (Boomers Leading Change)

The AmeriCorps Encore Program is probably the only paid position, and probably low paying, but I like their approach to volunteering for older adults, not just stuffing envelopes. Boomers Leading Change wants to “change the world’s view about aging.” We need more organizations dedicated to this.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly series dedicated to shining some light into our world.

Notes Tied On The Sagebrush

Writing About Life