Action NC Ban The Box

For A Second Chance
& Fair Employment:
Ban the Box

Why is it important?
There are over 1.6 million people in N.C. with a criminal record. The prison population has risen to about 40,000. 98% will eventually be released. 50% of ex-offenders are sent back to prison for new crimes.
Nearly 45% of those under Department of Correction supervision are African American; this disparity is a significant challenge to communities of color. As of September, 2010 there were nearly 4,000 people in Durham County on probation or parole; add to this the thousands who have criminal records but are not under the supervision of the Department of Correction. These statistics demonstrate the tremendous number of people who face employment barriers as they seek honest, legal employment.

Why does this matter to our communities?
If families of formerly incarcerated are going to heal, prosper and contribute to our community, EVERYONE must have an opportunity for employment, housing and education. Employment is one of the most effective tools to reduce recidivism-returning to prison, resulting in a safer community and lower cost to tax payers.

What is “Ban the Box”?
The “box” is that place on many employment applications that asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a crime or been incarcerated. Some may even inquire about arrests.

What would “Ban the Box” do?
It would remove those questions from the application and the initial stage of the employment process so that those who are responsible for making hiring decisions first get an opportunity to learn about the candidate's experience, skills and personality as they relate to the position to be filled.

Does it mean no criminal background checks would be done?
Once the hiring official is prepared to offer the applicant a job or they are a finalist for the open position a criminal background check would be initiated.

How would the screening process work?
The applicant would be able to explain the nature of the crime, how long ago it was committed, when incarceration ended, successful rehabilitation efforts and certifications if available. They will also be given an opportunity to review the records to determine their accuracy. The hiring official would adhere to federal Equal Opportunity Commission guidelines and not make negative decisions when the crime is unrelated to the job duties.

Have other city and county governments made this change to their employment applications?
Many cities, counties and even states have passed ordinances that changed the application and made the process fairer. In September and August, Detroit and Cincinnati joined 21 other cities including New Haven, Boston, Jacksonville, Memphis, San Francisco and Kalamazoo. Alameda County, California and Multnomah County, Oregon have banned the box. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico and Hawaii have passed laws prohibiting the box on applications for state jobs.

(Prepared by the North Carolina Justice Center for the Durham Second Chance Alliance -Action NC, InStep Inc-919 680-8000* NC Justice Center-919 856-3194* Southern Coalition for Social Justice-919 323-3380*October, 2010)

Watch Night Services

Watch Night Services

Called

Freedom’s Eve

Many of us who live or grew up in the Black communities in the United States have probably heard of “Watch Night Services,” the gathering of the faithful in church on New Year’s Eve. The service usually begins anywhere from7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and ends at midnight with the entrance of the New Year. Some folks come to church first, before going out to celebrate. For others, church is the only New Year’s Eve event. Like many others, I always assumed that Watch Night was a fairly standard Christian religious service, made a bit more Afro centric because that’s what happens when elements of Christianity become linked with the Black Church.

Still, it seemed that predominately White Christian churches did not include Watch Night services on their calendars, but focused instead on Christmas Eve programs. In fact, there were instances where clergy in mainline denominations wondered aloud about the propriety of linking religious services with a secular holiday like New Year’s Eve.

However, there is a reason for the importance of New Year’s Eve services in African American congregations. The Watch Night Services in the communities that we celebrate today can be traced back to gatherings on December 31, 1863 also known as “Freedom’s Eve.” On that night, Blacks came together in churches and private home all across the nation, anxiously awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law.

Then, at the stroke of midnight, it was January 1, 1864, and all slaves in the Confederate States were declared legally free. Despite that expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal Border States. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military victory.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not immediately free a single slave, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of African Americans, and fundamentally transformed the character of the war from a war for the Union into a war for freedom. Moreover, the proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union army and navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

When the news was received, there were prayers, shouts and songs of joy as people fell to their knees and thanked God. Black folks have gathered in churches annually on New Year’s Eve ever since, praising God for bringing us safely through another year of freedom.

It’s been 147 years since that first Freedom’s Eve “Watch Night Services” and many of us were never taught the African American history of Watch Night, but tradition still brings us together at this time every year to celebrate January 1^st was “African American Independence Day “or Freedom Day.

You Are Not Alone

PARTNERS AGAINST CRIME INITIATIVES (District One and Four)

Eli Jones is just getting home from school and he over hears his mother Mary Jones on the back porch talking to a neighbor about what they can spare for them to eat. It’s the middle of the month and they have more month than money. The best meal the children receive is at school. Eli has an older brother and two younger sisters. He is ten years old and reading at the third grade level. His younger sisters are having problems in school, and Eli wants to help them with their homework, but doesn’t know how.

His older brother dropped out of school in the ninth grade at the age of Seventeen. He is a gang member and has gone to jail several times. Eli's father was killed by a stray bullet two years ago.
With tears in his eyes Eli prays secretly that someone will help him and his sisters with their homework and a good meal before bedtime. For entertainment they take turns listening to rap music.

There are a lot of adults coming in and out of his house but no one will stop to help them. The children are told to stay out of the way of adults. The adults curse a lot and often threaten each other. Crime is everywhere and anything can happen. Eli must keep his eyes on his sisters to keep them safe. Eli can’t do or say anything about the things that are allowed at home while he’s at his school but he does feels safer at school. Young Eli feels helpless hopeless and alone.

His mother is a single parent that dropped out of school at sixteen to have Eli’s older brother. She is 33 living in a rental house with poor plumbing, electricity, rats and roaches. There are rags patching the holes in the walls and the floors. The landlord refuses to fix anything but always manages to ask for the rent when it’s due. Mary often looks at her children and wishes that she could do more for them. She wants to live somewhere else but this is all she can afford. She wants to take her children to other places but has no money to make it happen. She spends the little extra money that she does have on keeping her children clean and groomed. Mary feels hopeless, helpless and alone.

I want to tell you that this story is unique, but it's not. This story is enacted in many homes in poor neighborhoods day after day. We can show them that they are not alone. Where do we start, and how can we help?

Teaching parents to help children with their homework - We have asked NCCU Education Department to help set up a pilot program that will teach parents to help children with their homework. These parents will come from two targeted neighborhoods, East Durham in PAC 1, and Southside in PAC 4. This program will be located at the East Durham Recreation Center and the Southside Outreach Center and open to all public school students and parents living in that area.

Program Objectives:
Homework assistance program:

1. Alleviate the sense of alienation in our community by creating a structured outreach program, centered on improving student classroom performance that brings together adult caregivers, students, representatives from NCCU’s School of Education, representatives from the Southside and East Durham Outreach Centers.
2. Improve student participants in school performance.

Expected Benefits to Family:

1. Improved student performance.
2. Family exposure to other services offered by each of the outreach centers.
3. Family exposure to other services that may be offered by NCCU's School of Education or its other collaborative partners that support improved educational outcomes for families.
4. Increase sense of community as a result of this collaborative effort.

Expected Benefit to Outreach Centers:

1. Additional program to offer members of this community that clearly improves the lives of community members.
2. Increases interaction with community and allows for additional outreach.

Expected Benefit to NCCU volunteers:

1. Assuming that a viable program is developed, we will seek volunteers from the NCCU School of Education that have an interest in teaching in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This program will provide such individuals with experience working with the families similar to those of the families of the students they wish to instruct. We believe that this experience will add value to the individual volunteers in their teaching careers by better preparing them to teach in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Needs from the NCCU School of Education

We are seeking technical assistance in developing a viable program as described above.

Technical assistance will include:

1. Researching similar programs that may exist and identifying best practices.


2. Developing a sound program for delivery with clear outcome measures for our participants.


3. Technical assistance in identifying grant opportunities for the program.


4. Use of student volunteers in delivery of the program.


5. We will need a bus to transport parents, NCCU students and children to different events. Transportation is important for the success of the initiative.

Student Drama Club - We have also asked NCCU Education Department to help with writing three Plays for children 10 to 17 years old. The plays will incorporate hip/hop and poverty issues to enable students to vent feelings and learn to be excited about using their imagination. Students will be divided by age groups and recruited from the East Durham and Southside community. Holton Career and Resource Center has agreed to host the drama club. Y.E. Smith Elementary School, East Durham recreation Center and Southside Outreach Center will also aid us in the recruitment. We hope to have field trips where students will go to see plays and attend Friday night movies. Afterwords the students will analyze acting styles. Each Drama Club member will be required to read books for their membership in the Drama Club. Our goal is to improve students reading scores. We hope to make learning interesting and fun.

Rev. Melvin Whitey
PAC 1 Office Coordinator
(919) 560-1291

Harold Chestnut
PAC 4 Office Coordinator
(919) 598-5398

Local - NewsObserver.com

Published Fri, Dec 11, 2009 05:19 AM
Modified Fri, Dec 11, 2009 12:15 AM
BY VIRGINIA BRIDGES - Correspondent

In limited voting, Allison wins again - Local - NewsObserver.com
"The black community got robbed without a gun," said the Rev. Melvin Whitley, community activist and outreach minister at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, after the meeting.

Help my Unbelief

Mark 9:19-26

He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.” ²⁰ Then they brought him unto Jesus. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

²¹ So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. ²² And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” ²³ Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” ²⁶ Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Help me lift up my title “Help My Unbelief”.

The faithlessness of men grieves Christ. Jesus was saddened by a crow of people with little no faith. He rebuked the generation standing before him, but in all honesty every generation was rebuked, for every generation has proven to be faithless. There he was after 42 generation had come to earth because God’s children were without faith. Having no faith saddened and brought sorrow to my Lord’s heart and he expressed that sorrow when he said. “How long shall I be with you? How long shall I (bear with you) or your faithlessness pains my heart”.

Who is being rebuked? Who is faithless? To whom is Christ speaking? The answer is clearly seen. There was not a single person present that helped the child, not the father, not the crowd, not the disciples, and not even the questioning religionist folk. The father was unbelieving. The crowd was unspiritual and worldly. The disciples were ineffective and powerless. The religionist’s folk were self-centered and critical. You know these folk; they always have something bad to say, and not one word of encouragement.

Jesus cared for the father just as much as he cared for the son. The father was hurting in his heart. I came by here today to tell you that you have not felt a pain until your heart hurts. There no medicine for a heart aches. It was his love for the son that drove him to seek Jesus in the first place. Jesus knew this, and Jesus knew something else. The father’s faith was weak and needed strengthening, so Jesus asked the father about the history of the boy’s illness. But note, Jesus was not interested so much in the boy’s case history as he was in getting the father to focus on his desperate need, to focus on Jesus who stood before him, to focus on Jesus who alone could meet his needs, and to focus on Jesus so much that his faith would be stirred. Somebody knows what I’m talking about. Sometime we need to tell Jesus all of our trouble. Just have a little talk with Jesus and it all right with world. When I talk to Jesus my spirit is stirred.

The father said two important things to Jesus. He said “If thou canst do anything have compassion on us and help us”. The man lacked personal knowledge and faith in Jesus power, but he cried out for the compassion, but question if Jesus really did have the power to help. There was no way Jesus would turn away from the man’s cry for mercy. It is not so much our faith as it is our cry for mercy and compassion that arouses God to help us.

Spiritual immaturity must be acknowledged by faith. The father’s faith was immature. Jesus threw the father’s words back at him. “If you can” are words of immaturity. Jesus told him “All things are possible to him that believeth”. All things are possible to the son of God. The power is available, but a person must trust in God’s power and you must believe. The great principle of prayer and faith was being taught to the man.

Spiritual immaturity must be acknowledged by humility and crying for help. The man was weak, but his need was desperate. He accepted the Lord’s word about his being weak (sinful) and needing help personally, about his lack of faith being the problem.

The man responded in humility and cried out with tears, “Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief”. Note that he cried out for Jesus to help him even in his even in his unbelief. He needed help even in believing; but he did the one essential thing, he cried out with all his heart and being, confessing that he needed help. Somebody here has miss a blessing because we were to prideful to confess our need for help.

Spiritual blessings are secured by Jesus’ word and power. Jesus healed the boy when he saw the crowd running toward them. Jesus had apparently pulled the father and boy to the side to help the father’s concentration. It was the word of Jesus that healed the boy. Wrong cannot stand before God’s word. The spirit made on last effort to disrupt and discredit the power of Christ. The spirit apparently attempted to kill the boy. Jesus took the boy by the hand a lifted him up, and the boy arose, being healed.

Why we don't give up?

Mark 5:25-34

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stooped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. Help me lift up my title “Why we don’t give up”?

Jesus had freed a demon-possessed man on the other side of the Lake (Sea of Galilee) and how was on his way to help a local ruler of the synagogue, daughter who was dying. A large crowd gathered around as he walked. This woman had been hemorrhaging for a long time, twelve years; and it was uncontrollable. No one could touch her or anything she had touched. The Jews law considered her unclean, so unclean that she was to be divorced by her husband. She was to be totally cut off from society and religious worship. This particular woman had tried all she knew. She had seen “many” doctors, and “spent all the money that she had,” and yet she “grew worse.” “This woman was at the end of her road.” Oh! I know there is a sermon that needs to be preached. So pray with me while I tell you Why we don’t give up?

I need to tell you she had three attitudes that I need to talk about. When you have been brought to the point of helplessness and hopelessness and there is no hope anywhere else, there is always hope in Christ. She had a last resort attitude. This was not the time for her to give up. She was breaking the law by being in the crowd. She desperately wanted Jesus to heal her, but she knew that her bleeding would cause Jesus to be unclean, if she touched him. Sometimes we feel that our problems will keep us from God. This woman had a last resort attitude. One reason for why we don’t give up is, when all else fails, there is Jesus. He is waiting for us. “That is why we don’t give up?”

She was shy, embarrassed, and felt unworthy. This woman had a nobody's business but my own attitude. She elbowed her way through the crowd and came up behind Jesus. She wanted to touch Jesus without being seen or noticed. Her hemorrhaging was personal and intimate matter for her, something she did not want others to know or discuss. Somebody knows what I’m talking about, the feeling of guilt and shame. We have had embarrassing matters, personal matters, and secret matters that we want no one else to be aware of. Hear me church, we sometimes get embarrassed and have an nobody's business but my own attitude. We can still approach Jesus. He is waiting for us. “That why we don’t give up?”

This hopeless woman had a believing attitude. She believed what she had heard about Jesus. She believed the gospel that Jesus preached and believed he would care about her plight and would make her whole. “ If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” The believing attitude is important for everyone before coming to Christ. We must have a believing attitude to understand that Jesus, he waiting for us. “That why we don’t give up?”

I live in two worlds, one world where I work as one of God’s servants and a voice in making life better for others there in Durham. The second world where I’m reliving my past. A place where I asked many times “Where are you God?”

The women with the issue of blood and I have something in common. I had to go to Jesus to be made whole. Nothing else worked. There was no need for me to reach the point of hopelessness; no need for me to become depressed, and no need for me to consider giving up. God wants a broken spirit and sincere remorse. We can never please God by our outward action. God looked inward and was pleased by my humility. Jesus, he is waiting for me. “That why we don’t give up?” We often wish we could escape troubles, the pain of grief, loss, sorrow, and failure. My Jesus promises to be “close to the brokenhearted”, to be our source of power, our source of courage, and our source of wisdom while helping us through our problem. When trouble strikes, don’t give up. Instead, admit that you need God’s help and thank him for being by your side. Jesus, he is waiting for us, “That why we never give up.”

You are the greatest Miracle in the World

You are a Miracle

God made you special and all your life you have been looking for meaning. I can’t change the past. What is past is dead. Let the dead bury the dead.

Count your blessings let us take an inventory.

1. You are not blind.
2. You can hear.
3. You can speak.
4. You are not paralyzed.
5. Your heart still beats.
6. Your blood is not poisoned.
7. You are not feeble minded.

You have another day to change your life. This is not the end, each day is the begining. You are a Miracle, and Count your blessings.

Proclaim you rarity

Never, in all the seventy Million years humans who have walked this planet since the beginning of time has there been anyone exactly like you. No one has your testimony and no one can tell like you can tell it. You are a Miracle, count your blessings, and proclaim your rarity.

Go another mile

When someone asks you to go one mile go two. The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be. This is a habit followed by all successful people since the beginning of time. 2- Want a blessing be blessing to someone else. 3- Ask the God that gives you another day to change your life ask a Question “What can I do for you today God”? You are a Miracle, count your blessings, proclaim your rarity, and go another mile.

You have a gift God did not give the angels. You have the power of Choice. Use wisely your Gifts.

God’s gifts to you

God gave you the power to think, God gave you the power to create, God gave you the power to Love, God gave you the power to imagine, God gave you the power to will, God gave you the power to laugh, God gave you the power to plan, God gave you the power to speak, and God gave you the power to Pray

Your power of Choice

Choose to love rather than hate, Choose to laugh rather than cry, Choose to create rather than destroy, Choose to praise rather than gossip, Choose to persevere rather than quit, Choose to heal rather than wound, Choose to give rather than steal, Choose to grow rather than rot, Choose to act rather than procrastinate, Choose to pray rather then curse, and Choose to live rather than to die.

You are a Miracle, count your blessings, proclaim your rarity, Go another mile and wisely use your power to choose. You are the greatest Miracle in the World.

This text was taken from the Book “The Greatest Miracle in the World” (Chapter Nine)

Presented by Rev. Melvin Whitley