Released by the League of Women Voters of Maryland on November 24, 2019

RSVP for the BIG climate summit in Maryland On December 14, at the University of Maryland College Park campus, a coalition of advocacy groups large and small — faith leaders, labor activists, environmental groups, and others — will be hosting an exciting one-day conference called Rebuild Maryland: Climate Action Summit. Please click here to register for the event. The conference will be co-sponsored by a growing list of organizations including: The League of Women Voters of Maryland, Maryland Climate Coalition, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club, Interfaith Power & Light, Maryland Legislative Coalition, 350 dot org, Howard County Sunrise, HoCo Climate Action, MoCo Students for Climate, Climate Law & Policy Project, ClimateXChange,  Takoma Park Mobilization Environment Committee, Climate Reality Montgomery County, Elders Climate Action, DoTheMostGood and Eastern Panhandle Green Coalition. There will be inspiring speakers and you will be given the opportunity to discuss what climate solutions inspire you the most. You don’t want to miss this day-long conference. Register here for the Rebuild Maryland: Climate Action Summit The conference is free to attend, and includes bagels, coffee, and lunch. BUT A SUGGESTED DONATION OF $25 WILL HELP COVER THE COSTS of the food and the space rental. Time: 9:00am - 4:30pm Date: Saturday, December 14, 2019 Location: University of Maryland in College Park, Colony Ballroom in the Stamp Student Union Suggested donation: $25 Nancy Soreng, http://www.lwvmd.org/ P.S. You might also want to consider attending THE MARYLAND LEGISLATIVE SUMMIT sponsored by the Maryland Legislative Coalition at the campus of the University of Maryland Baltimore County this event will showcase a presentation of top 2020 environmental bills as well as legislation designed to fund our schools, lower health care prices, and more. Tickets are available here.

League of Women Voters of Maryland · 121 Cathedral St, Ste. 2B, Annapolis, MD 21401, United States This email was sent to kladky7@gmail.com. To stop receiving emails, click here.

Released by the Community Development Network of Maryland on November 27, 2019

HUD CERTIFICATION COACHING 

 This is it!  August 2020 will be here before you know it!

It's time to stop procrastinating and start studying.

Come to this session and make a written plan for 

studying and time and space to carry out

We will give counselors with different learning styles 

tools to help them successfully pass the test.

Also, if you have taken the test before, let's dust

yourself off and try again. You CAN do it!

Baltimore

DECEMBER 5, 2019

12:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Druid Heights CDC

Register here

 Visit CDN's brand new website

for more information and

how to become a member today.

Released by the PRRAC on November 27, 2019

Title I "segregation incentives" 

One of our perennial education policy concerns has been the continuing "penalty" built into the Title I school funding formula for districts that take steps to reduce school poverty concentration. Along with calls for a dramatic expansion of Title I funding for high poverty schools, we were pleased to see the issue called out in the education platforms of two Democratic presidential candidates (Warren and Sanders) - so we prepared a short policy brief for the National Coalition on School Diversity explaining the issue and proposing reforms.  We've also updated our survey of the Democratic candidates' positions on school integration to include several new developments.

More progress on source of income discrimination:  

In 2018, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report using the data from PRRAC's "Appendix B" survey of laws protecting Housing Choice Voucher families from discrimination.  The report, Prohibiting Discrimination Against Renters Using Housing Vouchers Improves Results, by Alison Bell, Barbara Sard, and Becky Koepnick (December 2018), included a chronology of adoption of the statutes and an interactive map illustrating the geographic scope of SOI laws.  According to the Center's calculations, at the time the report was released, source of income discrimination laws protected 34% of voucher holders in the U.S.   With the addition of two states since December 2018 (New York and California) and eight new municipalities, we estimate that approximately 50% of voucher holders in the U.S. are now covered by these laws!  See our updated survey here.

RAD Choice-Mobility:  One of the most innovative aspects of the Rental Assistance Demonstration is the "Choice-Mobility" requirement that permits families affected by a RAD public housing redevelopment, after the redevelopment is completed, to trade their public housing unit for a portable Housing Choice Voucher (which then opens up their unit for another family on the waitlist).  But HUD's recently released report on the initial phase of RAD developments confirms our own research in progress - that many tenants in RAD properties are not being given notice of their rights to obtain a choice-mobility voucher.  See the report here.

Follow Mobility Works on Twitter!  Our housing mobility group is new to Twitter, so please follow us at @Mobility Works for news and updates on our work. Mobility Works is a group comprised of PRRAC, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership, Housing Choice Partners (Chicago), and the Inclusive Communities Project (Dallas), which works to help low-income families move into diverse, well-resourced communities with high-performing schools, by teaming up with housing authorities and other nonprofits to develop regional housing mobility programs. Learn more about our work here.

Other Resources

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has just released a report on federal government civil rights enforcement efforts in Fiscal Years 2016 through 2018: Are Rights a Reality? Evaluating Federal Civil Rights Enforcement.

Segregation in preschool: Penn State's Center for Education and Civil Rights has released a new report, Segregation at an Early Age - 2019 Update which examines trends in pre-K racial and economic segregation, and its long term impacts.

Health and housing: The Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research is releasing a foundation-funded report series, "Legal Levers for Health Equity in Housing" - the first three reports are available here.

Register Today: Advocacy, CRA & AFFH November 14 - 15, 2019 2201 North Monroe St, Baltimore, MD 21217 Maryland Community Reinvestment Coalition (MCRC) and NCRC invite you to join us for a joint training on November 14 - 15 in Baltimore with partners Prosperity Now! to discuss how to use advocacy and private and public funding to address the needs of your community. This two-day event will take place from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. By the end of the training session, participants will: Gain a deeper understanding of racial economic inequality in Baltimore and how these challenges impact their ability to render services to clients; Become knowledgeable about developing nonprofit programs and services that integrate tools to address the challenges of growing racial economic inequality;  Learn more about the Community Reinvestment Act and its requirement that banks invest in low-income people and places; Learn about the Fair Housing Acts’ Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing obligation for public funding to be used to invest in segregated communities.

DOROTHY BROWN BASCOM, Community Leader &

Civil Rights Worker, 91

The wife of the noted civil rights leader Rev. Marion C. Bascom, Bascom was a teacher, school principal, civil rights worker, and business owner. Believing that everyone could succeed, she was praised for her outstanding teaching ability while teaching at seven schools for forty years.

As her daughter remarked, she was a "quiet warrior" in the civil rights movement. She provided hospitality in hosting civil rights marchers as they traveled through Baltimore to Washington, D.C. Bascom also participated in the August 28,1963, March on Washington and the 1973 March on Washington. 

She was treasured for serving her great home-cooked meals for Douglas Memorial Community Church parishioners and Baltimore City officials, as well as members of the Goon Squad, who were Maryland civil rights activists. Bascom also was a member of the W.E.B. DuBois Circle of black women in Baltimore City.  

The family has created this Life Tribute page to share your memories: https://www.marchfh.com/obituaries/Dorothy-Bascom/.

Read the November 6, 2019 obituary in the Baltimore Sun.