Grassroots effort for health care reform gathers on turf of Garfield Park

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (APRIL 16, 2009)--The Thursday evening rally at Garfield Park, on the city's southeast side, might have been mistaken for a family reunion or, better yet, an activists' fashion show. People from across the region came dressed in loud t-shirts bearing insignia from their respective organizations.

But with many t-shirt slogans came one unified message: health care for all can't wait.

The town hall meeting, sponsored by Grand Rapids ACORN and Health Care for America NOW (HCAN), gathered a large host of people to discuss concerns about the nation's health care system.

"Being part of a democracy doesn't happen every four years," explained Chris van Leeuwen, the event's organizer. "It happens every day."

Van Leeuwen represents ACORN, a nationwide organization whose goal is to mobilize a critical mass around various social issues. One such issue is that of health care.

Val Przywara works for the Michigan chapter of HCAN and is a member of the Health Care Action Group for the Micah Center, a local faith-based grassroots effort to educate and empower the community to act against injustice. "(Health care) can't wait because we're spending more and more and getting less and less in return," she said. "Our current system doesn't work."
There were many in attendance Thursday evening who offered first-hand testimonies of the failures of the nation's health care system. 

Charleen Smith, of Righteous Justice, stood up during the forum to explain her Christian ministry's efforts to connect low-income individuals with proper care-providing outlets. 

"Some of these people don't seek insurance because of all the confusing forms," she said, indicating that low literacy can be a barrier to adequate health care. She also commented on the plight of the working poor who don't qualify for Medicaid but are too poor to pay out of pocket for services.

Two young college graduates related their experiences as low-wage earners unable to afford insurance.

Another attendee raised questions about health care access for undocumented immigrants. "Is it really health care for all?" she asked.

Maria Salinas, who later consoled the young woman asking about coverage for immigrants, commented on the struggles of undocumented individuals and families with relation to health care. 

"Health care and immigration go hand in hand," said Salinas, a representative of faith-based Gamaliel. She indicated that many immigrant families forego obtaining basic services due to fear. "They're afraid they won't be able to pay, or they won't understand, or they won't have an I.D. to present."

Dr. John Cavacece, primary care physician at the Wege Institute of St. Mary's hospital and member of the Micah Center, offered his perspective as a health care provider. "I've seen patients die because they didn't have health insurance," he explained. "We want insurance for everyone."

The resounding chorus in favor of a universal health care system did not fall upon deaf ears. Among those in attendance were State Representative Rev. Robert Dean and Kent County Comissioner Brandon Dillon.

The road to reform, however, is never smooth. "We're going to need to keep active on this campaign," said John Freeman, state director of UCAN's Michigan office. "This is not a one-hit issue."

Cavacece echoed Freeman's comments. "This has got to be something from the grassroots," he said.

So it seemed only fitting that a grassroots effort such as this would take place on the green lawn of Garfield Park.

One of those comprising the grassroots effort was Willie Bolden. Wearing a purple Service Employees International Union shirt and clasping a "Health Care Can't Wait" sign, he quietly took in the event. "I'm here for the support," Bolden explained. "We've got a bad health care system; I'd like to see a lot of change."

Bolden, a veteran of the armed services, explained his own struggles obtaining health care. "I can go to the VA clinic, but even that's limited."

But he wasn't present just for himself. His mother, also in attendance, is among the millions of Americans without adequate health insurance. Bolden recognized the potential for change, however, observing, "There is strength in numbers."

Those numbers promise to grow: van Leeuwen indicated that the universal health care initiative is a top priority for ACORN. "It's about phone calls. It's about calling families, calling indidividuals, calling senators and representatives," he said.

As chairs were packed into the trunk of a car and a lone podium stood in the 

dusk of Garfield Park, van Leeuwen and others expressed satisfaction. Tomorrow, it will be back to the relentless work of striving for change.

For the health of everyone, let's hope they succeed.

Brian Paff, The Micah Center

Stations of the Cross event draws participants near to Christ's passion, those for whom he is passionate

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (April 11, 2009)--On a day when Christians worldwide remember the suffering and death of Jesus of Nazareth, thunderclouds and heavy rain may have been more appropriate. Instead, the forty or so participants in the Micah Center's Good Friday observance hit the streets of the Heartside neighborhood beneath blue skies.

This is not to say that this was a typical spring afternoon stroll.

The Stations of the Cross commemoration, which began and ended at Heartside Ministries, led the gathering to five additional sites in the downtown area. At each stop, participants recognized local efforts to serve the city's marginalized but lamented injustices that nevertheless remain.

Heartside Ministries, an agency meeting the needs of Grand Rapids' homeless and transient population, was a fitting site for the service. Some members of the Heartside community joined the procession, and much of the litany participants followed focused on the plight of the poor and marginalized sectors of society.

"It was nice to see the intersection of the Micah Center and the justice issues it's concerned about," said Micah Center member Tera Dent. She elaborated, explaining that holding such an event in the downtown area forced particpants to observe the products of injustice firsthand.

Vern Hoffman, founder of the Micah Center, was pleased with what he called "a good turnout."

The event attracted the attention of The Grand Rapids Press, entering the Micah Center's efforts to pursue justice into public consciousness. Charley Honey, religion editor, attended the event with a camera crew and produced a feature story in Saturday's edition of The Press. The article can also be viewed online at mLive.

Last year, Kooyman led a group of fifteen to twenty faithful participants through wind and snow on an unseasonably cold Good Friday.

This year's installment of the justice-themed Stations of the Cross, which was initiated last year by Kate Kooyman, attracted a strong contingent of justice-seekers. The weather certainly didn't hurt. 

"I thought everything went wonderfully," Kooyman commented afterwards via email.

Kooyman partnered this year with other Micah Center members as well as Glenn Swier, a Western Theological Seminary staffer who also took part in the event's organizing efforts in 2008.

After the Stations observance, a number of those in attendance remarked how spiritually meaningful the event was. "You know me, I'll do anything for Jesus," said Tammy, of Grand Rapids. 

Questions about replicating the event again during next year's Lenten season surfaced, encouraging the Micah Center as a whole to continue its efforts to bring justice issues to the forefront of public consciousness.

Brian Paff, The Micah Center

Don Cooney touts Harlem Children's Zone at Micah Center lecture

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (April 8, 2009)--Princeton. Yale. Harvard. MIT. Carnegie Melon. Johns Hopkins. A valedictorian of even the most prestigious high school would covet an acceptance letter from one of these institutions.

At the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Gems HeadStart program’s classrooms are named after such schools, an effort to instill in children the belief that they can indeed reach the sky’s limits in education and in life.

Don Cooney, professor of Social Work and city commissioner of Kalamazoo, highlighted Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) in a lecture at the Micah Center on Tuesday night.

“They want (children) thinking college from the very beginning,” he said. 

In the past several years, Kalamazoo has made strides to replicate the HCZ’s efforts to reform community and education programs.

"I’ve seen what education can do for people,” Cooney told the forty people in attendance. “From a business perspective, it’s a good investment.”

He cited statistics regarding education level and poverty rates, incarceration rates, quality of health and life, and the like. Cooney also referenced city and state costs to meet some of these needs that might be avoided if addressed through education efforts. 

For the people of Kalamazoo, there was sufficient evidence to pursue comprehensive reform. “We were not giving these kids the support they needed,” he said.

A delegation of community leaders from the city visited the Harlem Children’s Zone last year to learn at the feet of those who have initiated a revolution in one of the nation’s poorest and most under-resourced neighborhoods.

Cooney said the visit was transforming. “You can see that these people love those kids and that those kids love them.”

The Harlem Children’s Zone, in Cooney’s observation, owes a great deal of its success to its network of services provided. He described this as a “conveyor belt”, wherein the HCZ offers a coordinated, seamless support system that meets children’s needs while still in the womb until they reach college and beyond.

Programs range from parent education to employment training to a charter school system and before- and after-school programs. The HCZ staff effectively identifies the needs of the community and designs services to meet those needs. Parents and children are rewarded for participation and encouraged to give back to the community. 

So how has the city of Kalamazoo responded?

“We put all this money into getting kids into college, and that’s great,” Cooney said, “but if we don’t support them, too many kids are being missed.”

In Kalamazoo, sixty percent of black males fail to graduate from high school, he said. Other statistics reveal additional failures to effectively serve its diverse and economically strapped population.

The city’s Communities in Schools (KCIS) program aims to combat these realities. 

“There are many organizations providing support, but it’s not coordinated,” explained Cooney. KCIS connects schools with the basic services families need to support their children’s education. He described KCIS initiatives related to healthcare, housing, employment, education, childcare, and nutrition.

In the past couple years, funding for this holistic approach has increased dramatically to $2 Million, providing services to 11 out of the district’s 22 public schools.

Cooney’s future vision for KCIS includes an expansion of this community-wide effort to better meet the needs of Kalamazoo’s poor. He emphasized increasing funding and strengthening partnerships with the city’s existing service-providing agencies, churches, and universities.

“It’s crazy that we have 100 kids on the street after school and a church on the corner with its gym doors locked. We need to use all the facilities in a community.”

He closed with a vignette describing a project with which he was involved in Philadelphia that saw all nine of its participating “at-risk” youth attend college. “I believe it can be done,” he said. “If we give these kids a chance, they will succeed.”

Brian Paff, The Micah Center

Stations of the Cross will focus people of faith on the passion of Christ and the suffering of their neighbors

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (March 28, 2009) -- Suffering is no stranger to the tradition of Stations of the Cross, an observance practiced by Christian believers on Good Friday, the day commemorating Jesus of Nazareth's crucifixion.

This year, however, people of faith in West Michigan will put a new spin on that theme. On Friday, April 10, the Micah Center will sponsor a Stations of the Cross observance focusing participants on Jesus Christ's suffering as well as social injustices afflicting their neighbors near and far.

The idea was conceived of by the Micah Center's Kate Kooyman, Congregational Justice Mobilizer for the CRC Office of Social Justice.

During Holy Week last year, Kooyman organized a similar event with some colleagues from Western Theological Seminary. Despite unseasonably harsh weather, a strong group of twenty people turned out to examine and pray for injustices and the people affected by them in the greater Grand Rapids community.

The event is scheduled to start at Heartside Ministries (54 S Division, Grand Rapids) at 4 p.m on Friday, April 10. Participants will begin with a litany reading and prayer before departing Heartside to visit various locations in the downtown area. Each location will tie in to various aspects of injustice, relating them to the teachings and sufferings of Christ during his passion.

The gathering will reconvene at Heartside Ministries at 6 p.m. for a brief service to conclude the observance.

The event is not intended to be a protest or demonstration but rather a prayerful meditation on the meaning of the crucifixion and how Christians might respond to Christ's sacrifice.

"We are hopeful that this observance will strengthen people's resolve to act against injustice in the community," says Kooyman. "We want this to be an intensely spiritual experience, one that connects Christ's suffering with the suffering of those in our midst."

Those interested in participated are invited to meet at Heartside Ministries (54 S Division) at 4 p.m. on April 10; for more information and inquiries about accessibility for those with mobility concerns, please write to info@themicahcenter.com.

Brian Paff, The Micah Center

A call to reform: Don Cooney to urge reshaping of educational system in Micah Center lecture

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (March 26, 2009)--Don Cooney will examine the plight of the U.S. education system and propose how it might be reshaped to provide equal access and opportunity to America's children in a lecture at the Micah Center  at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7. Cooney, in the spirit of social theorists Jonathan Kozol and Alex Kotlowitz, plans to lift up the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) as a model of educational reform, one that urban communities might do well to replicate.

HCZ was touted as "one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time" by New York Times Magazine; it has created a vibrant community which holistically addresses the many needs of children and their families in New York's Harlem neighborhood. President Barack Obama and other political leaders have called attention to its many good works in the name of justice.

Dr. Cooney teaches in the School of Social Work at Western Michigan University and serves as city commissioner of Kalamazoo. His resume includes over thirty years in the classroom and numerous roles in community organizing, both in the U.S. and abroad. As commissioner, he has supported the Living Wage Coalition in Kalamazoo and has worked to strengthen relationships between schools and the community.

The lecture, to be held at Hope Reformed Church (2010 Kalamazoo SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507), is free and open to the public.

Brian Paff, the Micah Center

Planting a forest: Four Micah Center members write letters to Sen. Levin; many more to follow

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (March 19, 2009)--Four trees might not make a forest, but the small handful of mustard seeds that were planted at the Micah Center this week remain hopeful that their faith will enact change. Tera Dent, Hunger Justice Leader with Bread for the World and key member of the Micah Center's Poverty & Hunger Action Group, guided three of her colleagues in an Offering of Letters workshop on Tuesday evening.

The workshop introduced participants to the advocacy process as outlined by Bread for the World, a Washington-based effort to focus Congress's attention on the many needs of the developing world. Bread possesses a rich history of advocating for the world's poor and marginalized. The organization's current letter-writing campaign calls not for a

dditional aid but rather more responsible and responsive assistance to ensure that money allocated for alleviating poverty is achieving that end. 

"At first I was pretty disappointed--I put a lot of time into preparing for this," Dent said 

afterward, reflecting on the small turnout. "But twenty minutes after we were supposed to start, Lou (Havemann) shared a story about a pastor who planted a church in a farm community that somehow made a lot of sense." 

Havemann, co-leader fo the Poverty & Hunger Action Group, told the group that on the farmer's first Sunday, only one other person showed up. The pastor tried to discern whether or not to move forward with the planned service, but the lone farmer insisted. "If I only have one cow in my barn, I still feed it," Havemann said.

Dent's planning and preparation were not in vain: at the workshop's conclusion, four hand-written letters to Senator Levin were sealed and ready to be mailed; furthermore, each participant expressed interest in Dent bringing the workshop to their own community of faith to expand the efforts of Bread for the World.

And so goes a grassroots effort to effect change--planting a forest, one tiny seed at a time.

Brian Paff, The Micah Center

Kate Kooyman merits attention for role in immigration reform movement

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN (March 12, 2009)--Kate Kooyman, co-leader of the Micah Center's Immigration Action Group, earned a spot in the Grand Rapids Press for her role in immigration advocacy and action in the West Michigan community. Press reporter Erin Albanese produced an excellent article focusing on Kooyman's contributions as a staff member with the CRC Office of Social Justice. 

In the article, Albanese describes the February prayer vigil held at La Iglesia Metodista Unida La Nueva Esperanza that gathered over 100 people of faith, Latino and non-Latino alike, co-sponsored by Kooyman's office, the Micah Center, Michigan Organizing Project, and Justice for Our Neighbors. It represents regional interest in an issue that has long been pushed aside in our national agenda, neglecting the needs of thousands upon thousands of immigrants across the country.

To view the article, you may click on the link below. For more information on the Micah Center Immigration Action Group, visit the Center's "Action Groups" page.

http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/03/christian_reformed_offi.html

Brian Paff, The Micah Center