Child Privacy Rules

Recently I lost a promising account to a curious blog platform called Ning. While doing background research however I came across a federal law called COPPA ...the Childhood Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. The FTC -- Federal Trade Commission -- administers the law and a couple years ago levied a one million dollar fine against social media site Xanga for accepting kids under 13 without their parent's consent. The FTC also has a set of rules that apply to PolicyBridge efforts to provide a Safe Harbor for kids in its three target neighborhoods. These rules have been interpreted in a variety of ways by local agencies. One allows kids to sign in on Blogger.com another doesn't even allow access to this popular site.
Central to the solution is an overall strategy to engage parents in understanding and approving their children's participation in the Education Pays neighborhood Blogs.
--Cec, your friendly neighborhood Blog Publisher.

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Sustainabilty Conf.3GP

PolicyBridge assisted in the planning
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Sustainability Conference Day Two

Heavy turnout again at the convention center downtown. Hundreds of skits as participants display

their dreams for a sustainable community. Yesterday there were four teenagers who won awards for their essays detailing how they would improve their neighborhood and their city. I can't help but wonder if there shouldn't be more kids here ... maybe from the neighborhoods of Slavic Village, Mt. Pleasant, and the Central Neighborhoods.

Live Blog--Randy

Wow. Looking at the program. There on the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Design Team Members List. Halfway down in alphabetical order ... This name ...
Randy McShepherd , RPM International.
Now he's standing ... Introduced as a member of the steering committee.

Cec the Blogger.
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Live Blog--Obama's Green Guy

Van Jones, Sustainability Director, says internet and green economy wii power the economic Recovery. Cecil Hickman Blog Publisher. My question. Will struggling neighborhoods lag behind ... Like wind turbines in a vacuum.
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Sustainable Cleveland 2019 ++Live Blog.

Packed house at Cleveland Convention Center downtown. Called by the Mayor. Frank Jackson. PolicyBridge on planning committee. Hope action flows from this meeting. Cecil, Blog Publisher.
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Blog Buddy--PolicyBridge Chairman: Randell McShepard (Part 2)

I would be remiss if I did not also mention that education pays in many ways that go well above and beyond a paycheck or financial status. An educated citizenry elects and holds accountable high caliber elected officials. An educated citizenry challenges school districts to be culturally competent and outcome driven. An educated citizenry also develops new solutions to old problems and does not wait for the proverbial “calvary” to come and save them….they save themselves. Therefore, I contend that the stakes are too high for our city, our region and our nation to miss the boat on the importance of educating our future generations. A failure to do so will not only erode the economic tax base of our community, but it will also unravel the social fabric that has kept our communities resilient and progressive for decades.

Simply put, education is the gift that keeps on giving. Let’s help our kids to receive and utilize the most important gift they could ever hope for.

Marc C. Batson

I worked throughout most of my high school years. I realized then that I needed to get a high school diploma and a college degree in order to be able to get a better job than those I had worked in high school. Make no mistake, those jobs paid good money for a single person living with their parents in high school or recent high school graduate, but they really were not enough for me to live alone and buy my own car. Therefore, I went to college. I have had much better job opportunities with much greater salaries since I received my college degree. You'll have choices to make too starting right now. I hope you choose the path of better opportunities and high salaries like I did.

Best of luck with your career,

Mark C. Batson
Executive Director
PolicyBridge, Inc.

Bite-sized Blog Book--State Lawmaker: Rep. Lloyd Daniel (Part 2)

School was out and the YMCA was offering a free sports program at the high school in my neighbor, it included track. I’d never been on a high school track. It was a quarter mile track and seemed huge.
It appeared endless. I was always the youngest and tallest kid in my class in elementary school, but the Central High track made me feel tiny and out of place. The program was for kids 13 years old and under. Most of the participants were 12 and 13. And a few who lied about their age were 14 and 15. To me, at 7, they were all “big kids”.



To find out who could run and who couldn’t, the coach had us run what was, back then, called the 440, because it was 440 yards. That race is now referred to as the 400, because of the use of the metric system. We were to run once around the track. I was surprised by the starter’s gun and got off to a bad start. For the first half of the race I was at the very back of the pack, dead last, behind the rest of the fifty or so runners. But because I had been running daily for about a month, as ciders flew in my face, I began to pull up closed and closer to the middle of the stampede. By three quarters of the way around the track I was in about ninth place. As we turned the corner and entered the home stretch, the lead runners grew weary and began to fade. But because I had been unknowingly training for just such an occasion,
I began to accelerate. I wasn’t tired at all. I knew I was going to win as long as I didn’t fall as I had done so many times when I was sick. As I blew past the runner in 5th place, then 4th place, then 3rd, then 2nd place, and then the lead runner, from out of nowhere I heard my father’s voice. He was yelling at the top of his lunges, “Go boy! Go boy!” I didn’t know he was in the stands. I then realized that he had taken off work to watch me compete.
I looked up in the bleachers and saw him furiously clapping his hands and crying. Then I started to cry and felt myself switch into another gear, running faster, I felt, than I’d ever run before. I crossed the white lime finish line nearly 20 yards ahead of the pack, knowing that I, for sure, was blessed, had recovered, that there were those who loved me, that I could see my future shinning bright ahead me and that no matter what had happened before that day or what would happen in days to come, no weapon formed against me would prosper.

Come back next Friday to hear about Rep. Lloyd Daniel

Rep. Lloyd Daniel is a writer, advocate, college professor and former member of Missouri’s House of Representatives. He lives in Kansas City. His website address is

Blog Buddy--PolicyBridge Chairman: Randell McShepard (Part 1)

Much has been written by PolicyBridge and many other sources about the economic impact that education can have on a person’s life and/or livelihood. It has been reported, by example, that a person with a bachelor’s degree earns approximately $1 million dollars more over the course of their career than someone with a high school diploma. As I personally grew up in a blue collar environment, and now work in a white collar position, I understand clearly that both can provide the means necessary to take care of a family and to be a contributing member of society. However, what is troubling for minority communities in this current day and age is that the blue collar experiences of the past have led many to what I refer to as a “false sense of confidence” about the opportunities that the current market has to offer. Blue collar jobs of yester-year in areas such as automobile manufacturing plants and steel mills are forever gone. Resultantly, jobs today require knowledge versus a strong back. Hence the campaign – Education Pays – Get Yours!

Come back next week to hear more from Randell McShepard.

Grand Prize for Young Blogger -- Computer !

A lucky 10 to 13 year old from Slavic Village, Mt. Pleasant, or the Central Neighborhoods of Cleveland, will win a Computer and Printer. All you have to do is contribute the most combined posts, comments, drawings, music, and photos.

Grand Prize:

Dell Dimension with Windows XP. Harman Kardan Speakers. LexMark Printer. Used but in perfect working condition. Deadline September 1st.

Hickman Media Consultants is donating the computer system to further the Education Pays goals of PolicyBridge and it’s neighborhood partners.

Tell your friends . Check put this blog every day for more prizes for Best Post, Best Comment, Best Photos, Best Original Video, Best Original Music. All contributions subject to release form signed by parents. Click the comment line below this post and request a form sent to your parent's email address.

Posting by email

Dashboard. Click envelope icon to the left of blog title. Note the long email address for each blog. Send words even pictures by email. --Blog Publisher.
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The Education Pays - Get Yours team had another great time supporting the Chet Mason Celebrity Basketball game at the Zelma George Recreation Center in Mt. Pleasant. Chet Mason is from the Mt. Pleasant area and plays professional basketball in Europe. Each year he sponsors a celebrity basketball game to support his community. The Education Pays - Get Yours team along with CoCo and the Z 107.9 hype team encouraged the crowd and participants keep the youth focused on education. As you know going back to school is right around the corner!Pictures will be posted on the website soon and watch for our interviews and halftime speeches on Village TV and City of Cleveland Television!Attendees could get in for free if they brought school supplies or canned goods. Everyone had a wonderful time and thanks go out to Garnett and Arlette the Zelma George Recreation Center Managers. Also, a special thanks goes to Kim Johnson, City of Cleveland Director of Parks and Recreation and Mayor Jackson for supporting Education Pays - Get Yours programs in City of Cleveland Recreation Centers throughout the summer.Next up for Mt. Pleasant is a formula for success writing workshop for kids 12-18 at the Zelma George Recreation Center on August 6th at 1:30pm.

Bite-sized Blog Book--State Lawmaker: Rep. Lloyd Daniel (Part 1)

I’ve been blessed to have a number of life altering or fork in the road moments and choices. The one that stands out in my mind today is when I was 7 years old, in the spring of 1960, and was in the hospital with an acute kidney infection. They thought I was going to die. People in my family, especially my mother, prayed for me almost constantly, as did many members of Ward Chapel A.M.E. church. Three other children in the same ward did die while I was there. One of them I thought of as a friend. I was in hospital beds and wheel chairs for so long that when I was released from Kansas University Medical Center I could no longer walk. Upon release I rolled through the hospital’s front doors. It took several painful weeks to learn to walk again.

It was the summer of the Rome Olympics and a Black female runner by the name of Wilma Rudolph was competing. She had been a victim of polio and as a child had worn braces. Doctors told her parents that she would always be cripple. The doctors were wrong. I was inspired as I watched her, on TV; win 3 gold medals for herself, Colored people and the United States. That night, I began praying and exercising my legs by running around my block virtually everyday. This was before joggings became fashionable. The neighbors wondered where I was running to or what I was running from. The street I lived on had long blocks and I ran around it time and time again, sometimes as many as fifty times. Occasional I ran with friends, but most of the time I ran alone...

Come back next Friday to hear about Rep. Lloyd Daniel

Rep. Lloyd Daniel is a writer, advocate, college professor and former member of Missouri’s House of Representatives. He lives in Kansas City. His website address is www.lloyddaniel.info

We had a great time at the Family Unity Festival at Luke Easter Park last Saturday!

Check out some of the pictures from the festival! Go to www.policy-bridge.org/educationpays for info on upcoming events!

Family Unity Festival

Welcome from Program Coordinator

Welcome, I am so excited to begin this dialogue with you. As the Program Coordinator this initiative is extremely valuable to me. Education is one of the most vital and fundamental elements to being successful. The value of education has deep roots for me. My parents made sure that I received the best education that they could provide. As it has often been said, “my parents didn’t play when it came to school.” I remember how hard they pushed me to do well and demanded that I brought home good grades. My mom once said, “that it was her job to go to work and take care of me, and the only job that I had was to go to school.” That has stayed with me and has been the source of my success. I faced many challenges that could have disrupted my path. The biggest one was becoming a mother my sophomore year in high school. Nevertheless, I was determined to give my child all that I had and more. I knew I could not do this without an education. Therefore, I completed high school, went to college and will be graduating with a Master’s Degree this August. Many of you will face the same challenges and more but there is always hope. With dedication, inspiration, role models, and motivation you too can be a success.

There is promise in grooming thinkers, innovators, entrepreneurs, and scholars. Education Pays – Get Yours is an initiative that champions that promise. Not only do we want our children to know how imperative an education is to their lives but we also want to send that message to the community at large. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and feedback. We want to know what your challenges are and what inspires you. In addition please check the website, www. policy-bridge.org/educationpays , for more information and activities.
Let’s Talk!!!

Sincerely,
Ashley R. Evans
Program Coordinator
PolicyBridge Inc.

Welcome From Blog Publisher

Welcome to the Education Pays Get Yours blog for PolicyBridge.

This is YOUR blog where you can talk with friends, encourage one another, learn cool stuff, meet successful people.

We encourage you to post pictures, video and audio. If you want to know how to use the various features of this blog just click on the comment link below my blog posts and I will get right back to you. We also invite you to help in managing these blogs. We need writers, artists, camera, sound recorders and video people if you wish to volunteer.

We would love to hear your comments to any post so you can click comment below a particular post and tell us what think about Education Pays Get Yours.

Cec

Blog Publisher

Hello, kids. I am a career journalist. My second worst education move was playing around in high school and getting low grades. I remember selling encyclopedias door-to-door one summer (ugh ! ) when I ran into a guy who offered me a paying job as a copyboy for the Kansas City Star Newspaper. It jumped started my career as a reporter and I later went on to teach at some of the top journalism schools in the country. What is the lesson here?