#NNPA BlackPress
Some Hispanic Crime Victims in Birmingham Face Language Barrier
By Alaina Bookman | abookman@al.com Advocates working with the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) often receive calls from people who want help from police, but feel unable to accurately communicate their needs through a language barrier. Jefferson County has a growing Hispanic population and the organization says it needs help getting resources to residents who […]
The post Some Hispanic Crime Victims in Birmingham Face Language Barrier first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
By Alaina Bookman | abookman@al.com
Advocates working with the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) often receive calls from people who want help from police, but feel unable to accurately communicate their needs through a language barrier.
Jefferson County has a growing Hispanic population and the organization says it needs help getting resources to residents who don’t speak English. Over the next month, coalition members will work with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to lead multiple cultural and linguistic law enforcement training sessions.
So far in 2023, the coalition has served 188 victims of domestic violence. It can be hard for people who speak Spanish or an indigenous language to accurately communicate their needs to police, advocates say, or find the right resources. Many people rely on their children to act as English translators, which can result in children hearing and recounting traumatic details. And sometimes, language barriers mean that a victim is arrested instead of their abuser.
“Language access is a concern, it’s a challenge, it’s a barrier. I think it is the top concern we as a state should improve upon and do better,” Strong Families Project Manager Angelica Melendez said.
Through Sept. 2023, the coalition has served 408 victims of crimes, 324 of which were noted as having limited English proficiency.
“We take into consideration the cultural factors and beliefs people bring to the table. We serve a lot of undocumented victims, who perhaps don’t have the same access to resources as someone who is a U.S. citizen. We know how to navigate that,” Melendez said.
Language barriers, fear of law enforcement and fear of deportation are barriers some Hispanic and Latino people face when choosing to report a crime.
Coalition members say Alabama, like many southern states, has a growing Limited English Proficient population, but very little infrastructure available to support this population.
In 2020, Hispanic people made up about 5% of the state’s population, or about 264,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Availability Of Interpreters
Coalition members say there is a gap between federally mandated standards for language services and the availability of interpreters.
Many courts and law enforcement agencies do not have interpreters on their staff, leaving non English speaking individuals without the resources they may need in urgent or high stakes situations.
“Recognizing that people have cultural linguistic needs and adapting your approaches and perspective when you work in a services agency is super important to changing outcomes. The government and the state should also recognize that it’s a law to provide meaningful access to services,” Melendez said.
The coalition serves clients who speak a wide range of indigenous languages, not just Spanish. Melendez said language barriers can be detrimental when attending court or even life threatening when reporting crimes.
“We deal with a lot with domestic violence cases and a mom that may have been strangled or raped is not going to share those details with her child and that could be the difference between a misdemeanor offense or a felony,” Ana Okert, the coalition’s survivor advocate said.
Ockert has led a few of the Jefferson County cultural and linguistic law enforcement trainings.
“We’ve talked about the importance of just learning who you’re serving,” Ockert said.
Lieutenant William Powell, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office training coordinator, said he encourages his deputies to attend community events and learn what resources are available for Hispanic and immigrant residents.
“We were having some language barriers when our deputies would make contact with Spanish speaking citizens. That was one way to allow better interaction with deputies and the Spanish speaking community,” Powell said.
He said the cultural and linguistic training sessions are coupled with “Spanish for law enforcement” classes and implicit bias training.
“In the last couple of years, there’s kind of been a decay in our relationship with the community. So we’re trying to rebuild. We have to get with the stakeholders, get with the community leaders, talk with people, try to find out what they need and what their expectations are of us,” Powell said.
“We Understand Their Fear”
The coalition’s Victims of Crime program provides clients with free intake assessment, crisis intervention, safety planning, counseling, support groups, economic assistance, relocation, protection from abuse orders and court accompaniment.
“If basic needs are not addressed, they’re not going to feel confident or have what they need in order to succeed, to be more confident in the criminal justice system,” HICA Family and Victim Advocate April Alvarez said.
“Accessing services in their language, just knowing their rights, having someone who is familiar with the system helps a lot and makes them feel like they are not alone or trapped.”
Alvarez urges law enforcement to “do their best” to educate themselves about the resources available for Spanish-speaking victims of crimes, such as reaching out to the coalition’s advocates to support victims.
Maria Elena Frias, the coalition’s citizenship and immigration program manager, helps undocumented clients apply for humanitarian visas.
Humanitarian visas were created by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to encourage undocumented victims of crimes to report crimes.
Frias said case management can last for years, sometimes more than a decade, as visas can take up to 15 years to be granted after applying, and 5 to 7 years for work permits.
“The work permit for victims, especially when they’re starting over on their own, without the financial support of the perpetrator, is a big deal for them,” Frias said. “Having a work permit is life changing for them.”
“Sometimes deportation is an issue. They are not able to find a job because they don’t have a work permit. Sometimes that is one of the reasons victims of domestic violence stay in their abusive relationships, because how are they going to support their children,” Melendez said. “We understand their fear.”
Daniel Novoa, Strong Families safe communities navigator, works on the education and prevention side of the coalition. He said members are working to implement an in-school program to discuss what healthy relationships look like.
“If you provide it in the schools, in the court system, in any entity that could provide a social service, then you’re ensuring people that they can get services and resources to assure their safety,” Ockert said.
“If better language access is provided, then everything else falls into place so that people can thrive and be productive members of society.”
Read more: Learn more about AL.com’s new violence prevention reporter, Alaina, and support her work.
This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.
The post Some Hispanic Crime Victims in Birmingham Face Language Barrier first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
#NNPA BlackPress
IN MEMORIAM: Beloved ‘Good Times’ Star and Emmy-Nominated Actor, John Amos, Dies at 84
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Amos’ acting career spanned over five decades, with his most iconic role being that of James Evans Sr., the no-nonsense, hard-working father on the groundbreaking CBS sitcom “Good Times” (1974–1979). The show, which was the first sitcom to center on an African American family, became a cultural touchstone, and Amos’ portrayal of James Evans Sr. made him a symbol of strength and dignity for countless viewers.
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
John Amos, the Emmy-nominated actor and pioneering television star who brought to life some of the most beloved characters in entertainment history, has died. He was 84. His son, K.C. Amos, confirmed in a statement that Amos passed away more than a month ago, on Aug. 21, in Los Angeles of natural causes. The younger Amos didn’t say why he kept his father’s death under wraps for more than a month.
“It is with heartfelt sadness that I share with you that my father has transitioned,” K.C. said. “He was a man with the kindest heart and a heart of gold… and he was loved the world over. Many fans consider him their TV father. He lived a good life. His legacy will live on in his outstanding works in television and film as an actor.”
Amos’ acting career spanned over five decades, with his most iconic role being that of James Evans Sr., the no-nonsense, hard-working father on the groundbreaking CBS sitcom “Good Times” (1974–1979). The show, which was the first sitcom to center on an African American family, became a cultural touchstone, and Amos’ portrayal of James Evans Sr. made him a symbol of strength and dignity for countless viewers.
However, his time on the series was cut short after three seasons due to creative differences with the show’s producers. Amos famously clashed with the show’s direction, objecting to what he saw as the stereotypical portrayal of his on-screen son, J.J., played by Jimmie Walker.
“We had a number of differences,” Amos recalled in later interviews, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I felt too much emphasis was being put on J.J. in his chicken hat, saying ‘Dy-no-mite!’ every third page.” Amos’ insistence on portraying a more balanced, positive image of the Black family on television led to his departure from the show in 1976, when his character was written out in a dramatic two-part episode.
Born John Allen Amos Jr. on Dec. 27, 1939, in Newark, New Jersey, Amos began his professional life with dreams of playing football. He played the sport at Colorado State University and had brief stints with teams like the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs. But after a series of injuries and cutbacks, Amos transitioned to entertainment, beginning his career as a writer and performer.
Amos got his first major acting break as Gordy Howard, the good-natured weatherman on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” appearing on the iconic series from 1970 to 1973. He would go on to write and perform sketches on “The Leslie Uggams Show” and later landed roles in various television series and films.
In 1977, Amos received an Emmy nomination for his powerful portrayal of the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark ABC miniseries “Roots,” a role that solidified his status as one of television’s most respected actors. Amos’ performance in “Roots”, one of the most watched and culturally significant TV events of all time, remains one of his most enduring achievements.
In addition to his success on television, Amos made his mark in films. He appeared in Melvin Van Peebles’ groundbreaking blaxploitation film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (1971) and “The World’s Greatest Athlete” (1973). He was widely recognized for his role in “Coming to America” (1988), where he played Cleo McDowell, the owner of McDowell’s, a fast-food restaurant parody of McDonald’s. Amos reprised the role over three decades later in “Coming to America 2” (2021).
His filmography also includes the Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby classic “Let’s Do It Again” (1975), “The Beastmaster” (1982), “Die Hard 2” (1990), “Ricochet” (1991), “Mac” (1992), “For Better or Worse” (1995), “The Players Club” (1998), “Night Trap” (1993), and “Because of Charley” (2021).
Amos was also a familiar face on television throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, with recurring roles in shows like “The West Wing” as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as Will Smith’s stepfather. He appeared in “The District,” “Men in Trees,” “All About the Andersons” (as Anthony Anderson’s father), and the Netflix series “The Ranch.”
Beyond acting, Amos had a passion for writing and performing in theater. In the 1990s, when he found it challenging to secure roles in Hollywood, he wrote and starred in the one-person play “Halley’s Comet,” about an 87-year-old man waiting in the woods for the comet’s arrival. He toured with the production for over 20 years, performing in cities across the United States and abroad.
In addition to his onscreen and stage accomplishments, Amos co-produced the documentary “America’s Dad,” which explored his life and career. He was also involved in Broadway, appearing in Carl Reiner’s “Tough to Get Help” production in 1972.
John Amos’ life and career were not without personal challenges. In recent years, he was embroiled in a public legal battle between his children, K.C. and Shannon, over accusations of elder abuse.
This unfortunate chapter cast a shadow over his later years. However, his legacy as a beloved television father and one of Hollywood’s pioneering Black actors remains untarnished.
Both K.C. and Shannon, children from his first marriage to artist Noel “Noni” Mickelson and his ex-wife, actress Lillian Lehman, survive Amos.
#NNPA BlackPress
Reading and Moving: Great Ways to Help Children Grow
NNPA NEWSWIRE — In these formative years, your little one will learn to walk, learn how to grab and hold items, begin building their muscle strength, and more. Here are some ways to facilitate positive motor development at home:
Council for Professional Recognition
Before a child even steps into a classroom or childcare center, their first life lessons occur within the walls of their home. During their formative years, from birth to age five, children undergo significant cognitive, motor, and behavioral development. As their primary guides and first teachers, parents, and guardians play a pivotal role in fostering these crucial aspects of growth.
The Council for Professional Recognition, a nonprofit, is dedicated to supporting parents and families in navigating questions about childcare and education training. In keeping with its goal of meeting the growing need for qualified early childcare and education staff, the Council administers the Child Development Associate (CDA). The CDA program is designed to assess and credential early childhood education professionals. This work gives the Council great insights into child development.
Cognitive Development: Building the Foundation of Learning
Cognitive development lays the groundwork for a child’s ability to learn, think, reason, and solve problems.
- Read Together: One of the most powerful tools for cognitive development is reading. It introduces children to language, expands their vocabulary, and sparks imagination. Make reading a daily ritual by choosing age-appropriate books that capture their interest.
- Play Together: Play is a child’s entry to the physical, social, and affective worlds. It’s a critical and necessary tool in the positive cognitive development of young children and is directly linked to long-term academic success.
- Dance and Sing Together: These types of activities help young children develop spatial awareness and lead to improved communication skills. As a bonus, it’s also helpful for improving gross motor skills.
- Invite your Child to Help you in the Kitchen: It’s a fun activity to do together and helps establish a basic understanding of math and lifelong healthy eating practices.
- Encourage Questions: As children find their voice, they also find their curiosity for the world around them; persuade them to ask questions and then patiently provide answers.
Motor Development: Mastering Movement Skills
Motor development involves the refinement of both gross and fine motor skills, which are essential for physical coordination and independence. In these formative years, your little one will learn to walk, learn how to grab and hold items, begin building their muscle strength, and more. Here are some ways to facilitate positive motor development at home:
- Tummy Time: Starting from infancy, incorporate daily tummy time sessions to strengthen neck and upper body muscles, promoting eventual crawling and walking. You can elevate the tummy time experience by:
- Giving children lots of open-ended toys to explore like nesting bowls, a pail and shovel, building blocks, wooden animals, and people figures.
- Hanging artwork on the wall that appeals to infants, including bold colors, clear designs, and art from various cultures.
- Providing mobiles that children can move safely and observe shapes and colors.
- Outdoor Play: Provide opportunities for outdoor play, whether it’s at a park, playground, or in a backyard. Activities such as running, jumping, climbing, and swinging enhance gross motor skills while allowing children to connect with nature. Also, try gardening together! Not only does gardening promote motor skill development, but it offers many other benefits for young children including stress management, cognitive and emotional development, sensory development, and increased interest in math, sciences, and healthy eating.
- Fine Motor Activities: Fine motor skills relate to movement of the hands and upper body, as well as vision. Activities that encourage hand-eye coordination and fine motor skill development include:
- Drawing and coloring
- Doing puzzles, with size and piece amounts dependent on the age of the child
- Dropping items or threading age-appropriate beads on strings
- Stacking toys
- Shaking maracas
- Using age-appropriate, blunt scissors
- Playing with puppets or playdough
This is the type of knowledge that early childhood educators who’ve earned a Child Development Associate credential exhibit as they foster the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth of young children.
Supporting Early Childhood Educators
Recently, a decision in Delaware has helped early childhood professionals further their efforts to apply this type of knowledge. Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College, and Wilmington University have signed agreements to award 12 credits for current and incoming students who hold the Child Development Associate credential.
Delaware Governor John Carney said, “I applaud the Department of Education and our higher education partners for this agreement, which will support our early childhood educators. Research shows how important early childhood education is to a child’s future success. This new agreement will help individuals earn their degrees and more quickly get into classrooms to do the important work of teaching our youngest learners in Delaware.”
Council for Professional Recognition CEO Calvin E. Moore, Jr., said his organization is honored to be a part of this partnership.
“Delaware and the work of these institutions is a model that other states should look to. This initiative strengthens the early childhood education workforce by accelerating the graduation of more credentialed educators, addressing the critical need for qualified educators in early childhood education. We have already seen the impact the work of the Early Childhood Innovation Center has brought to the children of Delaware.”
#NNPA BlackPress
Student Loan Debt Drops $10 Billion Due to Biden Administration Forgiveness
NNPA NEWSWIRE — The Center for American Progress estimates the interest waiver provisions would deliver relief to roughly 6 million Black borrowers, or 23 percent of the estimated number of borrowers receiving relief, as well as 4 million Hispanic or Latino borrowers (16 percent) and 13.5 million white borrowers (53 percent).
New Education Department Rules hold hope for 30 million more borrowers
By Charlene Crowell, The Center for Responsible Lending
As consumers struggle to cope with mounting debt, a new economic report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York includes an unprecedented glimmer of hope. Although debt for mortgages, credit cards, auto loans and more increased by billions of dollars in the second quarter of 2024, student loan debt decreased by $10 billion.
According to the New York Fed, borrowers ages 40-49 and ages 18-29 benefitted the most from the reduction in student loan debt.
In a separate and recent independent finding, 57 percent of Black Americans hold more than $25,000 in student loan debt compared to 47 percent of Americans overall, according to The Motley Fool’s analysis of student debt by geography, age and race. Black women have an average of $41,466 in undergraduate student loan debt one year after graduation, more than any other group and $10,000 more than men.
This same analysis found that Washington, DC residents carried the highest average federal student loan debt balance, with $54,146 outstanding per borrower. Americans holding high levels of student debt lived in many of the nation’s most populous states – including California, Texas, and Florida.
The Fed’s recent finding may be connected to actions taken by the Biden administration to rein in unsustainable debt held by people who sought higher education as a way to secure a better quality of life. This decline is even more noteworthy in light of a series of legal roadblocks to loan forgiveness. In response to these legal challenges, the Education Department on August 1 began emailing all borrowers of an approaching August 30 deadline to contact their loan servicer to decline future financial relief. Borrowers preferring to be considered for future relief proposed by pending departmental regulations should not respond.
If approved as drafted, the new rules would benefit over 30 million borrowers, including those who have already been approved for debt cancellation over the past three years.
“These latest steps will mark the next milestone in our efforts to help millions of borrowers who’ve been buried under a mountain of student loan interest, or who took on debt to pay for college programs that left them worse off financially, those who have been paying their loans for twenty or more years, and many others,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
The draft rules would benefit borrowers with either partial or full forgiveness in the following categories:
- Borrowers who owe more now than they did at the start of repayment. This category is expected to largely benefit nearly 23 million borrowers, the majority of whom are Pell Grant recipients.
- Borrowers who have been in repayment for decades. Borrowers of both undergraduate and graduate loans who began repayment on or before July 1, 2000 would qualify for relief in this category.
- Borrowers who are otherwise eligible for loan forgiveness but have not yet applied. If a borrower hasn’t successfully enrolled in an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan but would be eligible for immediate forgiveness, they would be eligible for relief. Borrowers who would be eligible for closed school discharge or other types of forgiveness opportunities but haven’t successfully applied would also be eligible for this relief.
- Borrowers who enrolled in low-financial value programs. If a borrower attended an institution that failed to provide sufficient financial value, or that failed one of the Department’s accountability standards for institutions, those borrowers would also be eligible for debt relief.
Most importantly, if the rules become approved as drafted, no related application or actions would be required from eligible borrowers — so long as they did not opt out of the relief by the August 30 deadline.
“The regulations would deliver on unfulfilled promises made by the federal government to student loan borrowers over decades and offer remedies for a dysfunctional system that has often created a financial burden, rather than economic mobility, for student borrowers pursuing a better future,” stated the Center for American Progress in an August 7 web article. “Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration also introduced income limits and caps on relief to ensure the borrowers who can afford to pay the full amount of their debts do so.”
“The Center for American Progress estimates the interest waiver provisions would deliver relief to roughly 6 million Black borrowers, or 23 percent of the estimated number of borrowers receiving relief, as well as 4 million Hispanic or Latino borrowers (16 percent) and 13.5 million white borrowers (53 percent).”
These pending regulations would further expand the $168.5 billion in financial relief that the Biden Administration has already provided to borrowers:
- $69.2 billion for 946,000 borrowers through fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
- $51 billion for more than 1 million borrowers through administrative adjustments to IDR payment counts. These adjustments have brought borrowers closer to forgiveness and addressed longstanding concerns with the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers.
- $28.7 billion for more than 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
- $14.1 billion for more than 548,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
- $5.5 billion for 414,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan.
More information for borrowers about this debt relief is available at StudentAid.gov/debt-relief.
Charlene Crowell is a senior fellow with the Center for Responsible Lending. She can be reached at Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.
-
Alameda County5 days ago
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price Announces $7.5 Million Settlement Agreement with Walmart
-
Activism3 weeks ago
COMMENTARY: DA Price Has Done Nothing Wrong; Oppose Her Recall
-
Activism2 weeks ago
OP-ED: Hydrogen’s Promise a Path to Cleaner Air and Jobs for Oakland
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Barbara Lee, Other Leaders, Urge Voters to Say ‘No’ to Recalls of D.A. Pamela Price, Mayor Sheng Thao
-
Community2 weeks ago
Terry T. Backs Oakland Comedy Residency by Oakland’s Luenell at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club in Las Vegas
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of October 9 – 15, 2024
-
Business2 weeks ago
Study Confirms California’s $20/Hour Fast Food Wage Raises Pay Without Job Losses
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Surge of Support for Vote ‘No’ on Recall of Mayor Sheng Thao