Comments for The Tulsa Initiative Blog

Comment on A Marriage Penalty I Didn’t Know About by kjlk

kjlk — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:30:23 +0000

he he he

Comment on What to do about the flu? by Monica Barczak

Monica Barczak — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:02:28 +0000

Get better soon, Micah!

Comment on Dropout and Give Me Twenty! by Jackie Durkee

Jackie Durkee — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:03:51 +0000

The program is more focused on education and getting these potential drop-outs back on the right track. I just wrote an article about this on my blog, FaithfulinPrayer.wordpress.com here at wordpress.

My son just graduated for the program in Louisina on September 19th. He is a much different teen than when he went in. At 16, and due to be in the 11th grade, he was about to be in the 7th grade for the 3rd time and still making all Fs.

After 5.5 months, he went for a 7.8 grad level to 12.1 grade level and passed his GED. Since he has been home, he has gotten a part time job and will being college on October 26th.

It is an amazing program!

Comment on A Marriage Penalty I Didn’t Know About by Ken Kendall

Ken Kendall — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:25:45 +0000

I love all the work you do hear. Thank you for your research and your dedication.

Please continue to visit my blog about marriage and how men can better love their wives. Keeping marriages together is an important part of the cause.

http://whatsheneedsfromyou.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Comment on October Really Hasn’t Been So Quiet by Micah

Micah — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:36:44 +0000

Thanks Monica. It has been a busy time indeed. I hope to have just a little more time in the coming weeks to devote to you all.

Randy, Kendall Whittier Inc, the sponsor of the Fab Lab project, is working on getting a website for the project up and running. In the meantime, Diama is always the best contact. dnorris at captc dot org. We hope to have a letter of inquiry ready to go in the coming weeks and I suspect it’ll find its way to you!

Comment on October Really Hasn’t Been So Quiet by Randy

Randy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:16:32 +0000

FabLab sounds, well, Fab! How can I learn more?

Comment on Boston Comment by Fablab in KW Neighborhood « The Tulsa Initiative Blog

Fablab in KW Neighborhood « The Tulsa Initiative Blog — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:40:02 +0000

[...] 28, 2009 by Diama So, awhile back we posted about our experience at the Boston Fablab and how we might work to bring one to Tulsa. Well, fast [...]

Comment on “Broken Families Cost Taxpayers” by Into and Out of Poverty « The Tulsa Initiative Blog

Into and Out of Poverty « The Tulsa Initiative Blog — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:22:31 +0000

[...] 18, 2009 by Micah I posted yesterday about the links between single parenthood and poverty and referred at the end to the [...]

Comment on “Broken Families Cost Taxpayers” by Monica Barczak

Monica Barczak — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:52:37 +0000

I’m reminded of a quote from a health economist at Harvard (I’ll have to google him so that I can provide a proper citation) – We live in a society, not an economy. Reducing family composition or healthcare to economics may be appealing for politicians, but it surely is not what this country is about.

Comment on “Broken Families Cost Taxpayers” by Ken Kendall

Ken Kendall — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:28:41 +0000

Understanding math the way I do, I can use math to prove either side of most arguments.

I think you hit the real issue straight on when you say that it is the hurting and broken people from divorce, single-parent families, and kids that are left broken and confused.

I just started a new blog about marriage and how men can better love their wives and strengthen their marriages. I would really appreciate your thoughts and comments if you have a minute to take a look.

http://whatsheneedsfromyou.wordpress.com

Thanks,

Comment on Workforce Programs Work, pt. 2 by Bill Bartmann

Bill Bartmann — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:40:42 +0000

Cool site, love the info.

Comment on Heavy Lifting = Heavy Thinking by Monica Barczak

Monica Barczak — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:24:21 +0000

What I continue to grapple with is how do we take these odd observations (this one, plus the one about how recalling one’s social security number influences whether one is likley to make a high or low guess about something) and use them to inform our program design? We know about the opt in / opt out construct – that’s relatively easy to translate into program design. But some of these subtle priming techniques feel a whole lot murkier and yet clearly have some kind of effect on people.

Comment on Heavy Lifting = Heavy Thinking by Kathleen McElwaine

Kathleen McElwaine — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:52:38 +0000

I always carry my relatively large back pack, after all it has all that I might need to take care of the many important, weighty things that my daily decisions impact. After reading this article I now know how to recognize who I want to talk to on the bus. Thank you for passing this on to me. I can now avoid asking people questions that they respond with I don’t have a clue, I have never thought about that (my question subject) before. Kathleen

Comment on The Enormous Cost of Education Gaps by Micah

Micah — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:14:13 +0000

Excellent, substantive comments. I saw the CEO for Cities report you referenced. It presented a great, simple way to think about the benefits of closing the achievement gap in achievable steps.

Bobbie, you make an excellent point about out-of-school time. All of us who work with children need to help make the opportunities for childhood development as seamless and integrated as possible, so that each of us are building on the successes of each other.

Comment on The Enormous Cost of Education Gaps by Bobbie Henderson

Bobbie Henderson — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:10:53 +0000

Tulsa-area youth development and out-of-school time providers can be a resource to continue closing the gap for low-income and disadvantaged children once they transition to elementary school. Researchers at Harvard Family Research Project report that ensuring that all children have the advantage of “complementary learning” – informal learning and extracurricular activities that take place beyond the classroom – has the potential to narrow the gap. Gambone, Klem and Connell in “Finding out what matters for youth” talk about “supports and opportunities” – another way of describing the multiple experiences of children from families with resources . . . enriching and equipping experiences like summer camp, vacations, trips to museums, libraries, visual and performing arts, family reading time, etc. contribute to children’s overall education and capacity to succeed in school. For children in low-income areas, participation in organizations like Camp Fire, scouting, YMCA, YWCA, Boys & Girls Clubs – all offer many of the same experiences more affluent families provide for their children. It’s not the only solution to closing the gap, but certainly needs to be considered a feature of any comprehensive and deliberate approach.

Comment on What Gets Measured Gets Worked On by Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:14:45 +0000

This is a major issue we as American’s have got to get to the bottom of. Child hunger is unexceptible! Period! And the only thing that makes it worse is the fact that we have become so selfish and money hungry as a society that even goverment cares more about income tax’s than kids starving to death!

Comment on The Enormous Cost of Education Gaps by Denise Reid

Denise Reid — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:13:43 +0000

Interesting post that builds off of work CEOs for Cities is doing across the country. Their City Dividends initiaitve – CEOs for Cities for Capturing New Value for Cities highlights the local impact on raising college attainment level 1% plus lowering poverty level by 1% and lowering vehicle miles traveled per day per driver by 1 mile.

The Talent Dividend – Increasing the college attainment by one percentage point
• College Attainment = $763.00 per year increase in regional per capital income for a total annual personal income increase of $124 billion per year

The Green Dividend – Reducing vehicle miles by one mile per person per day
• Driving less = 57B fewer miles per year savings including vehicle purchase, fuel and maintenance add up to $28.6 billion per year

The Opportunity Dividend – Reducing poverty by one percentage point
• Fewer people in poverty = $8,200 less spent per year per person for a total savings of $13.1 billion per year

Tulsa – Impact on our economy

Talent = $646 Million + Green = $163 Million + Opportunity $73 Million = $882 Million Tulsa’s City Dividend

Comment on Moveable Oases for the Food Desert by Diama

Diama — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:55:32 +0000

Brad – I’m so excited that you responded and think it’s a partially feasible idea. Hey, you never know until you throw it out there. Just to be clear, I wasn’t suggesting that the bookmobile staff distribute the food, rather, your model and rapport with the community is something for anyone undertaking this mobile grocery concept to perhaps emulate. I know you all already have A LOT on your plates, It’s incredible the volume that you get accomplished and the distance that you cover. I was thinking something more along the lines where, once the veggiemobile was up and running with their vol. staff or whomever, they might tag along on your routes since you already have built in networks and trust to some of these food desert communities. I like the idea of the converted bookmobile esp. if it has a diesel powered generator. I need to crunch on this a little bit. Keep up the incredible work and we always welcome your comments! Also, thanks for the willinging to also pitch in if this ever came to fruition.

Comment on Moveable Oases for the Food Desert by brad thomas

brad thomas — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:24:21 +0000

offload a truck? Sorry, was just trying to be helpful. Guess I won’t be driving the veggimobile after all.

Comment on Moveable Oases for the Food Desert by Micah

Micah — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:34:16 +0000

I believe Brad’s trying to offload a truck on us, but I do appreciate his comment!

A couple thoughts:
1) There’s an iPhone app that allows a retailer to conduct debit and credit transactions from the phone, rather than through a dedicated card terminal. It would seem feasible that such an app could be programmed to accept EBT (food stamps and WIC) cards as well.

2) There are plenty of mobile food retailers in the area (or any urban area really): taco trucks, prepared meal deliverers, caterers, Schwan trucks, ice cream trucks, and even “brick and mortar” grocery stores that deliver (Reasors and Food Pyramid). Many of these could be incentivized to add just a little bit of produce capacity to carry around with them. Mom could give son $5 for his ice cream and to get some carrots for dinner, for example. (I don’t actually know whether these ice cream trucks penetrate the food isolated areas, though.) Furthermore, those ice cream trucks are sitting unused at least 6 months out of the year. How much would it take to send them around with some produce and maybe coffee and cocoa too?