Job Training Thought

While listing to the conversation at a recent meeting I heard the following: “What is it the disabled community wants?”

I thought about this question, trying to find a simple way to provide a service that did not eliminate the disabled, but included them throughout the community. I would reword the above question to: “How can one provide a service to benefit every one in a changing social environment that is struggling to provide tools for independent living, even for the non-disabled?”

Most can agree that our economy and opportunity to live independently is going to become more difficult. This is even with the past American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and tax breaks for small businesses suggested by President-elect Obama for hiring and putting people back to work.

The one thing the ADA challenged our country to do was to make accessibility to employment, education and public services easily obtainable. In many ways, this has been proven to be advantageous for many in receiving public services.

It has also made education and employment obtainable through access, but addressing the conditions of comfort in these areas for the disabled (especially those with disabilities that are seen), has not been addressed.

Some examples of conditions that cause uncomfortable settings in my community can be seen in various activities I have tried to participate in. This comes from the organizers and coordinators of the activities/facilities not involving the disabled in the planning of the event/activity. Listing a few situations, though access has been provided:

· Actually, a list is not needed. For it is in the past and working on the future remembering the past from one’s own experiences by being involved is a better solution.

Along the lines of employment, there should be an accelerated program for training that can meet future needs of the community. This program would not be a once or twice a week program, but a program that would meet 4 days a week and offer training that offers an opportunity for the disabled, mothers/fathers of children and laid-off workers needing to be re-trained for new jobs (It needs to be recognized that unemployment and other public welfare is short term – This increases the need for accelerated training opportunities.).

Being considered are opportunities in Accounting (Tax Return Preparation, Payroll Accounting, Accounts Payable/Receivable, General Bookkeeping, Medical Billing/Coding), Small engine repair, Appliance repair, Computer use (Use of various programs such as Excel, Microsoft Word, etc.) and so forth. These training opportunities are not restricted to those listed, just come from what has been looked for in the classifieds for jobs.

In creating the above opportunities, the need for transportation would be addressed if needed to a central location depending on the community the training is offered.

It is believed that funding will be provided for this kind of short-term accelerated training in the near future from the stimulation package being proposed in Congress for getting America back to work. Why can’t this funding be used to improve the lives of low-income disabled and out of work individuals in our area? Even if these training opportunities were not used by individuals for employment, the return to the community for representing awareness and self-esteem will provide benefits for our society long into the future.

Just some thoughts that needs more work- hehe! So, what are the community needs?

Charlie Bean

Transit-For-All

This is taken from the book “Thinking Points” by George Lakoff

The way we move shapes almost everything about our nation.

Our dependence on cars pollutes the environment, harms our personal health, restricts social and economic mobility, and chains us to foreign oil. With one multifaceted change over the course of many years, a “transit-for-all” initiative can help slay all the beasts. Simply put, the idea is to take $70 billion a year that currently goes to subsidizing cheap oil--the essential ingredient of our car cultur--and shift it toward building and promoting public transit systems. Additional funding could come from over $250 billion a year that is currently spent on building and maintaining the highway infrastructure.

Transit-for-all means expanding and improving public transportation at the local, regional, and federal levels. It means investing in bus and light rail in urban areas to create clean, convenient, reliable, and accessible webs of transportation. It means making our city cores more bike and pedestrian friendly. It means expanding commuter rail, to connect urban and suburban centers typically served by car transportation. It means investing in high-speed rail, to move people, goods, and services from city to city. Moving within urban cores and connecting urban and suburban hubs, these webs would extend to all auto-dense areas.

Transit-for-all is about values. Improving public transportation is about giving all Americans the freedom of equal access to social and economic opportunities that enhance our quality of life. Investing in alternative transportation is using the common wealth for the common good. It is an expansion of freedom, creating more diverse transportation.

Transit-for-all is a progressive strategic initiative to advance many of our goals at once.

It’s and economic issue. It would increase mobility of goods and labor. It would revitalize neglected neighborhoods. And it would spur growth and attract development.

It’s a labor issue. It would create many jobs--construction workers, engineers, bus drivers, rail operators, administrators, ticker vendors. Many of these jobs are sustainable union jobs. An increase of union jobs empowers labor to negotiate better contracts and helps develop better conditions for workers throughout the community.

It’s an environmental issue. By now the relationship between fossil fuels and the environment is well understood and accepted. Burning oil releases into the atmosphere greenhouses gases that destabilize the climate. Mass transit reduces society’s dependence on oil and helps remediate some of the dangers of global warming.

It’s a public health issue. Our air quality is abysmal and getting worse. The dirty exhaust from cars is driving an air pollution crisis that increases health hazards and claims tens of thousands of American lives, not to mention millions of dollars, every year. And no one needs to be reminded of the physical, emotional, and economic damage of six million annual auto accidents. Better public transportation helps us transition out of this dirty and dangerous technology. In doing so, it could rescue millions of Americans from debilitating health problems and even death, and save the public from bearing the burden of preventable medical expenses.

It’s a national security issue. Kicking our oil habit not only benefits human and environmental health, it secures our nation. Greater energy autonomy frees us from our dangerous dependence on a volatile region.

With a transit-for-all initiative, laborers, economists, environmentalists, and security buffs could walk under the same banner. An investment in freedom, health, the economy, and national security.

It is time for progressives to start thinking strategically. The most effective long-term strategies start with the most common-place activities: eating, traveling to work, and working in a business. Home is where we live. Start there.

After I read this, not agreeing with the term of being progressive, I found I agree with most of what was put forth here. I hope our representatives look at this for more thought towards our future and how they form the futures’ budgets for our transportation needs.