Wednesday, September 23 , 2020
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Roy Charles Brooks
Chairman
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Dr. Helen Holton
Executive Director
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Dear NOBCO/NABCO Family,
The next 40 days are critical to our future. It requires our active and participative engagement to protect the liberties and opportunities we've become accustomed. We have work to do and now is the time for us to have our voices heard. As of today, the Census is scheduled to end next week on Wednesday, September 30th and Tuesday, November 3rd is Election Day. The choices we make around these two events, Census and Election, will shape our future for decades ahead.
If you're interested in receiving grant funding for your county's election operations, register to join the call tomorrow on Thursday, September 24th at 12:00 PM ET to learn how your county can get financial resources to support a smoother general Election Day. Here's the link to register:
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GRANT FUNDING TO SUPPORT 2020 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS & OPERATIONS
Apply for an Election Administration Grant
NOBCO is encouraging counties to apply for a COVID-19 Response Grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. As many counties navigate extremely tight budgets this year, this grant program seeks to help cover the high cost of running a safe and healthy election in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any jurisdiction responsible for elections administration is eligible to apply.
Funds can be used for a variety of purposes for this year’s election, including opening new polling sites and ensuring that existing polling sites remain open, increasing poll worker stipends or providing hazard pay, defraying the costs of early vote locations, providing PPE for poll workers, setting up drive-through voting options, installing drop boxes, covering the cost of postage or printing, and more.
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Training: Effective Communications and Messaging
for
Elected Officials In The Upcoming Election!
Tuesday, September 29, 2020 from 12:00 - 1:30PM EST
A hands-on training to learn tested messaging and hone communication skills to effectively amplify the upcoming election, call out voter suppression efforts
and empower voters.
State, local elected and appointed officials and their staff are welcome to join.
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With students facing numerous challenges during COVID-19, a new pilot program is being brought to Fort Worth by Precinct 1 Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks to help students overcome learning gaps caused by the pandemic.
The program is being launched by the National Organization of Black County Officials, Inc. (NOBCO). Brooks is chairman of NOBCO.
“This pilot program will help provide students with the ability to receive instruction if they are falling behind in any of these subjects,” Brooks said. “We need to do whatever we can to ensure the achievement gap does not widen during this pandemic.”
Sunrise McMillian Elementary School in Fort Worth has been selected for the online pilot program, which will focus on English Language Arts and math for first grade students.
NOBCO will provide a licensed and certified teacher to conduct tutoring sessions on Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7 PM CT. The program will launch Sept. 22.
“It is a privilege working hand and hand with the National Organization of Black County Officials said Ms. Latres Cole, principal at Sunrise McMillan.
“NOBCO will be supporting the Sunrise McMillan campus by tutoring 25 first grade students in English Language Arts and Math,” Cole said. “I am excited to see the fruits of our labor during the 2020-2021 school year. It has always been said, ‘It takes a Village…!’ I am very thankful for NOBCO being a part of our Village.”
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Last Thursday September 17, 2020 we hosted a webinar entitled “Aging Well in A New Season: Pandemics, Epidemics and Other Disruptions.” The webinar was hosted by Dr. Helen Holton along with panelists Ms. Valerie Rochester, Vice President for Program Strategies at AIDS Untied and Mr. Duane Taylor, CEO of the Taylor-Wilks Groups. The conversation addressed stigma, the impact of Covid-19, health disparities on black people, and HIV. In anticipation for National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (NHAAAD), on September 18th, which is an annual observation with the intention of educating people about contracting and living with HIV later in life. The goal is to reduce the number of new infections and to inspire and give hope to older people who are living with HIV.
The discussions were centered around stigma, and how HIV and Covid-19 are similar when it comes to just talking about it and getting tested. The pandemic and epidemic actually have more in common than people care to acknowledge. The ways in which we have addressed HIV can steer us in the right direction when it comes to addressing COVID-19. Just like HIV hit the African American community hard, COVID-19 has done the same thing. We know that African Americans are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 due to racial and health disparities, and because of the stigma surrounding it we choose not to have conversations that could save lives.
The end of the webinar shifted with a focus on changing the narrative about COVID-19 and HIV. We need to be more open about our health. When we are more open and honest, there is less stigma. We are one of the most affected communities, and that needs to change. We need to change. And we can change if living is truly our choice.
direct and compelling headline
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COVID-19 has popped the bubble of security that many people thought that they had. It has shown the many holes in our system. A system that refuses to help the people that need it most. COVID-19 has pulled the curtains back on poverty in the United States along with other injustices.
In these times, everything seems to be driven by politics. Basic human rights are political. Wearing a mask is political. These things that shouldn’t have anything to do with politics have everything to do with politics. Now with the poverty rates rising throughout the country, we see another piece of the U.S. become about politics. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government scrambled to get help out to the citizens in the form of a stimulus check. Unemployment was extended, increased, and expanded for those who needed it. Now, we have none of those things. The stimulus check lasted a month for those who received them. And the $600 unemployment benefits ended on the 31st of July. And Congress still hasn’t come out with a new plan for relief. Ideas for a new stimulus packages came out in April. So why haven’t we come to an agreement to help the millions of Americans who need the money? Politics.
We live in a society that gives the impression that it only cares about the people who have money. You could do everything right, and still end up without the government ever caring about who you are or what you do. The system is so broken that it would rather reward others for going out of there way to help people rather than directly help those in need. We see this with the foster care system, the government would rather pay families to take care of foster children rather than pay the families who lost their children due to poverty. We see this with homelessness, where governments pay the police to arrest the homeless than to help them get back on their feet.
With November right around the corner, we have to make sure that we do all we can to change this broken system. The United States needs to care more about the people who built this country and continue to sustain it. Our nation needs a change and real change is in the hands of the people we need to do everything in their power to make sure that change is what we get
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There have been many talks of a second stimulus bill, but in the months that it has been brought up, Congress has not been able to come to a decision on the best package for the United States.
However, the Problem Solvers Caucus proposed something new. The “March to Common Ground” COVID-19 relief proposal was announced last week.
This is a bipartisan proposal lead by Representatives Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Reed (r-NY). The initial bill would cost around $1.52 trillion, but possible rise to $2 trillion if the pandemic has not been sufficiently handled.
There are many interesting aspects to this bill. There are talks of not just a second stimulus check, but a third as well. The third batch of checks would go out in March if the pandemic is not controlled by that time.
There is a plan of giving $450 in unemployment benefits before rising to $600 after eight weeks. In the section for eduction $100 billion would be used for hybrid, virtual, and in-person learning, which allows schools to decide what is best for them and their students. This bill is less likely to be voted on, but the purpose is to show that there can be compromise if both sides are willing to listen.
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