Foundation Journal

I was anticipating a glitzy affair to spotlight the brightest ideas for exploiting the super-fast Google Fiber in KC. I was especially keen on proposals focusing on public or social needs, but with only an hour I was not able to see all the presentations. I sat in on the tail end of a presentation by Somametric, but only caught references to “audiences” and “biometrics,” so I did not gather information to assess it’s focus or innovation level. Image from live stream from the Think Big awards ceremony announcing winner of the contest. According to the Kansas City Star’s report of the award, the one presentation I listened in on was by high school students, which the reporter mentioned as the “most polished pitch." “They made a convincing argument about using the fat data pipe of Google’s coming fiber-optic lines to stream video in a cable-like service at a better price. Their yet-developed product, Hong, would note programs individual viewers watch to gauge their i

Georgia Walker with the Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City facilitated a training session for emergency assistance agency representatives and supporters at the KC Salvation Army headquarters on January 18. Agencies included government organizations, schools, housing groups like Phoenix Family Housing, and counseling groups, to name a few. The session was attended by 50 or more individuals who will participate in the January 25, 2012 point-in-time count of people that are homeless in this area. Ms. Walker mentioned the count, like last year's count , was meant to discover “what are the needs in the community" in order to direct resources and services to the need. One example of the benefits of this discovery could be a new shelter dedicated for single, homeless women as reported in a Kansas City Star article this week. I met Pat Wilkins, Executive Director of the Greater Kansas City Housing Information Center, who noted an increase in housing requests an

While the news of a judge blocking the voter ID regulation in South Carolina is encouraging, a law requiring fingerprints for Food Stamp/SNAP application in New York is still on the books. Opponents of the voter ID laws claim these regulations are in violation of the Voting Rights Act because they target minorities, thus reducing their likelihood of voting. The voter ID regulations in South Carolina and other states are simply laws chasing fraud where it does not exist or is misguided because of the negligible number of cases. Simply put: these regulations, like the fingerprinting requirement, are targeting poor people in unjust ways. As the Food Research and Action Center noted in their recent news digest, a January 1, 2012 New York Times editorial argued for ending the practice of fingerprinting SNAP applicants. “Especially at a time when so many families are struggling, the Bloomberg administration should drop the [fingerprinting] requirement that leads to many New Yorke

"America I AM: The African American Imprint," an expansive exhibit on African American culture and history runs through January 29, 2012 , three weeks past the original schedule and overlapping the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. Discount tickets are available from the KPRS-FM 103.3 website. During a visit last week with my family, I was struck by the depth of history -- the large exhibit wound it's way through the viewing space featuring a subtle soundtrack composed of somber spirituals, rattling chains, and drums, among other sound effects. The exhibit recreated a slave ship and gates from a departure point in Africa, among other settings. Covering 500 years of history and culture through modern days, the exhibit not only reflected on slavery in the US but also throughout the Western Hemisphere, including Brazil, Cuba, and other areas. Many of the items in America I AM, provided a detailed text, such as the text documenting the successful slave revolt