BP Adams To Launch #MakeBrooklynCount Campaign Ahead Of 2020 Census
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams will launch the Brooklyn Complete Count Committee and a #MakeBrooklynCount campaign today ahead of concerns surrounding the 2020 Census.
The new initiative will work to ensure an accurate and fair demographic and population count during the 2020 Census, which will be conducted by the United States Census Bureau.
The campaign will be headed by the Brooklyn Complete Count Committee — a consortium of organizations including academic institutions and community groups targeting traditionally undercounted communities such as the elderly, low-income, undocumented, and young individuals, as well as those whose first language is not English. It will work to ensure these communities are properly counted so that the city receives adequate federal funding for community development, health care, housing, infrastructure and transportation to meet the needs of all of the borough’s 2.6 million residents.
Additionally, the committee will work on a grassroots outreach campaign incorporating Brooklyn’s diverse businesses, civic and faith-based organizations, and community groups to address concerns around filling out the census form, while emphasizing the importance of self-reporting.
Adams will be joined at the event by Cecilia Clarke, President and CEO at Brooklyn Community Foundation, representatives from New York Counts 2020 and the Center for Law and Social Justice at the New York City Black Leadership Action Coalition for Census 2020.
The event is slated for 10 a.m., today, Oct. 23, at Brooklyn Borough Hall, at 209 Joralemon Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
Simon To Host Discussion On Dyslexia
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon (D-Downtown Brooklyn, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill) will host a discussion on dyslexia today to specifically talk about the dyslexia guidance memorandum, that will change the way in which students with the learning disability are taught in school.
The memorandum is part of Simon’s bill, A. 8262, which instructs the New York State Education Department (SED) to develop a guidance memorandum for schools by the fall of 2018, consistent with the federal requirements and inform schools that they may include the names of specific learning disorders, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia, in Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).
One in five children have dyslexia, a language-based learning disability that makes word recognition, spelling and reading success a difficult task. For example, someone with dyslexia may spell words backwards or recognize letter upside down.
The event is slated for 6:30 p.m., today, Oct. 23, at P.S. 133 William A. Butler School, at 610 Baltic Street in Boerum Hill.
CM Williams, Menchaca Denounce Trump Plan To ‘Erase’ Transgender Community
City Council members Jumaane Williams (D-Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood) and Carlos Menchaca (D-Red Hook Sunset Park) alongside other members of The NYC Council’s LGBT Caucus responded yesterday to the Trump administration’s plan to limit definitions of gender to exclude the transgender community.
Earlier this week, the New York Times revealed Trump’s plan to create a narrow definition of gender as being only male or female and unchangeable once determined at birth, stripping transgender individuals of their official recognition.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has undertaken an effort across several departments to establish a legal definition of sex under title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex, the Times said, citing a government memo.
“The transgender community, like so many marginalized groups, faces immense obstacles, made even more severe by the hatred and ignorance of many. Still, they cannot and will not be erased. You cannot hate neatly, and you cannot erase one’s identity- whether by gender identity, race, sexual orientation, or any other group. To simply be who one is, to express that identity, is among the most basic of human rights. In a perpetual struggle for equity on the arc of justice, it is truly fundamental to all that comes after,” said Williams.
“The Trump administration’s plan to define transgender people out of existence is appalling. This proposal flies in the face of all that the medical community and human rights experts have worked to advance over the years in an effort to protect transgender Americans from harm. Any effort that attempts to legalize the marginalization of an entire group of people must be met with widespread resistance. We will never give in to such bigotry. Nearly 2 million Americans #WontBeErased,” read a joint statement by The NYC Council’s LGBT Caucus.
Ortiz Welcomes The “National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative”
Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz (D-Red Hook, Sunset Park) welcomed the New York City Health Department’s decision to roll out the “National Salt and Sugar Reduction Initiative” earlier this week.
The initiative aims to cut the amount of sugar in packaged foods by 20% and drinks by 40% over the next seven year in an effort to fight against the obesity epidemic in New York State.
Since taking office, Ortiz has championed a number of healthy eating initiatives including the establishment of the Childhood Obesity Prevention Program in 2003 and spearheading the effort to require calorie information on fast food menus with legislation in 2004.
In 2010, Ortiz introduced legislation to restrict the amount of sodium being used by restaurants in the preparation of food and in 2013 introduced a bill to enacts the “sweetened beverage tax law” and establish the “children’s health promotion fund” to fund statewide childhood obesity prevention activities and programs.
“There are both children and adults throughout New York State that are consuming unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of sugar and sodium, many times without their knowledge. I plan to introduce new legislation in the upcoming 2019 session that will advance this initiative statewide,” said Ortiz.
Golden Calls On Mayor To Immediately Implement an Unlimited Sick Leave Policy For 9/11 Responders
State Senators Martin Golden (R-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay, Borough Park, Midwood) and Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Island) will call on Mayor Bill de Blasio today to implement an unlimited sick leave for 9/11 responders.
The lawmakers will join advocates and union leaders in demanding de Blasio immediately implement a City-wide policy allowing all New York City and agency 9/11 responders who have federally certified 9/11 conditions to have unlimited sick leave to deal with their 9/11 illnesses.
Golden’s call comes more than a year after his bill expanding sick leave benefits for 9/11 responders was passed by Governor Andrew Cuomo last September. The measure expanding unlimited sick leave benefits for public sector officers and employees who developed a qualifying health condition as a result of their heroic response to 9/11 rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts at World Trade Center sites.
The event is slated for 11 a.m., today, oct. 23, at the Steps of City Hall in Lower Manhattan.
Menchaca Announces City Funding For Adult Literacy Education Programs
City Council member Carlos Menchaca (D-Sunset Park, Red Hook) alongside Council Speaker Corey Johnson and council members Daniel Dromm (D-Queens) will announce the City Council’s allocation to fund adult literacy education initiatives across the City today.
The event is slated for 11:30 a.m., today, Oct.23, at Chinese-American Planning Council, Inc., at 165 Eldridge Street – 2nd Floor in Lower Manhattan.
