Ryan Francis Blog Post #4

Background Info On Blondell:

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has been a long time champion of children and youth, the arts and culture community, and small business development. She is now an emerging leader in energy conservation and environmental matters and is infusing her policy initiatives to reflect this new and important priority.

Some of her Accomplishments Include:

-Persuading the Phillies and Eagles, along with Mayor John F. Street , during the sports stadium negotiations, to establish a “Fund for Children” requiring each team to contribute $1 million annually for 30 years.

-Structured the new Department of Parks and Recreation to reflect national best practices.

-Sponsored resolutions that supported organized labor unions (SEIU – Janitors and 1199C – Childcare Teachers) in their efforts to gain fair contracts and fought for amendments to protect union jobs from privatization (DC33).

-Equipped police officers with a new and stronger curfew law to complement the opening of 11 citywide curfew centers.

-Created and implemented the “Groceries for Guns” initiative, a gun buyback program that resulted in an unprecedented number of gun buybacks, to help curtain gun violence in the city.

She has shown a great deal of involvement in the city of Philadelphia's affairs that have to do with child safety, recreation of homes and sponsoring programs.

I'm Lobbying laws that can possibly help the Youth in Philadelphia become less liable to be incarcerated. I called the Philadelphia Prison System Office (@2156858395) and was transferred to the Criminal Justice Center near 15th St. I was able to get a few statistics from the man I spoke to about the incarceration rate of Philadelphia, some of his thoughts on how the city is run, and how he deals with youth who come through to the trials.

"It's just heart wrenching to see kids who look like they barely got the hang of high school yet, come through here and get processed. I wish I could have possibly saved some of them, because they all just look so angry at the world, or angry at themselves, and it's truly heartbreaking. A lot of us officers do our jobs to keep the streets safe, but we don't always like it. Especially when another young kid is being convicted of a crime that could possibly ruin his teenage years." - Mr. Carl Washington 

He didn't give me an exact percentage, but he did tell me that the incarceration rate and drop out rate are higher than the graduation rate of students in Philadelphia. He also said "The more they undereducate, they Over incarcerate." When he told me this, I felt as if he knows that theres a way to save our youth in Philadelphia, and he has hope for the future.

My plan of action is to get Ms. Blondell Brown to come out to my mom's 3rd Annual "Positive Impact: Young Men's Conference" on January 28th and speak to the youth.

Information I plan to send

Positive Impact Motorcycle Events Presents

Young Men's Leadership Conference 

Date: January 28th, 2012

This event is for Young Males between he ages of 10-17

Positive Impact has lined up 7 Dynamic Professionals to speak at our event 

"Our focus is to change lives, instill integrity and build character so the the next emerging generation of husbands and fathers will take these skills and vision to make a positive difference in the world." 

During the First Annual Young Men's Conference in 2010, we've had between 90-120 Young Men come out to learn about different things that can benefit their lives positively, and they got to meet keynote speakers who have taught Anger Management, Making Passions into careers, cooking, and Leadership. Some speakers we're ex cons, some were accountants and relater. I want to Contact Ms. Blondell to be apart of this event, because the purpose of the "Young Men's Conference" is too educate and inform the youth of Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and New Jersey on the different opportunities that they have to succeed, and they teach them about the jail systems, and the different extra curricula's that go on around the city they live in. It's important to keep our youth busy, and keep them off the streets and caught up in things that could potentially ruin their futures.

http://www.blondellonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=3