Committee Hearing, June 16, 2008

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Monday, June 16, 2008 10:10 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN RESOLUTION 080140 - Resolution authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings on the findings and recommendations of the Urban League of Philadelphia's report, The State of Black Philadelphia... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good morning. We will call the Committee on Public Health and Human Services to order and recognize that we have Councilman Goode. Other members of the Committee will come shortly as they arrive in City Hall. Some of them are in their offices, and I encourage them to come down to the hearing. Councilman Curtis Jones is in his seat to listen and share. And this is a resolution. Therefore, we do not need a quorum, because there will be no 14 vote on this matter. We will ask the Clerk now to read the resolution.

Resolution 18 authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings on the findings and recommendations of the Urban League of Philadelphia's report, The State of Black Philadelphia, and further authorizing the Committee to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can 3 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 level the economic playing field for all citizens.

Thank you very much. It is my pleasure today to convene the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services, welcome Patricia A. Coulter, the Urban League of Philadelphia, and other distinguished guests to hold this hearing on the findings and recommendations of the Urban League's most recent State of Black Philadelphia. This current report was released seven months ago and is the 12th volume of the State of Black Philadelphia and commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Urban League. It has been ten years since this report was last published. I congratulate you on your significant anniversary. The report, which is the subject of our hearing today, will address many of the issues that affect 4 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 the City's residents of African descent, which make up 44 percent of the population of the City of Philadelphia, the largest of all racial, ethnic groups. The report is a compilation of research, data and essays which reflect the persistent disparities that exist between black and white citizens of Philadelphia. It is emphasized that in order to have sustainable economic growth, racial disparities and economic opportunity must be alleviated and the economic playing field leveled for all. Today we will address the subjects of social justice, education, economics and health. Experts in each of these areas, many of whose findings and research developed the report, will render their opinions, their advice and recommendations on how we can level the playing field for all of the citizens of Philadelphia. I welcome you all and look forward to hearing from you. 5 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 I believe our first witness will be Patricia A. Coulter, the President and CEO of the Urban League of Philadelphia. Would you come forward and any other members from the Urban League you'd like to have come with you. (Witness approached witness table.)

Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco. I am starting out up here lonely by myself this morning. I will be the only one in the beginning, and then we'll flow with the panels, if that's okay with you.

Thank you. Can you pull the mike down a little bit, because you sound muffled.

Is this good?

That's better.

Is this better? Okay. So good morning. I am Patricia 6 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 A. Coulter, as you just heard, President and CEO of the Urban League of Philadelphia. I am here today to address the need to eliminate racial disparities in the City of Philadelphia. I want to thank Council Majority Leader and Committee Chair Marian Tasco for her insight to conduct this hearing on the Urban League of Philadelphia's recent report, the State of Black Philadelphia. You will hear testimony from a number of individuals who will cover the data and issues stated in the report. The Urban League is a non-profit, non-partisan, civil rights and community-based movement that provides direct services, research and policy advocacy to help individuals achieve social and economic equality. Primarily working with African-Americans, the Urban League of Philadelphia is an affiliate of the National Urban League, based in New York City, and has operated here in the Philadelphia community for 91 7 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 years. The State of Black Philadelphia report was released seven months ago and proclaimed as "a call to urgency" to address the issues that affect the City's residents of African descent that make up 44 percent of the population. The State of Black Philadelphia report provides compelling research and data about the persistent disparities that exist between black and white Philadelphians in five areas: economics, education, health, civic engagement and social justice. The report calculates the equality index at 0.72, meaning that African-Americans in Philadelphia are only 72 percent as well off as whites. It also provides a compilation of essays and recommendations to closing the equality gaps that persist today, some 43 years after the Civil Rights Act. The report informs, engages and motivates all Philadelphians to play a more proactive role in improving the Greater Philadelphia community, 8 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 irrespective of their race, ethnicity, religion and socioeconomic level. This document, the State of Black Philadelphia, serves as a wake-up call to Greater Philadelphia in hope that it can be used as a tool to bring about a plan for action that supports real change for all of the citizens of this region. The Urban League has assembled several panels to provide testimony on the data presented in the report and to make recommendations to the Committee that could lead to legislation that would achieve public policy goals. We have gathered the panels to coincide with four of the five key areas measured in the report: economics, education, health and social justice. The panels represent individuals from the Urban League Board of Directors, the Urban League Advisory Council and experts in these fields, many of whom contributed to the Action Agenda portion. All these individuals believe in the potential greatness of the City of 9 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Philadelphia. However, we all agree that the City of Philadelphia cannot be a tale of two cities, one black and one white, one rich and one poor, one where a disproportionate number of the population is groveling in poverty. With African-Americans making up 44 percent of the population in Philadelphia County, we believe that as individuals improve their lives, so will the City improve its economic standing in the region, in the nation and in the world. If the City wants a vibrant growing metropolis in which race produces no negative accounting, we must take a hard line, proactive approach to address and solve the problems that lead to this disproportionate inequality and economic status of black people in the City of Philadelphia. We strongly seek the support and resources of Majority Leader Tasco, Committee members and the Council at 10 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 large to eliminate these persistent racial disparities. Thank you so much for your time this morning.

Thank you very much for your testimony. We welcome you here to City Council. I believe when you issued this report, we talked about having hearings in Council so that we could get a sense of just -- certainly we got a copy of the executive report, but we wanted to be able to share with the broader public, and this should be televised on our site, Channel 64, if anyone is listening to watch the hearings, and probably might be repeated. I'm not sure about that.

We would like to get that word out, then. Thank you.

Certainly you all spent a lot of time in putting this report together, and I appreciate what you've done and thank you very much. Before I ask my questions, I'll 11 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 ask Councilman Goode if he has any questions.

Thank you, Madam Chair. One simple question. Your report obviously locally and nationally deals with racial disparities. A lot of my policy and legislative work has dealt with the same, but there is an ongoing debate about a response to that, whether there should be race-based strategies or race-neutral strategies. Where does the local Urban League fall on that debate?

So you're asking whether we have thought about --

Should the strategies to resolve racial disparities be race based or race neutral?

Yes. One of the things that we will call attention to today in these panels are a lot of the recommendations that are in the part of the report that we call the Action Agenda, and the Action Agenda really 12 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 looks at the five key areas as broken down with a -- in fact, there were so many resolutions presented, we couldn't even print them all, so there are others that we still have. But in terms of whether it's race based or not, I guess the way we are viewing this is that when you have a substantial segment of the population of any given area, 44 percent for us here in Philadelphia, being in a disparate situation, that is going to impact and bring down, if you will, everyone else. And so whether or not the solutions might be race based, I think it's really more around making sure that the economic and health and social justice policies really reflect those who are in our community and in our system. So I don't know if I'm getting to your question. If not, certainly follow up.

Well, there are those that believe that the economic 13 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 condition of African-Americans is due to racial discrimination. Therefore, the way to resolve that is to move into a race-neutral society. There are others who believe that because of the condition of African-Americans, the only way to overcome the harm that has been done is to employ race-based strategies. And so my question is, do you find the recommendations in the report are geared toward more raced-based strategies or race-neutral strategies?

Well, I think that there's probably a combination when you read the different solutions that have been recommended. For example, if we just look at the education -- and you'll hear from an education panel, for example -- many of the recommendations being made by the education panel will refer to the Philadelphia School District. It's not necessarily saying that these are just for African-American kids. But when you look at the fact that 14 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 African-American kids are disproportionately represented in the Philadelphia School District, then you sort of get to that issue of race. I don't think that it's race neutral. I wouldn't say that in terms of recommendations of the report. This is really about moving African-Americans forward in this city and around the country. The Councilwoman mentioned the national report that this was based off of. Nationally, there's a report called the State of Black America. And so, again, it looks at race across the country, and that particular equality index is at 0.73. So Philadelphia is lagging really in and around the same as the national number. So I think it's not race neutral at all.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Let me just ask you a couple of 15 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 questions. This is the first time in ten years you published a report here in Philadelphia?

Yes.

In looking at the report, how do you compare it to your last report that you published and have you seen any improvement in what you found ten years ago and what presently is reported in this document today?

Well, one of the reasons we -- or one of the things, I should say, that we did with this report, because you're absolutely right, it had been published -- this is the 12th issue of the report over the Urban League's 91-year history, and one of the reasons we changed the model of the report, meaning we changed the way the information is being published, is to give us these basis points so that the question you just asked, we can effectively answer in the next four years or six years. 16 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 In the last report in 1997, I guess it was, there was no statistical measurements to these five key areas. The report was really a compilation of essays dealing with some of these issues. In fact, that report was focused on the economic playing field. I think that was actually the name of the report that year. So many experts discussed the issues of leveling the economic playing field, but we weren't really able or we didn't at that point in time measure the actual gaps between blacks and whites. So since the National Urban League measures these gaps on a national scale, we wanted to know and actually our Board thought it would be prudent to be able to say where does Philadelphia fall in all of this. So if nationally there's a 0.56 gap in economics, where does Philadelphia come out in that same area. So we have taken a new twist with the report with this ten-year 17 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 hiatus, but our intent is that we will measure it again, because now we have baseline data, we're able to in another four years, which is our hope, look at this again, do the research again, and I'm hoping through some positive policies through potential resolution to this, that we can see some positive outcomes in another four years.

What is the Urban League's plan to engage the Philadelphia community in addressing the issues that are part of this plan -- I mean, this report in trying to resolve some of the problems cited and to address your action plan?

Well, we have -- as I've said to our staff and to our Board, the report was just the beginning of our work, is how we're viewing this. We think that the work begins now. And so in gathering together a number of different stakeholder groups, we do have a plan for that. One is the Legislature, 18 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 obviously the public sector, and that's why we're so delighted to be here with you today, because we want to continue this dialogue, both on the local and state level, as well as the federal level. We also have a plan to engage communities around town hall meetings, around conferences. In fact, one of the supportive elements of this, the funding of this, was through the Samuel Fels Fund, along with Keystone Mercy Health Plan and the United Way, and part of that funding has allowed us to have a graduate-level intern, who is actually here today and who will be working with us over the summer, to hold a number of town hall meetings in various quadrants of the City so that we can engage the community around these issues as well, because in that Action Agenda, there are things in there that individuals can do as well. This is not just about what the government can do or what business can 19 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 do, but it's also about what I can do as an individual. So we are hoping that we get the community involved at that level. Just last week we presented at a CEO conference on diversity, which was sponsored by Deloitte & Touche here in the City, and we were part of that panel to again talk about best practices in corporate America and begin to work with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber. They have asked us to partner with them around some of their initiatives so that they can also be involved in this movement. Because the way we look at this is that it will take all the segments. It takes the public sector, it takes the private sector, the non-profit sector, individuals. This is really a collective effort if we're going to be able to move this in a more urgent way. I think a lot of people are tired of just talking about the issues, which was really what the reports have done in the past, they've kind of talked 20 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 about the issues. We wanted in this report to say, yes, here are the issues and here's how bad it really is by measuring it. But then also we wanted to say, here are some things we think can be done about it, will you work with us, will you help us push this agenda and move this needle.

Is the role of the Urban League to speak out on local issues that would have some impact on accomplishing the goal to deal with your action plan?

Yes. Yes.

Are you able to do that as an organization? I mean, such as the issue of the foreclosures, we've had a lot of discussion about that here in the City of Philadelphia or some of the other issues, maybe the issue before Council like the park or whatever. Are you able to voice your opinion and the opinion of the Board of 21 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 the Urban League and where you stand on these issues that come before the public?

Yes, we are able to do that. As I mentioned earlier, we are, of course, a non-partisan organization, but in terms of the issues that you raise, if there are issues that are affecting the equality gap, then we think that that is our position to speak out. In terms of the foreclosure issue, we're actually running programs around foreclosure prevention. So that is an area where we do find -- many times not only do we have to speak out about the issue, but we work directly in servicing individuals who are being affected by foreclosure. So we are sometimes on the front line, as I call it, when it comes to helping individuals to improve their lives. And so our advocacy role, there's a balance there in terms of direct services that we provide to 22 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 individuals who are going through some of these challenges and then on the other side it might be making statements or producing research reports that also address these issues.

The National Urban League -- I know we're here to talk about the local, but you're all tied in together.

Yes.

What is their role in addressing some of the legislation before the federal government that would have an impact, an economic impact, on the community, particularly around the issue of foreclosure, around the issue of changing the law? Because you know I'm very much interested in consumer issues and consumer advocacy, because I believe the federal government has a great role to play there and are just now addressing some of the issues. Where is the voice of the Urban League in addressing these issues to 23 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Congress? Because you are a large national/international organization influential with a powerful Board. Where do you come down in trying to advocate before not only the feds but the state, because our state Legislature has a role to play in all of this also. And not just on the foreclosure issue, but any issue that will help to eliminate the disparities in the area of economics and social justice and education. Where is your voice and how do you use that voice?

Let me see if I can do that quickly for you, because we are very engaged on the national level around these issues, and there is a document which I could actually get to you, if you care to see it, that the national organization released back in -- actually, one year ago at our national conference that's called the Opportunity Compact, and the Opportunity Compact is the National Urban League's voice around policy recommendations to the federal 24 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 government, and we have four key areas that we are focused on in these recommendations. We call it the opportunity to thrive. The opportunity to thrive takes into consideration children and everything that children need to live wholesome and healthy lives. The opportunity to earn, which takes into account all the economic issues related to employment, to job skills training, to the things that people need to earn a living. The opportunity to own, which takes into account homeownership, and this is where, again, losing a home, even the Urban League has come out with something called the Homeowners Bill of Rights. And then the fourth one is the opportunity to prosper, which really looks at entrepreneurship and building wealth in the African-American community. So our national President and CEO, Marc Morial, has put those four 25 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 policy recommendations into a booklet that talks about or talks to each one of those, with policy recommendations. And so when we visited Capitol Hill back in March, there were over 200 Urban Leaguers from across the country. We each went into our State Senators. Pennsylvania, we went in as a delegation of the four Urban Leagues in the State of Pennsylvania to talk with Senator Casey and Senator Specter. We also individually met with all of our local representatives in Congress to talk about the Opportunity Compact, how that Opportunity Compact then for us in Philadelphia fits into our State of Black Philadelphia, and then we began to discuss with them how to move some of these policy recommendations forward. So there is, to your question, a national voice around these issues. What we're trying to do locally is align ourselves with that national voice, but also keep an account what is happening 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 locally, which is why we wanted to measure the disparities here in Philadelphia, so we could speak to that locally, and then work together with our national CEO to push this agenda forward.

Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments? (No response.)

Let me announce that Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller has joined us as a member of this Committee. You will stay around?

Oh, yes, I'll be around.

Oh, Councilman Jones.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. First of all, let me congratulate you for having this hearing, and I think that this is a significant 27 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 blueprint for not just what the State of Black Philadelphia is, but a call to action, as you put it, on a blueprint on what we need to do. Particularly it was enlightening to see a lot of contributors to this report, who I have talked to or worked with individually, whether it's Dr. Anderson or C. Darnell Jones about various issues, everything from sheriff's sales to some of the prison issues, but when you compile it all in one document, it is compelling, because it kind of connects the dots as to what the problem is or what the links in the chain are as it comes to African-Americans in particular in Philadelphia. The other thing that I find interesting is a parallel that at one point in our history, right after slavery -- and I don't want to get into post-slavery syndrome, but we were considered three-fourths of a human being, three-fourths of a human being. 28 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 When we start reading this, we start seeing on a quantitative measurement level that we are only experiencing three-fourths of the fullness of life, that we only in the area of civic engagement do we exceed our counterparts in other races and cultures. So it is disturbing to me as a Councilperson. And one of the things that I will note, that Councilman Goode whether it came to issues of African-American males in their education attainment level and then drawing the correlation between the amount of violence in that same demographic and then seeing that they wind up incarcerated more often and drawing those links, or whether Councilwoman Tasco in the sheriff's sale issue. So what this does for us in Council, as we start to look at budgets and determine budget priorities, we get a blueprint, a map, if you would, on how to determine priorities budgetarily for the 29 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 City. So I'm thankful for this. And I knew a little bit in different areas, but when you put it all in one document, it is a compelling argument for us doing more in this Council and in the City to try to change some of these statistics. My question will be, how do you think the upcoming census -- this is operating on some older data at this point. Do you think that in the upcoming census as we turn the decade that it will have an impact on some of this and, if so, in what direction?

I wish I could say it would be a positive direction. I'm not sure about that, though. You're correct, the data that you have there -- we did the report in '07, so we were probably looking at data from '06, and so there's always that lag of collecting data. I guess I would base that on, Councilman, that the fact that since 30 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 1972, the National Urban League has been publishing the State of Black America, and then the last five years, the National Urban League has been measuring the gaps. So within that period of time, there has been change, but the change has been minuscule and it really may be by one-tenth or something you'll see a change in education or economics. I think once the census is done, I don't know -- since we're focused primarily on African-Americans, I'm not sure what that will do to the report. I think it will be interesting to see where our numbers fall out at that particular time. Right now, African-Americans are still the largest population in the City and County of Philadelphia. Once the census is completed, I guess we'll see again where that is. But I guess I'm not so optimistic that the census is going to change the numbers as much as what we might be able to do to really move some 31 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of these needles, I like to call them, the economic needle, the health needle, the education needle, can we move the social justice needle just a bit to see that there's positive growth in the direction. Because I think if Philadelphia is able to come up with some models for eliminating racial disparities, this can be a model for the country. It doesn't have to just be used here in Philadelphia. I mean, there are other cities like ours where urban leagues exist that this could be -- whatever we come up with here could definitely be a model for the rest of the country. So I'm hopeful that this report, even when we get the census, will still allow us to do it in a way that we can reflect the data.

My interest is to be ahead of the curve. One of the things that I'm proudest most of is that we preempted some things that could have 32 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 gone very wrong in the sheriff's sale process, under Councilwoman Tasco's leadership. I am often pleased when this Council is preemptive, like when Councilwoman Miller and Darrell Clarke tried to stop the sale of handguns, being preemptive and affirmative in our actions. My question is, some of these statistics -- and I guess Dr. Anderson might also shed some of this. I've had prior discussions with him about the middle class and where it's going and whether or not some of these statistics show that there is an erosion of that -- there's almost a have and have not situation being demonstrated in these statistics, and I'm just concerned as to what we can do on the Action Agenda from our positions here in Council to do something about that. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown being an advocate, recently, Friday, she was a part of a panel that talked about 33 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 education and higher education and the lack of dollars now available for graduate and college educations from FIA and other places. So we're very concerned about these statistics and what we can do to preempt some of them and move the index up a little bit.

I think and hope that today when you hear from the people that will come after me, that you will get more of this, because panels are broken into social justice, education, economics, and some of the people you name, like Dr. Anderson, will be participating. So if it's okay with you, we can share that.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

The Chair recognizes that Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has joined us, and the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 34 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Good morning.

Good morning.

I want to follow up on Councilman Jones' question, which I think is quite timely when we look to see that we are about months 8 from the development of census activity. 9 Has the National Urban League 10 ever taken any role in data census 11 activities at all? 12

To my knowledge, 13 no. I don't know. And I'm not exactly 14 sure what you mean by taking a "role." 15 So I think the role might be in some 16 urban leagues across the country the 17 extent that we would get involved in 18 outreach or making sure that people are 19 getting the information, that kind of 20 thing, but I don't know if that's what 21 you mean by a "role." 22

That's 23 what I mean. What I've learned since 24 I've been here is, the more we get everyone involved in the census activity, 35 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 actually get them registered, that drives the dollars from the federal government. So to the extent that our communities and residents in our communities are not involved in the census, collected in the census, then that diminishes the amount of dollars that come back to cities around the country.

I'm sure Urban League affiliates across the country -- that probably is not driven from the national level, because it's what we refer to as -- it's on-the-ground activity, so it means that the local affiliates would be engaged in that activity. We have not done that here in Philadelphia. We certainly are very big on outreach in this community. We think that, as I mentioned earlier, just going into the various neighborhoods and communities to engage people around the dialogue even in this report, we think that there are many, many ways that we 36 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 need to touch people to educate them and get them on board with what's happening with our community. So we're very open to entertaining those types of activities.

Okay. That's instructive. The report is extremely comprehensive and I was delighted and thrilled to see the Urban League once again collected data and then presented it to us so that we as policymakers can make informed decisions and set priorities about where we want to invest our time. What priorities has the Urban League decided to focus on? What one, two or three priorities, given the information, has the Urban League decided to focus on? Because there may be an opportunity for us to then partner and help broaden the scope this way and that way in terms of the subject matter.

Well, it's an 37 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 excellent question and it is one that we continue to work on, actually. You will hear from some of the people that we have assembled here this morning, and one is my Board Chair, Michael Rashid, and he and I just met a couple of weeks ago to talk about that very issue, because there are so many different areas that we could focus, and we've kind of broken it out into the five areas just to give the data and to also keep the baseline of the report in line with the national report, which is also on the five areas. But those of you who have been working with the Urban League over the last several years, you know that we have crafted something that we call the three E's, and our three E's are really centered around economic advancement, educational achievement and then the third E is what we call engagement. And those E's are really sort of the cornerstones of the work that we currently do here in Philadelphia. 38 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 And so we are trying to now define like if there were three things or two things that we could do over the next several years that would show positive impact on this data when it's measured again, what would the two biggest things be. And so I'll be honest with you to say we haven't determined what they are yet, but what we do know is that some of these things are inextricably linked together, and I think that's what sometimes makes the decision more difficult. Because when we talk about moving the economic needle, that needle really won't move very much without education. And so some of these things are tied. Health is tied to economics, because if people aren't healthy, if they don't have insurance, they can't work. So some of these things are just so inextricably tied together that it becomes difficult to say if we focus all of our energy on getting people jobs, let's say, then we can move the needle. 39 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Well, what if they can't get there or they don't have the skills to get the jobs or they get the jobs, they don't keep them? People have health issues that won't allow them to work, the incarceration issue of our young people, the dropout rates. There's so many things that are interrelated, and that's why we want to work closely with the City Council, with our state-level representatives, because I think that we have synergy together. Our Mayor talks about cutting the dropout rate in half. Well, that will certainly drive some of those numbers in that report if we can cut the dropout rate in half. So I think we are really looking for your help in that regard, Councilwoman, to be able to focus us around where we should really put our energy and our resources.

Well, my final comment is this, and I'm going to 40 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 seize the moment. What we know here in Council is that each one of us has special interest areas and sort of much of our legislation becomes a centerpiece for what we do. I think that there's an enormous opportunity to link up with and match up with two of the Mayor's priorities, and one of them is lowering the dropout. In fact, he wants to really inverse the numbers, raise the college-going rate and lower the high school dropout rate. Councilman Jones referenced the hearings we participated in on Friday. The nagging and troubling discovery was that Pennsylvania ranks No. 49 when it comes to African-American students going to college, with Mississippi being No. 20 50. So therein lies an opportunity given that the Urban League already has an educational department and the City has made that -- Mayor Nutter has made that a very explicit priority. Therein may lie an opportunity to really, as you say, 41 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 move the needle. So I would put that on the radar screen of the Urban League and ask you to take a close look at how the Urban League coupled with the School District, with the new leadership there, and Mayor Nutter's priorities, look to see how we can collectively make a real dent of a difference when it comes to our young people and them getting from 9th grade to 48 months later graduating and hopefully pursuing college as an option.

Absolutely.

Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your testimony. We will call -- Councilwoman Miller has a question, a comment.

Hi. Good morning. How are you?

Good morning. 42 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Good. Thank you.

Great. I just want to make a very brief comment. I think that when the Urban League puts these State of Philadelphia reports out, they're so very valuable. I remember when I believe my daughter was very young, they put out the State of Philadelphia Schools, and I used that as a guide when I talked to the teacher or any school-related issues, and I would refer people to that particular issue. And I still have it, actually. I still have it -- actually, it's on my desk. It's not filed away in my office, because I really think it's an important and very useful tool. When I read and look at the five areas, we can all talk about working together, and I certainly think we should. That's the only way that we're going to be able to accomplish anything. As much as you guys and other members of the community and institutions need us, 43 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 we need you, too. When Councilman Clarke and I did the weapon bills and had to go to Commonwealth Court, we put a call out, come on down, have our back, let people know it's important, not just to us and members of Council and the Legislature, but also to the community at large. So I just want to make sure that people know that as much as you need us, we need you also. And when I look at the five areas of your focus in this report, I want to make sure that the family is incorporated somewhere in there, because that's where it all starts if we're going to make a real change. We've been talking about these things for years, you know that, and at some point, I guess if we do one at a time or break off in groups that deal with one issue at a time, we'll be able to figure out what we can do to impact change.

Right. 44 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140

One of the reasons why this City Council, myself, took on the Convention Center project was because of the economics, and we know that the economics can impact the entire five areas here. So I just sometimes --

I know. It's like where to start.

I worked in human services, social services all my life. I worked for nine years for State Representative David Richardson, and this was always his priority. Councilwoman Blackwell -- I mean Reynolds asked the question about census. It made me think about when they were doing the 1990 census, how active and involved David Richardson was as a State Rep. So if we see that kind of activity across the City, then we can send a message out to people to please be counted, you know, that we're not trying to find anything bad about you, we just 45 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 need you to be counted. So with that, I want to thank you for the report and I look forward to hearing a lot of the testimony this morning.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Councilwoman. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next panel, social justice, E. Steven Collins, Phoebe Haddon, Everett Gillison. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Good morning, Councilmembers. (Good morning.)

Thank you, Mrs. Tasco, for convening this presentation. I certainly wish today I was coming here to talk to you about a big gathering on the Parkway or some fun with some Greeks on Belmont Plateau or 46 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 even our efforts to take guns off the street through the initiative of our Goods for Guns at Radio One, but in my role as a Board member of the Urban League, it is a much more daunting task to provide this statistical information that you have before you. Social justice is an issue that touches us all with the hallmark work of the multi-racial band of pioneers who founded the Urban League of Philadelphia some 91 years ago in what is sometimes aptly and other times regrettably referenced as the City of Brotherly Love, one that provides social justice, equity and fairness for all citizens. To me and many others, the commitment to justice and fairness for all reflects the true nature of this wonderful city and all of its great people. The disparity index in the area of social justice is particularly troubling. In the important areas of equality before the law and victimization 47 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of others, despite the efforts of many good people, there is blame enough to be shared by very many people. As Pat Coulter, our President, who is just a visionary, and others will articulate before and after me, I wish to reference the important research presented by the report in front of you, State of Black Philadelphia. As the stats and I share will make abundantly clear as it regards social justice, Philadelphia is definitely, as was stated by Pat earlier, a tale of two cities. Let me highlight but a few of the statistics in the State of Black Philadelphia report that should cause anguish in any fair-minded citizens here and every member of the Council who has the capacity and we hope the will to change in this area. It is probably no surprise to you that adult African-Americans are arrested at a significantly higher rate than whites in Philadelphia. Articulated 48 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 as a percentage of serious crime arrests, a staggering 70 percent of black adults were arrested as compared to just 29 percent of their white counterparts in the year 2006. I don't even think that's a disparity. That is a huge gap, 70 to 29 percent. Less serious crimes resulted in a very similar breakdown, 67 percent of blacks arrested compared to 32 percent of whites arrested for crimes of the same nature. For those figures are shocking, the bad news gets even worse when you think about teens and pre-teens in Philadelphia. In 2006, 82 percent of juvenile African-Americans in Philadelphia were arrested compared to 17 percent of whites for serious crime. For less serious crime, the disparity is only slightly less at 77 percent for black youth compared to percent arrest rates 23 for white youth. The social justice system is finished with individuals at the point of 49 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 arrest. It is important and tragic to note that African-Americans in Philadelphia are more than two times likely, two times likely, to be in prison once arrested than whites. Clearly, there is a gross disproportionate number of black arrests that result in prison time than for that of whites. Blacks are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites in Philadelphia, and more than three times as many black offenders receive probation for crimes than white offenders. And there is also the staggering statistic related to victims of crimes. More than three-quarters of male homicide victims are black at 75 percent compared to 19 percent of white males. This is a 20 significant contributing factor to the 21 disturbingly high death rates among 22 African-American males in Philadelphia. For those who have heard these statistics for the first time, does the community really deserve, particularly in 50 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.

080140 views of the aforementioned statistics, what some might argue as an ill-fitting description, a City of Brotherly Love? I ask each individual to answer that question themselves, while I am confident that I know your responses, as well as what positive things we can do as a people, as a community. As tenacious as the root causes of these statistics might be, as citizens who care passionately about improving the lives of all segments of our populates must keep these stark disparities in mind so we move to action in face of this seemingly intractable situation. It almost seems impossible when you look at these numbers. Again, the benefit of the State of Black Philadelphia report is not just in the reporting of troubling statistics of disparities between African-American citizens and their white counterparts, but in the Action Agenda, the Action Agenda that has so thoroughly been put 51 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 forth by leaders of Philadelphia of all races, religions and genders, all of whom refuse to believe that we cannot be better as a city. Are there any of us so untouched or so removed from the impact of these statistics that we don't feel moved to enjoin the battle to erase the disparity in the area of social justice starting right now? I respectfully submit to you an Action Plan as articulated in the State of Black Philadelphia report is a place to start. Curtis Jones said a moment ago that it is in fact a blueprint, it is a map. It's a way to fix this gap that is so wide and the hole is so deep that it requires deep thinking. Here are a few important points: Promoting the increased racial, ethnic, gender and cultural diversity of staff that are part of the justice system itself, which includes attorneys and all personnel involved in the adult and juvenile justice system and youth 52 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 agencies. And while increasing diversity, we must champion the establishment of clear, anti-bias policies that direct the actions of the personnel who populate the world of our justice system. We can urge state and local policymakers like yourselves and others to ensure full equality for African-American youth and adults that are impacted by the criminal justice system. Leadership is key, and while it is not non-existent, it is weak and half-hearted at best. Leadership. All the fair-minded citizens of Philadelphia really must make it a priority to elect policymakers and leaders who will vow to take on this system of blatant bias and then hold them accountable by the power of their vote. Encouraging the collection of more data at the time of arrest related to charging decisions, type of counsel made available, offender information and 53 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 other important statistics that will help us pinpoint the areas of concern, bias and disparity. Data collection should be aggregated to allow the issues involving racial profiling and discrimination so that it can be easily detected and dealt with. Expand the involvement of churches, mosques, temples, civic associations and other vital groups in our community to provide mentoring programs as a serious means of prevention. Provide individuals who are incarcerated with employment-track job skills, post-release employment counseling and opportunities, socializing skills, housing support, drug and alcohol intervention and treatment programs as a resource to the newly released individuals, and develop a business credit that rewards those urban Philadelphia companies, particularly those that are situated in blighted 54 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 areas, to give these ex-offenders an opportunity to work, prosper and own a fundamental American dream. Some of the stuff that I'm talking about today is happening already, but it's just happening in small segments. Jeff Brown, for example, at the Shop Rite Supermarket at 52nd and Jefferson hired 40 ex-offenders in his store, just that one store.

It's making a huge impact. The store opened just a few weeks ago, the new mall out there. And it's happening, but it's not happening enough in our city. We need to restore through a variety of means, including tax credits for housing improvements for the people. Not just speculators and developers seeking opportunities for gentrification and the financial windfall that accompanies, business credits for businesses to establish grocery, hardware, restaurants and all those venues that we take for granted on a 55 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 routine basis can do wonders in a community that has been without them for so long. We are beginning to see some progress by innovative business leaders. I've mentioned one, but we nonetheless have much work to do in this area as a legislative body and as residents of these communities. These are but a few of the actions that can be taken. I would venture to say that not one of them is easy or simple, but I know that without the effort and energy devoted to taking these actions and others, Philadelphia's record on social justice issues will only decline, while the lives of many of the citizens will be wasted by entanglements with a biased and discriminatory system that is tragically flawed. My father used to say to me when he saw me failing algebra at West Catholic and I'd say, I studied, Dad, he'd say, To get what you're not getting, you've got to do what you're not doing. 56 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 And I made the mistake of saying, Well, what am I not doing? He gave me all these options, am I tutoring, am I studying, am I staying, am I dating a girl who understood math better than I did. He had a zillion different ways of getting it done, and that's followed my career from day one. If we want to get it done, we've got to do it a little differently. As you said -- well, Curtis isn't here now, but as he said earlier, it's important that we look at this report as a blueprint and a road map. We will measure our progress tomorrow and on tomorrow's tomorrow. We hope and pray and work towards a different, more enlightened, fair-minded and non-biased social justice system in Philadelphia. To do anything less would be to negatively seal the fate of not only adults trapped by the system today, but arguably, most dangerously, generations of our children, our future for many, 57 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 many years to come. I thank you for your attention.

Thank you very much. Mrs. Haddon.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm Phoebe Haddon and I'm a law professor at Temple Beasley School of Law. I also was on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Race and Gender Fairness that issued a report several years ago, which I'll talk about just a little bit, and I've prepared some of the recommendations that were part of the social justice chapter 19 that the Urban League has produced. I have prepared some brief remarks that you have. I have some slightly longer remarks with me and some recommendations, which I'll give to you, but you can stop me and I'll get to the recommendations if I go on too long. I 58 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 have some comments about racial disparity and what we ought to do with the fact of racial disparity that I'd like to share with you.

We'll take your testimony for the record. You can give it to the court officer.

I'll do that.

And speak into the mike, please.

I'm an avid newspaper reader and I read the Inquirer, but I also read the New York Times, and I've been struck over the last six months or so how many articles in the New York Times have focused on the problem of criminal justice and what's failed in that system. Some of what the New York Times has reported we already knew in Philadelphia, and, that is, that there are continued racial disparities in the criminal justice system that adversely affect not only the people who are part 59 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of the system, but minorities in the communities where crime occurs. The New York Times featured two new reports that had come out documenting these disparities by national as well as international watchdogs. They indicted the United States Draconian approach of using incarceration as a way of addressing most crimes, both violent crimes as well as petty crimes. They particularly highlighted the community devastation that has occurred as a consequence of the war on drugs because of the use of incarceration rather than other approaches that we have available to us and that address the social problems that are a part of the problem, along with drug and alcohol addiction. 3 million people behind bars and 7 million in jail or prison or probation or parole. This number includes a striking disproportion 60 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of blacks and Latino men, as has already been mentioned. The United States has five percent of the world's population, but we have percent of the world's 6 prison population, a three-time increase 7 since the '80s in the war on drugs. 8 The odds that black males will 9 spend some time in prison are 30 percent 10 for blacks, 16 percent for Latinos. The 11 top three offenses that land blacks in 12 jail are the so-called victimless crimes: 13 larceny, theft, drug abuse and other 14 property-related crimes. But we all know 15 that there are also grave consequences to 16 the communities when those crimes occur 17 in terms of the crimes themselves, but 18 also including the detention of those 19 involved in the crime. 20 Data show that even arrest 21 decreases the chances for jobs and income 22 potential. Commentators have revealed 23 that the prevalent strategy of 24 incarceration of the criminal justice 25 system disrupts not only the life of 61 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 those detained, but also the communities and families. "Get tough on crime" policies often had a substantial impact on voting rights and civil rights as well, not only for those who are incarcerated but also for those in the communities who become victims and linked to drugs and other criminal activity. Notably, African-Americans used drugs at roughly the same proportion as other parts of the population and so you would suspect that percent of the 14 drug-convicted population would be blacks, but they make up 35 percent and 55 percent of those arrested for and convicted of drug possession. In 1995, it was reported that for every 100,000 whites, 289 whites were in jail or prison. For every 100,000 black folks, 1,860 were black. From 1985 to 1995, there was a 700 percent increase in the number of African-American drug offenders being locked up. In 2006, 3,042 black males served time in prison 62 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. S -- That's an increase over the earlier data that I gave you -- compared to 487 white males in prison per 100,000 whites. In 2005 alone, one of blacks 7 in their late 20's were in jail, and it 8 was projected that if the trend 9 continues, one in three young black males 10 will spend some of their time in jail. 11 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court 12 several years ago appointed a Committee on Race and Gender Fairness in the court system, and that group found those same kinds of disparities in the criminal justice system statewide.

I served as the Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Race of the Supreme Court project, and we proposed a number of recommendations for a series of chapters dealing with the criminal justice system and the underlying problems that affect the justice system as a whole in the State of Pennsylvania. The report and these recommendations can be found on the 63 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Supreme Court's website. And I would recommend that you look at those, because they're very insightful and very detailed, even more detailed than the Urban League report, because it deals with the criminal justice and the civil justice system as a whole. My testimony today tracks those thinkings of the Supreme Court project and the Urban League, but it also bears upon some of the reading that I have been doing since then, and so I offer some additional comments. The Urban League, as you know, reported that there was a significantly higher arrest rate for black adults than whites here as well as nationally. It said that 80 to 90 percent of those arrested are young and black. After arrest, blacks receive probation three times the rate of whites, and there is a 53 percent greater likelihood of imprisonment of blacks once arrested as compared with whites. 64 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Although there is not much disparity in sentencing, in part because of sentencing guidelines that had been in effect that are now changing in response to the crack cocaine controversy, it is true that blacks tend to get more probation time and are more likely to get some time if they have had no criminal record than whites. Perhaps most telling -- and E. Stevens Collins has already talked about this -- is the impact in the juvenile system, particularly where there is violence concerned. What explains this difference in treatment? Well, multiple factors influence the way criminal defendants and victims are treated in the criminal justice system. So I am not trying to say that this is just a question of race discrimination. Racial disparity can certainly come from causes other than discrimination or disparate treatment. The extent to which racial discrimination 65 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 is responsible for disparities in the numbers of blacks and other people of color in the system as compared with whites is controversial among social scientists and legal scholars. The story is complicated, moreover, by the numerous points of intervention of the criminal justice system where discretion is exercised: police intervention, prosecutorial decision-making, statutory enactments and how they focus upon different parts of the community, racial profiling, incarceration decisions, sentencing and obviously at the end, the death penalty. Most people agree, however, that racialized assumptions and discrimination do play some role, but there is little agreement about the relevance of race and racial discrimination undertaken by those exercising discretion and constructing social policy. This conflict and perspectives about the role of race is 66 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 also affected by the difference in perspective on whether intent to discriminate or simply discriminatory effects really ought to be the focus. Concerns about protecting poor and minority communities from violence and social problems of drugs and alcohol, as well as anger management and other problems, seem as oppositional to the concern for numbers of blacks and other persons of color who become defendants. Increasingly, however, commentators and policy proponents have attempted to consider alternatives that account for both of these concerns, the concerns of the victims as well as the concerns of the defendants.

Historians and blacks scholars often point out that social perspectives with criminality of blacks were rooted in slavery, post-Civil War black codes criminalizing vagrancy, and imposing stiff penalties for other conduct of blacks, which were designed to 67 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 re-establish a racial hierarchy and state-imposed segregation during the Jim Crow segregation era, also fostered this kind of racialized focus. Significant remnants of the legacy of slavery periods affect the social, economic and political discrimination that still persists, and they are also visible in the criminal system where seven times as many African-Americans are in prison than whites. Today's detention and incarceration also are approaches that bear a striking resemblance to the ways that, post-reconstruction period, racial management was being imposed. In addition to this reality, however, what I want to emphasize is the fact that crimes are being committed that disproportionately impact on poor, minority communities that are in need and should have the benefit of effective police presence as well as other social 68 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 support systems. Those who are most often found in the system often come from depressed, isolated and criminogenic settings created by poverty, child abuse and the deterioration of civil agencies which give support, and much of that is documented in the Urban League approach. Young African-American males are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to be victims of homicide, more likely to be imprisoned, more likely to have dropped out of school, more likely to have fathered a child out of wedlock, more likely to have been placed in classes for special education or learning disabilities, more likely to have been suspended from school and more likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS. This is a damning kind of situation, and these facts point to a picture that make it difficult to determine where personal responsibility ends and the need for social kinds of support systems and alternatives other than containment 69 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 begin. It is the case that black males account for a staggering proportion of homicides and other violent crime in this city. But stereotypes play a significant role in assumptions about criminality, and they affect decisions for those who have the discretion in the enforcement system. They also, by the way, affect decisions made by judges. And it's interesting that one federal judge, Felton McGee, pointed out that if you live in a situation, in a criminal justice situation, where the majority of African-Americans that you see are defendants, that's bound to color your view of the world and your understanding of criminality. Finally, judicial precedence make it nearly impossible to challenge discretion and decision-making of those decision-makers that I have been talking about. And so they offer it as almost impossible to really uncover how much in 70 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 the way of bias is driving these disparities. And I could go on about that, but I think I will move on to my recommendations, because as the population in the prison explodes and is increasingly black, it is still the case that there is little that's being done for the people who are imprisoned and who are likely to reenter prison in the future. There are insufficient vocational, educational and substance abuse programs in prisons, which means that 600,000 or so prisoners released each year lack the means to integrate and at least 100,000 of them reenter without supervision, according to the Sentencing Project. More than 60 percent of those released from state prisons will be re-arrested within three years' time, and 40 percent of them will be sent back to prison, often for technical violations of parole. There are few opportunities for 71 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.

080140 employment or to take care of their families given those kinds of statistics. We've made significant strides in the understanding of addiction and in our ability to help people with drug problems and other social-related problems, but despite this progress, treatment programs are limited in taking advantage of these scientific advances often out of fear of losing financing or appearing to be soft on drugs. Studies have shown that treatment is much more successful, however, than incarceration in reducing crime associated with the drug trade. We could help more people if we were less punitive in our anti-drug strategy. And, notably, Congress has recently passed legislation that recognizes these problems and they call it the Second Chance Act. It authorizes 165 million each year to fund pilot projects to provide education and drug treatment in prison and assistance with 72 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 housing, employment and family concerns after release in prison. But 165 million is a pittance and it really is not the kind of resources that are going to be required to change this whole approach. It also requires the work of local legislators, as well as other people who have to be involved in this process, because it depends on the success of pilot projects that they are trying to encourage to occur. In the Urban League's State of Black Philadelphia, we made several recommendations, and I'm going to draw upon some of them. E. Steven Collins has talked about a few of them, but I also included a few others that I think are important in light of what I have presented. I hope it's not too depressing a picture, because I think that there's lots of opportunities that lie ahead and that we can work collectively, both the Legislature, the executive and the judicial branches, 73 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 including us lawyers, to do some work in this area. First, establish training programs for police personnel, prosecuting attorneys and attorneys practicing in adult and juvenile systems on the ways race can influence charging and negotiating plea bargaining decisions, including considerations related to the economic and social environment of the perpetrators, such as unemployment, family status, responsibility and prior criminal record. Second, collect more data at arrest on charging decisions, including type of counsel available, offender information and employment status, role in offense, family status and responsibility. Only if we have this kind of information can we more fully understand the relationship of race, lack of education and poverty to the disparate presence of minorities in the criminal justice system. 74 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Third, increase racial, ethnic, gender and cultural diversity of staff, and E. Steven Collins has just talked about that, and this goes across the board in terms of the people who are participating, because that is the only way that we are going to be able to sensitize people to the racialized assumptions that they are making. Fourth, allocate more funds to establish mentoring programs. And, again, E. Steven Collins has talked about that, so I will keep that short. We ought to consider, like Illinois, revamping the patrol system by hiring parole officers and changing regulations so that parolees who commit lesser violations are dealt with within their community with counseling, drug treatment or more vigilant monitoring. The PA Supreme Court should direct court administrators to explore innovative programs that seek to resolve cases earlier or to divert non-violent 75 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 defendants into counseling or other alternative programs rather than through the judicial prosecutorial system. The Legislature should appropriate funding for indigent defense services from the Commonwealth and adopt uniform attorney compensation standards, because that's the only way we're going to actually have equality in representation.

The Legislature should also establish a commission to oversee service and promulgate uniform minimum standards addressing training and workload concerns, and it should establish guidance for maximum caseloads for public defenders and district attorneys in juvenile court consistent with National Advisory Commission standards. These were two recommendations that we gave to the Supreme Court, and we're hoping that they'll work on them. DPW should work with county children and youth agencies to ensure 76 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 that current regulations provide for the use of community-based alternatives and resources in home services and reduce institutional placements in the juvenile system of justice. DPW should also limit inappropriate use of secured detention and seek suitable alternatives and resources that keep juveniles out of detention and have available access to community-based resources. And, finally, tenth, all participants in the criminal justice decision-making process should mandate breakdown in data collection that include race and gender characteristics so that disparities that are a consequence of the intersection of race and gender, like the gross disparity in black male homicides, and disproportionate black male arrests for rape can be more fully detected and consequences better understood. Generally, I believe we should look to better understand the root causes 77 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of violence in poor and minority neighborhoods, not just the connection to drugs and gang warfare, but also target social issues that affect choices that young people and young adults make, such as health, education and welfare and stress kinds of issues. We should support preventative and rehabilitative programs which encourage anger management and non-violence in an attempt to address recidivism with these considerations in mind, focusing on job training, education and ways to build viable lives rather than risk recidivism. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your testimony. As I sat here and listened to you, I was just telling Derek that we probably should have had three separate meetings to allow each panel to present and then we discuss, and then it might have been a little more fruitful. We might try that 78 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 again later, but because you have spent a lot of time, you've pulled a lot of time, I have a thousand questions, but I have all these people here waiting to testify and I can't get into it. So we may have to have you come back later and let's talk about some of the things you've talked about and how we can be engaged in some of the recommendations that you've come up with. So it certainly is very informative and very depressing. All right. Mr. Gillison. DEPUTY

It's hard to follow that, but I'm going to try and follow it with a way that I think that we have to go forward. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and other members of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. Obviously my name is Everett Gillison. I'm the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. I would like to recognize Chairwoman Tasco and members of this Committee on your leadership in holding 79 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 this hearing. I also want to thank Pat Coulter and her colleagues at the Urban League of Philadelphia for issuing this useful report. I am here to testify on the State of Black America as it pertains to social justice. The numbers that the Urban League has presented to us shows a snapshot of some of the problems African-Americans face today in the criminal justice system. While the numbers are both daunting and subjective, they point to a deeper issue in the African-American society. We have to examine how we plan to move forward with this information. The easy course is to throw our collective hands up in the air and give up. We must not do that. Rather, we should roll up our sleeves and delve into the heart of the issue. Juveniles in our community turn to crime and criminals because of something that is lacking in their own lives. They turn to neighborhood 80 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 criminal or gang because of a sense of belonging or family. We as a community need to understand this reasoning. There is a saying, charity begins at home, and obviously what we need to do is to start taking more of an active role in the lives of our children, whether they are ours or not. While this is not going to be a panacea, it is a perfect place to start. As we know, equality before the law and social justice can't be discussed in a vacuum. Along with what is to be found at home is what happens at school. Too often we find ourselves in a position where some of the moires -- it's too cool, it's too cool to be educated, it's not being true to yourself if you're the "smart kid" in class -- these are things that we have heard for many, many years and basically have just been talking about what are we going to do. As we know, if our education is not on par with others in society, there are few options 81 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 in the world. Not stressing good education at home ultimately limits the opportunity one has in life, and with limited opportunities, we can't take hold of the American dream that has been promised. It remains an illusion that only seems attainable for people of other races. We then have to compete for the low-skill jobs, and as this country and world moves towards globalization, those jobs become more and more scarce. This leaves us with even fewer options. There are new industries that are developing as technology advances and the country becomes more conscious of the environment. What I would like to be able to put forward here is that we need to concentrate our efforts. We may be able to get in front of these new initiatives that will shape our country and the world for the next century. We also need to address those in our community that are returning home from our prisons. There are a large 82 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 number of African-American men that come home from across the state daily to Philadelphia. As a community, we need to take the same approach as we take with our children. As a community, we need to support this group and give them opportunities, economic and social, so that they do not return to prison. As an Administration, we are exploring different programs nationwide where we can stem this tide of recidivism in our city. There are many models that are in practice in other cities of our size. The programs range from job training, education, drug and addictive services, faith-based models and various combinations of all of the above.

This Administration is committed to reducing the number of African-American men that are sent back to prison just for lack of opportunity. Before I conclude, one of the things that I have to say in just adding to the testimony that has been provided 83 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 here is that for 30 years, I worked in the system and for 30 years, we've been trying to offer alternatives to incarceration, because we understood, quite frankly, that you damage everybody once you enter prison, because you're never the same going in as you are coming out. I've been asking people to have an honest discussion about the role of prison in our society ever since the Mayor gave me this opportunity to sit in this chair, and I would like to hope that we'd be able to honestly have that discussion, because we have been asking prisons to do the work where society has just failed. We've asked the prisons to be the place where mental health treatment is offered because society walked away. We've asked prisons to deal with our educational system's failures. We've asked prisons to deal with the failures within relationships between people. We've asked prisons to do it all, and we need to really have an answer 84 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 for ourselves. Is that what we really want? Because what we really ended up with is where we are today. This concludes my testimony. I thank you once again, and at this time, I would be happy to answer any questions that the Committee members may have.

Thank you very much, all of you, for your testimony and for taking time to come this morning to present your papers. Are there any questions from members of the -- Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. (Good morning.)

Thank you all for your testimony. I particularly like the way Mr. Gillison framed his testimony, and I want to go along that pattern of thinking in terms of how we frame social justice. Let's start with two scenarios. 85 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 One is that there is a large number of African-American boys who are underachieving in terms of reading and math. They then become turned off to education. They become truant. At some point later in life, they drop out of high school. They then begin to congregate with other young African-American males in similar situations. They get involved in the criminal justice system. They may get involved in substance abuse. They have very few employable skills after they've entered the criminal justice system and actually become offenders. They then become almost unemployable by historical standards. At the same time, we know, as I started the story about young African-American boys underachieving, that we are in fact planning future prisons based upon those test scores in terms of reading and math at that age. And so it is not the issue of social 86 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 justice, the fact that this is actually by design that we know through their underachievement at early educational levels what's going to happen to those young people, but we don't intervene on that side, nor do we go back and get them after we know they've already been caught up in the system. DEPUTY

I'm --

So my question is to some extent, is it by design. DEPUTY

Well, I think that there is a reaction that has always been put forth. I remember I was talking with someone who said that back in the early '80s a billion dollars, which was back then everybody was talking about, the late '70s, early '80s, you moved a billion dollars and people says, Wow, that's a lot of money. Well, they took it out of the education area and they put it in prisons. And we would talk about the fact that if you would 87 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 just give us a little bit more money on the front end where we could actually reach out and reach in and do the work that we needed to do, that you wouldn't -- I can almost guarantee you you will have less victims later on if you just give me an opportunity to reach them at an earlier age. Well, now that age -- when I first started in the job, we thought that if we could get them in the middle school area, we thought if we could get them in the 7th and 8th grade, if we could get them there, that we'd be able to stop. Today as I sit here in this position, I look out and I'm looking at the statistics. We got to reach them earlier. And when we don't reach them earlier, basically what you're saying is that society does have to, quote/unquote, protect itself, and as a result, we are identifying data that says that when you are a low achiever and when you have limited opportunity, you're going to act 88 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 out. That doesn't take rocket science to get you there. What we're trying to do now is to turn that clock back and we're trying to put things in the front end. I know that Lori Shorr, who is the education representative of the Mayor, and Don Schwarz, the other Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunities, and I, we meet on a regular basis just to help us design so that they can help me with the supportive services programming and also to take a look at how the education plan can be adapted so that people won't be getting to me and the people that I'm dealing with in public safety later on. I'm willing to put whatever I can to help support them going forward. So it's a dialogue that we're having, that this Administration is having, and we have several people that are just tasked to deal with this particular issue. And obviously it's at the highest levels, because we're only 89 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 one step away from the Mayor and this is his agenda that he's making sure he's putting in front of us. But is it by design? I would say it is the design of society that when they see the problem coming down the pike, for some reason there has been an overwhelming desire to protect, at least to see to protect, rather than to invest, and I'm hoping we can turn this script around and start investing rather than always looking at the protection issue. But I'll --

I just offer a former Secretary of Education on the federal level, Councilman, who on a radio show said if you want to eliminate crime in the inner cities, just eliminate African-Americans. Bill Bennett was the former Secretary. And I say that not in a controversial call, but to speak to your question, is it by design. Why at 3rd grade do policymakers in this country decide to build more prisons if black 90 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 kids are not coming and not, therefore, attending to their grades and their studies, and begin to build and plan to build bigger prisons as opposed to remedial work and educational support mechanisms for those kids and to give them a better opportunity to learn? I think it is by design, and I think it's up to us as Council, as media, as executive members of the Board of the Urban League to engage, as Pat said, a way to figure it out and to get in front of it and to change that design.

Just, lastly, as a policy question, in terms of investment, where would you place mentoring of at-risk youth in terms of priority? DEPUTY

I can tell you that the Administration is looking towards trying to put more mentoring projects in, especially the pilot projects. We are trying to use -- obviously we have a competing interest in 91 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 that we have so many individuals leaving prisons that we need to really have supportive services for. The Mayor is on record through both the PREP legislation that I know you were key in getting through and pushing forward. We can't just leave people where they are and expect them not to have supports to go back. So we really want to handle the recidivist rate by providing the services to them, but at the same time, we really have to push more resources to the front end in order to make sure that they don't end up getting to the point where they're going to recidivate, that maybe we can just deal with it there. So it is a fine line that we're walking, and obviously money is tight, but from our point of view, what we're trying to do is walk that line and, wherever we can, model the behavior that we would like to see taken, not just locally but nationally, that we recognize that investment in our kids is not just 92 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 lip service, but actually something going forward. And I know that we'll be looking forward to working with Council as we go forward in identifying not only pilot projects, but where things are working, let's expand them and not just keep them as pilots. Let's make that part and parcel of how we're going to act as a society. I know that's the Mayor's agenda, and that's what we're going to be doing.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First let me underscore Councilwoman Tasco's assessment that we really could have taken each panel and put you in your own stand-alone committee, because there's so much information and opportunities, as you say, for us to really examine deeply what 93 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 we can do on this side as policymakers, but also what opportunities exist for practitioners and those on the front line. So I can't get it all in, but I'm going to cover a few points I made here. First of all, Professor, do you have a copies of your testimony?

Yes. I will submit them.

Secondly, I want to elaborate on Councilman Goode's description of why we're losing so many of our young men. Same picture, but a different lens. And this is what we know: From K through 3, children learn to read. From 4th grade on, they read to learn. So if they get to 4th grade and they're not reading, then all of the things that Councilman Goode has just spoke about begin to reveal themselves and we lose them, truancy being the first signal on the radar screen, leading to other type of inappropriate behaviors. So as we think about what we 94 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 want to do on our end, I'm going to underscore my appeal to the Urban League. As you look to your priorities, if we know where we're beginning to lose young people around 4th grade and we know what the Mayor's priorities are around his educational agenda, there may indeed be an opportunity for the Urban League to go to scale, work with faith-based organizations, who really are engaged in best practices, and the School District to go to scale on how we capture young people around 4th and 5th grade, literally hold their hand through mentoring programs. Because what we also know, based on research, is that where you have mentors actively involved in the lives of these children, they never see 1801 Vine Street. So I'm absolutely convinced that we can collectively do more with the mentoring piece, linking up with panhellenic organizations and professional organizations, who all are 95 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 doing stuff but there's no thread holding it all together. And that would take us to your suggestion that we need to figure out ways to take it to scale. So that's my point on the education piece. With regards to the courts, first of all, just last week one of the journalists wrote a story, commented about the reform that's happened with the parks, and her very last sentence was, And where's the next place we can look for reform, and her question was, And what about the courts? So my question to any one of you is, how limited are we at the Council level when we know that the courts are principally administered by the state? Help me out with that. I don't know.

You have to tell me a little bit more about what you're asking.

Councilwoman.

In the 96 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 recommendations that you outlined where you said you had made recommendations to the Supreme Court and other activities you've been engaged in to address these issues, how can we fit in that picture? I mean, will they listen to us? I mean, just where can we fit in?

Well, specifically, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's committee was dispersed, but what they did do was to recreate another implementing commission, and that information is also on Pennsylvania Supreme Court website, and I can give you the website link. I don't have it off the top of my head. But what they did, which was really actually a good idea, they made that commission legislative, judicial and executive. So they have members of all branches of government, not local government but all branches of government represented, so that when we start thinking about things that legislators 97 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 ought to do as opposed to what courts ought to do, there will be representatives there. They haven't gotten well along in their implementing agenda, but they have started, and I can give you an example. If I had more minutes, I'd 9 talk about the disparity in the 10 composition of juries. And so they are 11 approaching those kinds of issues. 12 They're also approaching the problem of 13 language difference and how that impacts 14 people going into the courts. 15

I see. 16

So it's those 17 kinds of things that they are kind of 18 focusing on and dealing with 19 incrementally. 20 There are members of that commission that include folks from the state, the Commonwealth, legislators have appointed people, so that they do have that kind of representation on that one.

Okay. My 98 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 final point is, you should be encouraged to know that we here in Council have or did just last year in budget hearings challenge DPW, DHS with regards to them sending too many of our young people out of the Commonwealth, because the dollars follow the student, and appealed to them to think through differently how we can hold on to those young people in their communities. So we have raised that on this end. We don't know yet what the yield has been, but we have paid particular attention to how so many of our young people were not going to neighboring states, they were going across the country for placement and were bewildered by the fact that DPW, DHS could not find group placement closer to home. So on that particular item, we've taken a real good look at.

And that's a great example. It seems to me -- I was talking about what the state could do, but 99 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 locally we could do similar kinds of implementing committees. What we could do is to try to identify people who are involved in the courts and in the practicing attorney fields. We could figure out folks who would be interested from Council or their representatives and we could get members from the Mayor's Office to come together and talk about how do we address some of the issues that are being highlighted in the Urban League's report, and each of us will have some role to play. And you have also highlighted the other role; that is, the folks who are not officials, the people who would be volunteering and giving of their time, and I think that that is going to be a critical link in this effort to address, because we can't do it with tax dollars and with --

Government cannot do it by itself.

We can advise, we can think about new policies, but we 100 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 can't do it all.

Thank you again, all, for your very compelling testimony. Thank you.

I also like the recommendation that you talk about where the police officers should be trained. We have heard in the past, particularly during our discussions with the Youth Study Center, that African-American boys are taken to the Youth Study Center, but the white kids are taken to other locations. Who in the report, who gathered the data about the statistics on the number of people arrested and all of that? Do you know how that data was gathered?

I don't have that in font of me. I'm sure we can get that before the end of our testimony today.

I'll ask Pat later. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for your 101 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 testimony. We may have you back, because, again, as we sit here and do this, when you're planning a hearing like this, you don't really give it the thought that we might need just one panel at a time, because we have other people waiting, so you don't have the time a lot of time to have a lot of in-depth questions.

It is outstanding that you all are taking the time to really take that document to explore what's in it. There's a lot of research there. A lot of time is spent on it, and it speaks to so many of the issues that affect our community. So we applaud you for just taking the time and we appreciate you'd like to go further.

Thank you. Well, my mind is clicking here. I will have further talks with Pat about how we might address this study and use it as a basis for many other kinds of forums and actions. 102 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Thank you. Okay. Moving right along, my next panel will talk about education. Dr. Robert Keyes, Brian Armstead, Chad Womack and Lori Shorr. Then the panel after that will be economics and then health. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

And if you all could -- well, I know it's hard to summarize, because this stuff is very in-depth, so we appreciate what you can do.

Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco and Committee members. My name is Bobby Keyes and I'm the Vice-President and General Manager with Enterprise Rent-A-Car here in the Philadelphia area, and I also serve as the Chairman for the Education Committee for the Urban League of Philadelphia.

Thank you.

And I will be as 103 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 brief as possible with the testimony to keep the procedure moving. The State of Black Philadelphia articulates some disturbing statistics related to both the quality of the educational experience and the disparity around educational attainment for African-American students as compared to their white counterparts, a topic of concern to each of us, particularly those working in the large Philadelphia-based companies and corporations with a need for an educated workforce, specifically college educated and skilled labor, given our demographics that include an aging and increasingly large number of workforce retirees. Among the revelations brought to the attention of our community by the State of Black Philadelphia report include the following facts: In schools with high minority populations, the percentage of highly qualified teachers as measured by 104 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 criteria established by the Pennsylvania Department of Education is considerably lower in schools populated, in large measure, by non-minority students. During the 2505 and 6 school year, only 71 percent of teachers in highly populated minority schools were deemed highly qualified, based once again on criteria of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, compared to 86 percent of teachers with this important distinction in schools with low minority populations. Less than ten percent of African-American students in the School District of Philadelphia are enrolled in advanced placement courses compared to double that amount, percent, for their 20 white counterparts. This factor 21 ultimately translates into fewer 22 qualifications among black students upon college matriculation than whites, not to mention the knowledge-based benefits of students enrolled in AP classes. 105 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 It is upon this dismal backdrop that another layer of disturbing statistics is added, those pertaining to educational attainment, including that as a percentage of the population of 7 years or older. The number of 8 African-Americans with a high school 9 diploma stands at 36 percent while 42 10 percent of whites in Philadelphia hold a 11 high school diploma. 12 The dropout rate for blacks is 13 alarmingly higher than that of their 14 white counterparts. 2 percent. 20 So where does that leave the 21 community of Philadelphia? Well, with an 22 undereducated and largely neglected 23 population of many economically 24 disadvantaged African-American youth, 25 many of whom are ill-prepared to become 106 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 part of a productive and successful workforce, I am sure you will join me in my sense of urgency about the need to address these disparities by taking part in systemic long-term actions to begin to achieve parity for the young people of Philadelphia, our sons and daughters, our nieces and nephews, our neighbor's children, the very lifeblood of our future as a community. Are any of us willing to neglect our young citizens to turn our attention away from the pressing challenges that our future will present because we are seemingly collectively unwilling to engage in the direct action needed today as a community, which includes our wonderfully diverse members of City Council, along with parents, students, educators, community activists and the community at large, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or gender, among others. Fortunately for our 107 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 legislators, stakeholders and citizenry, an Action Agenda exists that was developed by the City's corporate and non-profit leaders, community advocates, academia, educators, health practitioners, government, the Legislature and our judiciary, in concert with the Urban League. The Action Agenda is an integral component of the important State of Black Philadelphia document.

But as you are aware, action plans on paper do not equate to meaningful change unless and until they are embraced by citizens who are unwilling to live with less than desirable status quo. Good intentions are not enough. Direct action is the only way to a brighter future for our young African-Americans served, in large measure, by the Urban League of Philadelphia. The action must be vigorous, systemic and sustained over the long term. Here are but a few of the tasks recommended as part of the Action Agenda 108 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 put forth in the State of Black Philadelphia: Expand outreach efforts to parents by developing flexible and innovative strategies to support parental engagement in their children's education. One example that comes to mind is the reality that many African-American youth enter school with 50 percent of the vocabulary of white children. Thus, we must begin to better engage our mothers and fathers in parenting classes and drive home the importance of parental and/or family involvement. Design and implement effective partnerships between the K through 12 schools, the business community and the institutions of higher education to create more effective pathways and opportunities for our youth. Internships may be a particularly effective means of augmenting and enhancing the educational experience for our students as they move into their mid to late teenage years. 109 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Support the establishment of innovative and flexible educational benchmarks that must be met to ensure that every child has access to a broad range of career paths and post-secondary educational options. Strengthen, expand and vigorously promote leadership training programs targeting pre-teen and adolescent youth in our community. Perhaps it may be true that some leaders are born, but as the seemingly limitless availability of book and resources related to learning leadership skills tells us, leaders are more often made; that is, taught, mentored, trained and guided, than born into the demanding role of leader. And provide professional development for our teachers to support their efforts to positively impact the underserved and underperforming minority students that are the victims of an underachieving educational system, as 110 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 evidenced in some of the statistics I have quoted to you today. I respectfully urge you to consider direct action as a committee, to use your influence, and to fully commit yourselves as public servants in the community to make a difference and lift up our young people, to encourage and support all students, not only the most elite, in the attainment of their academic and professional goals, whether it be college, university or technical and/or skilled labor. This is a task that cannot be ignored. Nothing short of the future growth and economic success of our beloved and historic City depends upon the bold action we are willing to work for, fight for and achieve starting now. We must do this together. As an executive at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, we take great pride, beginning with our extraordinary Chairman, who also serves as a valued 111 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 member of the National Urban League, in affording African-American and other underserved youth with professional opportunities for growth and development at the nation's largest privately owned car rental company. Our Chairman and his executives are implored to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk. To support this mantra, however, our city and region must produce youth equipped with academic tools and resources to be successful through our bottom-up approach, sales representatives to store managers and, ideally, well-paid corporate executives with the capacity to give back to their communities. That said, we cannot afford to lose our next generation of workers to other cities and regions with a more educated populace.

Enterprise is deeply committed to doing business in urban cities like Philadelphia, but we struggle on a daily basis to find young talent, despite some of the most significant 112 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 plans to incorporate diversity in the entire country. We must not and cannot be forced to move into communities, particularly non-urban areas where job needs are plentiful, as a result of the lack of young people equipped with the tools to take advantage of our organization and its benefits. In short, we simply cannot allow the appalling disparity in educational quality and attainment to continue to exist. Philadelphia is one of the largest cities and, with your support, will make a difference. And eventually, as the grim statistics of disparity begin to dissipate over time, we will be able to look back at this day as the day the good and important and critically important work began. We will be able to look back upon today with heads held high, knowing that we embraced the challenges head on, started the movement necessary to endow our youth with the right stuff to 113 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 contribute meaningfully and significantly to their own community while at the same time improving upon their lives and their futures. Thank you for your bold and innovative leadership, Chairwoman Tasco and other Committee members, and for your willingness to tackle this necessary, yet difficult, issue raised throughout the State of Black Philadelphia. Thank you for hearing me this morning.

Thank you very much. Next.

Thank you. Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco and members of City Council. My name is Brian Armstead. I am the Director of Civic Engagement for the Philadelphia Education Fund. I've been asked to speak about the role of parent involvement in public education, and for the past 22 years, the Philadelphia Education Fund has worked to 114 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 improve and transform public education for underserved youth in the City and region. We've done so by working hand in hand with the District on numerous projects and by working with parents, students, businesspeople and other community members to advocate for change in the District and the schools on numerous other occasions. Collectively, these experiences have allowed us to understand educational needs and challenges from multiple perspectives. As the Urban League's State of Black Philadelphia reports, one-fourth of the City's African-American residents do not have a high school diploma and another 42 percent have only a high school diploma. Additionally, only ten percent of the black students in high school scored proficient or advanced on the PSSAs in math, with only a slightly higher percentage doing so in reading. This underachievement is reflected in unemployment rates and 115 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 violence in communities where jobs, educational attainment and hope are in short supply, while frustration, anxiety and poverty rates are high. All of which points to the need for reform in the School District, but it also points to the need for black parents and the black community to be much more involved in education. And there are at least three ways that we can be involved. One thing I wanted to do here was to try to draw a different kind of a framework. I think often we talk about parent involvement and sort of lump it together and not really differentiate. And so one way to look at it with these three levels are at the policy level, at the school level and at the child level. Parent and community advocacy around policy is crucial, because the District is a complex organism with a whirlwind of political influence spiraling around it, and its decisions are often subject to numerous influences. 116 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Parents especially have a legitimacy which enables them to hold everyone's collective feet to the fire and make sure they maintain a focus on the children so that things like small class size and the equitable distribution of quality, experienced teachers becomes the norm, and that teacher coaches, art and music and much-needed supports for school staff are prioritized as the District attempts to allocate its scarce resources. Recently, parents and community have also proven to be effective in helping to increase those resources by working with City Council -- thank you, Councilman Goode, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown and actually Council in general for the help that you've provided to the District recently -- and the parents and others have been working with the Governor to help move forward plans to increase funding for education statewide. But as an African-American man that works in education policy, I also 117 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 think it is an issue when I am the only black face at a policy table. Education is so vital an issue for our community, more of us have to get involved in crafting local, state and even federal policy. The second arena for parent and community involvement is the school level. When parents and community members volunteer in schools, it helps to control the school environment. Parent volunteers shape students' behavior because "Ms. " Parents and community members have created safe corridors for children to get to and from school. And when clergy members and others got together to make a new library at Germantown High School, they not only make it easier for kids to do better in school, they let the kids know that someone cares and that hope exists.

Parents and community also hold teachers and principals accountable. 118 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 This is the case in the most effective schools. Too often, though, parents and community members experience barriers when they attempt to work with schools. They are often made to feel insignificant by office staff and looked down upon by teachers. Often they are scapegoated for the school's problems. Effective partnerships cannot be built this way. But work must be done on both parts. The District and its schools must become more transparent and welcoming, and the parents and community must take up their responsibilities and get much more involved in our schools. Finally, African-American parents and community members need to become more involved on the student level. Doing simple things like checking homework, making sure the students set aside study time at night, encouraging students to read over the summer and talking to teachers about grades, attendance and behavior can all have 119 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 dramatic impact. One mother I know said, "My job is hectic. They never see me at the school, but I make sure I do everything they," the school, "tells me to do. " But since we're in a new world with new needs and challenges, it is even more beneficial when parents step up their game by asking questions to truly understand what is needed to do well in school, to graduate and to go to and succeed in college. They need to ask, how many credits are needed for graduation? How many and which math courses should students take to make it through college and have the career that they want? What are the options in high school for internships and certifications, and other such questions. Many studies have echoed the importance of parent involvement, and numerous articles have been written about the problems that result when parents are 120 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 not involved. I think it is time we stop pointing fingers at parents and figure out a better way to get them involved on each of these three levels, in policy, at the schools and one on one with students. There are and have been effective programs that do this. Some of them have been here in Philadelphia, but we seldom have the financial, social and political commitment to expand them from pilot projects and to maintain them through tough times. To truly get more parents involved, black, white, Asian, Latino and Native-American, will require a different kind of partnership in our city. We need to begin having more discussions to set a collective vision of how we want our parents to be engaged, how to reduce barriers at the District and its schools, and how to increase the skill and comfort levels of our parents so that they can and will be more involved. These have to be sustained and consistent efforts and 121 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 sustained and consistent public discussions, and need to be accompanied by the funding needed to support programs that will get us there. Fostering these discussions and helping to garner this funding either through public or private funds is a role that City Council and the Mayor should and could play. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning. Councilwoman Tasco, thank you so much. This is an honor to be here in front of the City Council to talk about education. My testimony is to focus on STEM education, what we call science, technology, engineering and math, and its importance for the Greater Philadelphia regional copy. I am Dr. Chad Womack, a native Philadelphian, founder, President and Executive Director of the Philadelphia Biotechnology and Life Sciences Institute. I am also the Chair of the STEM Education Task Force for the 122 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 School District of Philadelphia. I'm here today to testify on the importance of science, technology, engineering, math, what we call STEM education, with a particular emphasis on its impact on human capital and workforce development and knowledge economy in the City of Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia region. The term "STEM" can perhaps be understood best as math and science education and both preparing students for success in college and navigating career pathways in science and technology. On a macro level, the importance of STEM education can also be understood in the context of innovation and the impact that it has on driving regional technology-based economic development. Ultimately, students who are adequately prepared with STEM education are going to be better informed citizens and are going to be the inventors and innovators of the future. We recognize that we have 123 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 entered a new era, a new global and tech-based economy where manufacturing and service-based work no longer holds the same value and, therefore, economic benefits. Those old economies have given way to the new economy where creative and knowledge-based work is high valued, compensated and rewarded. As an example of this new economy, the biotech and life sciences sector in the Greater Philadelphia region is a dominant economic force. The City of Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia region is home to some of the world's largest and most successful pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies, including Merck, GSK, Wyeth, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Centocor, Morphotek and Cephalon. These are all billion dollar plus market cap companies that surround us. Let me provide some facts regarding the industry in our region. Across the nation, the Greater 124 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Philadelphia region placed third on the Innovation Pipeline Index behind Boston and Greater San Francisco, which are the two cities in which this industry was founded. It ranked highest in the human capital investment and innovation output. However, it ranked lowest in the workforce and R&D categories. The Greater Philadelphia area had more than 53,000 workers in the life sciences industry in 2003, second only to Greater New York with more than 74,000. Greater Philadelphia's pharmaceutical industry led the region's life science employment with more than 30,000 jobs in 2003, or 56 percent of all life sciences employment. In 2003, the life sciences supporting industries in Greater Philadelphia employed more than 300,000 people. The life sciences industry in this region is responsible for over 200,000 total jobs, and that includes 125 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 direct and indirect, or 11.4 percent of all employment in the region. So it's clear that this is a dominant industry. Further, the life sciences industry in Greater Philadelphia is responsible for $13.7 billion in worker earnings, or 12.8 percent of all the earnings or total earnings in this region. And, finally, the Greater Philadelphia life sciences industry is responsible for $15.5 billion in gross metro output, 6.9 billion directly and 8.6 billion in indirect and induced impacts. So why is STEM education so important? Quite frankly, it is the gateway to an economic future. I remind the Council that African-Americans make up less than a percentage point in this industry.

Repeat that.

I remind people 126 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 that we make up less than a percentage point in this industry. I liken us to Dr. Seuss's Whos in Whoville. We are here, but we are so few that we don't get noticed. So it is important, therefore, in this context with the Urban League's State of Black Philadelphia report that we understand the value of STEM education from the individual context of providing opportunity for individuals to participate in this new economy, but also that if we have large sectors of the City that's not engaged, that does not participate in this dominant industry, then we have a problem moving forward, and not just for the African-American community, but for the City as a whole. Given the importance of the bio-life science industry as an example -- and, of course, when we talk about knowledge or creative industries, it's not just bio-life sciences, we can also talk about engineering and IT. But 127 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 for the sake of this conversation, let's focus on the bio-life science industry -- the significance of a well-prepared, well-educated workforce become very, very clear. Now more than ever preparing our youth with not just the basic skills in math and science but also skills to map and navigate career development for a 21st century economy becomes critical. In this context, investing in STEM educational programs means that we are preparing better citizens, as well as the innovators of tomorrow that are going to not only create a more prosperous economy, but one in which all citizens and communities can participate and benefit at many different levels. Across the nation, cities like Philadelphia, large urban settings where large numbers of minority youth are marginalized by inadequate resourced institutions such as public school districts and non-aligned stakeholders, a renewed sense of urgency for STEM 128 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 education is being heard. For African-Americans and other minority communities, the message is particularly loud and clear, for they will be effectively locked out of any meaningful economic future if we do not engage in this issue. So what are the recommendations? Support local and regional STEM educational efforts. I am personally encouraged by the leadership within and without -- certainly the person sitting to my right, Dr. Lori Shorr is an example of the kind of leadership that I think the City needs. The Biotech and Life Sciences Institute is just one. I think it happens to be an important effort, but it also is in the context of partnerships with organizations like the Philadelphia Ed Fund, Math-Science Coalition, and, quite frankly, a lot of the universities have STEM-oriented and focused programs that have done and continue to do the work 129 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 that's needed. The Institute has launched a middle school-based math and science or STEM summer and high school-based biotech/life sciences career academy program in collaboration with the School District and its university partners, including University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Temple, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel and others. Number two, support efforts such as the Urban League of Philadelphia's STEM programs that will outreach and engage community stakeholders -- and I think this dovetails nicely with what Dr. Armstead has talked about, and this includes parents and guardians -- to inform them and educate them about the importance of education in general, but also the economic importance of STEM education that it provides in particular. Number three, adopt a citywide STEM educational agenda that integrates 130 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 STEM education, human capital and workforce development with local and regional knowledge-based economic development planning. This approach should be integrated into a larger tech-based economic development plan that addresses the three prongs that I think are critical.

One is STEM education at the secondary level, and that includes programs that operate during the summers. Number two, human capital and workforce development programs. And, number three, entrepreneurship and commercialization within the City of Philadelphia itself. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Ms. Shorr, just a minute before -- because I'll forget this question. Your recommendations, how do you propose to -- what is the plan to implement the recommendations you just cited? Because I think exposure is extremely important for young people to 131 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 understand and understand STEM or biotechnology and how that relates to them and their everyday lives. I mean, you made the recommendations. What are you all doing to carry forth these recommendations?

That's a good question. I'm happy to say that the School District of Philadelphia takes this issue seriously and I think it's clear that the Mayor takes it seriously, and you have regional stakeholders within the City and surrounding the City that take it seriously as well, folks like the Philadelphia Ed Fund, you have the STEM Compact, you have groups like DVIRC, Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Centers. University stakeholders have -- I would say all of the universities have some STEM-focused or STEM-oriented program that works in concert or collaboration with the School District. What is needed in Philadelphia -- I think the good news 132 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 about my home city is that there are a lot of people doing good things. The challenge is that they're not coordinated or organized. So I think part of the challenge is to organize them. I think the organizing element ought to be in alignment with the City government, with the School District, because ultimately the government and School District are responsible for the kids and their welfare. So I think out of that responsibility and leadership ought to come a plan that addresses STEM broadly that identifies the opportunities to intervene early. I think there was some other panelist that talked about the need to reach kids perhaps even at 5th grade with some form of intervention that identifies factors that would motivate them to engage in math and science education. I think that's critical. The second thing I think is, we need to understand the connection between school to work. Kids need to understand 133 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 and see firsthand why education means so much, why it is such a gateway for their economic future. All of the companies that I talk about, interestingly enough, ring the City, but none are within the City. So there needs to be some integration with economic planning such that our urban populations can see and take advantage of what job employment opportunities, as well as entrepreneurship opportunities, would exist should there be an economic environment in the City that would foster business growth, new companies being spun out in universities, things like that. Philly has the assets and resources within its bounds to do this work. The challenge is organizing them and aligning them and making sure that, whether we're talking about economic planning or STEM education or post-secondary preparation, that they're all aligned with the goal, of course, of educating our children in math and 134 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 science so that they can be prepared for college, but also be prepared for work.

Ms. Shorr.

Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco and members of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. I'm Dr. Lori Shorr, Chief Education Officer for the City of Philadelphia. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you today to offer my thoughts and recommendations to address the disparities and educational outcomes of our young people that continue to plague our city. Let me begin by congratulating Chairwoman Tasco and the members of the Committee on your leadership in holding this hearing. I also want to recognize and thank Pat Coulter and her colleagues at the Urban League of Philadelphia for issuing this challenging but extremely useful report. The Mayor has clearly signaled his dedication to improving educational 135 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 outcomes for all Philadelphia's young people. His commitment to half the dropout rate and to double the number of Philadelphians with college credentials is bold and visionary and is essential if we are to meet our responsibilities and keep our promise to the young people of this great city. To these ends, I want to focus my remarks this morning on three areas where I believe concerted efforts can lead to improvement in academic performance and career prospects for African-American students to the benefit of all Philadelphians. These three areas are, one, improving high school graduation rates; two, building a rich portfolio of high-quality education opportunities; and, three, improving college-going and graduation rates. Those areas are clearly noted in the State of Black America report, which makes the case for increased educational attainment in the black 136 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 community. I believe that the issue of educational attainment is clearly linked to the other indicators outlined in the report, test scores, student risk factors and teacher quality. The Mayor has made educational attainment a goal and I'd like to share our efforts with you. Based on extensive research conducted by Dr. Ruth Curran Neild and Dr. Robert Balfanz, both of John Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools, we have a clear picture of the status and characteristics of young people who leave Philadelphia public schools without a diploma. Conducted for Project U-Turn, the citywide campaign to resolve our catastrophically high dropout rate studies by Neild and Balfanz found that the four-year on-time graduation rates for Classes of 2000 to 2005 ranged from about 45 percent to just over 50 percent. Six-year rates for the Classes of 2000 to 2003 are higher, ranging from 54 to 58 percent, but are still dismally 137 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 low. Of course, district-wide averages mask marked differences by race and ethnicity. Based on Neild and Balfanz's finding, a shorthand description of the Philadelphia students' on-time graduation rate finds that Asian graduation rates tend to be in the 60 percent range, white rates in about the 50 percent range, African-American rates in about the 40 percent range and Latino rates in the high 30 percent, low 40 percent range. Recent trends show some improvement in graduation rates. For example, African-Americans in the Class of 2005 experienced a substantial increase in on-time graduation rates, breaking the 50 percent mark for the first time in the six cohorts analyzed by Neild and Balfanz. Furthermore, six-year averages for African-Americans in the Classes of '01 to '03 improved to about 58 percent. 138 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Modest graduation rate improvements in recent years might provide some basis for hope, but we all know that we need to do substantially more to improve the likelihood that our young people graduate from high school, ready for college and career. In this vein, the City is working closely with Dr. Ackerman and her staff on a variety of researched-based approaches designed to improve high school graduation rates for all students.

These include, one, focusing on students who exhibit early indicators known to predict dropping out as early as the 6th grade and providing them with academic and social supports to get them back on graduation track. Two, placing particular attention on the transition between 8th and 9th grades and on the first 9th grade marking period when students fall behind. Three, creating opportunities for work-based and service learning, which brings relevance to academic rigor. 139 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Four, deploying graduation coaches who work directly with high-risk youth helping them to progress academically and providing mentoring and nurture from a caring adult. The next one is creating high school learning environments that address the diverse academic and social needs of students. And, lastly, building a re-connection system to re-enroll and appropriately place former dropouts who are returning to continue their educational journeys. Clearly, traditional high schools are not working for significant numbers of young people in large urban areas like Philadelphia. This should come as no great surprise. It is in fact naive to believe that one formal high school system built to address the economic and social realities of a half a century ago is ever going to work for all youth today. To address this fact, as 140 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 noted above, we need to develop a diverse set of high schools that meet the varying needs of adolescent learners. These high schools are small, offer innovative pedagogies, apply academic knowledge to the real world, and help students get back on track by enabling them to accelerate credit acquisition. New York City is recognized as a national leader in creating these diverse high schools, known as multiple pathways to graduation. Here in Philadelphia we are beginning to follow suit. We've created six accelerated high schools that provide these innovative learning opportunities for about 1,200 students in the '07-'08 year. These schools are in great demand, with hundreds of potential students on waiting lists. So expanding the capacity of these schools and building new ones is a high priority. Steps are being taken to do just that. The School Reform Commission 141 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 will be releasing an RFP that seeks proposals offering a range of high-quality school experiences for young people that are not succeeding in traditional high schools, including those who have been historically referred to disciplinary schools where African-American students are substantially overrepresented. While considerable more work needs to be done, the growth of these innovative accelerated high schools is another area where attention and funding support are critically needed. As the Mayor noted in his inaugural address, the City of Philadelphia ranks 92nd out of 100 large American cities in the percentage of adults with Bachelor's degrees. Educational credentials matter for so many reasons. They relate directly to personal earnings and employment, to the cost of services borne by the government, and to overall economic well-being of the 142 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 region in terms of productivity and standard of living. They also help to level income disparities. For example, research suggests that the income gap between African-American and white high school dropouts is about percent. 8 That narrows to less than four percent at 9 the Bachelor degree level. 10 We need to begin right now to 11 build a pipeline college for all of our 12 students, but we face many challenges. 13 As noted, based on recent data, barely 14 half of the black students graduate from 15 high school on time. Less than half who 16 graduate enroll in college, about 60 17 percent in four-year institutions and 40 18 in two-year schools. Nationally, less than half of the black students who enroll in four-year institutions graduate within six years, 20 percent lower than for whites.

This means that based on the most recent data available, less than ten percent of African-American high school students will earn a four-year degree 143 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 within six years. And for the African-American males, the picture is even worse. According to the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, only about four percent of low-income African-American male high school students earn a four-year degree by their mid 20's. Working in concert with Dr. Ackerman and her staff, we are developing several approaches to address this critical issue. First and foremost, as noted above, we must graduate more of our students ready for college and careers. Then we need to develop a college-going culture within all of our high schools in which college has become the expected norm. We need to engage community partners, including employers, higher education institutions and community organizations, to help students understand the steps in applying for 144 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 college and financial aid and making the right college choices. We need to build closer connections between Philadelphia high schools and the local colleges and universities who enroll them. We need to build structures within colleges and universities to support students, particularly first-generation college-goers and others who need special help to ensure their success once they get to college. Of course, there are many great ideas and research-based effective practices that we must consider and put into place, but most are contingent on the availability of resources. I want to recognize the leadership of Councilwoman Tasco and Chairwoman Anna Verna who last year dedicated $1 million in City funding to provide enriched summer jobs for more than 800 young people. These are precisely the kinds of investments that 145 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 young people understand -- that help people understand the value of work and education, keep them in school on track for graduation and college and career success. Building on your efforts, the Mayor was pleased to include a continuation of this $1 million investment in his budget request. Council has also continued to play an essential role in making funding available to the School District of Philadelphia and its students. The total support for the schools in locally generated revenue is expected to exceed $805 million for FY08, representing an increase of six percent, or more than 40 million over the FY07. Furthermore, the FY09 budget expected to increase by another four percent, or 31 million. 5 million for the School District. In short, Philadelphians are 146 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 clearly demonstrating their commitment to public education and to the long-term well-being of our young people and our broader community. Now it's time for the Commonwealth to join this effort. That's why I urge Council and everyone today to continue and extend our advocacy efforts on behalf of Governor Rendell's proposal for a new education funding formula, which is the first step in fixing Pennsylvania's broken and outdated education funding system. 6 billion in additional state funds over six years. Under the Governor's proposal, the School District of Philadelphia will receive 85 million for the '08-'09 school year. I mention this because most of the things I outlined for you today that we need to do are based upon increase in revenue into the School District so that 147 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 we can put the programs in place that are needed to ensure the outcomes we know all children deserve. These new state investments would augment and extend our local efforts and go a long way towards helping the City and School District to adopt many of the proposed strategies I have discussed. In this way, we continue our efforts to eliminate the unacceptable gaps in outcomes for African-American students.

Thank you again, Chairwoman Tasco and members of the Committee, for your leadership on such an important issue. The Mayor and I look forward to working with City Council on an array of strategies that will improve educational outcomes for our young people.

Thank you very much for your testimony. This past weekend I was with the Advisory Board of the National League of Cities and we had the same discussion about education, and 148 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 one of the presenters at the meeting talked about the availability of a workforce, as Mr. Keyes talked about, for employment. Every child is not going to go to college. While we would like for that to take place and we want to see more of our young people go to college, if the emphasis is placed on going to college, is this expectation, does it dissuade or cause children to think, Well, I'm not going to college, so why should I stay in high school? We talk about preparing young people for jobs. I mean, every job in my -- I was taught when I was younger every job is important. You need somebody for every job. But one of the concerns we've talked about is the lack of workers just to take average jobs, not college jobs, but to perform in jobs that don't require a college education but do require some form of education. So are we focusing so much in 149 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 on the college student and not focusing in on the young person who might want another career? Because we've dropped the vocational tech jobs out of high schools. We're not emphasizing on those anymore, and we may -- and I think there is an effort to go back to look at that and certainly because some of the work we've been doing here in Council about construction trades and all that, but you still need a high school diploma for that, understand math and some of that information. But I think we ought to be a little broader in the educational agenda.

I agree, and I usually talk "college and career." I usually use that phrase for the most part, because I think being ready for what's going to happen after high school, whether it's going to college or going into a career, the fact of the matter is, what students have to learn at the high school level is more than they had to 150 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 learn before, because the number of unskilled jobs that you can get out of high school has diminished so drastically over the last two decades and is projected to decrease in the future, that the number of jobs that we're preparing students for that they can get right out of high school without a solid academic credential coming out of high school is diminishing. So I think we need to send a couple messages to kids. One is whether you're going to college or you're going into a career, the unskilled workforce that you used to be able to step into -- like my father worked in the steel mill his whole life and he graduated from high school and went into the steel mill and had a wonderful, long career. Well, I don't know if he'd always call it wonderful, but it was a long career in the steel mills and provided for our families well. Those types of jobs just aren't there in the same numbers they 151 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 used to be. So we need to get the message to kids that there are jobs for people who work with their hands, but lots of folks who work with their hands now also have to work with technology and a computer and do those other sort of things. So I think we need to, A, connect more kids to real-work experiences so that they see what the level of sophistication is out there, but then also get kids to understand and students and teachers and all of us really to understand that the next step after high school looks different than it did a couple of decades ago. And even when you start to talk to the trades, they'll tell you they're getting kids in who aren't able to do the reading level that they need to be able to do to be successful. So for kids to opt out of taking the academic high school program seriously by saying, I'm just going to go into something with my hands, we're doing 152 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 them a disservice if we don't say, Look, you need the math skills because the math skills are basic to doing a lot of the work that used to be just manual labor. And I totally agree with you, that career and technical education, what used to be called vo-tech, is a really good way of marrying those two concepts, because if you go someplace like Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, which is about an hour and minutes from here, 13 and you go into the tool and die making 14 shop and you see what they're doing in 15 there, they're using their hands, but they're also using a computer -- they have to program a computer, and the level of sophistication there is pretty mind boggling. So we need to be helping parents and students understand what's waiting for them in the new economy.

Also, in the paper, the Wall Street Journal, on Friday, there was a front-page story that talked about because of the oil crisis, 153 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 manufacturing jobs are coming back to the United States. So it behooves us to find out what they are so that we can prepare our young people for those jobs.

Councilwoman, can I reiterate what she just said and expand on it?

Sure.

Let's be clear about the context, because this is no 12 longer a regional competition between Philadelphia and New Jersey or Philadelphia and some cities in Maryland. This is a global competition for talent, that we are now in a flat world, to borrow the overused phrase, where we are competing against Bombay, India; Berlin, Germany; Beijing, China and so forth. These locales are our competition, and so if we are to address what's going to happen, as Dr. Shorr said, after high school, whether they go to college or not or go to community college to get an Associate's degree, it has to be in the 154 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 context of what the new economy looks like. So while I enjoy my Tastykake every Friday or so, we're not talking about making Butterscotch Krimpets anymore.

But we are, because that's one of the industries here in Philadelphia, and there will be some places at Tastykake or someone cleaning the bathroom at the airport or somebody doing something some place. There's going to be a need for a service.

But what Dr. Shorr said is important. The person making Krimpets at Tastykake is going to have to use a computer. The person mopping the floor is going to have a computerized broom. We're still going to have to understand that the new economy has a global effect on everybody. I don't care what form of work you're doing. The old way of doing the work is gone. It's not coming back. I don't care -- even I would say in Pittsburgh, U.S. Steel, 155 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 whether they want to bring back steel or not in terms of manufacturing, the new way of making steel is going to be completely different, and that's something that we have to prepare our students for.

I disagree with you. And I appreciate that. I don't disagree with you, you're right, we are in a global market and we do have to look at what exists today, and I think back to when we were in high school.

One brief comment as well. I'm always torn in this discussion, because I understand the reality of the statement that not every child is going to go to college or going to want to go to college and so we have to plan to make sure that every student has the basic set of skill level to be able to make that choice of which direction they're going to go. At the same time, I recognize that in many of the suburban communities that we hold up 156 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 as ideals educationally, we adults don't make those statements. And so I think often the challenges that our youth face are a result of the expectations that we as adults have or don't have. And so while we have to deal with the reality of the situation to plan so that kids can succeed, I think that we also as adults, we need to challenge ourselves to think of a different way of making that premise known. And I think I like what Lori talks about about making sure that youth are really adequately prepared for college or career and really trying to combine them together. I think the old voc-ed system, one of the challenges is that you ended up tracking kids, and so you had a lot of black kids and other folks that adults in authority would look at and say, Well, you need to go in the shop; whereas, you, you look kind of bright, maybe you're a little lighter skinned maybe or whatever and you need to go over in this direction. 157 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 So I think a lot of -- when we talk about this State of Black Philadelphia, one of the reasons -- I think it was said earlier we were considered to be three-fourths of a human being and the statistics have us about three-fourths of the success of what white Philadelphians are succeeding, and so I think there's a connection there, but I think part of that connection in voc-ed was due to tracking. The challenge is how do we re-bring back the good things of voc-ed, but leave behind the things that left us in sort of these automatic tracks.

I agree with you. I mean, certainly the same thing happened with whether you got a commercial course or your academic course. You went in commerce to be a secretary, you went to college. Those are the kinds of things we have to address also in conjunction with how we run our education system, how people are 158 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 trained and what messages they send and give to our students. I have a question for you about the parents. We have a cycle of babies having babies, and so a lot of our children come from single-family homes where possibly maybe the parent dropped out of school. I mean, how do we change that cycle and how do we instill the value of an education into those parents who maybe by the time they are parents know and understand the value of education? You talked about the need of having programs that would help parents understand the need to be more involved in the schools, the child's school experience, and you talked about a pilot, but the pilot is never going any further than a pilot. Would you expound a little bit about that?

Sure, and let me talk about that in two different ways. I think when you talk about the issue of 159 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 teen pregnancy and the parents may not have gone so far and sort of people's acceptance of -- the mindset that we have about whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I think that kind of work, really going to reach out to families and parents and helping all of us revise how we think about these things and develop a new culture, that's hard, and so I don't want to make it sound like one simple program is going to be a panacea. This is dirty work, get out in the communities, try and organize the churches and the rec centers and the community organizations and whoever else to begin to talk about a different message. But one thing specifically about the pregnant and parenting teens, there is a program that works in the School District that has been very effective working with pregnant and parenting teens and helping them to overcome some of the barriers so that 160 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 they continue and actually go on to graduate, the ELECT program. And some of the work with Project U-Turn, what the research started to point out was that while the ELECT program is over here and doing some good work, the challenges in getting the names of who the pregnant students were over to the ELECT program, there are all these agreements and confidentiality laws and that kind of a thing. So you have a program that's successful, but couldn't really get access -- had a small percentage of the population that could really be helping. And so I think there's two things that can be done. One I think is focusing on things to help the parents develop sort of a new culture and mindset of what we expect. But the other thing I think is really working with those that are in school right now. The ELECT model, as I said, is an effective model, but there are limitations on how to make -- there are limitations on its 161 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 effectiveness because of sort of these rules and regulations. So how do we do that so that when this current cohort of students, they may have children, but you can still get them through, and so then they will grow up with a different mindset than maybe their parents did because they were able to do both. And now we can talk about how we go about reducing teen pregnancy, but at the very least, let's have a mindset where at least you can do both.

Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Dr. Shorr.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your testimony. If we choose to use PSSA test scores as an indicator and then we examined those test scores since the creation of the School Reform Commission 162 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 and we received some of that data during the school budget hearings, we know two things are true, that, one, test scores have improved across the board. The second thing we know to be true is that the racial disparities in terms of the gap in that scoring has slightly lessened. But what we know to be more true above and beyond that is that that racial disparity that still exists is so great that it takes dramatic action. What we know from looking at those scores is that essentially the progress that African-American students have made between 2002 and 2007, regardless of what their progress is, where they exist now in terms of scoring in 2007 is essentially where white students began in 2002. So with that being said, I have heard that Dr. Ackerman is looking to dramatically shift resources to disadvantaged schools. I'm just wondering what is the Administration's 163 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 position on that, aside from acknowledging that progress has been made across the board and the fact that that may help us with state funding and that more funding is needed? Is it the Administration's position that that racial disparity, that education gap, is so stark that there has to be a dramatic shifting of resources?

I would say two things. One, the pie isn't big enough in terms of the money that needs to go to this issue, but, two, if we're going to talk about intervening in a cycle where students aren't being successful and we are able to recognize with some of the research that was done, we can recognize about 60 percent of the kids in 6th grade who we know will drop out and finding resources and focusing resources on the kids who we know are showing the indicators, that they need to be served better, that some intervention has to happen. Because we know if we don't 164 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 intervene there, then if they make it to 8th grade, that gives us maybe another chance, but if we don't intervene there, they're going to drop out in 9th grade and they're going to cycle through 9th grade a couple of times and then they're going to end up on our streets, and then at the end of the day, it's not good for the kid, the community or the City. So I think the idea of putting resources where they're needed is something that in the PhillyStat process we've been doing a lot of, is looking at -- we're doing it through the nine police districts and pushing resources into those districts. And if you map the schools that the District is having the least success in those schools with graduation, they map pretty clearly onto the nine high-crime districts as well. Though I think that the idea of making sure that there's enough money to intervene in the places where we know we're having the most trouble is a sound 165 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 one.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Councilwoman Brown.

Actually, I have one other quick question, half jokingly, half not. Dr. Womack, what is a computerized broom?

My point was -- it's an exaggeration, but my point was, it doesn't matter what you're doing in the future -- and when I say "the future," I mean soon -- that even what we call manual work is going to be impacted heavily by science and technology.

But there is no such thing as a computerized broom.

Not yet.

Okay. Thank you.

It's on its way. 166 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140

There is a computerized vacuum cleaner. Good afternoon. Who funds STEM?

I guess you can talk about this as well. STEM is an old term that's actually come to the fore recently.

Repeat what you just said.

STEM as a term has just recently come to the fore. It's an old term. Folks have been talking about math and science since A Nation At Risk, which was a report released in the '80s. STEM in the current context is really coming through the national agenda and discussion around math and science achievement for secondary -- students in middle school and high school.

I see.

So you have at the national level the American Competes Act and a few other legislation that have 167 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 gone through, have been authorized, have not been appropriated yet, but hopefully with a new Administration they will be. So at the federal level, you have quite a few agencies that will be funding STEM, like NSF, NIH, Department of Energy, DOD, Department of Defense. At the state level, you have, I think, some wonderful initiatives that kind of come out of the National Governor's Association. Governor Rendell has been at the forefront of promoting Pennsylvania. We have what is called the STEM Compact, which is --

The who compact?

STEM Compact, which is a regional group of stakeholders that are trying to implement policy and, to some extent, maybe even programs in different parts of the state. And then at the local level, you have organizations such as mine that I co-founded with the School District, 168 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Philadelphia Academies, and others.

So you have multiple funding streams?

Yeah. But we need -- but I would say we do need additional support, because a lot of these things, I think what Dr. Shorr said before, require additional funding, new monies, to come in to support what we're doing. For instance, I've started a math/science summer program which works with the School District and some of the schools in the area, and that needs funding. That needs support. I'm happy to say that we enjoy support from the universities, which often translate into in-kind services, but we do need some support to fund the programs that we're trying to launch.

Are there any math/science after-school programs in the City at all, to your knowledge, Dr. Shorr?

You mean City 169 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 funded?

Yes.

I don't know. I don't know of any. I can check on that.

Okay. Because what we do know is that there are dollars for after-school programming, and if we know that there's a limited to no 10 presence of young people in that interest area, then there's an opportunity to connect the two and, thus, one opportunity for funding. I'd like to have an off-line conversation with you about the Philadelphia Foundation, because they're in the business of funding after-school programs from that Children's Fund from the stadium dollars and there is an opportunity there. Is there a pipeline right now with young people who have math/science interests, a pipeline that -- a hand-holding, coaching kind of experience that takes them from middle school to 170 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 high school to career internships at all currently with STEM?

That's what we created. So before the Institute launched its biotech/life science career academy program, the answer would be no, not to my knowledge. We decided to focus early, 5th grade, and work longitudinally speaking, meaning we'll follow the same group of students through middle and high school, and at the high school level actually connect them to some meaningful and relevant work experiences during the summer, and also couple that with development of hard and soft skills, meaning helping them to navigate professional environments so that when they leave, they can -- they have the choice to either go into a four-year college or if they wanted to go into community college, get an advanced Associate's degree or Associate's degree in particular areas, they can do that. And I find it interesting that students 171 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 can go through high school and then community college, come out with certificate and skills and make a fairly decent salary, even more so than somebody with a Ph.D. in my field. So there are wonderful economic opportunities for students who choose not to necessarily go into graduate school or whatever, but choose to go a different route. It's just as meaningful for them. But it's clear that they have to start from a basis of having a math and science foundation that will enable them to go.

Indeed. Just as a footnote, you may know that the Philadelphia Visitors and Convention Bureau has just organized a new department or unit called Life Sciences.

Yeah.

So there are companies who fit under that Life Science Congress, I believe. So a linking up with them for those young people becomes a part of that potential 172 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 career path and maybe opportunities for companies to cover tuition for young people who want to pursue that.

Absolutely.

So I offer that for your FYI. The Philadelphia Education Fund is purely policy-making? Any program delivery activities?

No. We do a wide range of activities. We do research. We actually worked with Professors Neild and Balfanz on the study that Lori Shorr had mentioned. We do supports for professional development for teachers. We work right now extensively with student teachers to try to get them more acclimated to the District and also to help them become proficient enough that they actually decide to stay around in the District instead of going elsewhere. Currently, we're co-convening with the School District the Secondary 173 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Education Blueprint, looking at a five-year plan on really improving and reforming secondary education. And then, as I said, we also do civic engagement, which is sort of getting folks that work outside of 440 to pay more attention to --

Who funds the Education Fund?

All soft money, just a lot of different sources.

Is the Philadelphia Foundation one of them?

Yes.

So you're aware that the Philadelphia Foundation has under that Children's Fund a program priority known as Parenting Workshops?

I did not know that, and I will check into that. Thank you.

Okay. Do we have copies of your testimony, Mr. Robert Keyes? 174 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140

You do.

Okay. Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you. Any other questions? (No response.)

Again, thank you so much, and we will have you back again. Thank you. Our next panel will be the economics panel. Dr. Bernard Anderson, Ms. Irene Hannan, Reverend Kevin Johnson, Phil McRae, Duane Bumb and our Andrew Altman. Let me just note that Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell joined us earlier and I failed to recognize her presence in the Council to listen to the reports. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Okay. Moving right along. I believe we have our economic panel here. 175 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Are you going to begin, Dr. Anderson?

All right. Madam Chairman, members of the Committee, I thank you for the invitation to present testimony on an issue of profound importance to the current and future quality of life in this city. And I want to commend you, Madam Chairman, for your long and highly productive career and leadership in this city in public service on this and many other issues that are so important to the City of Philadelphia. And you and I have been around a long time and I followed your career very closely, and it's just wonderful to see how you have flowered and have offered the great leadership that you are offering in this City Council. So I commend you for that.

Thank you.

Let me say that the Urban League of Philadelphia has done a great service to the people of this 176 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 city through the publication of the State of Black Philadelphia. The report lays bare a problem that if not corrected will prevent this city from ever laying claim to the mantle of greatness, and that problem is racial inequality in Philadelphia economic life. Now, let me digress a minute, Madam Chairman, and say that Pat Coulter directed me to limit my comments to five minutes. Now, you must understand, I'm a university professor programmed for 50 minutes and anything less than that is cruel and unusual punishment, but I always am dutiful in doing what I am told to do and so I commend you to the chapter 18 in the book that we were very happy to write and I have submitted testimony for these hearings, and so I will try mightily to limit my remarks so that we might have an opportunity for questions and answers. The evidence of inequality in this report is presented on nearly every 177 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 page in the key measures of economic well-being. Let me summarize just a few of the critical ones. Nearly one-third of African-American families live in poverty compared with fewer than half that number among whites. The median income of African-American families, nearly $27,000, is only two-thirds that among white families. Now, the median income is the value in the distribution that divides the distribution in half. That means that half the people will have an income higher than the median and half will have an income lower than the median. And that median for African-Americans is $27,000 compared with $42,000 for whites. The unemployment rate among black workers, nearly ten percent, is more than twice the rate among whites. The unemployment rate of black youth when adjusted for those who are out of school 178 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 and out of work and not participating in the labor market exceeds 50 percent. Only one of every five black youth have a job compared with three of five white youth. There are wide disparities among black and white populations in home ownership, business ownership, wealth accumulation and other key economic indicators. In short, if the problem of economic inequality is expressed in the language of a financial balance sheet, one would conclude that Philadelphia's black population has only half the assets that produce economic well-being, but twice the liabilities that diminish the quality of economic life. Racial inequality in Philadelphia economic life is longstanding and deeply rooted. But much of the inequality observed in recent years is exacerbated by the transformation of the local economy which 179 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 began in the late 1950s, accelerated after the Recession of the early 1980s and continues to this day. In effect, we've seen a decline in manufacturing jobs and a shift toward service sector employment, especially the ed and meds -- that's the education sector and the medical sector -- in Philadelphia. By the way, the emphasis in my comments is on the City of Philadelphia, not the region. We're focusing here on the City of Philadelphia. This employment trend has been accompanied by upgrading in the skill requirements of the workplace. But the transformation in the structure of the City's economy was not accompanied by a significant increase in the number of private sector jobs. In short, Philadelphia suffers from inadequate job creation. And let me emphasize, job creation is a sine-qua-non for reducing racial disparities in workforce. 180 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 These trends have gained strength since the third quarter of 2007 when the national economy entered a period of slow growth bordering on recession. Employment declined by 233,000 in the nation during the first quarter of 2008, while Philadelphia lost 12,300 jobs.

The impact of economic transformation, coupled with demographic change, is worsened by the limitation on economic opportunity available to the City's black population. Discrimination against black workers and business owners has been a persistent reality in the City of Philadelphia. The recent history of life and labor in the City is dominated by efforts to widen the doors of opportunity. Some here will recall the Selective Patronage Campaign that was led by the late great Reverend Leon Howard Sullivan a half century ago and which opened many doors. Civil rights and community organizations have continuously 181 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 advocated for fair employment practices and access to economic opportunity for African-Americans. Mayor Nutter recently created the Commission on Construction Industry Diversity to expand economic opportunity in an industry where discrimination was described at length more than a century ago by the premier black scholar Dr. William Edward Burghardt Dubois in his classic study The Philadelphia Negro. That study was published in 1896. Much can and should be done through public policy to eliminate racial inequality that is clearly described in the Urban League report. Let me suggest that African-Americans have a relationship with the economy similar to the caboose on a train. When the train speeds up, the caboose speeds up, and when the train slows down, so does the caboose. But in the natural order of things, the caboose never catches up with the engine. 182 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 This analogy offers a clue to what is required to close the economic gap that is so prevalent today. Two requirements are necessary to produce positive change. The first requirement is to stimulate private sector job creation. The second is to expand opportunity for African-Americans to participate fully in the economy. Now, what can the City Council do? To accelerate job creation, public policies are required to improve the City's competitiveness for business development and growth. First among useful policies would be the reduction and eventual elimination of the business privilege tax. Every recent study of the City's tax structure concludes with a recommendation to revise the business privilege tax. The report of the Tax Reform Commission, a commission that was mandated by the City Council, makes clear the detrimental impact of that tax on business attraction and growth, 183 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 especially for small businesses, which, of course, creates most jobs. A reduction in the wage tax also will help strengthen the local economy by increasing the incentive for middle- and upper-income workers to maintain their residence in or move to the City. Past City Council action to reduce the wage tax will prove helpful in improving the income of working families in the immediate years ahead. Mandated reductions in the wage tax through casino revenue will further strengthen the City's competitive environment and through supply-side effects will create jobs. Targeted tax credits for hiring ex-offenders can go a long way toward addressing the unemployment problem of black youth. When coupled with job training, targeted tax policies can help narrow the racial employment gap. Efforts to close the gap also must be aimed at the supply side of the 184 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 labor market. Improving the skill level of the workforce through higher academic achievement among youth must be emphasized, and resources must be provided to improve the quality of public school education. By so doing, policymakers will help increase the number of minority City youth who can satisfy employer demand for skilled labor in expanding industries. Finally, it is essential to protect equal employment opportunity for minority workers and business owners. Both public and private leaders should make the elimination of racial disparities a high priority.

That means not only verbal support for diversity, but also hiring, training, promoting minorities who are fully qualified for available job vacancies. Now let me digress by being clear. As Richard Nixon said, let me be perfectly clear. I am not speaking here about quotas, hiring quotas. What I am 185 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 speaking about here is a concerted effort to make a concerted attempt and determination to hire African-Americans who are in every way found to be qualified for the jobs that are available. You hear so much today about diversity. Well, I would say that it's important to look at the results. Diversity means nothing if from year to year we see more African-Americans graduating from colleges and universities, not only in the City of Philadelphia but from all over the country, those who did what I did, went away to college and came back and was denied a position as a management intern in the private corporation when the search firm told me to my face, There's not a private company in this city that would hire a negro in that type of job. That was in 1960. My mother told me when I called her -- I came out of the search firm office, I was in tears. I had never been told in my life I would be denied 186 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 anything because of my race. Grew up in this city, fourth generation Philadelphia family. And I said, What should I do? My mother was employed by the Naval Aviation Supply Depot in North Philadelphia. We lived in South Philadelphia at the time. She said, Well, you need more education. That was the faith of mothers, you see, the faith of black mothers. My father died when I was three. My mother never remarried. I don't remember my father. Faith of mothers. She said, Get more education. So I went to get more education. I was fortunate enough to get financial aid and to go on to get a Master's degree in economics. I wasn't satisfied with that. D. degree. But I never again attempted to get a job in the private sector. We have got to stop this kind of discrimination. And I apologize to 187 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 you for digressing on this, but if diversity means anything, it means hiring people who have the education, who have the skills and to seek them out because they are minorities and hire them, train them, promote them on the job. Let me get on with the message. Let me conclude by saying that in a city where 44 percent of the population is of African descent, economic growth cannot be achieved without eliminating racial disparities in economic opportunity. City Council should adopt public policies that assure equal opportunity in the public sector and foster equal opportunity in the private sector. Such policies will improve the economic well-being of all population groups in the City and strengthen further economic growth. I thank you for your attention, and I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you might have.

Thank you 188 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 very much. We'll let everyone make their presentation and then we'll just have a round of questions for everyone. Ms. Hannan.

Good afternoon. It's a pleasure for me to address you today, Madam Chair and the other distinguished members of City Council present. I am Irene Hannan, a Senior Vice-President at Citizens Bank working specifically with healthcare institutions and non-profit organizations within the commercial bank. Today I come before you as a proud member of the Board of Directors of the Urban League of Philadelphia. It is my intention to bring before you research, data, conclusions and action items as to the present condition of blacks in Philadelphia and to urge you to prepare the way to improve these conditions and to ensure a brighter and more productive future for all of our citizens and our city. 189 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 I believe that our future success rests squarely in a deliberate, reasoned partnership between the private and public sectors of our community. No 6 one sector of our city alone can repair the damage nor clear the path for the future. It will take all of us working collaboratively to succeed. As you know, the Urban League's report, the State of Black Philadelphia, presents research and statistical findings focused on five major areas and collectively assigns the equality index. Those areas are health, education, civic engagement, social justice and the one I want to focus on, economics. The economic profile looked at income earnings and poverty in the City, as well as labor and the working class and, lastly, housing and transportation. On a percentage basis, the economic sector rate was the largest of the five sectors, with an overall weighted rating at 30 percent. The overall average 190 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 72 to one. 64 to one. In all economic areas researched, blacks were less well off than whites. The median household income was $15,000 less for blacks than white. The earnings gap was even wider for households with families. Here it was a $25,000 gap. For earning power, it was the same. Fifty-five percent of blacks earned less than $30,000, while whites, the number was 37 percent earning less than 30,000. When examined on the basis of a one-parent household, the disparity is far greater. The results of the examination of poverty statistics included the percent living below the poverty level. Poverty rates by age, dependency on entitlement programs, and homelessness statistics all highlight an overall 191 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 disturbing disparity. Twice as many blacks live below the poverty level than whites, 32 percent versus percent. 5 For black children, the odds of living in 6 poverty are far greater than for white 7 children. Greater dependency on food 8 stamps and TANF undermine the economic 9 independence of Philadelphia's black 10 citizens and reinforce the poverty cycle 11 for youth. 12 A major contributor to the 13 income and earnings picture is the 14 unemployment rates. At twice that of 15 whites, you begin to understand the 16 snowball effect that combines to keep the equality factor gap between blacks and whites from shrinking. While we know that home ownership is the foundation of personal wealth and asset value, blacks here also show poorly in comparison. In Philadelphia, 64 percent of whites own their own home while only 53 percent of blacks do. The value of those properties 192 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 owned also varies widely. The median home value for whites is $174,100 while blacks' home values are set at $75,100. Such disparities will result in a greater proportional dependence on Social Security and other government-supported programs at retirement. And, finally, the report indicates the heavy reliance of black citizens on the use of public transportation, where it is twice as much as whites. This can restrict access to new job opportunities in areas not well served by their current mass transportation system and also places usage burdens on our aging systems.

Comprehensive and coordinated policies are needed to bring about specific tactics for much-needed change. Doing nothing is unacceptable. Doing something is too little. If we are to be a world-class city, we must act now to do better by our citizens, all our citizens. Specifically, I would urge your 193 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 consideration of the following: Programs to place youth in jobs earlier and with more training support. Don't just set, but enforce minority business goals in City government contracts. Fund opportunities for minority businesses by encouraging micro lending programs with tax advantage incentives and establish rewards for corporate partnerships with such entities. Increase job training and retraining programs in conjunction with post-secondary educational institutions and their educational programs. Improve vocational training programs in the public school system. Support public/private initiatives for financial literacy. And encourage programs in support of first-time home ownership. In closing, I recognize that the scale and scope of the issues facing many black Philadelphians in our city can 194 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 be daunting. However, to do nothing because the issues seem overwhelming only perpetuates the problems, frustrates and demoralizes our citizens, and guarantees a negative impact on the economy of our city and our state. We need visible and vocal leadership to set the agenda, to plan the action and to ensure the success that all Philadelphians want and deserve. I thank you very much for your attention and your consideration.

Thank you very much. Next we'll have Reverend Kevin Johnson. Welcome you, my pastor, to your first testimony before City Council.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair, Councilwoman and Majority Leader -- I like all of that -- Tasco, as well as to Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown as the other Council. I believe Councilman Goode may have stepped out. 195 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 I am blessed to be here today not only as Pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church, but also as a Board member of the Philadelphia Urban League. As I begin my remarks, some background is needed in order to fully appreciate the circumstances of disparity that exist in the Philadelphia community, as was so compellingly detailed in the Urban League of Philadelphia's recent publication, the State of Black Philadelphia. To put it bluntly, the economic landscape for black Philadelphians is bleak. I wish to bring your attention to just a few of the highlights from the report or, more accurately stated, the low lights. Almost one-third of African-American families live in poverty, 32 percent, compared with less than half that rate at 16 percent among white families. The unemployment rate for blacks is double for the rate of whites, standing at a discouraging level 196 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of almost ten percent compared to about five percent of unemployment among the white population. The median income of African-American families is approximately two-thirds that of whites. Only 53 percent of African-Americans in Philadelphia are homeowners compared to 64 percent of whites who own homes. And to drill down a bit deeper, of the 53 percent of blacks who own homes, their property values were on average $100,000 less than the property values of whites who own homes. And we're not even talking about past years of redlining. Shockingly, almost 7,500 African-Americans right here in our community use homeless shelters over the course of a year compared to the comparatively very low number of 500 whites. And black businesses in Philadelphia count for only half that of white businesses, white business ownership. 197 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Each and every citizen of our wonderful community and certainly each and every elected official representing the citizens should be disturbed by these statistics. And I implore you to remember that while statistics can seem distant, removed, cold and impersonal, they represent real people with real stories of difficult daily living in our midst and, in some instances, downright despair. But that's where I come in: Keep hope alive, Bright Hope Baptist Church is here. Now it is time for us to act. It is our hope that this needed action will begin with you, our beloved political leaders, the honored public servants and elected officials of our community. Fortunately, many of the best and the brightest of our concerned Philadelphia citizens, leaders in business, faith-based institutions, academia and, yes, even those populating the political landscape for their tenures 198 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of representation of our citizens have addressed the potential particulars of what might comprise an appropriate Action Agenda to tackle the issues of economic disparity that exist all around us and I would say, until eradicated, define our community and thus define us. Looking at the shining examples of success some in our community have achieved is inspiring, but we cannot linger there while looking away from the urgent needs and the disheartening levels of disparity between the black community and the rest of the population of Philadelphia. So here is what we can do. Please notice that I said "we," because the answer lies in our collective willingness to address these issues together. The Bright Hope Baptist Church, so aptly named in this regard, is one community faith-based institution that is beginning to tackle the seemingly 199 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 insurmountable problems that we face.

As an example of leadership that can begin to change the conditions of disparity that now exist, Bright Hope Baptist Church sponsored a Black Family Symposium in 2007 to inaugurate my becoming Senior Pastor of the church with a symposium called Crisis in the Village. The symposium goal was to engage in meaningful dialogue that would lead to concrete proposals for village restoration. This concept of village restoration emanated from the book of Dr. " The symposium aimed to create an intensity of education and deep understanding of the unique issues that face the black community, but, further, to be a clarion call for renewal around the black community's economic concerns while keeping identified needs in the 200 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 forefront of action planning and implementation. And so we did it. Out of the symposium, we expanded the mission of the Bridge of Hope Community Development Corporation, our Pennsylvania non-profit, faith-based community organization. It was incorporated to promote and maintain the physical revitalization of the community in which Bright Hope Baptist Church is located. " Among other important work, Bridge of Hope Community Development Corporation has the purpose of harnessing the expertise and resources necessary to acquire vacant lots, and in particular, we're in the process now with the Goldenberg Group to acquire the John Wanamaker School so they can serve as a permanent home site, not just for education but also for economic development and activity in North Philadelphia. 201 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 This is but one example, one collective effort that if it is to be sustained will require the continued good will of the community and the official support of the people who represent us here in City government; that is, you, the esteemed members of the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services. I am humbled to have been included in the roster of extraordinary individuals who testify before you today. As I conclude my remarks, may I once again draw your attention to the Action Agenda of the Urban League of Philadelphia's State of Black Philadelphia report. The Action Agenda gives us guidance and it provides a road map, as it were, to address the daunting inequalities that have existed for far too long, far too long, in our community of diverse peoples. I encourage you to join with us to urgently accomplish these five important tasks. 202 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 First, provide youth with early access to work. Even in the Bible, first thing that happened before Adam could get a wife, he had to work. Enforce minority business opportunity goals at local levels to ensure greater minority participation in government contracting. Create opportunities that build capacity of minority business through expansion of micro-financing, equity finance and the development of strategic alliances with major corporations. Four, adopt policies that improve Philadelphia's competitiveness around business development and growth. And, fifthly, develop legislative public policies at state and local levels to increase home ownership among African-Americans without resorting to predatory and subprime mortgage lenders that have led to the current crisis, among many other action items. Ladies and gentlemen of the 203 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Committee, I thank you for your time, your energy, your serious commitment of resources to address the critical inequalities I and my esteemed colleagues are addressing before you today. In conclusion, I wish to share with you this quote from the State of Black Philadelphia. "It is essential to ensure equal employment opportunity for minority group workers and equal opportunity for minority-owned businesses.

Both public and private leaders should make the elimination of racial disparities in economic opportunity a high priority in a city, our city, where 44 percent of the population is of African-American descent. Sustainable economic growth cannot be achieved without eliminating racial disparities in economic opportunity. The adoption of policies to foster full participation in the economy by all members of the community is critical to the economic well-being of 204 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. " Lastly, I would like to say Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays will say it's not failure, but low aim that is sin. Let us continue to aim high.

Thank you very much. Mr. McRae. MR. McRAE: Thank you, Madam Chair and Blondell. Good to see you again --

You have to speak into the microphone, please. MR. McRAE: Thank you. Good morning -- or I guess at this point it's afternoon.

Yes. MR. McRAE: My name is Phillip McRae. I'm President of GladRuth Services, but today I'm here in my capacity as a Board member of the Urban League and Co-Chair of the organization's Economic Advancement Committee. 205 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 The State of Black Philadelphia report poignantly highlights with quantifiable facts the status of the City's largest minority group, African-Americans, at 44 percent. Moreover, it outlines the grave challenges that we face in one of America's greatest cities. The disparities between blacks and whites are abundant and clear. Some of these stats you would have heard before, but I think they bear repeating. 9, while the national average was just over five percent. This translates into a pool of unemployed blacks and disaffected workers considerably higher than that of their white counterparts. There are far fewer black business owners. White businesses more than double those of blacks, and the businesses that are owned by our white counterparts are considerably more profitable. 206 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Racial inequality in Philadelphia's business ownership can be easily seen in the 2002 Survey of Business Owners. In that survey, of the 67,000 businesses in Philadelphia, only percent -- that's a little over 8 10,000 -- were owned by 9 African-Americans. Of the $111 billion 10 generated in that economy, less than 11 eight percent, or 850 million, were from 12 black-owned establishments. 13 It is the result of these grim 14 statistics that I urge the Council to 15 consider supporting the areas relating to 16 economics outlined in the Urban League's Action Agenda. I have took the liberty and placed some of these key recommendations in a category that I've headed SOS for skills, opportunity and support. Skills training and education are paramount whether seeking a job or as I hope that others coming out of schools begin to do, start a small business. Why is that 207 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 important? First, as you've heard, education and skills create root behavior. They're foundational, fundamental and strikes at the heart of most successes that we see, and the children of Philadelphia suffer educationally. Secondly, two-thirds of college students plan to become entrepreneurs at some point in their careers, and business schools and textbooks stress large rather than small firms during their education, a reality that a lot of students find frustrating. I believe that the classrooms are filled with potential innovators who have the capacity to impact Philadelphia communities, including and especially those in economically depressed areas. The key, however, is that we help provide this emerging talent with knowledge and skills. So the skills and education action items I recommend Council 208 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 considers include providing a program of access to resources that enhance employability. Think about the Urban League and the Council as a bridge that can help employ the students and have gained access to areas they typically would not have access. Improving the skill levels of our workforce by strengthening the public school system and ensuring resources to provide quality education. Increase the availability of financial literacy training in public schools on a consistent basis to assist youth in their future. Opportunities: Opportunities I feel are enabling and encouraging individuals to start small businesses, which could be an enormous opportunity for Philadelphia's broader economy. Most people don't realize, but nationally small business total over 23 million, and roughly 75 percent of the firms have no employees. That means one 209 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 person can do what she loves in the City of Philadelphia, earn money, start supporting her family and can begin paying taxes to the very city that is supporting her.

The action items for opportunity I respectfully request Council to support include developing and enforcing minority business opportunities at state and local levels to ensure greater minority government contracting and small business development. Expanding second chance programs for high school dropouts, ex-offenders and at-risk youth, and increasing funding and programs aimed at securing a GED, job training program and the understanding and the embracement of entry-level employment. Provide youth with early access to work. That could be done with partnering with the schools and businesses that are right here in the City of Philadelphia. 210 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Support: Ongoing support is absolutely critical, as it is the link between outreach actions, entrepreneurship and thriving economic activity. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, there's a strong correlation between national economic growth and the level of entrepreneurial activity. For example, 71 percent of our would-be entrepreneurs expect to create over jobs. 14 The action items for support 15 which I hope that Council will adopt 16 includes helping to create capital 17 capacity, whether it's financial capacity 18 or human capacity, that would be designed 19 for entrepreneurs, whether it's 20 micro-financing, as you've heard, or equity financing or strategic alliances, which I think that we have the absolute gem of a city to participate. Adopting policies that involve our City's competitiveness to spur 211 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 business development and growth, with a specific analysis of the Philadelphia business privilege tax that we have employed for generations. In closing, I would like to recommend members of the Council that for the 91 years the Urban League has existed, it has been in part a voice for the voiceless. The need for SOS, skills, opportunity and support, for 44 percent of our population has been clearly articulated in the Urban League's report in the State of Black Philadelphia. I encourage the Council to consider when, not if, we adopt the aforementioned recommendations that are coupled with my co-panelists and the panels you've heard before. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Altman.

Good morning -- good afternoon, Chairman Tasco and 212 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 members of the Council. My name is Andrew Altman, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Director of Commerce from the City of Philadelphia. I am pleased to be here today to provide testimony on Resolution 080140 authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings on the findings and recommendations of the Urban League of Philadelphia report, the State of Black Philadelphia, and further authorizing the Committee to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can level the economic playing field for all citizens. The findings of the Urban League report illustrate the staggering economic divide separating our city's African-American and white communities. As the report suggests, many of these inequalities are inextricably linked to a long history of discrimination against minority business owners, as well as an 213 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 increasingly transformative industrial structure, which has left behind many of our city's African-American workers. 9 percent, more than two times that of whites. The median household income of African-Americans is $26,728, just 63 percent of whites. And the poverty rate for African-Americans is 32 percent compared to percent of 13 whites. 14 In recognition of the 15 socioeconomic challenges facing 16 African-American residents, the City has tailored its economic development strategy to stimulate job growth, encourage minority business development and improve access to housing and other services. Among the initiatives currently underway are the City's adoption of economic opportunity plans for its initiatives, creating the Cultural and Commercial Bond program and 214 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 the New River City program. Both of these bond-funded programs set a goal that minority employees account for 43 percent of the hours worked. PIDC loan programs during 2007 and 8, percent of loan volume amount 8 went to Minority Business Enterprise 9 borrowers. In 2008, PIDC, Philadelphia 10 Industrial Development Corporation, 11 introduced a privately funded program 12 called the Emergency Loan Program, which 13 provides short-term working capital 14 financing to minority and women-owned 15 businesses. 16 The City's Community 17 Development Block Grants and related 18 programs are used to subsidize 19 development of new affordable rental and 20 home ownership units. And for the most 21 recent six-month period reported by the 22 Office of Housing and Community 23 Development, African-Americans 24 represented 72 percent of the 25 neighborhood-based home ownership 215 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 participants, 71 percent of the home ownership rehabilitation participants and 54 percent of the PHIL Loan participants. The ReStore Philadelphia Corridors program, which aims to revitalize neighborhood commercial corridors and shopping areas and re-establish their historic roles as central places to shop, to work and to meet neighbors. In addition to Community Development Block Grant program, the State's Main Street program and other City resources, the City has dedicated $59 million from the $150 million Cultural and Commercial Corridor Bond to support this program. More than half of the ReStore streetscape committed to date as part of that bond initiative has been targeted in predominantly African-American communities. To build on these achievements, the Nutter Administration will implement new strategies that strive to further reduce racial inequality, including the 216 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 creation of the Economic Opportunity Cabinet, which will include the Mayor, City Finance Director, City Solicitor, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Utilities, and the Procurement Commissioner.

This cabinet is tasked with finding the best platform to achieve its current and future goals for minority business enterprise participation and minority workforce participation. To address predatory lending concerns that are disproportionately impacting African-Americans, an additional $2 million will be spent on foreclosure prevention activities in Fiscal Year 2009. This funding will support the Save Your Philly Home hotline, additional housing counseling and legal services, and a partnership with the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for low-fee fixed-rate home purchase and housing rehabilitation loans 217 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to be made available to homeowners with less than perfect credit. In addition to protecting African-Americans from predatory lending practices, the reduction in foreclosures expected from this program will help prevent an even greater disparity in the home values between African-American and white-owned houses. To improve access to public transportation, the City is supporting a number of transit-oriented development planning initiatives to encourage more mixed-use development around transit hubs. The Planning Commission has completed plans for Girard Avenue, West Market Street, Allegheny West and Frankford, and the City is involved with current and pending transportation-oriented development plans for 46th and Market, Parkside, Temple Regional Rail Station, Wayne Junction, Central Germantown, and Broad and Erie. Once these plans are implemented, 218 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 predominantly African-American residents in these communities will have -- hopefully have, I would say, increased opportunities to live or work near public transit. For the first time in recent years, the City plans to dedicate a portion of its federal Community Development Block Grant fund to support technical assistance for micro entrepreneurs and small business. One of the objectives of this initiative is to target technical assistance to existing business owners located in neighborhood commercial corridors. Working with partners such as the Enterprise Center and the Business Center at the New Covenant, we plan to offer technical assistance to business owners located on corridors in predominantly African-American communities such as Walnut Hill, Central Germantown and West Powelton/Saunders Park. Additionally, the Commerce 219 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Department has been developing a City Small Business Loan Guarantee program that would provide partial guarantees for banks and other lenders that make loans to small business who can't qualify for conventional financing. We've been working with Councilmember Goode and we've testified in previous hearings on this. Representatives of the Commerce Department are meeting with the GPUAC Small Business Lending Task Force and with most of the banks that participate in the Lending Task Force in order to develop a City guarantee-backed loan product that would be offered by the banks. Based on the input provided by the banks, we have structured proposed guidelines for such a loan product and identified initial funding for the guarantees. Although the Task Force members initially responded positively to the Commerce proposal, the interest of the 220 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 banks' lending departments has waned due to the ongoing credit crisis confronting the financial markets. And Commerce staff continues to meet with bank representatives, and we believe that we will be able to initiate a program acceptable to the banks in the near future. Commerce is also looking to lending partners outside the banking community. The City has a number of established community development financial institutions who have the capacity to utilize City loan guarantees.

Many African-American businesses have closer relationships with CDFIs than with banks and, as a result, we are optimistic that CDFIs will have the ability to make loans to the business community. In close, the State of Black Philadelphia is a troubling one. The findings of the Urban League report reveal the grim reality within which a number of our City residents currently 221 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 live. While the aforementioned initiatives offer hope to many of these residents, it is crucial that we as a city continue to aggressive innovate and legislate strategies that aim to alleviate the social and economic pain afflicting African-American households. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I would be happy to answer questions.

Thank you very much. Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you all very much for your testimony. Dr. Anderson, what is your opinion around this new phenomena called green-collar jobs and how, if any, role they might play in penetrating the inequity that exists in the labor market for citizens of color?

Well, I thank you, Councilwoman, for your question. I think the reference to green-collar jobs 222 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 refers to jobs that are created in connection with efforts to address problems of the environment, and that is simply a sector of concentration for job creation. You can look at environmental job creation as job creation in just another industry. Whether that's related to manufacturing or services or what-have-you, it's a sectoral concentration. Now, that's okay, but in all of these measures, what's important to address the problem of racial inequality -- remember, the burden of my remarks is the gap. It's the inequality. And we begin with a profile of inequality that is described vividly in this report. The question is, we -- the fact is, we know where we are. The question is, how do we correct this condition, how do we get to where we want to be from where we are. And I'm suggesting that there are two absolutely essential requirements to do that. One is to create more jobs. 223 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 There has never been a time in the history of this country since slavery when African-Americans have made relative economic gains when it occurred outside an environment of expanding economic opportunity. Never, ever. Let me just mention one thing. Look at what happened during World War II when thousands, millions of members of the American population, mainly men, went off to war, fight the war in Europe and in the Pacific. That created a labor shortage in many manufacturing industries, especially the war-related industries, in the Northeast, the Midwest and in the West. Who filled those jobs? Where did they get the labor? Well, it turns out that that was a period of time when there was segregation in the military. There were relatively few African-American men who were taken into the military. Many of them were in rural areas of the South and so forth. They didn't join up. They didn't go in. Some 224 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of them did. Now, what happened, during that period of time, between 1940 and 1950, there was the largest migration of African-Americans out of the South into the North and the Midwest at any time in our history. Where did they go? They went into the basic manufacturing industries in Ohio, in Western Pennsylvania, in Ohio and Indiana, in Michigan, in Wisconsin and all of these places you read about. Two things happened as a result of that. One, there was a significant increase in the earnings of African-American men during World War II as they got out of the rural agriculture in the South and got jobs in the manufacturing industries. They were not high school graduates. Many of them were darn near illiterate. But the nature of jobs in the manufacturing industries at that time did not require you to have a high school education or anything beyond 225 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 that or any particular skills. All you needed was a strong back and the ability to work and to work long hours. The conditions weren't all that good in the automobile manufacturing plants, but they were good jobs. Much of the middle class of the Midwest today, African-Americans, is attributed to that increase in economic status of the black. Those are the people whose sons and daughters went to college at Ohio State and Michigan State and other -- Indiana University and other places like that. They became school teachers. They became black professionals. Look at the -- one of the people in -- one of the greatest African-Americans in this city who was recently honored with a chair -- first African-American chair of Temple University, Dr. Bernard C. Watson. Watson is a classic example of that. So what I'm saying here is that 226 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 there's no secret about what needs to be done to eliminate the disparity. I'm not just talking about increasing opportunity. What I'm trying to focus on is eliminating the disparity.

In order to eliminate the disparity, it is absolutely essential to have job creation. The green job -- now, I am getting back to your question. I have a tendency to digress.

We love your passion.

The green jobs will be another opportunity for job creation.

Outside of the public sector.

What is the other side of that? We've got to be sure that African-American workers get those jobs. Now, what's going to be necessary for them to get the job if they're not -- if they don't have a high school 227 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 education, if they don't have good skills, they aren't going to get green jobs any more than they get the white-collar, blue-collar, pink-collar jobs. So there are two things that need to happen. One, we've got to improve the quality of the labor supply. And I didn't mean to neglect that in my remarks, and, in fact, the paper that I presented for testimony includes that. But you can't convince young people who are running up and down the streets, who don't have jobs, who are into all kinds of behavior that Bill Cosby talks about -- and, by the way, I support Bill 18 Cosby. I want to make that clear. I think the speech he made at NAACP was right on mark about what's necessary to improve the education of African-American youth. They have a responsibility. Their parents have a responsibility. Their families have a responsibility. But once that is done, we've got to be 228 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 sure that they participate fully in these jobs that are created. And green jobs, that might be a new target of opportunity. Many of the other jobs are being outsourced to India and other places, Indonesia. So it's a new opportunity, but simply identifying it as a new opportunity is not enough. We have to find ways to assure that there is full participation of African-Americans in that sector of job creation.

Ms. Hannan --

So that means when the door is open, if they're prepared, they have to be let in.

That's right.

No 20 barriers can exist to prevent them from coming in.

No barriers to them walking through those doors that are newly opened.

229 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Ms. Hannan, you provide a number of recommendations. Can you provide an example currently wherein your recommendation, encourage programs in support of first-time home ownership. Just cite briefly any examples that currently exist. I mean, this is the first time I've seen that kind of recommendation in all of the discussions we've been having.

I think recognizing the importance of home ownership to the community in providing not only stability, but in an effort to build wealth, it's very important that that concept be tied to fiscal literacy and programs that help inform people about the importance of things like good credit and how to save and how to build wealth so that home ownership is not beyond the reach of the majority of citizens of the City. And I know my financial institution, Citizens Bank, as well as many others have partnered with 230 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 many, many of the community-based organizations to provide those programs and to help build the concept of home ownership throughout the City.

Just two more questions, Madam Chair. A number of you mention in your testimony provide youth with early access to work. Let's define "early." Because the flip question becomes, what are corporations, the private sector, willing to do in engaging young people early. Are we talking about 9th grade? Are we talking about high school students? Higher ed is called early intervention, tapping them 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

Yes, ma'am. When I refer to early, I'm thinking about how I got started. There was a gentleman who at that time he was a Commissioner when I lived in Texas, and he gave me an internship. I never worked at a McDonald's. I never worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. He gave me an opportunity 231 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to work. I made a thousand dollars a month. I didn't know what to do with all that money. But that was an opportunity to start, and then he really served as a mentor. Then there were other people who came along who really allowed for me to -- they were secretarial or typing jobs, but they were in legal departments or they may have been in political arenas, and so it exposed me versus just frying chicken or flipping hamburgers. And those are good jobs, don't get a misunderstanding, but it expanded my horizon. So when we talk about early work opportunities, I think it's incumbent upon not only just corporations, but also as it relates to political leaders, because the internships, that allows for people to dream beyond where they are. And if they can see a world that is not what they see every day, it expands that opportunity 232 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 and it also expands the opportunities to go on to get further education, which will take them into a totally different realm of life.

I would underscore that and add that so very often you hear statements about young black kids that simply are not correct, and they say, Well, they don't want to work, they don't have a work ethic. Well, let me tell you, you can't teach the work ethic without work. You need work to learn the work ethic. And, by the way, the first place one can learn that is at home. When kids are young, when they're being raised at home, I believe they should have some obligations to do something around the house. If that's not even more than cleaning up their room, learning that you don't just throw your dirty socks and your underwear all over the place and have your mother come in and clean it up. Learn that at home. Then when they're in school, we 233 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 don't want to start them working for money too soon. Let them understand that the very first thing -- I'm sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, but --

It's all good.

-- this is the thing. The first thing is to get an education, learn to read, to write and compute. Now, when they become teenagers, let them get a part-time job after school. Don't work too long. Part of my career I was Assistant Secretary of Labor where one of the responsibilities was administering the Fair Labor Standards Act in child labor. So there are laws about how long they can work and what hours they can work. Adhere to those laws, but let them get a job. And I know that Reverend Johnson isn't talking against the job -- there's nothing wrong with a job in McDonald's. If you can get a job serving customers 234 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 and making change and that sort of thing, you learn on the job. But the point is, understand that that is only the place to start, that's not the end point. If you have a part-time job after school in McDonald's, that's a way to earn a little bit of money. You can buy your -- what is it, iPod, whatever these things are. I don't have one of those, but that doesn't matter. The point is that you get a sense of responsibility after school. You know, when I was in high school -- I'll just say this and then I won't hold up the time -- I had a job after school as a soda jerk on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. That was when the trolley cars ran above the ground, 34th and Woodland. I'm dating myself. 34th and Woodland, ran across the University of Pennsylvania campus. I took the trolley from Bartram High School to the drugstore on that corner and I made hamburgers and milkshakes and that 235 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 sort of thing. I was paid the grand sum of 75 cents an hour. That was the minimum wage at that time. But that teaches a young person the importance of responsibility, how to do a good day's work for a good day's pay, and that's important for young people. The fact is, far too many young black kids today never have that opportunity, for reasons that we all understand. So we need to create more summer youth employment. The Chamber of Commerce announced a summer youth employment program, I believe, so many thousands of jobs. That's good. They need to double that, triple that so that a significantly larger number of young black males and females in this city have something to do during the summer months. Finally, that is something that the public sector should be supporting to a greater degree. I don't know whether the budget of the City would allow the 236 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 City to fund a summer youth employment program.

We just did.

But if you can do that, take some money from somewhere else and fund a summer youth employment program. Those programs help create employment standards that are helpful for young black kids. It gets them off the street. They can do all sorts of things, work in Fairmount Park, do all these other things. It's important to have work opportunities for young people.

My final comment is to underscore remarks shared by our Commerce Director, because all of you mentioned it in your testimony, and, that is, don't just set, but enforce minority business goals in City government contracts. Only in the last eight years that I've been here -- and Councilwoman Tasco reminded me last week that many other municipalities' City 237 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Councils who don't do this, but equal opportunity plans are now by law because of Councilman -- they are law. So when anybody comes to that table and is seeking opportunity to do business with the City of Philadelphia, if they don't have the equal opportunity plan that is written and a part of the legislation, my philosophy is, if it's not written, then it doesn't exist. The conversation actually stops on this side of the table. So we get it and are clear and are committed to equal opportunity plans. Our challenge, however, does remain around enforcement, where we have to continue to be police officers once many of those companies get these contracts, because we've had incidents where we've had to call back the general contractor and walk them through what happened or what did not happen with regards to their MBE/WBE participation. But know that this Council has come a mighty long way in ensuring that 238 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 those plans are part of the legislation. Thank you for your testimony.

And I'd just like to say to you that you may not remember, but last year in our budget, the City Council put in a million dollars to add to the support for the summer youth program, employment program, and this year the Mayor in his budget has put the money in his budget so that the funds will be there for summer employment. And so the City -- we don't have as much money as we'd like to have, but it's there. Mr. Altman, you want to end up? We have one more panel, and they have been here all day.

I was just going to add to the point the Professor made, which is the Mayor did challenge the Chamber this summer to actually double the number of summer internships, I think up to 2,000. I'll have to check on the exact number, but they've been working 239 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 diligently on that.

Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have to leave. I wanted to make some brief comments, particularly regarding Mr. Altman's testimony. I was pleased with a lot of the things I found within it. What particularly stood out for me was the considered use of community development financial institutions as a necessary intermediary to open up access to capital within African-American and minority neighborhoods. What really struck me about that was that that recommendation was contained within the last Urban League report ten years ago. I know because I authored the essay. And beyond that, the first piece of legislation that I authored in City Council was related to community development financial institutions. And I did other policy 240 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 work, but for whatever reason, the last Administration didn't see fit to use that vehicle. So I was encouraged by seeing that and seeing that you were exploring that, but also other parts of your testimony are things that are being done or things that were contained within that essay ten years ago. So I was very pleased with your testimony. Thank you.

Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Thank you for waiting. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your participation with the Urban League. Now you can go back and see that you have a lot of work to do. Our next panel, the health panel, and we certainly apologize, but this is a big report and we didn't realize all that when we were putting it together. So, again, I apologize for your coming and staying all day. I 241 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 appreciate your staying here. So we'll ask Glenn Ellis, Sara Lomax-Reese, Michael Rashid and Dr. Schwarz to come forward. And this will be our last panel, unless there's someone else here to testify. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Hello. Thank you so much, but I'm certainly sure this has been informative to you also. The report is a fine document, and when I talk to Pat about it, I thought we ought to have this discussion again when we come back, because this will not be the final discussion on the report. We will call you back as an individual panel for a morning, and that will be the only panel. So each panel will have -- we have four panels. We'll have four different sessions, but you will be invited to come if you'd like to all of them. But I think we can have more in-depth discussion and invite the 242 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 public to testify. The public can come in and offer their input into what's going on. I think we could end up with some stronger actions at the end of the day. So, Mr. Ellis, we'll let you be first since your name was on here first.

Thank you, Councilwoman. If you don't mind, I'd like to defer to Ms. Lomax.

That will be fine.

Thank you. I am very grateful. I'm very grateful.

Okay. Thank you. That's fine.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Sara Lomax-Reese, and let me first acknowledge the incredible work done by the Philadelphia Urban League in this year's State of Black Philadelphia report. I have managed to edit my remarks down a little bit over the course 243 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 of these last few hours in the interest of time, but I want to thank Councilwoman Marian Tasco for convening the hearing and Pat Coulter and Michael Rashid for inviting me to participate. Today we are embarking on a journey of self-discovery, taking a critical step towards self-analysis, in hopes of identifying specific strategies that will begin the process of creating lasting, positive change. My entire professional career has been devoted to health education, advocacy and awareness, specifically targeting the African-American community. As the founder and publisher of HealthQuest: Total Wellness for Body, Mind and Spirit, the first nationally circulated African-American consumer health magazine in the country, and today as host and producer of HealthQuest Live radio show on 900 AM-WURD, my mission has always been clear: to offer information and inspiration to black people as a way 244 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to change behaviors and, by extension, change the alarming rates of disease and untimely death in our community. Whether it's diabetes, hypertension, prostate cancer, breast cancer, depression, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, obesity, infant mortality, African-Americans are disproportionately affected. Plain and simple, we are in the midst of a major health crisis. The State of Black Philadelphia report illustrates this reality. And I quote the report: "Nearly twice as many black infants are born with low birth weights compared to their white counterparts, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health. " It's easy to become numb to 245 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 these statistics, but these numbers represent real human pain and suffering for thousands of Philadelphia families. There are complex and powerful forces conspiring against achieving real health fullness for the majority of Americans. In my opinion, there needs to be a total paradigm shift that moves us from the current sick-care model that is focused on medicating disease to one where prevention is central, incorporating education, life-style changes and natural healing strategies, with a goal of not just avoiding disease, but creating a foundation for optimal wellness. What we eat, how much we exercise and how stress is managed are three of the most powerful life-style factors that influence quality and duration of life. As a registered yoga teacher and certified holistic health and nutrition counselor, I'm a huge proponent of a mind, body, spirit approach to 246 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 health and life. Identifying ways to reduce or manage stress in a culture that thrives on being on hours a day, 365 5 days a year is not just helpful, it is 6 essential. Some healthcare experts have 7 even claimed that 80 percent of all 8 disease is related to stress. When we 9 consider the devastating impact of 10 homicides on our community -- the State 11 of Black Philadelphia report states that 12 "five times as many blacks are murdered 13 per 100,000 than whites in 14 Philadelphia" -- we know that stress is a 15 significant ingredient in this equation. 16 In addition to its role and 17 physical and mental health, stress has a 18 direct impact on life-style choices. It 19 can leave us feeling overwhelmed and 20 undersupported, setting off a chain 21 reaction of unconscious behaviors that 22 can be extremely damaging to health, 23 things like smoking, substance abuse and 24 overeating, to name a few. These life-style choices deeply 247 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 interconnected continue to influence our trajectory towards or away from debilitating disease.

After publishing HealthQuest magazine for ten years, I realized that, like stress, our relationship with food was intimately connected with our individual and collective health outcomes. Every day each of us eats two, three, four, five times, and each time we put something into our mouths, it circulates through the entire body, either nourishing or depleting our system. In short, food can either serve as medicine or poison. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 78 percent of African-American women are overweight, and 51 percent are classified as obese. We also know that being overweight is a leading contributing factor to diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and some cancers. It is very clear to me that 248 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 right now so much of the so-called food widely available in African-American communities is really poison masquerading as food. Fast food joints, corner stores laden with chips and soda, school cafeterias with vending machines no 8 longer popping out sodas but now popping out sugar-drenched chocolate, vanilla and strawberry milk, it's no surprise that childhood obesity is on the rise. There's an article in Time Magazine that just came out. It says a staggering 90 percent of overweight kids already have at least one avoidable risk factor for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or hypertension. 90 percent. No wonder there are behavior issues -- this is going back to the food available in schools. No wonder there are behavior issues and learning disabilities in the schools. While, of course, poor nutrition is not the sole culprit, how can we expect our children to excel and thrive academically if 249 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 they're essentially malnourished, overdosing on sugar, caffeine, white flour and other energy-depleting foods. Under the heading Quality of Life, the State of Black Philadelphia report reveals the startling reality that, quote, "Philadelphia has the second lowest number of supermarkets per capita in the United States. Three times as many blacks have difficulty locating fresh produce in their neighborhoods than whites. " What we eat, the quality of the food, how much is consumed, when it is eaten and under what circumstances is one of the most profound areas that directly impact our health on a daily basis. I am hopeful now that the Urban League has raised this point the City will be proactive and creative about introducing not just supermarkets to underserved 250 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 black communities, but investigate bringing more farmers markets with locally grown fresh produce, cooperative markets that offer affordable healthier options, and ensure that these places accept public assistance vouchers. Additionally, offering education and information about healthy food choices, eating and cooking is critical. Continually evaluating the foods available in the public school system is also essential to ensuring we do not continue the current cycle of poor health, burdening future generations with the likelihood of earlier onset of disease, creating a lifetime marked by chronic illness and shortened lifespan. I also want to just add in here that ensuring that comprehensive physical education is a real critical part of the educational curriculum. It's also really important. I'll close by reiterating something I said earlier. I urge City 251 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Council to look at healthcare through a new lens, where prevention is central, incorporating education, life-style changes and natural healing strategies into an integrative model that goes beyond treating sickness and instead creates a foundation for optimal wellness. Thank you very much for hearing me.

Thank you. I'm just going to make some comments. I know you may have to leave. I see you have your son with you. He has been so good. You've been real good. (Applause.)

But I just wanted to let you know, I certainly appreciate your testimony and want to say to you that we are moving with the supermarket issue in the City. As you know, State Representative Dwight Evans passed a $16 million supermarket 252 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 initiative with the state, which is causing more supermarkets to move into the inner city. A new Shop Rite was just opened at 52nd and Market. I think there's one planned for Broad and Jefferson at the OIC -- Progress Plaza. I ran into some trouble with my neighbors in one part of my district because I let a vegetable truck stay on the street, because the supermarket is not nearby and I thought it was important that that vendor stay there so that he can provide fresh fruit and vegetables for that community. The other thing, we do have a market on Wednesdays in City Hall right in the Courtyard, so that citizens can get fresh fruit and vegetables. So we are very conscious, and our Councilwoman here -- let her bring up her issue. She'll tell you what she's doing to address some of the things you've said.

I would just add that the education piece is really 253 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 important, because access is critical, but educating people to know how to take care of themselves is really, really essential, because you can go into any supermarket and get the wrong stuff and still -- okay.

I agree. Well, we have a new Health Commissioner who is going to testify and he's going to testify about what he's going to do about that, because he's on the cutting edge of consumer education and health and all of that. Councilwoman Brown.

I will be brief, because I was actually going to pose this question to the leadership there. But be advised that I've introduced a menu labeling bill, and the trigger for me was the National Institutes of Health report about the crisis facing childhood obesity. So trust that I'll send you a copy of the bill to ask you for your comment, because 254 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 you actually underscored all the reasons why I think our city needs to look at how we do the -- the question is how, because 83 percent of Americans want the information. The challenge for us from a public policy perspective is how we do that in a way where we do not handicap or strangle businesses in the restaurant community. So thank you for your testimony.

Thank you. Who is next? Glenn, you're next.

Thank you very much. Chairwoman Tasco, I just want to say thank you for convening this testimony and these hearings on this issue. I want to assure you that what may have appeared to be impatience was my passion and enthusiasm to see that this issue is brought before this Council, particularly health. We've talked about housing, 255 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 social justice, economic development and education. We can survive in this society without all of those things. Health is one that is critical, that without it, none of those other things are possible to even pursue and certainly to enjoy. So I'm really committed to trying to do what I can to be a part of this type of dialogue to make sure that the Council is both informed, engaged and able to receive whatever support it needs to do the work to ensure that this issue is one that is given the proper amount of attention, particularly in the City of Philadelphia as we talk about health disparities. I have submitted already into your possession a formal --

Testimony.

-- testimony, and so for the sake of time and brevity and respect for the time of the other panelists, I will, if you will be so permissible, allow me to just be very 256 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 brief and try to skirt through this document.

Sure. It will be a part of the record.

Pardon me?

The full testimony will be a part of the record.

Okay. Well, let me just begin by just reiterating, my name is Glenn Ellis and I'm the President of Strategies for Well-Being. I'm a health advocacy communication specialist. My work is focused on health disparities, medical ethics, patient safety, clinical trials and cultural competence in health and medicine. I write nationally and I travel globally bringing the voice of underserved populations to the discussion and thought on these issues. I want to begin by just saying that today we are here to address collective concerns over the government's ability to carry out the charge that is 257 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 stated in the Constitution, to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare. So today I accept this privilege of offering some insight to the Council to try to better facilitate the ability to develop policy that focuses on the elimination of health disparities here in Philadelphia, ensuring that every resident, man, woman and child, enjoys the highest quality of life. Let me say this: This is what is not at issue here today, that Philadelphia has some of the leading medical education and healthcare institutions in the nation. It is not at issue that Philadelphia is recognized as a leader in medical research and medical advancements. It is not an issue here that Philadelphia's home is to one of the best children's hospitals in the world. It is not an issue that 80 percent of the pharmaceutical companies in the world have a presence here in the Philadelphia 258 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 region, nor is it an issue that 67 percent of the global revenue from drug sales end up in the Philadelphia region. S. city. On virtually every measure of health and well-being, African-Americans have fared worse than whites. African-Americans are less likely to have health insurance, receive lower quality care and are more likely to have many chronic diseases and injuries, and are more likely to die prematurely. I won't be too redundant because I'm sure as we've already heard and we'll certainly hear all the 259 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 statistical things, but it's important just to point out that African-Americans are less likely to even be diagnosed as having depression, and once they are diagnosed, the statistics and the data shows that they're less likely to receive anti-depressants, and when they are, they're more likely to receive cheaper and what's known to be clinically shown to be less effective clinical medications -- effective medications. We are more likely to die of heart disease than any other racial or ethnic group. A third of African-Americans visit emergency rooms for a condition that could have been treated by a regular doctor. That's if one had been available to them. And we have the highest rate of death, as I mentioned. Now, throughout my comments, Madam Chair, I would like to suggest that please follow the money, because this is what this all boils down to. We can cite 260 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 all the statistics, which we will, and we'll talk about some suggestions and some recommendations, but all of this is about money. According to an analysis from a CDC health interview survey, it reveals that African-American stroke survivors were more likely to become disabled and have difficulty with activities of daily living. The issue today is why is there such vast health disparities for blacks in Philadelphia and what can be done to eliminate them. Some of the agreed-upon factors which contribute to racial health disparities include the availability of healthcare services, stress, environment, genetics, behavior, economic resources and socioeconomic status, access to, distribution and quality of healthcare service. One study by the Commonwealth Fund finds that eliminating the gap in healthcare between African-Americans and 261 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 white Americans would save nearly 85,000 lives a year.

Racial inequalities alone are thought to cost five times as many lives as those that are saved by the advances in medical sciences. One of the greatest and most undertreated threats affecting African-Americans in Philadelphia today is mental illness and behavioral health. In spite of the recent major advances that have been made in recent years in this area, much work remains to be done here in Philadelphia. Our increase in knowledge and awareness of health disparities has not made the solutions any more obvious. Multiple factors combine to impede the development of a program for solutions toward the amelioration of healthcare disparities. It's my belief from my work in this area that concentrated efforts must be made in the microcosm of the sociology of illnesses, because African-Americans are the historic and present losers and 262 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 the least advantaged in this whole process. I would like to just touch briefly on clinical trials. Although pharmaceutical researchers are beginning to fully understand the reasons for selecting multi-racial and multi-cultural clinical trial samples, this does not mean that the selection of the participants in these studies has been or is in practice necessarily fair nor equal. Firstly, clinical trials are not generally performed in cash-strapped public hospitals or free-care clinics. In fact, the clinical research industry in Philadelphia is at the core of the economic engine of our multi-billion-dollar healthcare industry right here in the Philadelphia region. Similarly, the providers of medical care in historically African-American neighborhoods are typically limited in resources and access 263 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to the information about ongoing clinical trials. Secondly, even with universal provision of clinical trial opportunities, African-Americans as a community are often reluctant to trust the medical establishment. Consequently, as African-Americans participate disproportionately less than their citizen counterparts, the application of medical and pharmaceutical care is generalized based on non-ethnic indications, such as age and gender. So we're finding medications, pharmaceuticals, technologies, procedures and equipment and medicine are being developed, researched and approved and put out into the general market without their having been an adequate scientific and clinical application of inclusion for African-Americans, who ultimately are going to be impacted by this in the general market. 264 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 So what this means is that Anglo-normativity persists in the trials of pharmaceuticals, and specifically the predisposition of African-American groups to be beneficiaries of a particular drug is unknown. We know that at present the medical establishment underserves minorities and that even those members of a minority group who are similar in socioeconomic status to their citizen peers of other ethnicities are as well at a greater risk. I'll move on and say that a recent Brookings Institute study found that half of the top ten and four of the top five private employers were health or educational institutions here, and they accounted for 70 percent of the jobs of the top ten businesses. Their impact in this region is not trivial. In fact, in a few days, Thursday to be specific, a major conference is taking place right here in Philadelphia and the major 265 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 attendees to that conference will be real estate lawyers, architects, bankers and contractors. " It reads, "Throughout the country and especially throughout our region, educational and medical institutions play a leading role in economic development, investing billions of dollars to weave themselves into their communities, bringing jobs, housing, retail shops and other amenities to often underserved areas.

" The four academic health systems here, Penn, Temple, Jefferson and Drexel, which includes Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Fox Chase Center, attract patients -- they 266 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 all attract patients from outside the region. In the mid 1990s, the SRI international study estimated that 44 percent of the output of this region's healthcare services were exported. This obviously means less resources available for and directed towards those who are here. Though health and educational institutions are often seen as local economic engines, they also play an export role that is increasingly true of those in Philadelphia, which is home to more than 80 colleges and universities. The region benefits substantially from their collective economic impact. The largest schools are in the City, and as many know, prospective college students throughout the nation have increasingly been drawn to Philadelphia. Most of Philadelphia's colleges and universities have not only seen an increase in enrollments, but an increase in enrollments from outside the region. And 267 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 this all while estimates as high as 60 percent stand out for young black Philadelphians who don't finish high school. Needless to say, black Philadelphians are almost totally absent in the medical school classes around the City. In fact, on close examination, these numbers are actually embarrassing to us all. With such low educational levels by an overwhelming number of Philadelphia blacks, the connected issues of health literacy presents one of our greatest challenges. Just consider an asthmatic child that has to make repeated emergency room visits because their parents could not read the labels on the medications the child was supposed to take properly. Or the elderly man who has a deadly drug reaction because he took the wrong medication. Or the patient who struggles to understand the language in the consent form for a procedure that they have to 268 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 undergo and in frustration just signs it anyway, having no idea what rights they just signed. The question remains are we sufficiently taking care of our own here in Philadelphia. Bioethics is the application of ethics to the field of medicine. And ethicists ask two questions: What is the right or good thing to do and what are our obligations to one another. I humbly suggest that this body consider the following recommendations for policies and/or legislation that will: Explore the possibility of connecting all City funding and support to health and medical entities with their proven ability to provide adequate effort in health literacy for patients; To assess the capability of the City Health Department in collecting the appropriate data to more precisely track the gap in health disparities. Nationally this is an issue that is 269 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 becoming more and more focused on, is the accuracy of the data that's being provided, what is the database. And specifically right now we're moving in an area, Madam Chair, where there is an issue that speaks to race-based medicine, and so many times the issue of what is the definition of race, who is black is the question, and in most cases, the federal government's mandates or the NIH says it can be self-identified. So regardless of who you are, how you look, you can determine who you are and there's no other criteria. So we have to stop and think about race as it plays a role in medicine, which impacts funding, allocation of resources and distribution of services. And so it then becomes a case of how do we know what is the appropriate way to have a scientific conclusion drawn from a social basis, a concept that is purely social. We need to look at our recommendations that ensure the increase 270 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.

080140 of medical school enrollments of black students here in Philadelphia, along with support to secondary schools in preparing students by putting them on the proper academic science tracks. Madam Chair, right now as we speak, in this country less than three percent of all the physicians in America are African-American, less than three percent. And of that figure, only 50 percent of them are actually practicing medicine, and half of them are actually Board certified to have privileges to work in hospitals. So we should consider also the formation of an oversight body that monitors the clinical research in the City to ensure inclusion and retention of African-Americans in this city. I would also like to recommend the commission of a study to examine the socioeconomic factors that are involved in health disparities. As Ms. Lomax pointed out so brilliantly, there are 271 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 numerous social and economic factors. We should also consider examining cultural competence in the current delivery of healthcare in this city, because as I just gave you those statistics on the number of African-American physicians, in a city this large with this large of an African-American population, it's obvious that the overwhelming majority of African-Americans here do not have African-American health providers. The question becomes how do those providers determine or find out who I am and what do they think about who I am. Is my life as valuable as someone who is a non-African-American. So we need to look, examine cultural competency. We need to look at establishing systems to be sure -- to ensure that the growing population of African immigrants to Philadelphia are receiving culturally competent care. Without many of us knowing it, there is an increasingly large number of African 272 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 immigrant populations here in this City. And Africa, I would like to remind, is a continent comprised of 54 countries. So to be treated in a medical institution as an African immigrant also has to be taken into consideration what is the language and the culture of the specific country and is there competent care to address Liberians as there is to address people from French-speaking countries. And, finally, to develop mechanisms that ensure that City controlled and/or funded health agencies have measures that prevent and eliminate health disparities for any citizen of Philadelphia. Madam Chair and your distinguished colleagues, I want to thank you immensely for taking the time to really take a look at this in such a formal and official setting. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for that compelling testimony. 273 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140

Madam Chair?

Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you. These are very, very important hearings, and these are excellent speakers and contributors to health throughout our city and beyond. Unfortunately, I have to leave, but I will be remiss if I didn't say that Glenn Ellis was special in my life, and due to his advice and help he provided, my mother lived years longer than she would have lived because of the herbs and food that he prescribed when she was even on a feeding tube. And he's a special man. I know about the works of all of these men, but I had to make sure that I give respect always whenever I see him, because I had my mother some three, four years longer than I would have because of him. 274 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony, Councilwoman. Michael. Mr. Rashid. I'm sorry.

Thank you. Councilwoman Tasco and members of the Committee, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to be here as part of this very exciting initiative to address the State of Black Philadelphia and beginning to take action to improve the human experience for the black community and for all residents of the region. It's very obvious to me from today's activities and the scholars that have been testifying today, as well as your patience, your interest and the questions that members of the City Council have been offering us that there is a new spirit existing both in the City Council and in the Administration of this city, and I think you see that there's a 275 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 new spirit that is existing in the presence of the Urban League of Philadelphia. And we truly and honestly are encouraged by this spirit and we want to work with you as much as possible. I think today is the beginning. We really want to work with you and the Administration as much as possible on moving, as someone said earlier, moving the needle forward on some of the things that are in the State of Black Philadelphia report. Councilwoman Tasco, I'm very grateful and I'm proud of the Urban League under Pat Coulter's leadership in moving this critical initiative forward. We're talking a lot about legislative and policy changes today, and obviously we need to harness the power of government to support good health for all Philadelphians. But even though this is a great and intelligent legislative body, the City Council of Philadelphia, you can not legislate good health. This is 276 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 something that just cannot be legislated. What we need to do as a society is to change the healthcare system so that people can make the right decisions for their own health and so that they can get healthcare when they need it. There's still too many people with no health insurance or inadequate health insurance. The major policy initiative that we would like to recommend and that I'm sure you agree with is that we need to make locally and hopefully nationally efforts to make sure that everyone has health insurance. We need to advocate for legislation that provides coverage for all. This is a big part of improving and maintaining health, as studies demonstrate that people who put off preventive care -- people will put off preventive care if they have no 22 insurance. We need real healthcare reform, not more patches to holes in the safety net. In my experience, however, 277 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 having coverage is no guarantee that people will receive optimal care. There are other barriers to care as well. I see these every day in my work as Executive Vice-President of AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies and Keystone Mercy Health Plan. The members of Keystone Mercy have health insurance through the medical assistance program. However, many of our members go to the emergency room for primary care issues such as colds and stomach aches. And many women do not get prenatal care, although we try to reach out to our members who are pregnant and to get them into care. What we face is more than just a crisis in healthcare and it will take more than just the healthcare system to fix it. All of us in this room have to come together to make a difference. But the question is, what can we do right now to reduce health disparities and improve healthcare in our 278 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 community? We can work to make sure that all eligible residents, especially children, receive public insurance if they're eligible. Not everyone who is eligible for medical assistance or the Children's Health Insurance Program is enrolled in those programs. In fact, according to a study by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, 74 percent of uninsured children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health currently receives a grant from Community Behavioral Health, CBH, that funds eight benefit counselors whose main responsibility is to enroll uninsured patients in the City Health Department clinics. We applaud CBH on its effort and we encourage you to make sure that this grant continues. As you probably know, over 24 percent of the patients in the public 25 health -- in the City Health Department 279 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 clinic are uninsured patients and 74 percent of those who are children are eligible for Medicaid or S-CHIP. If they could be gotten onto Medicaid or S-CHIP, it would really relieve the burden on the City in terms of caring for those uninsured patients. So it's just a relatively small dollar to continue to have benefit counselors in the City Health Department clinics to get those folks covered. The City of Philadelphia prioritizes hiring in the Police and Fire Departments. We would hope that the City Council would also assist by making it a priority to fill vacant positions in the Health Department. Dr. Schwarz did not ask me to say that, but it's a fact, it needs to happen. We can work together, the healthcare system, the community organizations and the government, to provide basic health and nutrition 280 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 education to the general public. We can emulate successful models of health information campaigns. We can increase efforts to make affordable healthy foods available in more neighborhoods. We need to start with our youth and educate them early in the schools. Studies show that the best dollars spent in healthcare is the dollars spent on prevention. And the best dollars spent on prevention is the dollars spent on education and the building of self-esteem. We encourage you to fund more health education in our public schools. We heartily endorse the comments that were made earlier in terms of building self-esteem among our youth. One of the men who testified here today was E. Steven Collins, who was one of the organizers of the 10,000 Man March, whose basic purpose and aim was to increase self-esteem and get African-American men more involved with their youth. We think that there's a direct correlation between 281 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 fathers being involved with the youth, self-esteem and the healthcare that is a product of those very positive efforts. We need to build trust and take healthcare into our neighborhood. An example is Keystone Mercy's Women's Health Ministry program where we partner with the churches to get important healthcare information to African-American women. Also, our Healthy Hoops Asthma program that helps children with asthma and their parents help better manage their asthma. These programs work and they can improve and even help save lives. I've seen this happen firsthand. On another note, Madam Chairman, I'd like to just say as the Chairman of the Urban League of Philadelphia, we see ourselves as a bridge between the community and the business community. As you know, the Urban League is a national organization that has been seen by corporate America 282 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 as sort of a legitimate organization through which they can speak to the African-American community. The national Chairman of the Board of the Urban League is the CEO of Shell Oil Company, and there are many national CEOs who are part of our national Board. We have regional CEOs on the Board of the Urban League of Philadelphia here. Just last week we were able to work with Deloitte Touche, international CPA firm, and the Urban League and Deloitte co-sponsored a CEO diversity conference that was held here in Philadelphia, and we got local, regional and national CEOs to come to town and to talk about and make further commitments in terms of their efforts to promote the diversity in their workplaces.

This is just an example of some of the things that the Urban League can do working with corporate America. One thing that we would like to ask you to do -- I know that corporate leaders come to you all the time trying 283 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to get into Philadelphia, trying to get programs done in Philadelphia. We'd like to ask you when these people come to you and they said they want to do so much in the community, one thing you might do is to refer them to the Urban League and maybe they would like to commit themselves to be on the Board of the Urban League or to participate in the Urban League with some of our programs. They can come to you and they can say a lot, but here's one thing that they can do, is they can be on the Board of the Urban League and participate in some of the Urban League programs. We are very much appreciative of what you are doing here. Again, we really see this as a first step. We are appreciative of the Nutter Administration for sending his Commissioners and his people to come here. We heard what you said earlier, Councilwoman Brown, with respect to focusing and moving the needle. We are 284 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 working on that just as hard as we can. We really like the idea of working with the City and working with the Administration on things like lowering the dropout rate. We think that that's something that -- there's an initiative at the City to do that. We think that we can help in terms of engaging the corporate community in being mentors in terms of hiring people. We think that this is something that we can do, and we welcome the opportunity to working with you and with the Administration together in focusing on these couple of activities. The next time we come to you, we're going to come to you with a very clear outline of the two or three initiatives that we would like to focus on, and we hope that we can work together with you and the Nutter Administration on getting those initiatives accomplished. Thank you.

Thank you. 285 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Thank you very much. Looking forward to working with you. I think it will be a good, strong partnership, because we need more advocacy groups and more action-oriented organizations. Dr. Schwarz.

Good afternoon, Chairwoman Tasco, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, co-panelists. I'm Dr. Donald Schwarz. I'm Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity and I'm the Health Commissioner of Philadelphia. I am pleased to be here today to complete this day of testimony and offer comments --

You can sum it all up.

-- and offer comments on the issue of the disparities in health and health status that unfortunately continue to exist in Philadelphia. I want to commend the Councilwoman and the panel for bringing these hearings and for insisting that we 286 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 not only have a single day of hearings, but that you have asked that we come back in the fall so that this discussion continues. Rather than having a report that stays on the shelf, we should have a living document to which we respond. I'm proud to say that the Department of Public Health has a history of being engaged in addressing this important issue, particularly as it affects communities of color. I will say we need to do more. " The series illustrates the devastating relationship between poverty, race and health. Our hope in holding the meeting was to encourage leadership and collaboration in addressing health 287 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 disparities, and I believe we were successful in launching an awareness campaign with the 180 persons in attendance. We fully intend to continue to expand the campaign. The report of the Urban League of Philadelphia, the State of Black Philadelphia, includes three study areas in its Health Index: Maternal, infant and child health issues; death and disease; and illness prevention and quality of life. Regarding the maternal and infant issues, we in the Health Department administer the Healthy Start program in targeted areas of the City to address low birth weight, lack of prenatal care and infant mortality. Many of these neighborhoods are largely African-American, as are a large majority of the Healthy Start clients. Most of the services are provided through collaborative subcontracts with community agencies, including care coordination, 288 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 case management and health education, as well as services for perinatal depression and interconceptional care. Interconceptional care is defined as the care before and after a pregnancy and is provided, in part, to reduce the incidence of repeat pregnancies, especially among teenagers. As Councilwoman Tasco noted earlier, it's a very important group. In November 2007, we began youth clinics at Health Centers 5 and 6 in North Philadelphia where we provide information to teenagers about delaying pregnancy. Prenatal care is provided to about 3,000 persons annually and family planning services to about 9,600 persons annually, including emergency contraception, at all of the City's health centers. These eight primary care centers see patients regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, and a number of the centers serve an almost exclusively African-American population. 289 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 Similarly, we recognize the disparities in the incidence of chronic diseases and increased death rates from these diseases in the African-American compared to European-American as well as Latino populations. S. has increased by 30 years during the 20th century, and in part, we can attribute our longer lives to amazing advances in medical technology and drug therapies. But we also know that there is a higher incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma in blacks that ultimately result in poor health outcomes and higher mortality rates in this population. Basic essentials for improving health outcomes for those with chronic diseases include improved disease management through eating healthy foods, as we've heard, quitting smoking, increasing exercise and having health insurance. The report notes that these 290 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 health factors continue to be problematic in the black community. Five years ago, the Department was successful in obtaining federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for the Steps for Healthier Philadelphia program, which targeted a population of half a million in a contiguous geographic footprint of the City.

The area includes most of West Philadelphia and parts of Center City, Southwest, North and South Philadelphia, an area chosen to reach the largest portion of the population facing the highest disease-burden and disparities of the targeted conditions and risk factors. At the time of the application, the population was 66 percent African-American, and 28 percent of the residents were living below the federal poverty line. Targeting the more vulnerable of the residents in this area with disease management and prevention programs and strategies, we believe we 291 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 have provided a foundation for improving health outcomes. As the five-year Steps grant period comes to a close, the current Administration and this Council have approved funding to continue our chronic disease prevention efforts, which will focus on the most effective of the outreach disease prevention -- the most effective of the outreach programs currently in place for smaller community-based organizations. These programs promote healthy living, physical activity and improvements in the local built environment that will help prevent overweight, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in high-risk populations. I will say we can't do this alone. It's been a partnership. It needs to continue to be a partnership. I'd like to add that our data show that the person most likely to be diagnosed concurrently; that is, at the 292 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 same time, with HIV and AIDS -- and I should note, the reason this is important is, we know that the period between infection with HIV and disease of AIDS is on average at least ten years. So those who come in and are identified with HIV at the same time that they have AIDS are people who have had the infection for at least ten years. So those who have had the poorest access to testing and counseling. So by definition, people who concurrently come in with HIV and AIDS are late reporters, and the person in Philadelphia most likely to come in concurrently with HIV and AIDS is an African-American heterosexual male over 30 years of age, so people who have been diagnosed at age -- who have been infected at age 20 or before in many cases. The Department is implementing HIV prevention education and testing in a focused fashion to reach this population, 293 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 including implementing HIV rapid testing in emergency rooms, shelters, substance abuse programs and through mobile testing in areas heavily impacted by the epidemic throughout the City. Mr. Ellis pointed out that collection of information on disparities is critical to our ability to respond appropriately, and I think this is an example of where the City has been able to do that, target resources appropriately, and we hope to see improvement in health outcomes. Just as important to our health as the need for equity in healthcare, however, is the need for improved social conditions, as all the panelists have pointed out. We've all benefited from improved wage and work standards, universal schooling and civil rights laws, the things that help each of us to live a life with dignity. In fact, these advances are as essential to improved health outcomes as eating healthy foods, 294 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 quitting smoking, getting enough exercise and having health insurance. We also suffer from both economic and racial disparities, and these disparities can last a lifetime. In Philadelphia, there are 2,251 excess deaths to Philadelphians who live in poor neighborhoods compared to those who live in wealthier neighborhoods when all other factors, including race, ethnicity, age and sex, are held constant. Included in these deaths are infant deaths; that is, infants who die before their first birthdays. The infant mortality rates differ among white and African-American babies in Philadelphia. 9 per thousand live births.

Our social realities in Philadelphia have a direct impact on our fight to improve health and prevent 295 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 diseases. Good health depends on respect for human dignity. It is an indignity to be forced to suffer from social inequalities, to be without healthy food outlets, to work and live in unsafe conditions, to lack basic health services, to live under chronic stress and suffer from the effects of traumas, to not have the support or encouragement to finish school. Mayor Nutter and I are committed to addressing health in a broad context, with a special focus on promoting the full dignity of every man, woman and child in Philadelphia. Under our leadership, I aim to unite the Health Department's many programs into a broader common identity, one that upholds human dignity as we fulfill our mission to protect and promote good health. I challenge all of Philadelphia to join us in improving the broader context in which we provide and receive healthcare. I'll end my remarks here in the 296 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 interest of time. I'm prepared to answer questions, and I thank you again for convening these panels.

Thank you so much for your testimony, and we certainly look forward to working with you in providing the health for the citizens we represent. I had a question here for you. I can't find it. Councilwoman Brown.

In the interest of time, I'm going to pose two rhetorical questions, with the expectation that we will review all of these matters again in the fall. First to Mr. Ellis. You gave a lot of testimony to the fact that it's a fact that people of color are not engaged in trials. So Councilwoman Tasco and I were discussing how there are a lot of reasons for that. And so as we look to the fall, we need -- there may be opportunities for us in government to help citizens understand that it is okay 297 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to be involved in clinical trial and education is important to help to diminish some of the fears that come with participating in clinical trials and that it's a two-way street, that the disengagement of people of color is not completely due to the fact that they have not been outreached to. You follow me?

Exactly. There's an African proverb that I use quite frequently when I do seminars or lectures, and it says that in order to come into my house, you must enter through my gate. So the outreach -- you may see posters and signs or you may see commercials with black people in them or whatever, but the question that the recipient is asking, are they really talking to me, do they really --

Is it authentic.

Are they really talking to me. So you can get into my 298 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 house, but did you enter properly. So was there some respectful, culturally competent way. And part of this in the context of your question is to look at obviously the legacy and our history of experimentations. I mean, modern medicine was basically developed through experimenting on live slaves. I mean, the field of obstetrics and gynecology was basically developed by the person considered the father of that field, literally cut open live black slave women to try to understand the anatomical makeups and functioning of how the reproductive system worked. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who is like the father of psychology -- psychiatry actually, had a term called "negritude" that was considered an official acceptable psychiatric condition that was only corrected if you kept a person in slavery, and that if you exhibited behavior that made you think you needed to be free, it was determined that this 299 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 was a psychiatric condition for a black person. And then obviously with Tuskegee and so on and Holmesburg and Dr. Klingman and all of these things that happened with the University of Penn's clinical trials. So you got to look at the history that we have --

Sure.

-- to overcome. So in order to even start to begin to address this part of educating the black population about clinical trials, you have to first make sure that you respectfully acknowledge that those things exist and that they are properly addressed, so to speak, to then make it. So it's not about saying people need to get into them, but I think we need to eliminate the barriers that prevent people from making good decisions about whether to get into them or not, and I think if we can eliminate those 300 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 barriers, we would see the numbers would certainly go up and would make sure that -- once again, Councilwoman, I want to emphasize it is crucial when we have medications that are being developed through clinical trials, whether it's the Lipitors or Crestors or whatever, Vytarins, or whatever, you want to make sure that once that drug has cleared a clinical trial and it's been approved by the FDA and allowed to be put on the market and now available to everybody, that the clinical trial was as inclusive of the population that it was going to ultimately benefit.

Indeed. Okay.

So we don't know -- the jury is really still out on the real pharmacogenetics of whether there's really some difference between Dr. Schwarz taking a high blood pressure and myself, but we want to make sure that both people who look like him and people 301 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 who look like me were included in the trials to develop the drug.

Right. Okay. And then to the leadership of the Urban League, as you deliberate this summer or whatever time you're going to use at the Board level and as we as Councilmembers review testimony and look for legislative opportunities on our end, my question is, what is the Board policy, if any, as it relates to how strong your voice of advocacy, how loud your voice of advocacy, whether or not you even step out and endorse or unendorse public policy that's coming from City Council and/or the state. So I don't know the answer to that, but I raise it because that is another way to make your voices heard when we ultimately want to introduce legislation that is intimately tied to what this report signifies. So I raise the question only as 302 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 to think about it, because I'm curious to know. I love the organization. It gave me a start in my career, but I clearly remember years ago when it was not a 6 practice to embrace or not policies 7 raised by those of us in government. So 8 I put that on the table for thinking and 9 for consideration, knowing that we will 10 return in the fall. 11 Thank you very much. 12

Thank you. 13

I'd like 14 to add to that, because you have a very 15 strong voice, and one of the reasons I 16 wanted to have this discussion today 17 about your study was to have the 18 opportunity to show the work done by the 19 Urban League, as well as try to encourage 20 you to be more vocal and be more 21 proactive in what we do in City Council 22 that helps us and gives us your 23 perspective on what we are putting forth 24 as policy issues. We can talk to 25 ourselves all day. We need to hear 303 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 what's happening. We talk to our constituents, but you all have another constituent group that we don't really hear too much from. So Dr. Schwarz, Michael talked about CHIP. You talked about CHIP. At the health centers, when young people, children, go into the health centers for service, can you all sign them up for the CHIP program?

If they're eligible.

Beg your pardon?

If they're eligible.

If they're eligible?

Yes.

Well, most of them, I understand, they are. Based on the commercial, every child is eligible. You may have to pay if you have certain guideline, income guideline. 304 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140

The exception is children who weren't born in this country, of parents who were not born in this country.

I see.

As you know, an increasing proportion of those who are coming to our health centers who are uninsured are those who are from other nations who are not eligible for health insurance through the public system in this country.

Okay. Thank you very much. And, Mr. Rashid, I appreciate your involvement with the Fox Chase.

Yes.

I'm on their External Advisory Board, and certainly a lot of the discussions around clinical trials and certainly the ability for the diverse community to access the services of that institution has been made possible with your relationship with 305 6/16/08 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 080140 them. So I appreciate that. It has been a good day, Pat Coulter.

It sure has.

We appreciate your staying. We know you haven't had any lunch, you're hungry, but we will follow through with this. However we do it, we'll work it out with the leadership and with the Executive Director of the Urban League to see what the next steps will be. So what we will do, we will not adjourn. We will recess until the call of the Chair. Thank you very much. I want to thank my colleague for hanging in with me. Thank you.

You're welcome. (Committee on Public Health and Human Services recessed at 3:05 p.m.) - - - 306 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on June 16, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)