It wasn’t so much that President Barack Obama planned to visit the Center for Urban Families, but for the center’s founder, Joseph Jones, it is all about the heavy lifting that will help provide services that strengthen the Baltimore community.

“We feel we’re obligated to provide this service,” Jones said. “We continue to grind.” Jones said that he was proud that Obama, the first African American president, visited on May 17, 2013 but even prouder that the country’s chief executive officer could relate to many who attend classes at the center.

“A large part of his visit took place outside of the view of the media. He really spent time with everyone and rolled up his sleeves and got down to business,” Jones said.

The president even told of how, like most at the center, he grew up without a father and that by taking, “this path, that’s going to make all the difference in the world.”

Obama praised the center for helping men and women find decent jobs that help strengthen families and rebuild communities.

Jones founded the center in 1999 in an effort to provide a set of integrated services that strengthen urban communities by helping fathers and families achieve stability and economic success. “Years ago, I worked helping pregnant women and I thought then that there should be something done to help the fathers, too,” Jones said.

The center, located in West Baltimore, has conducted 177 classes in a workforce development program over the past 14 years and has served more than 25,000 Baltimore residents. Jones said the center works with 1,500 people each year.  

Prior to founding the center, Jones developed and directed the Men’s Service program for the Baltimore Healthy Start initiative and replicated the Baltimore affiliate of the nationally recognized STRIVE employment services program.  

He has served on President Obama’s taskforce on “Fatherhood and Healthy Families” and on boards with the “Open Society Institute of Baltimore,” the “Baltimore Workforce Investment Board,” and the “National Fatherhood Leaders Group.”

Jones has been honored by the Greater Baltimore Committee as the recipient of the 2013 Walter Sondheim Public Service Award for working to connect low-income urban men and women to career paths and strong family models.

“He is a beacon of hope to young men and women in Baltimore,” said committee president Donald Fry. “He lifted himself up from a young life of family trauma, poverty, teen drug addiction and criminal arrest, and now dedicates his life to lifting others up.”

The Open Society Foundations’ Campaign for Black Male Achievement has recognized for years the important role that fathers play when it comes to family economic security, said Shawn Dove, head of the Open Society Foundation.

“We’ve supported the Center for Urban Families because of the exemplary work they do in Baltimore and nationally to help families achieve stability and economic success. It is important for the field of responsible fatherhood to see the center get this kind of much-deserved attention from President Obama,” Dove said.

Jones said the visit helps boosts visibility, but also allows participants to understand the importance of the program and that successfully completing it will leads to greater opportunities.

“The president’s message to our program participants and employer partners was one of investment. To our participants, he encouraged them to invest in themselves, prepare for the world of work, and transfer what they achieved to their children so our communities can be better,” Jones said. “To our employer partners, he praised them for investing in individuals who, in spite of challenging circumstances, have worked to get themselves on a path to a brighter future.”

BALTIMORE— On Monday, May 13, 2013, the NAACP announced the full list of awardees for the first annual Medgar W. Evers Medal of Freedom Awards. The awards are granted to individuals or groups in each of the NAACP’s seven regions who have dedicated their lives and legacies to the cause of civil and human rights.

Gerald Stansbury, president of the Maryland NAACP State Conference was a local winner of the prestigious award.

“These winners are the lifeblood of their communities and of this great Association,” stated NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Like Medgar Evers, they are fearlessly on the front line in the fight for justice and equality. Most importantly, they are each inspiring new generations of civil and human rights leaders to carry on their legacy.”

The Medgar W. Evers Medal of Freedom “honors an individual or group who has demonstrated a lifetime of courage and laid the foundation for present and future leaders in the cause of civil and human rights.”  

The presentation of the inaugural award coincides with the 50th commemoration of the assassination of former NAACP Field Secretary Medgar W. Evers, who gave his life in the fight for voter empowerment, equality and justice.

The Epsilon Omega Foundation, Inc. the charitable arm of the Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. sponsored their second “Day at the Races” on Sunday, May 5, 2013 at the famed Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore City. The theme of the event was “A Hat & Glove Affair: Elegance Revisited.”

Close to 200 guests from as far as Charles County, Maryland attended the event, which included a lavish brunch with mimosas, live horseracing, music, and a raffle to benefit the organization’s scholarship program. Also featured was a “Rip the Runway” styled Hatitude contest with both male and female participants. Based on the success of last year’s event, a fascinator and shoe contest were also added to the program. Attendees did not disappoint, donning a variety of lovely colors and amazing fashion trends.

 This year, returning sponsor Mano Swartz Furs donated a fur wrap valued at $1,500.00 to the Foundation. The Foundation is going to raffle the wrap and the proceeds from the raffle will go to the college scholarship fund. Every year the Epsilon Omega Foundation, Inc. provides a four-year college scholarship to a graduating senior from Baltimore City. The raffle is ongoing and the community is encouraged to contact the chapter for more information. The drawing will be held on June 8, 2013.

Janet Williams is the president and Cylia E. Lowe, Esq, is the fundraising chairman of the Epsilon Omega Foundation, Inc. Chairman Cylia E. Lowe stated. “This event has been wildly successful due to the rich history of our city and the desire to have a lasting impact on society, especially young people who are trying to better themselves by earning a college degree. The show stopping fashion is just icing on the cake!” 

Epsilon Omega Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit and tax exempt, 501 (c) (3), corporation established to acquire resources to support and promote programs and services to meet the changing needs of citizens of the Baltimore metropolitan community and beyond. 

The Foundation was created and incorporated in 1991 with a mission of the Epsilon to meet the challenges of the community through service education and cultural development. 

Collect calls can cost as much as 89 cents per minute

Mignon Clyburn, a veteran policy maker from the Public Service Commission of South Carolina has been appointed acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the first woman to ever hold the post.

Since joining the FCC in 2009, Clyburn has remained a leader in the fight to reduce telephone rates for prison inmates throughout the country and, in her first interview since being appointed by President Barack Obama to her new post, she vows to continue that battle.

"Tens of thousands of consumers have written, emailed and telephoned the FCC, pleading for relief on interstate long distance rates from correctional facilities and I intend to keep pushing this issue," Clyburn, age 51, said.

The second-term FCC commissioner is miffed that rates make it cheaper to place a cellular telephone call from as far away as Singapore than it is for an inmate to make an interstate collect call from prison in the United States.

According to data from various telephone companies, including Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, the average cost of a call to Singapore is 12 cents per minute, while a call from prison includes a $3.95 connection fee regardless of the length of the conversation.

"One five-minute call from prison could be as high as $17 with the connection fee and the per-minute rates which can be as high as 89 cents per minute," Clyburn said. "That framework can be as high as your regular monthly phone bill. We're talking a significant amount of money for those who are least likely to be able to afford that type of engagement. All of this has motivated me to keep this fight going."

Clyburn, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in banking, finance and economics from the University of South Carolina, served as chair of South Carolina’s commission from 2002 to 2004.

She said she is proud of where her professional career began, working with her father who owned an African American newspaper.

"It was on an African American newspaper, the Coastal Times, in South Carolina," she said. Clyburn co-owned and operated the newspaper with her father, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the former House majority whip.

"I still lean on him, a lot," Clyburn said. "When I was being appointed [last week] by President Obama, we traded at least five telephone calls," she said.

Come what may, Clyburn says that she will continue to pressure regulators to find more affordable solutions and rates for inmates and the families.

Two private companies own the service that operate prison phone calls, Global Tel*Link Corp. of Mobile, Alabama and Securus Technologies, Inc. of Dallas, Texas.

A spokeswoman at Global Tel*Link and a secretary at Securus each declined comment. The companies have said that the higher rates are due to the security features such as monitoring phone calls and blocking numbers. “However, technology is readily available and not something that should translate to $15 for a 15-minute phone call," said Steven Renderos, national organizer for the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, California.

Clyburn, who in 2001 began work to reduce the rates and recruited Jesse Jackson's Operation Push to assist, said the telephone is a crucial instrument for the incarcerated, and those who care about them, because voice calling is often the only communications option available.

"Maintaining contact with family and friends during incarceration not only helps the inmate, but it is beneficial to our society as whole because there are well over 2 million children with at least one parent behind bars and regardless of their circumstances, both children and parents gain from regular contact with one another," said Clyburn.

"I'm optimistic on a number of fronts. We all know or are related to someone who has been or is currently incarcerated and a lot of people still don't realize how significant of an economic impact this has on poor families.