Tag Archives: Director

Children’s Policy Council hosts UA New Faculty Engagement Tour

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On May 11, 2023 the Greene County Children’s Policy Council hosted the University of Alabama New Faculty Engagement Tour at the Robert Young Community Center in Eutaw, Alabama. The tour”s – Exploring New Places, Meeting New People, and Engaging New Communities – purpose is to encourage new community -university partnerships. Six panelists from Greene County discussed their programs making a difference in Greene County and what type of additional community-engaged research or service partnerships with the University of Alabama faculty, staff, and students would be helpful to address priorities within the County.
The panelist on the program were Christopher Jones, Director, Greene County Ambulance Service, Dr. Corey Jones, Superintendent, Greene County School System, Mildred Morgan, Facilitator, Strengthening Family Program, Mollie Rowe, Director, Eutaw, Housing Authority, John Zippert, Chairman, Greene County Health System Board and Lillie Jones-Osborne, Chairman, Greene County Children’s Policy Council.
This is the fifth New Faculty Community Engagement Tour to visit Greene County. According to Dr. Samory Pruitt, Vice President of Community Affairs at the University of Alabama, “ Community-engaged scholarship exists at the intersection of teaching, research, and service, the three pillars of the University of Alabama’s mission. The tour plays an important role in advancing that mission by providing opportunities to connect, and for the community members to become the teachers while members of the University community embrace the role of learner.”
Judge Lillie Jones- Osborne served as the facilitator and site coordinator for the group. She stated, “We are always happy to host the group and to sit down and have new dialogue with the faculty and staff to encourage new partnerships.” She further stated that several partnerships have developed over the years because of the engagement tour. The tour visited several other areas in the Black Belt and in West Alabama over a three-day period.

Federal grant awarded to increase safety in Black Belt homes

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ADPH and the University of Alabama receive the $2 million grant to remove safety and environmental issues in Black Belt homes.

The Alabama Department of Public Health and the University of Alabama were recently awarded a $2 million federal grant that will be used to remove environmental and safety hazards from homes in the Black Belt region.

The Healthy Homes and Healthy Communities in the Black Belt Region of Alabama program aims to target 50 low-income homes in the Black Belt to remove environmental and safety hazards, according to a press release. The University of Alabama SafeState Program and the Alabama Life Research Institute will help manage the grant and the project.

“This program not only allows us to identify health and safety issues in these underserved communities, but it also gives us the resources to solve some of the problems,” Michael Rasbury, director of the university’s SafeState Environmental Programs, said in a statement. “Qualifying participants can receive up to $10,000 for repairs designed to reduce or eliminate identified hazards.”

The 24-month project will address problems including indoor air quality, mold and moisture, pests, carbon monoxide, lead-based paint, asbestos and radon, and indoor and outdoor structural issues, according to the release.

The Alabama Department of Public Health and the University of Alabama are working on an application process for prospective homeowners to take part in the program, which will come at no cost to them.

Goals for the project are:

  • Maximize both the number of vulnerable residents protected from housing-related environmental health and safety hazards and the number of housing units where these hazards are controlled.
  • Identify and remediate housing-related health and safety hazards in privately owned, low-income rental and/or owner-occupied housing, especially in units and/or buildings where families with children, older adults 62 years and older, or families with persons with disabilities reside.
  • Promote cost-effective and efficient healthy home methods and approaches that can be replicated and sustained.
  • Build and enhance partner resources to develop the most cost-effective methods for identifying and controlling key housing-related environmental health and safety hazards.
  • Promote collaboration, data sharing and targeting between health and housing departments.
  • Ensure to the greatest extent feasible that job training, employment, contracting, and other economic opportunities generated by this grant will be directed to low- and very-low-income persons, particularly those who are recipients of government assistance for housing, and to businesses that provide economic opportunities to low- and very low-income persons in the area in which the project is located.

Newswire : Alabama Senator Doug Jones introduces legislation to mandate release of Civil Rights Cold Case Records

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Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) introduced legislation on July 10 mandating the review, declassification, and release of government records related to unsolved criminal civil rights cases. Legislation is necessary because the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as implemented, has prevented the timely and adequate disclosure of executive branch records, and congressional records are not subject to public disclosure under FOIA.

In addition, some of these records, although almost 50 years old, remain classified unnecessarily or shielded from public view. The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 remedies this problem by requiring the National Archives and Records Administration to create a collection of government documents related to civil rights cold cases and to make those documents available to the public. U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is an original co-sponsor of the legislation.

“Having prosecuted two civil rights cold cases in Alabama, I know firsthand the importance of having every available piece of information at your disposal,” said Senator Jones, a former U.S. Attorney. “This bill will ensure public access to records relating to these cases and will expand the universe of people who can help investigate these crimes, including journalists, historians, private investigators, local law enforcement, and others. We might not solve every one of these cold cases, but my hope is that this legislation will help us find some long-overdue healing and understanding of the truth in the more than 100 unsolved civil rights criminal cases that exist today.”

Jones, who successfully prosecuted two of the former KKK members responsible for the bombing of the 16thStreet Baptist Church, has long been an advocate for greater access to civil rights cold case records. In 2007, he testified to the House Judiciary Committee in support of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act that established a special initiative in the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate civil rights cold cases. He spoke about the difficulty of prosecuting these cases so many years after the crimes were committed and pointed to the importance of sharing information in order to find the truth.

“We’ve made progress ensuring these heinous acts of violence and hatred are able to be brought to justice—but we have more work to do,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, former Jackson County Prosecutor. “Helping families and advocates get access to these documents could help their push towards justice for these long unsolved cold cases.”

“It is hard to overstate the positive impact that Sen. Doug Jones’s proposed Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act would have on thousands of families who, 40 to 60 years later, have no idea how a father, grandfather, aunt or brother came to a violent death in the modern civil rights era,” said Hank Klibanoff, Director, Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project at Emory University. “As a journalist and historian who relies on government-held records in these civil rights cold cases, it’s important to know that our purposes are simple: To learn the truth, to seek justice where there may be a living perpetrator, to tell the untold stories, and to bring closure to families of victims, and find opportunities for racial reconciliation.”

The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018 will:

· Require the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish a collection of cold case records about unsolved criminal civil rights cases that government offices must publicly disclose in the collection without redaction or withholding.

· Establish a Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board as an independent agency of impartial private citizens to facilitate the review, transmission to NARA, and public disclosure of government records related to such cases.

Senator Jones’ bill was modeled after the President John F. Kennedy, Jr. Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which created an orderly and effective process for reviewing, declassifying, and releasing thousands of documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy. Read a detailed overview of the legislation here.

The legislation Senator Jones introduced was originally envisioned by students from Hightstown High School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and their teacher, Stuart Wexler.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day to be observed on Friday, June 15, 2018 Alabama’s reponse to Elder Abuse

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Judge Judy

Shown above Judge of Probate, Judy Spree signing a proclamation for the Greene County DHR Service Staff Wilson Morgan, Director, Jacqueline Hughes- Family & Children Services Supervisor, Beverly Vester– Q.A Coordinator, Kimberly Tyree, CA/N investigator not pictured: Latonya Wooley, Foster Care Worker

The elderly population and disabled adults in our state and communities have the right to feel safe and to be treated with dignity and respect. Unfortunately, this is not the case for every elderly individual and disabled adult in our state. Based upon reports from previous years, thousands of elderly individuals and disabled adults have been and are being abused, neglected and exploited in Alabama every year.
In an effort to promote elder abuse awareness, agencies, organizations, communities and professionals around the world will unite on June 15th to observe World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. The following activities are scheduled to take place in Greene County in observance of World Elder Abuse Awareness.

Greene County DHR employees will wear Purple Ribbons all month. Employees will wear Purple on June 15, 2018. Greene County DHR will host an Event to promote Elder Abuse Awareness on June 27, 2018 at the Eutaw Activity Center starting at 1:30 p.m. to discuss issues regarding the elderly and disabled adults.
The national theme for this year’s observance is “Building Strong Support for Elders”. The nationally recognized color to represent elder abuse awareness is purple. We are asking each community member to please wear purple throughout the month of June, particularly on the 15th.
“Greene County Department of Human Resources (DHR) Director, Mr. Wilson Morgan stated community partners can help by reporting suspected abuse, neglect, and exploitation and by assisting DHR with arranging services to protect those individuals that cannot protect themselves. Our community partners are essential to assisting DHR in providing for the safety of the elderly population and disabled adults”.
The Department of Human Resources (DHR) is responsible for investigating reports of abuse, neglect, and exploitation regarding the elderly and disabled adults. In FY 2017, DHR investigated approximately 9,700 reports of suspected abuse, neglect and exploitation of vulnerable adults statewide, which included elderly individuals and disabled adults.
DHR is requesting the assistance of all community members to help with protecting our vulnerable citizens as they have contributed so much to society. If you suspect an elderly person or an adult with disabilities is being mistreated please contact Greene County DHR at (205) 372-5000 to make a report.
Reports may also be made toll free to Adult Abuse Hotline 1-800-458-7214, and via online at aps@dhr.alabama.gov.   All reports are confidential and may be made anonymously.