Austin residents learned once again about the serious health disparities between whites and blacks in Chicago at a recent health care event in Austin - and what they can do to close the gap.

Bethel New Life hosted the April 30 event at its Amberg Hall, 1140 N. Lamon. Residents listened to experts explain how more African-Americans are dying from various diseases than whites.

The death rate for African-Americans with breast cancer, for example, was twice as high in 2005 as it was in 1990 in Chicago, said Steve Whitman, director of Sinai Urban Health Institute and one of the presenters at the event.

That death rate also grew in a similar fashion in heart disease.

For 25 years, the Institute has studied the racial disparity issue in health care. Their study has found that 3,200 more African-Americans die than whites each year in Chicago.

The study looks at 15 health measures, including strokes, lung cancer and breast cancer. In a majority of these categories, blacks have continued to experience a higher death rate than whites. Whitman attributes that to a lack of proper health care access for all races.

"White women have made large gains against breast cancer, but black women have not been allowed access to these gains at all," he said.

In Austin, Whitman said the life expectancy is about six years lower than the overall city of Chicago.

The area is about 85 percent African American. But the best way to combat the disparity gap is through prevention efforts, the presenters said.

Catherine Jones, PTA president for Douglass High School, advocates for prevention, saying she gets regular mammograms.

Recently, doctors detected a benign tumor. But, she asked, what if the tumor was cancerous and she wasn't getting regular check-ups?

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) agreed that prevention is the biggest lifesaver. She said she holds yearly health fairs in Austin that focus on prevention efforts.

"A young man told me I saved his life because he went and got tested for prostate cancer after one of my fairs," Mitts said.

Prevention and treatment may be easier now as provisions from the Affordable Care Act begin to kick in, according to the presenters.

The federal health law will require Americans to either choose a healthcare plan or pay a fee for not having health insurance. The yearly fee for the uninsured will start at $95 in 2014, which could be bumped to $695 in 2015.

People who earn between 139 to 400 percent of the federal poverty level can get assistance when buying insurance. That means a family of four whose total income is $90,000 or less may be eligible for assistance.

By Reema Amin

austinweeklynews.com

Read about Bethel New Life's recent education initiatives in our Spring 2013 Newsletter. This edition tells about Right Start for Families, Brain Train, and Pathways to Princeton, and the recent events and success that each program has seen. Thanks to all of our donors listed inside.

Spring newsletter 2013 pg. 1

Spring newsletter 2013 pg. 2

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For more than 30 years Bethel has been working to restore Chicago’s West Side. Your donation to Bethel today will help us empower West Side residents to transform their neighborhood by providing them with the training and support they need to start their own businesses.

Over the years, Melvin dreamed of one day being self-employed doing the construction work he loves to earn a living, and maybe even be able to provide jobs for other people in his community too. But that goal seemed out of reach. While Melvin is great at the physical work of construction, he didn’t have the training and opportunities he needed to make his part-time hobby into the business he always dreamed it could be.

Today, thanks to Bethel New Life, Melvin is getting the help he needs to make his part-time hobby a full-time business that will support him and the people he hires.

"In Bethel’s Entrepreneurship Training Program, I am learning how to get contracts with property management companies, multi-unit building owners, how to sub-contract for jobs maintaining foreclosed properties as well as how to secure funding from banks. This is how I can make my business something that can support me instead of just doing odd jobs for neighbors," Melvin said.

Bethel can invest in people like Melvin who are investing in themselves only because our donors first invest in us. Will you give a donation to Bethel New Life today?

After Melvin completes the classroom training portion of our program this Spring and saves $1,500 of his own money, he will qualify for a $6,000 grant from Bethel to help build his business. Melvin will buy a generator allowing him to bid on jobs at sites that don’t have electricity - jobs he currently can’t bid on. He will also invest in scaffolding so that he can do painting and repair work quicker and safer, and more tools so that he can equip the people he hires to help him as his business grows. Your support of Bethel is what makes this possible. Please click here now and share today.

Thanks to a special donor all new donations will be matched dollar for dollar. We currently have $22,000 left in this matching grant so there has never been a better time to give than today.

From handmade leather belts and wallets, to snow cones and nachos, there's a little something from everyone at Reco's variety store on Chicago Avenue.

LeAntoine Williams, 42, opened the store, 5311 W. Chicago Ave., about a year ago. He makes those custom belts and wallets himself.

The variety store is Williams' second attempt at running a business in Austin.

He opened the clothing store T and R Collection, once located on Chicago Avenue just down the street from where he's at now, until it shuttered in 2008.

"The economy went bad in 2008," he said. "Where I had my business, the building went into foreclosure."

Abandoned storefronts and buildings began to clutter the street.

"In that point in time, the community was going down," he said. "I always thought I would like to try another business again. Three years later, I'm back in business."

Williams, who's lived in Austin for 30 years, said people in the neighborhood encouraged him to open another store.

Now, with the help from Bethel New Life's entrepreneurship training program, he's learning how to market his business and develop a more thorough business plan.

Bethel New Life's training program is a 15-week course where West Side entrepreneurs can develop and work on a business plan, meet with mentors and attend business-focused classes.

In fall 2012, Bethel New Life opened an Illinois Small Business Development Center, 1140 N. Lamon Ave., which is funded by the state and federal government to stimulate business.

Bethel New Life's facility is geared toward the support of new and existing businesses on the West Side, said Bethel New Life Vice President Edward Coleman.

Coleman said the organization wanted to do something "above and beyond the norm" and provide additional stimulus to West Side businesses.

"We knew coming into this we wanted to encourage a number of people to go through an education process to understand the steps it would take to get a business started," he said.

The 15-week program includes training for brand new entrepreneurs or business owners in the early start-up stages, Coleman said.

Students who save $1,500 toward their business will receive $6,000 matching funds from Bethel New Life for business costs. Bethel New Life received funding for the program from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

About 167 people applied for the program, which kicked off last fall. The applicants were narrowed down to 30 students after an intense application process and an oral presentation of their business plans, Coleman said.

In addition to Williams' variety store, other entrepreneurs have plans to start a bakery, construction business, an online clothing store and food-related services, among others, Coleman said.

One of the 30 entrepreneurs, Vanita Thompson, plans to open a painting and cleaning service this year.

"I may be a convicted felon, low income, and a single mother, but I'm not useless or worthless," Thompson said in a Bethel New Life newsletter. "I've paid my debt to society and now my passion is to support my family, train and employ others from my community and show society that this country was built on strong, small businesses."

Williams said business on Chicago Avenue is picking up, and there's a "better outlook now" than in 2008.

"People are starting to take more and more interest in this community," he said. "There are a lot of opportunities, we just need to get out here and bring it back to the community."

He said his goal is to educate and empower others in the community to also start businesses.

"I ride up and down these streets all day long," he said. "All I see is empty store fronts and abandoned buildings. I think we all just need to educated the youth and educate people. Entrepreneurship is the way to go. That's what this country was based on — starting businesses, hiring people, empowering people, educating people."

By Ellyn Fortino

AustinTalks.org

When the doors of Bethel New Life opened last Saturday, Darlene Williams darted inside and headed straight for a table piled high with dolls, princess costumes and fairy tale castles. Toys had begun to spill out of her giant tote bag when she spotted a plain white box labeled MobiGo.

"My baby wanted this," she shrieked as she grabbed the electronic learning device and hugged it to her chest.

Raised in the foster care system, Williams was still learning how to be a mother when her daughter Kayla Gordon was born four years ago on Christmas Day. She began attending parenting classes at Bethel and eventually became a volunteer. That effort earned her an opportunity to shop at Bethel's annual Christmas store.

Though it's become a tradition for many households and congregations to fulfill a child's wish list for families who can't do it on their own, a growing number of ministries are replacing that charity model with what they believe can be a more uplifting approach. From Rogers Park to Garfield Park, ministries in Chicago have opened pop-up Christmas stores where families can afford to check off their child's list thanks to donated merchandise offered at drastically reduced prices, if not for free.

Though many Christians bemoan the retail industry's hold on the holidays, some ministries have found that enabling parents to put gifts under their own trees, in many cases, restores a sense of dignity that's often lost when families are in need.

"Everybody gets to work together to make something wonderful happen," Williams said as volunteers wrapped Christmas and birthday presents for her youngest daughter last weekend. "It helps me feel good about myself."

The shopping opportunity also pushes patrons to take steps toward improving their lives. At Bethel, a Lutheran ministry in Garfield Park, more than 700 families earned additional currency called Bethel Bucks by attending seminars on parenting, financial management and renters' rights.

"From a mission perspective for Bethel, the importance of people putting gifts under the tree is really about empowerment," said Lori R. Vallelunga, Bethel's president and CEO. "I can feel good about myself as a provider for my family, learn about something else that helps me have better financial management for my family. … We really are working toward the same mission of investing in people who are coming in to invest in themselves."

The Christmas store concept emerged when author Bob Lupton, in a book titled "And You Call Yourself a Christian," pointed out the unintended consequences of toy drives and other adopt-a-child programs where families receive an annual dose of largesse from well-meaning affluent families.

While children's eyes fill with joy and wonder and mothers express gratitude when presents land on the doorstep, Lupton said he witnessed fathers disappearing into a back room, overcome by a sense of shame that they could not make their child as happy as strangers could.

"From our point of view, children need more than toys. They need effective parents," Lupton said.

That message resonated with Arloa Sutter,executive director of Breakthrough Ministries in East Garfield Park, one of the first ministries in Chicago to adopt the Christmas store approach.

"The residents in our neighborhood affected by poverty one way or the other don't want to be objects of charity," Sutter said. "They want to pick out what they want to give. They can always come up with a little cash. They feel they've gotten a good deal, and they're proud of themselves. They've been wise, and they've found things that their families and loved ones will like."

Sara Spoonheim senior director of external relations for Bethel, said she had witnessed an absence of fathers similar to what Lupton described. Only mothers showed up to pick up donated presents at Christmas. Now many men show up at the store to hand-pick toys, dolls and bicycles for their children.

"The dads get to be providers in this new approach, and they get to help choose gifts and help pay for them," Spoonheim said. "They get the pride that they're not receiving a handout."

Good News Partners, a community development organization in Rogers Park, converted its Christmas giving program into a store for the first time this year. Executive Director Ronn Frantz said some congregations chose to stick with the traditional direct-giving model. The same happened at Bethel before it established its Christmas store, Spoonheim said.

People simply preferred the personal connection with families, and some donors questioned the ethic of selling presents that had been donated, she said. But as congregations have seen the boost to clients' self-esteem, the number of church partners at Bethel has tripled, she said.

Melissa Browning, the graduate program director for the master's in social justice and community development for Loyola University Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies, said that in the spring, her students will look at which giving models are most effective.

Though Lupton, Spoonheim and others are convinced that the store approach is the way to go, the Loyola study will look at a particular holiday giving program offered by Catholic Charities and explore how donors and recipients in Chicago really feel.

"We want to look at the reasons people give at Christmas," Browning said. "Why do we prefer to actively go and do something tangible? Does that type of giving shape us morally? How do we make this life-giving so it doesn't feel like charity? These are some of the questions we're asking."

The Rev. Jeanne Stevens, co-pastor of Soul City Church in the West Loop, emphasizes that shopping is not the point of the church's Christmas store, even though the entire church has "turned into a Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's" for the last three years.

"We call it the Christmas store, but the focus is it's a community experience for the families at Brown and the families at our church," she said. Proceeds benefit Brown Elementary School. "The resources go back into benefiting their own children while they also have a wonderful experience on Christmas morning."

Before discovering Bethel's Christmas store, Ebony Luckett, 34, said she relied on dollar stores to provide presents for her four children — ages 15, 11, 10, 7 — at Christmas. But as her children have grown, so have their expectations. This year her teenage son wants an electric guitar. Her other children want electronic gadgets and video games.

"They know when momma gets able, she's going to get them everything they want," she said.

Luckett bought sports gear, toy cars and trucks, dolls, stuffed animals and a game the whole family can play together. The whole lot cost her only a dollar.

"All I had in my pocket at the time was $1.50," said Luckett, who paid for most of the presents with Bethel Bucks.

Luckett is counting her blessings. She will receive another benefit from Bethel's Christmas store.

More than half of the patrons at this year's store donated to a literacy program at Spencer Elementary School also supported by the store's proceeds. More than $14,000 will go toward the school where Luckett has volunteered and now has been hired to teach children to read.

"This year Christmas is going to be unforgettable," she said.

By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

December 21, 2012

mbrachear@tribune.com Twitter @TribSeeker

"Working hard is no stranger to me," wrote this single mom in her application to Bethel's new Entrepreneurship Training Program.  "I know the taste of determination as well as sacrifice.  My family is ready for this blessing."

By the time you read this letter, Annette will likely be preparing to make her case before a panel of business leaders and Bethel staff.  She and scores of other aspiring entrepreneurs on Chicago's West Side are eager to be part of this intensive program.

Thirty people will soon be selected for our inaugural class.  In December, they will begin a rigorous 15-week class to develop a business plan, learn about marketing, financial analysis, legal issues, supply chain management, and more.  Most importantly, we'll match them with a seasoned mentor who will support them during their first year of business.

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What about start-up capital?  This is often the biggest obstacle for entrepreneurs who may have everything else lined up for success.  Thanks to our partnership with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Bethel will offer a $6,000 match to every graduate who completes the program and saves $1,500 of their own (keeping with our core belief that everyone should have some skin in the game).  They'll also qualify for loans of up to $10,000 from The Private Bank in a fund designed specifically fpr Bethel clients with low credit scores.  That's 17,500 for Annette to outfit her food truck, pay for city licenses, and more.  That's a very good start.

There is no question that the spirit of entrepreneurship is strong  on Chicago's West Side.  In a community with unemployment exceeding 20% and inconceivable rates of chronic underemployment, people use grit, strong personal networks, and faithful tenacity to create their own employment.  Bethel wants to help them create jobs not only for themselves, but for others.  We want their small businesses to thrive and become an economic engine for the West Side.

You can help us to increase their opportunities for success this
Christmas.  When you donate to Bethel, you let these individuals know there are people who support them and their businesses, who share in their vision for a thriving community, and who are willing to invest in them in sustainable ways.

This Christmas, your gift will be matched.  Thanks to a generous
donor  who has pledged $50,000, gifts for our Entrepreneurship Training Program from many donors will be doubled.

Will you give a gift today that goes above and beyond - whether
that's $30 or $300 or $3,000 to help us invest in people and our community?  Your Christmas creates opportunities for success for individuals striving to rebuild our community from the inside out.

God willing, this time next year, Annette will be serving up collard greens
and cornbread to devoted customers from her food truck.  And you'll know you helped make that possible.

Blessings,

Lori Vallelunga, Ph.D.
President and CEO

PS. You can double your gift with our matching grant.  Your gift will speak volumes to people on Chicago's West Side and equip our entrepreneurs to build the businesses they've dreamed of owning.

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We believe that building a healthy community requires the full integration of the West Side of Chicago with the rest of the region. To achieve this integration, the West Side needs to move from a net importer of goods, services and government-sponsored programs to a net exporter of goods, services and talent. To accomplish this integration, West Side residents need access to quality education and good jobs.

It should not be that in our nation, where you are born determines whether  you will have access to a quality education and whether you will have opportunity to live the American dream. But right now, an aspiring entrepreneur on the West Side lacks access to a quality education and lacks sufficient opportunity to join the ranks of "job creators." The stories of success are too few. We need your help to change this.

If we believe that our nation is still the land of opportunity, where each of us has the chance to achieve our dreams, then we must take action to assure that everyone has access to the opportunities that our national identity is built upon. I hope that you will act to support our efforts to create access to opportunities for education and for good jobs for Chicago’s West Side.

Here are some things you can do: (1) share your gifts and talents; (2) provide financial support; (3) introduce Bethel to others who seek to create access to opportunities; (4) pray for our efforts and our participants.

Thank you for being a blessing to so many,

Lori R. Vallelunga, Ph.D.                                                                                                               President & CEO

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