African Americans Coming Together Building Our Disconnected Strawberry Mansion Community

Community meeting Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Residents and past residents of Strawberry Mansion met in the auditorium of Strawberry Mansion high school to discuss what is going on in their part of the neighborhood and how we can connect our resources. There were four peace marches in the community and most in attendance didn't know about one. Committee Woman Tanya Lynn Parker and NAC Director Tonnetta Graham conducted the meeting with members from the community to connect our concerns, resources and support for each other. The agenda was to hear neighbors concerns and form committees that assist the NAC with supporting the needs of Strawberry Mansion and hear about the fate of Strawberry Mansion high school.

We learned from active community members that the school will probably close on the community next school year with very little to no heads up about the closing. In fact from what we were told, the students will probably all be transferred to charter schools because there is no freshman class for the coming school year and they will have no choice. We were also told that Freire Charter school company is building in our community. They are a zero tolerance school that gas the families with being a college prep school. We should understand that many of today's college grads are homeless and protesting for $15 an hour because the job market is limited. We should also understand that college is not for everyone. We were suppose to discuss this concern but some how our principal was called away from the meeting. So much under handed mess is going on in Strawberry Mansion. Planning to door knock to identify neighbors who want to save our public education resource and community. 

“Dan, I’m a doctor and words cannot express how much I hate it. I hate feeling controlled by people with an entitlement mentality who don’t care if they suck the life out of me. I hate that my medical decision making is being controlled by government bureaucrats. I hate that this is a profession where you are regarded as weak for attending to normal body functions like eating and going to the bathroom. I hate that I have a target on my chest for lawsuits. I live pretty frugally but still have $280,000 in student loan debt at age 53. Plus the fact that I never got married or had kids. These things make my future very bleak, especially if I become to sick or frail to work and take care of myself.”

And we’re still being told the way out of poverty is education.  Unfortunately, our model defining “education” is broken.  Going to college is likely to lead directly into poverty. 

http://www.48days.com/homeless-college-students-will-be-homeless-slaves-with-massive-debt/

A number of committees were created to help the NAC with getting information to our neighbors. The next meeting will hopefully have more in attendance and all will be asked to get vested in our community by joining two committees. Thanks to the diligent work of Tanya and Sherri we have the Dr. Ruth W. Hayre Educational Complex located in the formerly hill school. We have community partners sharing the building please view the events the NET has for us!!