Local

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- The British may have invented the “afternoon tea”, but on Saturday, August 6, the Dr. Mildred Dalton Henry Elementary School will host a much more diverse variation on this old English tradition, with the American Girl Doll collection, thanks to the San Bernardino City Library Foundation.

The tea starts at 12 p.m. at Dr. Mildred Dalton Henry Elementary School, 1250 W. 14th Street, San Bernardino. Refreshments and an educational program will be delivered by the University of California’s local Master Gardner/Master Preserver program.

After a two-year hiatus due to COVID, youngsters will indulge in tea and snacks being served by dutiful adults who stand ready to ensure that the children have a delightful time. The annual event attracts children and their parents from the Greater San Bernardino Area.

“American Girl dolls represent the cultures of San Bernardino. Each one is unique, and the variety always finds favor with attendees—both kids and adults,” said Cheryl Brown, San Bernardino City Library Foundation Board member.

Brown adds, “The library’s American Girl Doll collection reflects the ethnic diversity of our community and youngsters can check out dolls that look like them. They can even customize them using the accessories that come with each doll.”

All year round, children can check out an American Girl Doll kit, at San Bernardino City Library’s that includes one of several ethnically diverse dolls, a carrying case, accessories, a book about the doll, and a journal.

The program provides an engaging learning experience that provides a glimpse into different time periods in American history through each doll’s story and a chance for children to write about their own adventures.

The doll collection and the annual tea are both made possible thanks to the generous support of the people and organizations of San Bernardino that take delight in giving children entertaining educational experiences.

San Bernardino City Library Foundation partners include Edison International, the Inland Empire Community Foundation, the Irvine Foundation, the San Gorgonio Girl Scouts, and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

“We had to suspend our in-person tea event during the Covid pandemic, but now that things have calmed down, we are eager to again welcome the public to our version of ‘afternoon tea’,” says Foundation President Arlington Rodgers.

A reservation is required to attend. To make your reservation call (909) 381-8211, by August 3, 2022, and leave your contact information and how many reservations. If you miss the deadline, you are encouraged to still attempt to reserve, and if there is space available, you can be added. The final deadline is Friday. August 5th Participants are requested to call as early as they can.

The California Mortgage Relief Program helps families impacted by COVID-19 save their homes

By Tiena Johnson Hall | Special to California Black Media

For many African American and other Californians of color, housing instability and inequity did not begin with the COVID-19 pandemic. Discriminatory housing and lending policies have long prevented communities of color from exercising their right to stable housing. The gateway to homeownership – proven to be one of the most effective ways to build intergenerational wealth in America – has only drifted farther and farther out of reach for people of color in America and especially in California.

While the pandemic did not create these issues, it has compounded them, forcing more families into vulnerable positions and putting their homeownership at risk.

It is no surprise that Black and Latinx communities are disproportionately impacted by the societal challenges created by the pandemic especially to those who are familiar with our country’s history. The Little Hoover Commission found that over the course of the pandemic, Black and Latinx homeowners were more than two times as likely as White Americans to report being behind on their housing payments.

California is distributing $1 billion in federal assistance to support homeowners at risk of losing their homes due to lost work, increased medical costs, and other hardships brought on or exacerbated by COVID-19 and its associated economic challenges.

Launched in December 2021, the California Mortgage Relief Program is making available grants of up to $80,000 to eligible homeowners from socially disadvantaged communities, including families of color, who have fallen behind on their housing payments.

Over the past six months, relief funds have been distributed to more than 2,600 households. Recent expansions to the program’s eligibility guidelines have opened the opportunity for even more homeowners to get caught up on missed housing payments. In July 2022, the program celebrated distributing $100 million in relief to California homeowners.

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) has made it a point to be embedded in our local communities and connecting with vulnerable homeowners by speaking in language that they can understand. As these families work to recover from the ongoing financial burdens of the pandemic, there should be no additional barriers for them to access these resources.

A home goes beyond four walls and a roof. It is security. It is peace of mind. For many families, buying a home represents the unraveling of a system entrenched in inequality and lays the foundation of opportunity for future generations.

This housing relief cannot undo a history of exclusionary practices, nor fix the problems the global pandemic created, but it can ensure that whatever progress these families have made toward intergenerational wealth is not erased due to circumstances beyond their control.

And that is the work we will continue to do for these families. For anyone suffering from inequality, we must always strive for better.

For Californians who lost wages, lost jobs, or faced the tragedy of a lost loved one during this terrible pandemic – and especially for those who have faced the additional challenges of historical housing discrimination – the California Mortgage Relief Program is here to alleviate some of the burden. Apply today at CaMortgageRelief.org.

About the Author

Tiena Johnson Hall, Executive Director, California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA)

By Voice Media Ventures/Black Voice News Staff

This week the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships named Dr. Paulette Brown-Hinds, founder of Voice Media Ventures, publisher of Black Voice News in Riverside, CA, and a leader in community news media, as a 2022-23 JSK Senior Journalism Fellow.

Brown-Hinds will spend her senior fellowship at Stanford exploring ways to empower smaller newsrooms serving diverse communities in California to use solutions-focused data reporting through training, highlighting resources for journalism and seeking strategies to sustain those efforts.

“With such innovative programs and initiatives at Stanford, like Big Local News, The Starling Lab, and digital repositories at the Stanford Libraries, being on campus presents a unique opportunity to tap resources in data reporting for smaller independently-led news organizations — especially those serving diverse communities. I am excited by the possibility of connecting interested news organizations in California with these resources and opportunities.” said Dr. Brown-Hinds.

Will join 13 other veteran and emerging journalism leaders
Brown-Hinds will be joining 13 John S. Knight Journalism Fellows previously announced for the Class of 2022-2023. It is the first cohort to return to a residential fellowship program on the Stanford University campus since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. JSK fellows for 2022-2023 are veteran and emerging journalism leaders who will work on practical solutions to address the industry’s long-standing neglect of underserved communities. The international JSK Fellows for 2022-2023 are accomplished journalists from five countries who will pursue a range of innovative ideas that seek to champion press freedom in a world where journalists and independent media are increasingly under attack.

The fellowship runs from Sept. 6, 2022, to June 2, 2023. The fellows will document their work publicly throughout the year, highlighting key strategies and lessons learned.

Brown-Hinds was a 2022 JSK Community Impact Fellow, a remote fellowship program for U.S. journalists working to address news and information gaps in their local underserved and underrepresented communities. During the past two years, JSK supported 21 local journalism leaders with stipends, coaching and peer-to-peer learning via Zoom as they worked in their communities.

Building on previous work
In her senior fellowship, Brown-Hinds will build on work she began remotely as a JSK Community Impact Fellow. Her project included identifying data sources, resources, and datasets with the goal of making solutions-oriented data reporting on racial justice accessible to the Black press in California. During her impact fellowship, she learned the resources at Stanford were many, quite accessible and could enhance reporting, especially for news organizations serving communities of color, not just the Black press.

“There’s a real need for a connector between available resources – including data training opportunities and funding – and local news organizations who serve the information needs of diverse communities in California. Paulette has deep experience and is perfectly situated at the intersection of community journalism serving diverse communities, data innovation and philanthropy. We are thrilled that she’ll be doing this work at Stanford, and hope she might create templates that could be used by local news organizations across the country.” said Dawn Garcia, JSK director.

Second generation legacy publisher
As a second-generation publisher of Black Voice News, Brown-Hinds is transforming the 50-year-old weekly print outlet into a digital, solutions-oriented data journalism and justice-focused community news organization. She is leading the transformation to data reporting through two projects: Mapping Black California and DaHUB. Structured within a community mapping framework, Mapping Black California encourages community collaboration around data and information by bringing together community media, community based organizations, and educational institutions.

As past president of the California News Publishers Association and current board member of the California Press Foundation, she works to strengthen the state’s information ecosystem as an essential part of the civic and community infrastructure. In 2019 she co-founded Media in Color, a philanthropically funded initiative designed to assist legacy media outlets serving communities of color with digital transformation. She has also led an effort to create a guidebook for California-based community foundations, community media, and philanthropy to financially support local journalism.

Brown-Hinds has been awarded Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge funding, was a Knight Digital Media Fellow and a Salzburg Seminar in American Studies Fellow. She is a member of the American Press Institute, James Irvine Foundation, and Inland Empire Community Foundation boards of directors.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—Come and get enlightened at the Victor Valley Museum on Saturday, July 30 at 1 p.m. for an Artist Talk with Barbara Gothard who will speak about her visual interpretation, Contradictions – Bringing the Past Forward exhibit honoring the legacy of 23 African American homesteaders who settled in the far eastern Mojave Desert in 1910.

She will be joined with special guest, Mojave National Preserve archaeologist David Nichols, who will be onsite to provide insight on some of the objects discovered in the Mojave Desert occupied by the African American homesteaders.

The exhibit will continue to be on display through Aug. 10, 2022. Read more about it here.

Students in Phelan, Pinon Hills and Wrightwood are invited to join the Gigafy Phelan Backpack Giveaway from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, July 22. The event will take place at the RACE Communications Office at 4280 Phelan Road in Phelan.

Each child must be present with an adult to receive one backpack, which will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please call 877-722-3833.

The new national suicide prevention hotline, 988, debuted over the weekend. It offers an alternative to calling 911 for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis.

Congress designated the new 988 dialing code in 2020. It is operated through the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and provides 24/7, free and confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

Team Cook’s office was pleased to provide monetary support during last Thursday’s Drive-Thru Backpack Giveaway at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds.

His team has been busy assisting the Victor Valley Rescue Mission and partner agencies with the preparation of backpacks for the event. Many members of their team were also be on hand Thursday to assist with the distribution of Pre-K to 12th grade backpacks for families in need.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- District Director Kimberly Mesen was pleased to join the San Bernardino County Fire department in celebration of Assistant Chief Dave Corbin’s retirement. Corbin has served the County for 33 years, most recently as Assistant Chief of the North Desert (Division 5).

Chief Corbin’s last day is July 29th. He will be followed by Battalion Chief Kelly Anderson, who will continue oversight of fire, rescue and emergency medical response in communities including Wrightwood, Hesperia, Phelan, Adelanto, Silver Lakes/Helendale, and Spring Valley Lake.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA— The San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) is eager to enroll the Class of 2035 to start school on Monday, August 1. Families may enroll now or at the Saturday, July 30 SBCUSD Enrollment Fair.

Online enrollment for kindergarten and transitional kindergarten in SBCUSD is underway. Children who will be 5 years old by September 1, 2022, are eligible to enroll in kindergarten for the 2022–2023 school year. Transitional kindergarten (TK) is available for students who will turn 5 years old from September 2, 2022, to February 2, 2023.

Kindergarten is an important academic milestone for children. Since most kindergarteners only attend for half a day, it provides children a chance to get used to a school schedule before they are required to attend for a full day. Kindergarten students also learn a number of skills that are necessary for success in first grade and beyond, including:

• Counting to 100
• Writing numbers 0–20
• Identifying shapes (ex. square, circle, rectangle)
• Basic addition and subtraction
• Writing upper- and lower-case letters
• Recognizing ending punctuation (i.e. period, question mark, exclamation mark)
• Recognizing letter names and sounds

“Programs such as transitional kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten are essential,” said SBCUSD Director of Elementary Instruction Amy Coker, “In kindergarten, students learn fundamental skills in reading and math in fun and engaging ways that set the stage for future learning.”

In addition to completing an online enrollment packet, parents and guardians will need several documents to register their child for school:

• Child’s birth verification (i.e. birth certificate, hospital certificate, baptismal certificate)
• Child’s immunization record
• Parent/guardian photo identification
• Address verification (i.e. utility bill lease/rental agreement, or affidavit from landlord)

Children who have some, but not all, of their required vaccinations may still be eligible to enroll so long as required immunizations are completed before the first day of school on August 1.

San Bernardino City Unified School District families may visit the online School Site Locator to determine their child’s home school. For more information about determining your child’s home school or how to enroll, contact Enrollment and Placement Services at (909) 889-7576.

The Enrollment Fair is Saturday, July 30, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Jones Elementary School, 700 North F Street in San Bernardino. SBCUSD staff will be able to assist families in enrolling students in grades TK through high school.

Schools have limited staff and office hours during July to assist with enrollment. SBCUSD families can visit the online School Site Locator to determine their child’s home school. Families are encouraged to call the school before visiting to verify hours for enrollment. Families can refer to the District’s School Telephone Listing for complete contact information.

The San Bernardino County Preschool Services Department is accepting applications from individuals interested in serving as Community Representatives on the Head Start Policy Council for the 2022-2023 program year. Applications will be accepted through August 5, 2022.

According to the Federal Head Start Act, membership of the Policy Council must consist of parents of currently enrolled children, community representatives drawn from former Head Start parents, the private community, civic and professional organizations, and others who are familiar with resources and services to low-income preschool age children and families. Visit www.westsidestorynewspaper.com to read the article online and to retrieve the link to apply.