March 23, 2010. The Daily Progress.
IMPACT asked and it received.
The community-organizing group, the Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together, obtained several commitments Monday from area elected officials and department heads willing to work with the group on two major issues: to provide interpretive services for non-English speakers in the legal system and to expand pre-kindergarten programs to low-income children in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
One commitment aims to help the Charlottesville and Albemarle police departments and the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail create and implement language-access guidelines for interacting with those who have limited proficiency in English.
Another is to help the city and county improve access to pre-kindergarten programs for low-income children and to plan for the expansion of those programs. Local elected officials agreed to plan for a phased expansion during the next two to five years and eventually to make the programs available to all 3- and 4-year-olds who are eligible for free- and reduced-price lunches.
“Long-term, we hope to make even more progress,” said the Rev. Kimberly Wells of First Presbyterian Church.
Present at the group’s annual action meeting Monday were city Police Chief Timothy J. Longo, county Police Chief John Miller, jail Superintendent Col. Ronald Matthews, city School Board member Colette Blount and county School Board Chairman Ronnie Price Sr. All agreed to commit to IMPACT’s requests, though Price said it would be up to the county Department of Social Services to decide if it will agree to the goal of increasing enrollment eligibility in preschool programs.
Interpretive services
IMPACT comprises 33 churches from an array of faiths and it has been instrumental in getting local officials and other organizations to make progress on certain issues — such as transportation, health care for the uninsured and affordable housing. More than 1,600 people attended Monday’s gathering at University Hall.
Interpretive services were chosen as a priority at the group’s meeting last fall, after hearing hundreds say it was the top problem during a listening tour. The police chiefs also said Monday that not having interpretive services at the chaotic scene of a crime or other incident makes it very difficult to ascertain what occurred.
“What we have seen, with the language line in police work, it doesn’t work well,” Miller said.
The city already has approved and passed its language-access plan, said Rhonda Miska, a member of IMPACT and of Church of the Incarnation, but Albemarle and the jail have not.
Nonetheless, “all three entities have taken certain steps,” she said in an interview.
Early childhood education was also deemed an IMPACT priority this year.
‘Gotta work together’
An early childhood education report released last summer showed that area kindergarteners who participated in some type of pre-kindergarten education fared substantially better on assessments than did their counterparts who did not attend preschool programs.
“We’ve gotta work together as a community to get rid of this gap,” Price said.
Unlike in the past, the group did not seek financial commitments from area officials in light of declining revenues in area budgets.
“It was a heavy factor in our research process and in our discussions about what to ask of them,” said the Rev. William Peyton of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy.
At last year’s action meeting, members of IMPACT successfully obtained several commitments from city and county elected officials.
The City Council unanimously supported hiring a housing planner to help implement findings of a city-county-UVa affordable housing report and agreed to devote at least $1 million to affordable housing in fiscal 2010, which has been done.
Most members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors agreed to amend the county’s Comprehensive Plan to allow for more affordable housing and potentially to adjust the maximum amount in proffers for affordable housing to assist nonprofit developers in building affordable units.
