March 12, 2013. BayNews9.com
ST. PETERSBURG — More than 1,000 people turned out at Tropicana Field Tuesday night asking their elected leaders for major changes in communities throughout Pinellas County.
Residents and community leaders met face to face with city and county leaders to talk about issues that affect hundreds of thousands of people, including unemployment, education, and housing.
“He’s gotta’ come up and have a better education for the future, too, you know?” asked Cathy Crawford, while holding one of her 15 grandchildren, 2-year-old Jaden, at Tuesday night’s gathering. “There’s a lot of stuff and things that’s needed for the community.”
Just some of those needs, officials say, are a school system that needs help in educating the children, as well as a plan to change hiring practices so ex-offenders with records are not discriminated against.
The numbers, they say, speak for themselves.
In Pinellas County alone, as many as 70,000 people are unemployed while twice that, 140,000 people, are underemployed.
“When you’re looking at your children at third grade and above and can’t read, they can’t do math, they can’t do science or history or English, they get so discouraged that by the time they reach high school they drop out,” said Rev. Robert Ward, one of the organizers of the event. “They go into an underworld activity of drugs and crime which in turns sets the whole community on fire.”
St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster said with so many churches represented at the gathering that leaders, like him, must listen.
“Their agenda is our agenda and we’re all on the same team,” Foster said.
As for Cathy Crawford, she said sometimes talk doesn’t translate into action but she’s hopeful because she believes she’s not asking for much.
“I want him to graduate from school, college, you know just to be successful, not to have to struggle like most people in Pinellas County is doing right now,” she said.
All she wants is for officials to do better so kids like Jaden can grow up and contribute to the community.
The meeting was organized by Faith and Action for Strength Together — also known as FAST.
It’s a grassroots organization of more than three dozen local congregations.
