$10,000.00 - Applications Are Open. Hip Hop Architecture Scholarship

For our next generation leaders. 

BEMA International

View this email in your browser $10,000.00 Hip Hop Architecture Scholarship Applications Open   Happy New Year!   We are excited to announce a new scholarship opportunity for minority students interested in studying architecture in college. The $10,000.00 scholarship is open to high school seniors who demonstrate a passion for architecture and a strong academic record.   To apply, students must write a short essay (500 words max) in response to our Hip Hop Architecture prompt and upload a letter of recommendation from an educator at their school, an employer, or a mentor.   A panel of architecture professionals and Hip Hop pioneers will review the submissions and select the recipient based on the strength of their response and the letter of recommendation.   Applications Due:   Friday, April 14, 2023 at 11:59pm EST   Scholarship Overview Michael Ford’s $10,000.00 Hip Hop Architecture Scholarship awards $2,500 per year for four years, totaling $10,000.00 to a minority high school senior who is entering a NAAB-accredited undergraduate architecture program.  Recipients will be contacted to reapply for the scholarship when entering graduate school. Eligibility African American high school senior graduating in 2023 Proof of acceptance to a college or university to study architecture Submission Requirements Short Essay Response - 500 words max Letter of Recommendation Application Website: https://www.hiphoparchitecture.com/scholarships Apply Here

  
 

Black Emergency Managers Association International Washington, D.C.
bEMA International Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and  Partnering (C5&P)   A 501 (c) 3 organization     We must act as if we answer to, and only answer to, our ancestors, our children, and the unborn. — Amilcar Cabra

 
 
 

 https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/los-angeles-fire-captain-tops-citys-highest-paid-list-with-712-000-in-2022/article_5d08c3e6-8c6f-11ed-87d6-3b47c916cef8.html?fbclid=IwAR0zCT_HUbxWct9kIBJJ9TJdrpwB85ZexaTBmGGKvgT0uO0EEgPhG88U4CU  

Los Angeles fire captain tops city's highest-paid list with $712,000 in 2022

• By Brett Rowland | The Center Square
 
• Jan 5, 2023
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(The Center Square) – Eighty-six Los Angeles Fire Department employees made more than $400,000 in 2022, including a fire captain who made $712,933 last year. 

That fire captain was the highest-paid employee in the city. The captain had a base pay of $169,764 and was paid $502,681 for overtime, along with $19,637 in other pay and personnel benefits of $20,851. In 2021, the highest-paid employee also was a fire captain. That captain made $434,394 in overtime in 2021, for total pay of $598,532.

The fire department spent $817.4 million on payroll in 2022, a 2.4% increase from $798.2 million the year before. Overtime costs in 2022 decreased by 8% to $225 million from $244.9 million the year before.

Last month, the Board of Fire Commissioners requested $904 million for the department's 2023-24 budget. That includes $838 million for its operating budget, an increase of 7%, or $55 million, according to the final proposal. The budget includes a 4.5% pay increase for sworn firefighters. The fire union agreed to delay that pay hike until 2023 in exchange for a promise from the city to avoid layoffs. That agreement was reached in 2021, according to media reports and union announcements.

Overall, 86 members of the city's fire department were paid more than $400,000 in 2022, according to the city's Payroll Explorer. That's the same number as in 2021. 

The average mean wage for a surgeon in California in 2021 was $351,580, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average pay for a fire chief in Los Angeles in 2022 was $320,336.44, according to Payroll Explorer.

The second-largest city in the U.S. employed 3,649 firefighters in 2022.

The fire department did not return an email seeking comment on its pay practices and overtime use.

Join Inter-Faith, Neighborhood and Business 4Peace Community Resiliency Collaborative 2018-2028

People living in the most high-risk and conflict- affected communities are also most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change whether in small island states like the Caribbean or Africa or Europe, Asia, Australia, the Americas or displaced refugees and Skid Row homeless. We are all human beings

During the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights let’s take #29 (RESPONSIBILITY) to develop and apply the knowledge and to join our 2015-2020 Inter-Faith, Neighborhood and Business 4 Peace strategic alliance to identify and register 4,000+ civil society stakeholders (ngos, nonprofits, business associations, labor organizations, academic institutions and cities) and 1,000 new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the United Nations Global Compact to build a Caring 4 Climate worldwide community resiliency network:

We advocate the United Nations Global Compact Local Network Membership Campaign for for Sustainable Development Goal # 11 by 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels in support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda through BUSINESS4PEACE Multi- Stakeholder Partnerships #17.16 and #17.17 to “Leave No One Behind” by:

Enhancing the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries, underserved, displaced and homeless communities and people with unmet needs worldwide [emphasis added]..

Encouraging and promoting effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships, including Freelancer, , Home-Based, Micro- and Small-Medium-Enterprise businesses [emphasis added].

Thanking you, in advance, all the activists, ambassadors and people of the world committed to “Make That Change” for themselves and the generations to follow as we Heal Los Angeles to Heal the World for our children, our wildlife and our Earth’s Biosphere using Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Collective Impact regenerative design and development tools and solutions.

Andrew Williams Jr., Chairperson June 19, 2018

https://www.facebook.com/notes/10224707186854932/

Climate Industry. Base: IIJA, CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act. January 2023

 https://jordantimes.com/opinion/project-syndicate/americas-new-era-industrial-policy

America's new era of industrial policy

Jan 03,2023 - Last updated at Jan 03,2023

By Laura Tyson and Lenny Mendonca

BERKELEY  —  A new breed of industrial policy is taking hold in the United States. Under President Joe Biden’s leadership, the federal government has created major new programs through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ($550 billion), the CHIPS and Science Act ($280 billion), and the Inflation Reduction Act ($394 billion). 

These are not traditional spending measures to stimulate demand. Rather, as Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen explains, they are supply-side investments to boost US economic capacity, both overall and in key sectors such as semiconductors and renewable energy.

While the individual provisions and funding processes differ, all three programmes are based on the public-private model that has been critical to US competitiveness over the past century. They are designed to crowd-in and accelerate private investment, not substitute for it. Hence, a significant part of their funding, in fact, the majority, in the case of the IRA and CHIPS, comes in the form of tax credits for businesses.

The programmes also will encourage more supportive regulatory changes, for example, in the permitting and siting of green-energy projects, by state and local governments, which are responsible for the bulk of economic development in the US. And they share various features that have come to define a new “sustainable and equitable” approach to industrial policy. These include a focus on regional economic development based on local priorities, with an emphasis on capacity-building in marginalised communities; explicit links to post-secondary education and workforce development; and cross-sector integration with key services, such as health care and education.

While the success of these programs will require collaboration by state and local governments, those authorities will also be competing for the new funding and investments. For example, the CHIPS Act’s $39 billion for investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing will be allocated by the Department of Commerce, which will assess companies’ proposals for grants and loans partly on the basis of support from state and local governments. Accordingly, several states are now developing generous incentives to help their companies.

The states will also be competing, alongside their companies, civic organisations, and non-profits, for $122 billion in climate-related funding under the IRA. While the Department of the Treasury oversees tax credits, a new $27 billion Environmental Protection Agency grant programme, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, makes $7 billion directly accessible to cities and states, and earmarks $20 billion for non-profit entities that invest directly in green projects using other financing entities such as non-profit green banks. Twenty-three green banks already exist in 17 states, including California, and have leveraged $2 billion in public funds to mobilise $7 billion in green investments.

All three bills include place-based programmes designed to promote inclusive growth, and these have elicited complementary efforts at the state and local level. California, for example, has introduced a Community Economic Resilience Fund with a four-year $600 million budget to support regional collaboration and inclusive development; and Phoenix has committed significant local funding and made regulatory changes to attract a $40 billion investment by TSMC in new semiconductor production.

Broadband deployment is especially important for regional economic development. As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, the US still has a glaring digital divide, with more than 24 million Americans lacking high-speed broadband, and many more lacking digital literacy. Thanks to the infrastructure program and the American Rescue Plan before it, however, more than $100 billion in federal funding has been allocated to bring broadband to every household. It is the largest public investment to connect Americans since the creation of the interstate highway system. Still, closing the gaps in middle- and last-mile connectivity is a highly local challenge, and coordination across all levels of government is crucial.

Finally, a healthy, skilled workforce is the most important factor in attracting and retaining employers and businesses in key sectors. Hence, many states, cities and regions have been increasing their investments in workforce development to ensure that their residents have the right skills to benefit from new job opportunities in infrastructure, semiconductors, and climate-related industries.

California is a case in point. The state spends more than any other on higher education, and has invested in new community-college apprenticeship programmes and career pathways for technical education in its public schools. At their best, programmes to develop the workforce run from preschool to higher education and then to employer engagement.

The Biden administration’s three big industrial policy programs all recognise the importance of human capital in building supply capacity, and each provides some support for skills development, primarily through tax credits to employers. The IRA, for example, contains a dozen energy-related tax credits to expand access to apprenticeships and jobs at prevailing wages. But a proposed $40 billion provision for workforce-skills development did not make it into the final bill, which means that the task has been left largely to cities, states, employers and individuals.

By design, the new regional economic-development efforts are cross-sectoral and cross-governmental, from the state and local level to the federal level. Often, regional development efforts have one or more backbone institutions leading the charge and engaging with other community-based organisations and key sectors and institutions, such as education and healthcare providers. In California, the Central Valley Community Foundation has created a development plan (of 19 priority investments totaling roughly $4 billion over the next decade) under the guidance of a steering committee comprising 300 community leaders. Many similar efforts are in the works around the country, and many more are needed.

Industrial policy is central to Biden’s economic agenda. Getting an industrial policy right is never easy, and getting a place-based one right will prove even more challenging. But doing so is now essential to achieving more equitable and sustainable growth.

Laura Tyson, a former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration, is a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Board of Advisers at Angeleno Group. 

Lenny Mendonca, senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Company, is a former chief economic and business adviser to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and chair of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2023. www.project-syndicate.org

Situation Awareness: FEMA. 2022 National Preparedness Report, January 3, 2023

FEMA Higher Education Program, 2022 National Preparedness Report, January 3, 2023

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent this bulletin at 01/03/2023 02:28 PM EST

Research the HiEd Program supported on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is mentioned on page 41 of this year’s report.

FEMA’s National Preparedness Report Underscores Continued Threat of Climate Change

FEMA released the 2022 National Preparedness Report, revealing the impacts that climate change and associated natural disasters continue to have on emergency management capabilities and communities across the country. This year’s report presents preparedness data through the lens of risks and capabilities and underscores the challenges that emergency managers face in addressing a continuously expanding risk environment, the ingenuity they have shown to rise to those challenges, and opportunities that remain to better prepare the nation. Emergency managers and whole community partners across the nation can look to this year’s report to help support decisions about program priorities, resource allocations, and community actions.

What does the 2022 report say about the state of the nation’s preparedness?

The report summarizes the state of national preparedness, discussing the risks the nation faces and how those risks drive whole-community emergency management capability requirements. The report includes the following findings, among others:

• Climate change continues to impact the nation and worsen existing vulnerabilities. The report found that in 2021, 92% of communities identified at least one natural hazard associated with climate change as being most stressful to emergency management capabilities in their assessments. The U.S. experienced a total of 20 billion-dollar climate and weather related disasters.
• The nation may not be adequately prepared to provide sufficient Body Recovery/Storage and Medical Care in the face of a catastrophic disaster. When comparing total Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR) data from 2021 against the National Capability Targets, the nation overall has the lowest capability in the Body Recovery/Storage and Medical Care target areas.
• Factors such as poverty, lack of access to transportation, and over-capacity housing occupancy continue to weaken the ability of individuals and communities to prevent injury, death and financial loss in a disaster.

To better respond to these factors, FEMA has undertaken a series of initiatives to ensure that more communities, especially those that are the most vulnerable to the impacts of disasters, are better prepared when disaster strikes. For example, this National Preparedness Month, FEMA and the Ad Council created new Public Service Announcements developed specifically to reach Black and African American communities as part of FEMA’s ongoing approach to advance accessibility and cultural competency in boosting the nation’s preparedness. This campaign built on last year’s campaign, which was designed to resonate with Latino communities. As a direct result of that campaign, Listo.gov — the Spanish version of Ready.gov — had a 500% increase in visits to the "Make a Plan" page and a 400% increase in visits to the "Build a Kit" page.

 

Additionally, FEMA’s released its first-ever National Tribal Strategy this year to better address its responsibilities to federally recognized tribal nations when responding to and preparing for disasters affecting tribal lands. A key part of the strategy includes providing culturally competent services to Tribal Nations and translating FEMA products into Native American languages to ensure that everyone across Indian Country is prepared when disaster strikes.

Earlier this year, FEMA also implemented one of the largest updates in the past 10 years to its mobile app, largely driven by critical customer feedback. The updated app -- in English and Spanish -- gives users increased personalization options and help them take charge before, during and after disasters. This tool and others demonstrate FEMA’s continued commitment to meeting people where they are by providing the resources they need in a user-friendly way, with the ultimate goal of increasing disaster preparedness.

These initiatives represent just a few examples of the actions the agency is taking to sustain a ready FEMA and a prepared nation.

The National Preparedness Report was established in Presidential Policy Directive/PPD-8, signed in March 30, 2011, which required the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit to the President the first national preparedness report based on the National Preparedness Goal. The THIRA/SPR methodology has changed since FEMA published the first report in 2012 and will not allow for measurement of percentage change in capability levels over the past decade. However, the most significant increases in community capability achievement are evident in areas related to 1) intelligence and information sharing, 2) supply chain integrity and security, and 3) access control and identity verification.

The report provides management opportunities outlining steps that can be taken by the whole community to address risks and capability gaps. These include detailed discussions regarding resources and best practices related to 1) building community-wide resilience to climate change impacts; 2) reducing physical and technological risks to critical infrastructure; and 3) increasing equity in individual and community preparedness.

The information in this report was compiled from open-source research, analysis of community THIRA/SPR data, and an interagency data call of more than 50 offices throughout federal government.

• 2022 National Preparedness Report UPDATED Stakeholder Advisory FINAL 122822.docx