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Good Morning, Brooklyn: Monday, November 15, 2021

November 15, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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EMPLOYMENT TOOL FOR VETERANS: Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Veterans’ Services (DVS) reinforced the meaning of last Thursday’s federal holiday by launching VetConnectPro, a first-in-the-nation employment tool that connects veterans looking for work in the New York City public and private sector to matching employment opportunities. A model for other cities and states, VetConnectPro provides veterans and their families access to a wide array of hiring features, including a proprietary military skills translator, a dashboard that provides job postings from city agencies as well as information on local, state, and federal benefits, civil service exams, and recommended online job training. The site also includes information about civil service exams, fee waivers for veterans, and special hiring programs for people with disabilities.

Two city agencies, the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), and the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), are already using VetConnectPro to search for workers and assist veterans seeking employment with additional agencies joining on an ongoing basis.

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SURVEY MEASURES ATTITUDES TOWARD POLICE: The New York City Police Department has shared the results of an independent community survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, in partnership with the New York City Police Department and the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. RAND researchers began conducting an independent evaluation in late 2018 to measure the public’s trust in police, with surveys asking people in diverse communities to respond to more than 80 questions measuring three important elements of police-community relations: engagement, trustworthiness, and guardianship.

Key findings from this research, part of an ongoing evaluation on the NYPD’s Neighborhood Policing philosophy, were that about two-thirds of respondents report positive attitudes toward police in their neighborhoods. In general, respondents who live in areas with lower violent crime agreed more often with positive statements about police than those who live in areas with higher violent crime.

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WORK VISAS NOW AVAILABLE FOR HAITIAN CITIZENS: Haiti is now one of six countries whose citizens will be eligible to apply for temporary, seasonal work visas in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced last week. Previously, the Trump administration banned Haitians from applying to the U.S. guest worker programs in 2018.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic (currently only eligible for H-2A), Mauritius and Saint Lucia were also added to the list of countries eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs, which allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural and nonagricultural jobs, respectively.

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IPS NEWS: NEW REPORT ON MATERNAL HEALTH INEQUITIES —New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams has released a report on maternal health inequities, detailing issues of maternal morbidity and the pervasive but underdiscussed health care disparities that contribute to the problem both nationally and locally. The report finds that, in the United States, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. Research shows that cardiovascular conditions, hemorrhaging, and pulmonary embolisms are among the primary causes of pregnancy-related deaths.

The report, Equitable Pregnancy Outcomes for Black and Brown New Yorkers, comes as the Public Advocate has been advancing city legislation on maternal health outcomes, and after he and his family shared their personal story and struggles with maternal health care inadequacies and inequities.

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ELLEN SHOW SURPRISES COMMUNITY GARDEN FOUNDER: Kofi Thomas, founder and director of Good Life Garden, received a huge surprise last week when, as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last Thursday, he described how he brought together members of his community to clean out the garbage piled up in a vacant lot in his Bushwick neighborhood and transform the space into a community garden. Ellen surprised Kofi with a check for $20,000 and an additional $5,000 to donate to any charity of his choice, courtesy of TisBest!

Good Life Garden provides tons of free, organic, and fresh food to residents.

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SALVATION ARMY THANKSGIVING MEALS: The Salvation Army Greater NY Division will be preparing an enormous Thanksgiving feast for an unprecedented number of sit-down and meals-to-go during Thanksgiving week. In addition to a Thanksgiving feast being distributed at its Manhattan W. 14^th St. site, several of the Salvation Army Corps centers in Brooklyn will distribute repackaged meals, including turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cranberry sauce, and apple pie. Care bags containing cold weather and personal care items will also be distributed.

Among the Brooklyn locations: The Bedford Temple Corps will distribute meals on Wednesday, November 24 from 12-2 p.m.; additional meals will be taken to the Bedford Atlantic Men’s shelter. Brooklyn Brownsville Corps’ a food distribution: Saturday, November 20 at 12 p.m. and Tuesday, November 23 at 2 p.m.; Sunset Park Corps’ meal distribution: Wednesday, November 24 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Brooklyn Bushwick Corps’ meal distribution: Tuesday, November 23 from 12:30 – 2 p.m.

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IPS NEWS: $750M more for BASIC HEALTH PROGRAM: U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is announcing that $750 million in additional American Rescue Plan funding, for which she voted will be provided for New York’s Basic Health Program (BHP) to cover the costs of high-quality health insurance for approximately one million low- to-middle-income New Yorkers. Section 1331 of the Affordable Care Act gave states the option to establish a BHP, a coverage program for residents whose income is above levels that would otherwise make them eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. The millions of dollars in funding will be allocated through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and will support the BHP’s Essential Plan for 2022 and retroactively for 2020 and 2021.

New York State is one of the few states that has adopted the BHP as an option to cover lower-income residents and has seen lower premiums, higher enrollment, and budget savings and participation from many health care providers and insurers as a result.

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NYPD 84^TH PRECINCT COMMUNITY COUNCIL: A presentation about legal and illegal bikes, mopeds, and scooters is on the agenda for the NYPD 84th Precinct Community Council Meeting, tomorrow, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. hosted at Brooklyn Borough Hall. Join the NYC 84th Precinct for a “Cop of the Month” presentation and a review of crime statistics by Captain Adeel Rana.

Community Council President is Mark Gelb.

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CREATE A MORE VIBRANT MONTAGUE ST.: The Brooklyn Heights Association and Montague BID are partnering in a study to explore options for creating a more vibrant street for pedestrians, in a way that will also support small businesses on Montague. Volunteers are needed to help collect data via smart phone or tablet survey from passersby, to understand what attracts people to the street, what transportation mode(s) they use to arrive, and their opinions about a range of potential changes to the sidewalk and roadway.

Two Call for Volunteers sessions will take place: on Wednesday, Nov. 17 and Saturday, Nov. 20.

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MTA’S CULVER LINE MODERNIZATION PROJECT: Commuters on the F and G subway lines can expect several service changes as part of the continuing work on the Culver Line Signal Modernization Project. The MTA is in the process of upgrading signaling and track interlocking systems providing improved reliability, replacing the switches that connect two local tracks south of the Bergen St. station, and conducting structural work for the installation of a new track crossover at the Church Ave. station.

This switch will give the MTA the ability to reroute service when there are unplanned disruptions or planned service changes for construction or maintenance.

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CULVER LINE PROJECT MEANS SERVICE DISRUPTIONS: The above-mentioned Culver Line project means that riders can expect service changes on the F and G trains, weeknights from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. each week through December 22, and for the first three weekends of December: Fridays 9:30 p.m. to Mondays at 5 a.m. F trains will skip the Bergen St., Carroll St., and Smith-9 St. stations in both directions. G trains will not run between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. and Church Ave.; and in the other direction, will run in two sections: Hoyt-Schermerhorn to Bedford-Nostrand, and Bedford-Nostrand to Court Square in Queens.

Free shuttle buses will run between Jay St.-MetroTech, and 4 Ave.-9 St., making stops at Bergen St., Carroll St. and Smith-9 Sts. Riders should transfer between trains and shuttle buses at Jay St/-MetroTech or 4 Ave.-9 St.

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WALLABOUT BAY SERIES: NYC x DESIGN and the Brooklyn Navy Yard have partnered to launch a new monthly series, titled Wallabout Design. The series, which incorporates panel discussions, studio tours, demos and sneak peeks, explores design in Wallabout Bay: the location of the 300-acre design and innovation hub – and the role that design has had in shaping, informing, and defining the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The first program takes place on November 18. Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wallabout-design-series-designing-together-against-extinction-panel-tickets-181430873627

Three leading voices in architecture and design will unpack “sustainability in action” in this engaging discussion