• (see “Media” link for more details)

• At CLOUT’s 2011 Nehemiah Action Assembly, officials of the Jeff. Co. Public Schools (JCPS) committed to develop a comprehensive plan to deal with the problem of school bullying, to include an improved definition of bullying, required training for all school personnel, an enhanced tracking & reporting system, and evidence-based interventions.

• At CLOUT’s 2010 Nehemiah Action Assembly, Ky. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton, Jeff. Co. Attorney Mike O’Connell, and the judges of the Jeff. Co. Juvenile Court committed to support the implementation of a “restorative justice” approach in the local juvenile court as a way of reducing the “school to prison pipeline.” Also, Mr. O’Connell committed to discontinue the practice in his office of referring all school-related offenses to court without the option of court diversion. Since then, funding was secured for the hiring and training of paid & volunteer staff for Restorative Justice Louisville, which has begun a pilot project of using “family group conferencing” with certain juvenile crimes.

• At the same Action Assembly in 2010, Superintendent Sheldon Berman, of the Jeff. Co. Public Schools (JCPS), committed to support the implementation of a “restorative discipline” approach in the JCPS, also as a way of dealing with the school to prison pipeline. As a part of their commitment, JCPS administrators and leaders of the Jeff. Co. Teachers Assn. (JCTA) traveled to Baltimore & Pennsylvania with CLOUT leaders to visit model schools & to receive initial training. JCPS & JCTA sent administrators and leaders back for additional training, and 30 more “behavioral coaches” were hired & trained to implement restorative practices in JCPS schools. Finally, JCPS has embedded restorative practices throughout its overall discipline structure, known as Response to Intervention.

• At CLOUT’s 2009 Nehemiah Action Assembly, Gov. Steve Beshear’s office, the Ky. Dept. of Financial Institutions, and several Jefferson County legislators committed to work with CLOUT, and the Ky. Coalition for Responsible Lending, toward legislation to create a rate cap of 36% on payday lenders in the state (as compared to the approximately 400% rate currently allowed). Also committing to assist with regulating payday lenders more strongly was Atty. General Jack Conway’s office. Since that time, CLOUT has assisted in the development of the Kentucky Coalition for Responsible Lending, a diverse coalition of over 60 organizations across the state who support a rate cap.

• While this legislation was not passed in 2010, at CLOUT’s March 2010 Nehemiah Action Assembly Gov. Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway recommitted to work with CLOUT toward the passage of such legislation, including the holding of several public hearings on the problem in fall 2010. Those hearings were held and resulted in a unanimous recommendation by the state’s Consumer Advisory Council that a rate cap of 36% be passed in the 2011 legislative session. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass during that session but it did receive a significant amount of support, which CLOUT and its allies intend to build upon in the coming year.

• Also in 2009, in a meeting with CLOUT leadership, (then) Mayor Jerry Abramson agreed to convene local banks & credit unions to develop an initiative to offer products & services to reach out to the 29,000 unbanked households in the Louisville area, and to apply to the National League of Cities (NLC) to be selected as one of eight cities to receive a year of technical assistance with the initiative. Louisville was selected by the NLC to receive their assistance. Most major local banks & credit unions came together to develop the initiative, and “Bank On Louisville” was launched in July 2010.

• Since its launch, CLOUT over 5000 persons have opened new accounts, with an average balance of $853 and with 91% of the accounts remaining open.

• At CLOUT’s 2008 Nehemiah Action Assembly, officials with the Ky. Cabinet for Health & Family Services, and 12 other local & state health officials agreed to work together to develop a pilot project for Jefferson County with the goal of enrolling 6000 additional children in the next 3 years in Medicaid & KCHIP (Ky. Child Health Insurance Program). Through subsequent meetings under CLOUT’s leadership, the Regional KCHIP Task Force was formed.

• Later in the year, through the efforts of CLOUT & allied organizations across the state, Gov. Steve Beshear committed to dedicate $31 million (to be matched by $81 million in federal funding) to enroll 35,000 children in KCHIP over the next two years.

• Since the launch of the Governor’s initiative in Nov. 2008, over 47,000 children across the state, including over 9,000 in Jefferson County, have been enrolled.

CLOUT leaders with Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear in the state capitol rotunda
in Nov. 2008 celebrating the kickoff of the initiative
to enroll 35,000 more children in KCHIP.

“Stop the Revolving Door”

• At CLOUT’s 2007 Nehemiah Action Assembly, (then) Ky. Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert committed to double the size of the local Drug Court program and to provide more training for judges in the benefits of the program. Those commitments were met, and now over 200 persons are participating in the program (up from 89 in 2008).

• Also at that Assembly, (then) Ky. Dept. of Corrections Commissioner John Rees committed to create a new training program in issues related to drug & alcohol addiction for all Probation & Parole staff statewide. This program is now in place, and is required for all new & existing staff.

• Also in 2007, Mayor Jerry Abramson committed to establish a new drug treatment program in our local jail, and to create a new position of Drug/Alcohol Counselor on the staff of the Louisville Metro Dept. of Corrections. Those commitments were met, and hundreds of inmates have already been assisted.

• CLOUT launched the effort to develop a Louisville Metro Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) in 2004, and received initial commitments at that time from several state & local officials to the concept. Since then, CLOUT assisted in the creation of the “Open the Door” campaign, which is a coalition of several local organizations that support the creation of an AHTF. In the meantime, CLOUT worked with allies to achieve in 2006 an ongoing dedicated source of revenue for the Kentucky (state-level) AHTF.

• Finally, in 2007, Mayor Abramson included a local AHTF in his Comprehensive Housing Strategy and committed an initial $1 million in seed money to it, and in 2008, the Louisville Metro Council voted 25-1 to establish the Fund according to the guidelines developed by CLOUT and our allies in “Open the Door” campaign.

• In October 2009, through the work of the “Open the Door” campaign, the Louisville Metro Council voted to move the creation of the AHTF and the Board was appointed by Mayor Abramson.

• At CLOUT’s Nehemiah Action Assembly in April 2011, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer committed to make it a priority of his administration in 2011 to identify an ongoing dedicated source of public revenue for the AHTF. The goal is to have a fund of $10 million per year going toward various affordable housing strategies in our community. Such a fund would produce 840 units of affordable housing per year, would generate 1120 jobs in the first year and 440 jobs every year thereafter, and would generate over $60 million in local revenue in the first year and over 30 million every year thereafter.

• CLOUT’s annual Nehemiah Action Assembly (April 2011) involved over 1560 persons (a 104% increase over 2007).

• Our citywide Listening Process in fall 2010 engaged almost 400 persons in small house meetings all across Louisville Metro, through which we surfaced several critical community problems to be voted on at this Assembly.

• We trained 163 of our leaders in various local workshops related to how to take effective action on local community problems, and we sent 23 leaders to national training conducted by DART.

• Our 2010 Investment Drive resulted in investments totaling over $101,000, which CLOUT leaders raised from 25 corporations, 9 small businesses/organizations, and 231 individuals.

• CLOUT also received grants over the past year from the following sources: Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Just & Fair Schools Fund, and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

• TARC installed 6 bus shelters up and down Dixie Highway where there were none, so that people no longer have to stand out in the rain and snow to wait for a bus.

• The narcotics department of the Louisville Police made over 150 arrests of drug dealers in the California neighborhood, which cleaned up the open street sales of drugs in that area.

• Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) developed a program of supervised suspensions, so students on suspension would not be out in the community during the school day getting into trouble and falling further behind on their schoolwork.

• JCPS implemented the Direct Instruction (DI) reading curriculum in several struggling elementary schools; the result is that thousands of more kids are reading at or above grade level.

• The Housing Authority of Louisville committed to replace one-for-one the 728 public housing units that are being demolished for the redevelopment of the Clarksdale Housing Development. meaning that our city will not lose any badly needed affordable housing units.

• The Family Health Centers hired more bilingual interpreters, translated key documents into Spanish, and had all 270 employees participate in cultural competency training, resulting in improved access to health care for the growing Hispanic/Latino community.

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