News Briefs

Thank you to Charles Whitehead and S. Roslyn Hafertepe, SC for their dedication and years of board service to SC Ministry Foundation.

Charles served on the board nine years as well as the Foundation’s governance  and finance committees.

S. Roz served as the first chair of the board and served on the board for thirteen years.

Welcome to S. Patrick Ann O’ Conner and Simón Sotelo, as they join SC Ministry Foundation’s  board. S. Patrick Ann currently ministers in the Sisters of Charity finance office and served 20 years as principal of St. Dominic School in Cincinnati.

Simón is a Vice President at PNC Bank, with responsibilities as a Community Consultant and Development Advisor for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

We are honored to have S. Patrick Ann and Simón continue with us in carrying out the mission and ministry of the Sisters of Charity.

Winton Hills Medical & Health Center

Winton Hills Medical and Health Center (WinMed) is located in an almost isolated poverty pocket of low-income housing in the community of Winton Hills. It opened in 1975 to respond to the lack of access to health care for uninsured people living nearby.  For almost 35 years, WinMed has provided medical and health care for many of Cincinnati’s poorest residents who have no access to affordable health care.

WinMed is not just a building or facility that patients come to; it is a medical home, explains Miriam Crenshaw, chief executive officer of WinMed. “To WinMed, a medical home is an approach to providing accessible, comprehensive primary and preventive, high quality, patient-driven, culturally competent, community responsive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate care,” Crenshaw says.

WinMed sees 6,000 patients a year, 38% of whom are uninsured.  Services have grown from internal medicine and pediatrics to OB/GYN, dentistry, podiatry, a pharmacy, mental health, and school-linked programs such as student immunizations and physicals.  WinMed partners with community organizations for early prenatal care outreach and for childhood obesity services. Through a partnership with two large public school districts, WinMed uses a school-linked health care model, which reaches more children and addresses barriers such as transportation and parents taking time off work.

Currently, 93 percent of WinMed's asthma patients are consistently on appropriate medications and the average emergency room visits in the past six months has been reduced to less than one.

Close to an inactive landfill with pigeon droppings and heavy industry, the community around WinMed is plagued with polluted air, water and soil, all of which contribute to the prevalence of asthma.  Nearly 600 of WinMed’s patients struggle with asthma, 67% of whom are under the age of eighteen. Asthma it is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting 7 million, or 9.4%, of American children.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that asthma is responsible for 1.8 million emergency visits per year.  WinMed wants to decrease the number of patient visits to the emergency room or urgent care to zero using principles from the Wagner Chronic Care Model which emphasizes the role of the patient as essential to achieving positive disease outcomes.  Currently, 93% of WinMed’s asthma patients are consistently on appropriate medications and the average emergency room visits in the past six months has been reduced to less than one.

Through community outreach and screenings, WinMed wants to raise community awareness about asthma, educate families about prevention and link more people with positive screens to a primary care provider.  “Early intervention is key to the growing problems of obesity, diabetes and chronic lung disease (asthma),” explains Crenshaw.  “It will prevent health problems in adulthood such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and even depression.”  WinMed believes that by influencing one family, you can capture generations. “Our bodies are temples that God has given us. We cannot take these temples for granted but rather express our thankfulness through healthy lifestyle choices,” Crenshaw says. “We must help others to do that.”

Crossroad Health Center

When Crossroad Health Center opened in the neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine in 1992, there was limited access to health care for the people living there.  Since opening, the community has had access to primary health care at a quality level that could be found in any suburban physician office. “It’s first class care,” says executive director Sally Stewart. Crossroad serves as a “medical home” to patients of all ages. Services include immunizations, yearly health exams, management of acute and chronic health problems, pre-natal care, podiatry and mental health services. Many staff are bi-lingual, providing Spanish interpretation.

Crossroad’s care focuses on the whole person being healthy: mind, body and spirit. “We treat every person with dignity and respect; this permeates everything we do,” Stewart says. “We value all people.”  No one at Crossroad is turned away because of their inability to pay. 83% of Crossroad’s 4,698 patients have incomes at or below the Federal Poverty Level (annual income of $22,050 or less for a family of four) and 39% are uninsured.

Crossroad’s care focuses on the whole person being healthy: Mind, Body, and Spirit

From left: Crossroad executive director Sally Stewart
and pediatric nurse practitioner Brook Gumm

Benchmarks show that Crossroad’s results exceed state and national standards. For example, 96% of 3-year-old children were up to date with their immunizations in 2008, compared to 77.7% in Ohio. Preventative care like immunizations is a key aspect of being a medical home. This is why Crossroad also focuses on making sure children receive preventive medical care visits or “well child checks” and get screened and treated for high lead levels. As a result, 94% of children treated for lead at Crossroad achieved safer levels in six months. Preventative care also helps make the “road” safer for children throughout their life. Research shows that having a medical home early in life maximizes readiness for learning, which leads to better learning throughout school, good jobs, better economic status, and healthier communities as a whole.

Crossroad remains a place for people with access-related issues. This year, 60% of Crossroad’s new adult patients were uninsured. Crossroad increasingly sees patients from nearby neighborhoods like Price Hill, where in some areas, over 80% of the population used the emergency room in recent years due to lack of access to primary care. Crossroad participates in neighborhood health fairs in Price Hill and relies on community organizations like Santa Maria Community Services to refer patients for primary care.

Relationships are the foundation of Crossroad. By ensuring that patients see the same doctor when they come, Crossroad builds supportive relationships. There is even a prayer request box for patients in Crossroad’s waiting room and each morning, the staff prays together for their patients’ requests.

Moved with Compassion

Medical Director David Rahner, M.D., provides a yearly health exam to a patient at Crossroad Health Center

Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus tells us who the neighbor is that we are called to love.  In the story, a man is robbed, beaten, and left on the side of a road.  Traveling on the road, two men, esteemed for their positions in society, see the man but each passes him.  However, a Samaritan man, belittled for his position in society, sees the man and is moved with compassion.  He bandages and heals the beaten man’s wounds.  The Samaritan then takes the man to an inn and pays the innkeeper to watch over him.

The story of the Good Samaritan teaches us a model of compassion and healing that is captured in the work of health care ministries across the country serving those living in poverty and those underserved.  The health care ministries supported by SC Ministry Foundation provide basic medical services to people left out for not having insurance, being underinsured, or living in areas where there is no place to access health services.  These people are the neighbors left on the side of the road.

These ministries see and recognize the need for health care for those left out.  Moved with compassion, they alleviate the need, taking themselves out of the mode of feeling and into action.  Finally, they enable community partners to respond to the need with them and make the “road” safer for the next person who goes down it.

In Cincinnati, the response of Crossroad Health Center and Winton Hills Medical and Health Center, both community health centers, exemplify the model of the Good Samaritan. They are also where Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati serve as board members, with Sr. Margarita Brewer, SC serving as a board member of Crossroad Health Center and Sr. Paula Russell, SC as board secretary of Winton Hills Medical and Health Center. Like the Good Samaritan, these organizations show us that compassion is not just a feeling but a decision to selflessly love our neighbors, whoever they may be.

The Story of the Good Samaritan

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”

He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.  Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these, in your opinion, was the neighbor to the victim?”

He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

News Briefs

The Assembly of Catholic Foundations held its annual meeting in New Orleans March 8-10, 2010.  The theme of the conference, Faith & Resilience: the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was brought to life by a tour and presentation from Jim Kelly and his staff at Providence Community Housing and from Sisters of the Holy Family of New Orleans, Sr. Clare of Assisi Pierre, and Sr. Eva Regina Martin.  The Sisters of the Holy Family hosted the Assembly at their Motherhouse for dinner.  Thank you to all of those who shared their stories of faith, hope, and prophetic imagination: Sr. Martha Milner, RSM; Sr. Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, O. Carm.; Sr. Carolyn Brockland, OSU; Sr. Suellen Tennyson, MSC; Sr. Isabel Ordono, STJ; Sr. Camille Ann Campbell, O. Carm.; Sr. Jennie Jones, SSF; Sarah Landry, Michael Griffin, and Gretchen Kane.

Sr. Sally Duffy was honored with the Urban Appalachian Council 2010 Kinship Award, recognizing her as a person who upholds values dear to the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Appalachians who live in Greater Cincinnati: self reliance, independence, love of family, and social equality. The Award was presented May 10, 2010 at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Recommended Readings

1) The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child
by Francisco Jimenez

The Circuit is a collection of 12 short stories presented from the perspective of a young boy, in which the author narrates his childhood experiences growing up in a family of Mexican migrant farm workers in the 1940s.  The family’s dreams and struggles are the dreams and struggles of today’s immigrant families, says
Sr. Nancy Crafton, SC.  Sr. Nancy works with immigrant workers and families in the farming community of Avondale, Colo.  An online version of the book is available by clicking the title above.

2) Raising the Floor for American Workers
by the Center for American Progress

Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive immigration reform produces the greatest economic benefits.  For example, comprehensive immigration reform would exert upward pressure on wages for the entire U.S. economy – to the benefit of both the immigrant and native-born workers.  The report also estimates that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. GDP over 10 years.  A PDF of the full report is available by clicking the title above, and more information is available at: www.americanprogress.org

3) Cincinnati: A City of Immigrants
by the Hispanic Chamber of Cincinnati

The Hispanic Chamber of Cincinnati produced Cincinnati: A City of Immigrants, a booklet that will help junior-high school students to learn the history of immigration in Cincinnati.  The booklet, funded in part by SC Ministry
Foundation, highlights the six largest immigrant groups to come to Cincinnati since 1830: Germans, Irish, African Americans, Jewish, Appalachians, and Hispanics.  The historical summaries explain how each group
was initially unwanted by local residents and account their struggle for acceptance and
equality.

“We hope that young students learn about the tribulations their ancestors experienced in Cincinnati,” says Alfonso Cornejo, Board President of the Hispanic Chamber of Cincinnati.  “And, in this way, help them be more sensitive to the newest immigrants coming into the country, region, and city.”

BRIDGES for a Just Community and the National Underground Freedom Center will roll-out the education and training to local schools and teachers.  To receive copies of Cincinnati: A City of Immigrants, call SC Ministry Foundation at 513-347-1122 or email dsmiley@scministryfdn.org. A PDF copy of the booklet is available by clicking the title, and more information can be found at: www.cincinnati-cityofimmigrants.com

The Catholic Church on Immigration Reform

The Catholic Church bases its views of immigration reform on 5 key elements:

1.  Preserving family unity
“69. A broad legalization program of the undocumented would benefit not only the migrants but also both nations. Making legal the large number of undocumented workers from many nations who are in the United States would help to stabilize the labor market in the United States, to preserve family unity, and to improve the standard of living in immigrant communities. Moreover, migrant workers, many of whom have established roots in their communities, will continue to contribute to the U.S. economy.”

2. Creating legal avenues for migration
“63. With both the United States and Mexico experiencing economic, social, and cultural integration on an unprecedented scale, it is important that both governments formally acknowledge this reality by enacting reforms in the immigration systems of both countries.”

3. Restoring due process for immigrants
“92. In 1996, the U.S. Congress eviscerated due process rights for migrants with the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which authorizes the detention and deportation of migrants for relatively minor offenses, even after they have served their sentences. IIRIRA has caused the unjust separation of untold numbers of immigrant families. We urge the U.S. Congress to revisit this law and to make appropriate changes consistent with due process rights.

93. We also urge the Mexican government to honor the right to due process for all those who are in the country, specifically documented and undocumented migrants who do not now enjoy due process and who may be removed from the country for arbitrary reasons. Recognizing such a right only strengthens the rule of law in a country and further legitimates its institutions.”

4. Working with the national community to address root causes of migration
“59. As we have stated, persons should have the opportunity to remain in their homeland to support and to find full lives for themselves and their families. This is the ideal situation for which the world and both countries must strive: one in which migration flows are driven by choice, not necessity. Paramount to achieving this goal is the need to develop the economies of sending nations, including Mexico.”

5. Bringing the undocumented out of the shadows and giving them a chance, over time, to achieve permanent residency and citizenship
“70. Legalization also would maintain the flow of remittances to Mexico and would give Mexicans safe and legal passage back to Mexico, if necessary. In addition, such legalization would promote national security by reducing fear in immigrant communities and by encouraging undocumented persons to become participating members of society. Legalization represents sound public policy and should be featured in any migration agreement between the United States and Mexico. In order to ensure fairness for all nationalities, the U.S. Congress should enact a legalization program for immigrants regardless of their country of origin.”

The Board of Immigration Appeal

The Board of Immigration Appeal (BIA) is the federal administrative appellate court for immigration law in the United States. It authorizes six categories of people to provide representation in immigration cases. Two common categories are attorneys and accredited representatives. Accredited representatives are nonattorneys that have the expertise and training to do this work.

A nonprofit, religious, charitable, social service, or similar organization that charges only nominal fees and that has adequate knowledge, information and experience in immigration law can apply to BIA to receive recognition to provide immigration legal services. In addition, it can apply to BIA to obtain accreditation for its staff to provide immigration legal services.

Countering the Myths

Immigrants don’t want to learn English… FALSE
The development of English proficiency among non-English speaking immigrants today mirrors that of Nineteenth and early Twentieth century immigration, when masses of Italian, German and Eastern European immigrants came to America. While first generation, non-English speaking immigrants predictably have lower rates of English proficiency than native speakers, 91% of second generation immigrants are fluent or near fluent English speakers. By the third generation, 97% speak English fluently.

Immigrants take jobs away from Americans… FALSE
A study produced by the Pew Hispanic Center reveals that “Rapid increases in the foreign-born population at the state level are not associated with negative effects on the employment of native-born workers.” In fact, given that the number of native born low wage earners is falling nationally, immigrants are playing an important role in offsetting that decline. The Urban Institute reports that between 2000 and 2005, the total number of low wage workers declined by approximately 1.8 million while the number of unskilled immigrant workers increased by 620,000, thus offsetting the total decline by about a third.

Immigrants don’t pay taxes… FALSE
Undocumented immigrants pay taxes. Between one half and three quarters of undocumented immigrants pay state and federal taxes. They also contribute to Medicare and provide as much as 7 billion dollars a year to the Social Security Fund. Further still, undocumented workers pay sales taxes
where applicable and property taxes — directly if they own and indirectly if they rent.

For more resources including the full list of myths and facts, see:
www.justiceforimmigrants.org.