MIAMI – The Miami-Dade County Independent Civilian Panel (ICP) is the impartial entity created to conduct independent investigations and review and hold public hearings concerning complaints or grievances made against sworn officers of the Miami-Dade Police Department. The ICP will hold its monthly meeting from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, at the Joseph Caleb Center – Main Lobby, 5400 NW 22nd Ave, Miami, FL 33142. Concerned residents can also get an update on proposed legislation to eliminate civilian review panels in Florida.
Miami-Dade County ICP meetings are open to the public. Residents are encouraged to attend and learn more about the work of the ICP. For more information, email Ursula Price, Executive Director, at [email protected].
If You Go:
Miami-Dade County Independent Civilian Panel Monthly Public Meeting Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 6:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. Joseph Caleb Center 5400 NW 22nd Avenue Main Lobby Miami, FL 33142
New members of MDEAT Board of Trustees with Vice Chair. From left, Kametra Driver; Danny Felton, Sr.; Raymond Fundora; Steven Henriquez; X, Vice Chair Hannibal Burton; Kimberly T. Henderson; Andrea Forde; Patricia Jennings Braynon; and Rashad Thomas. Not Pictured: Basil A. Binns II and Christopher Norwood.
Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust (MDEAT), a county agency charged with ensuring that Black residents participate in Miami-Dade County's economic growth, recently welcomed ten new trustees to its Board. An agency of Miami-Dade County government, MDEAT is governed by a board of trustees appointed by the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.
"I am feeling very positive about the future of the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust. We have gained tremendous momentum over that past year," said Hannibal Burton, vice chair of the MDEAT Board of Trustees. "I am extremely excited to accelerate that momentum and dig into areas we have only been able to talk about at this point. We are expanding the agency and transmitting a higher quality of service for our community."
"Since assuming the position as executive director, I've been committed to finding the best talent and resources to help stimulate the economic revitalization our community deserves," said MDEAT Executive Director William "Bill" Diggs. "I look forward to working with our new trustees and leveraging their resources and expertise to elevate Black participation in Miami-Dade County's economic growth."
Board membership is based on the availability of positions and expertise in one of the agency's core service areas of economic development; housing advocacy; youth services; and research and policy. Ten candidates rose to the top of the field. Each appointment is for a three-year term.
The Board welcomes Basil A. Binns II, Patricia Jennings Braynon, Kametra Driver, Danny Felton, Sr., Andrea Forde, Raymond Fundora, Kimberly T. Henderson, Steven Henriquez, Christopher Norwood, and Rashad D. Thomas. They join current trustees Erbi Blanco-True, Hannibal Burton, and Julio Piti.
"As a Miami native, I am excited about the opportunity to serve and impact Miami-Dade County. I appreciate the great work MDEAT is doing to create more Black homeowners and entrepreneurs," Rashad D. Thomas, MDEAT Board Member and Regional Director, AT&T.
The MDEAT Board meets monthly and leverages three action committees: Economic Development Action Committee, Housing Advocacy Committee, and Youth Action Committee. Meetings are open to the public and posted online.
“We have similar goals around expanding equity of outcome around Black homeownership and business ownership," Kimberly T. Henderson, president and CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida. "Those things are key to transforming our community and reducing the wealth divide between Blacks and other groups."
Amid the region's housing affordability crisis, several of MDEAT's board members are positioned to give the agency a competitive advantage to create effective advocacy and solutions for Miami-Dade County's most vulnerable residents.
"I am happy to serve and help our community receive its fair share of affordable housing opportunities," said Patricia Braynon, MDEAT trustee and retired director of the Housing Finance Authority of Miami-Dade County.
Following the riots that erupted in 1980 after white officers were acquitted for the death of Black businessman and former Marine Arthur McDuffie, the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County collaborated to create Metro-Miami Action Plan (MMAP) in 1983 as a solution to socioeconomic disparities in employment, economic development, education, housing, health and human services and criminal justice. In 1992, MMAP was further empowered by becoming a trust, and in September 2009 it was reorganized into MDEAT by ordinance 09-70.
Since its inception, MDEAT’s focus has been on addressing socioeconomic disparities within the Black community. MDEAT does so by focusing on the individual (i.e., youth and individual family member support), building neighborhoods through the expansion of homeownership, and supporting the foundation of strong Black businesses and economic development via job creation, entrepreneurship, business retention, and expansion. These three gears - family, neighborhood, and business - work together to connect the Black community to resources, funding, and programming that together create whole communities.
Today is Tuesday, November 8, 2022. This is the LAST DAY to vote in the 2022 midterm elections. Vote-By-Mail ballots have been returned. Early voting is complete. Today is the last day for in-person voting, which must be done at your precinct. If you live in Miami-Dade County and don't know where your precinct is located, click here. The polls close at 7 pm.
From various reports, it appears that the voter-suppressive tactics of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party and anemic Florida Democratic Party challenge have effectively curtailed the black vote. From the unresolved reports of the unauthorized changes to the party affiliation of several voters in Miami-Dade County to redistricting resulting in diminished black voting strength to the newly-formed elections police force's arrest of several returning citizens for voter fraud, this has been quite an eventful political season.
While it appears that Florida has been written off as a red state, we, as citizens, have the right to vote and should exercise it for every election. Go Vote!
Many of you are probably tired of hearing about politics, especially during this time of political violence and extreme polarization. Please study the picture below. Discuss it with your family. This is history. This is why WE MUST VOTE in every election. This is an effigy strung up by the Klu Klux Klan in Miami, Florida, in the 1940s. It was done to intimidate African American voters.
In 2022, media coverage of Florida’s election police arresting mostly Black, unsuspecting returning citizens, who were led to believe they had the right to vote, has the same chilling effect.
Don’t be fooled. The vote is power. We must not be too afraid to use it.
Almost three million people in Florida have contracted COVID-19, and more than 41,000 have died. Of those statistics, Miami-Dade County represents more than 583,000 of those cases and almost 6,500 deaths. The Delta variant of COVID is much more contagious and severe. Yet, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders have manipulated some parents to use a CDC (Center for Disease Control) preventive measure to protect school children, parents, and employees as a first amendment parental right. No matter how much the Board of Education says it’s not about mask-wearing, it clearly is. To suggest or declare anything different is a lie. Risking lives by politicizing COVID is shameful and illegal. It is tantamount to child endangerment.
This unbelievable attempt at political bullying and intimidation will come to a head in Miami-Dade County at 11 AM today when the school board convenes. The School Board and Superintendent are in the media spotlight and in the crosshairs of Gov. DeSantis, the Florida Board of Education, and the State Commissioner of Education because of non-compliance with the governor's ban on mask mandates.
Gov. DeSantis threatened to withhold budget from non-compliant districts and Pres. Joseph Biden interceded in support of Broward County and Alachua County school boards and superintendents who have stood their grounds.
Will the Miami-Dade County School Board and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho protect the District, or will they cave to the authoritarian Republican leadership of the state? Based on public comments, it appears that at least one Miami-Dade School Board Member has already said no to the mask mandate, and others might try to please everyone, which will be a sure failure to the students, parents, and employees of the District.
Situations such as this test the integrity and courage of leaders. There are few if any, options to compromise while the Delta variant ravages our community and more COVID mutations are on the way. It’s so unfortunate that elected, and appointed leaders are willing to choose politics over people, but we’ve seen this before when they choose profits over people.
Here is the link to the subject board agenda item, H-17, proffered by the Vice-Chair of The School Board of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Dr. Steve Gallon III - http://pdfs.dadeschools.net/Bdarch/2021/bd081821/agenda/h17rev.pdf. Please tune in online or attend in-person today.
Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. While the holiday is celebrated on June 19, 1865, this year, June 19 falls on a Saturday, so County offices and libraries will be closed on Monday, June 21 in observance.
Please note that while we celebrate Juneteenth (June 19, 1865), it is the day enslaved African Americans were notified of their freedom in Texas. Emancipation Day in Florida is May 20, 1865, but enslaved African Americans were not free until the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was signed on December 6, 1865.
P.S. This is not Critical Race Theory; it is American history. Teach the truth.
It's finally here! It's Election Day! From the presidential race to other races on the federal, state and local level, TODAY is our LAST DAY to voice our choices in this election cycle. Every election is important and every vote counts. This year is truly important as our country has definitely gone in the wrong direction over the last almost four years.
Please refer to our recommendations and make sure you vote for people who will represent you. Even if the candidate you support is not victorious, it's crucial to hold the people who are elected accountable. Check out an excerpt from The Bakari Sellers Podcast. It was a conversation between Sellers, Angela Rye and Andrew Gillum. A few choice adult words are used so consider yourself warned. The bottomline is we, as voters, have a responsibility to make sure our elected officials are representing us and not just themselves.
Some folks are apprehensive about the aftermath of the election if Trump loses. He has signaled to White nationalist organizations to be disruptive and violent so we need to be aware but not fearful. The polls will close at 7 p.m. tonight. Get out and vote. Our lives truly depend on it.
Perhaps the Black community in Miami is on the precipice of a political and cultural revolution. Perhaps this generation of millennials will usher in a resurgence of Black unity and Black power reminiscent of Miami’s past. On Sunday, November 1, 2020, the men of the Beta Beta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, executed a community caravan to bring awareness of the importance of the using the right to vote to effect change for our people and the community at large.
For this ambitious project, the fraternity partnered with Florida Memorial University, South Florida’s only HBCU. Before the fraternity members and their supporters set out on their journey, there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included dignitaries from the university’s Board of Trustees.
As the attention-getting caravan, with full escort, rolled into the first of four stops, the early voting site at the Miramar Branch Library & Education Center, the energy was immediately apparent. The featured speaker at that location was the honorable Wayne Messam, mayor of the City of Miramar and member of the Beta Beta Lambda Chapter. The fraternity distributed t-shirts and bottled water to early voters waiting in line.
The excitement continued at the next stops, the early voting sites at the North Dade Regional Library in Miami Gardens and the North Miami Library. The caravan concluded at the Joseph Caleb Center early voting location, in the City of Miami, with messages from community leader and past chapter president, Pierre Rutledge and current chapter president Michael Grubbs.
More than 200 people in 70 vehicles participated in the caravan. At each of the stops, hundreds of voters and onlookers were educated on “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” a national program of Alpha Phi Alpha since the 1930’s when many African-Americans had the right to vote but were prevented from voting because of poll taxes, threats of reprisal, and lack of education about the voting process.
“Yesterday...I looked into the eyes of children and our seniors across South Florida and saw the impact of the Beta Beta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, "Alpha Train" Road to the Polls. It offered hope and meaning to a community struggling to believe in the Democratic process within our country. We endeavored to wake up South Florida and let our name, example and action(s) lead the way,” said Taj Echoles, chair of Beta Beta Lambda’s Alphas In Action Task Force, the civic engagement arm of the chapter.
About Beta Beta Lambda Chapter (adapted from Chapter's website):
Beta Beta Lambda Chapter has been an active part of the Greater Miami community since its inception on November 19, 1937. Like many chapters across the country, it was established by men with a common interest in improving the community through education and public service.
The chapter’s founding members are Felix E. Butler, MD, Nathaniel Colston, MD, Ira P. Davis, MD, Aaron Goodwin, MD, Frederick J. Johnson, Samuel H. Johnson, MD, Leo A Lucas, and William H. Murrell, MD. Under the leadership of Solomon C. Stinson, Ph.D., the chapter was incorporated in the State of Florida as a legal entity on November 30, 1978. Under the leadership of Earl H. Duval Ph. D., the Beta Beta Lambda/Alpha Foundation was created and incorporated on September 25, 1995.
Beta Beta Lambda Chapter and its subsidiaries are providing leadership through its many service activities such as Alpha Outreach, Project Alpha, Alpha-Dade Youth Sports Program, Alpha/Big Brothers & Big Sisters Partnership, Sankofa Project, Knights of Gold, Boy Scouts Troop 1906, Alpha/Head Start Partnership, Voter Education Project, and Scholarship Award Program.
Miami, Florida – Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI) achieved gold status as a “Health Center Quality Leader,” a prestigious national award given by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). CHI received this award in recognition of ranking among the top 10% of health centers for best overall clinical performance.
“This award shows that we are making progress in reducing health disparities,” said Brodes H. Hartley Jr., President/CEO at CHI. “Our team managed to exceed national quality benchmarks and achieved top tier results providing greater access to high-quality care and we continue to address critical issues such as improvements in cancer reduction and the increasing need for behavioral health services in our community.”
HRSA awarded CHI based on a comparison of CHI’s clinical quality measures to more than 1,400 other health centers throughout the United States.
HRSA recognized CHI as one of the highest performing health centers nationwide linked to significant quality improvements from the previous years. CHI increased access to comprehensive care and made strides in pediatric immunizations, cervical cancer screening and coronary artery disease prevention.
Since 1971, CHI has been a beacon of hope providing access to high quality healthcare for all regardless of insurance status, income level or background. The non-profit federally qualified health center offers comprehensive healthcare services including primary care, pediatrics, OB/GYN, dental, urgent care, behavioral health, vision, radiology, pharmacy, transportation and more. CHI has 11 health centers and 35 school-based sites. CHI is a recipient of the Florida Governor’s Sterling Award. It is accredited by the Joint Commission and is also designated as a patient centered medical home by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. CHI is also designated as a behavioral health medical home. In addition, CHI is home to the Brodes H. Hartley Jr., Teaching Health Center, providing residency training for the next generation of doctors in the specialties of Family medicine and Psychiatry. CHI recently broke ground on the first Children’s Crisis Center in southern Miami-Dade County this month. It will service kids with severe behavioral health problems from Monroe and Miami-Dade Counties.