ELD Long Branch
Purple Line Community-Led Walk with PLCC
Our Empowerment and Leadership Development Team has been working with the Purple Line Corridor Coaliton (PLCC) to help support community members during the Purple Line transition. To best amplify the voice of community members, CHEER and PLCC decided that a series of community walks will best reach our government officials and engineers of the Purple Line. The first walk took place on May 18th, 2024.
On April 25th 2024, we held our first planning and info session for the walk. During this meeting, community members were able to hear more about the Purple Line, current pedestrian and driving safety issues in Long Branch, and proposed changes to the Long Branch area to help combat some of the pedestrian and drivng concerns. After the presentation, community members then went into 3 break-out groups to provide input for our community speakers in preparation for the walk. These groups were (1) Pedestrian and Community Safety, (2) Purple Line Operations, and (3) Business and Housing Concerns.
To read notes from this meeting, please click here.
CHEER Supports Families As Schools Lose Title 1 Status
Our Empowerment and Leadership Development Team has been working to support and advocate for the families of 4 Montgomery County Schools that have lost Title 1 status. These schools include Oak View Elementary, Strathmore Elementary, Brookhaven Elemmentary, and Viers Mill Elementary. “Title I” is part of a law called the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act created in 1965. The goal of Title I is to provide extra money for schools needing additional support so that they can offer the same services available at schools that don’t need that support. Title I makes sure that federal financial aid is added to state and local funds to which all public school children are entitled. Title I gives extra funding for things like more teachers and paraeducators resulting in smaller class size; parent engagement opportunities; and summer school, among others.
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Why did OVES lose Title I status? What has changed? MCPS has changed the way that they calculate financial needs. Instead of using FARMS applications, the new MCPS formula now uses the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation numbers. Many families in the Oak View community cannot or do not receive SNAP, so our children are not all being counted! This new calculation makes it incorrectly seem like Oak View is less in need of financial support. Because of this change, OVES no longer qualifies for the $400,000 that it used to receive as a Title I school.
Community Meetings With Action in Montgomery
Our Long Branch Empowerment and Leadership Team is currently collaborating with AIM. On November 16th, CHEER and AIM led an evening advocacy walk with community members. Delegate Lorig Charkoudian and David Botello from Councilmember Evan Glass' office were also in attendance. The purpose of this walk was to focus on the parking and safety issues surrounding the lack of parking in Long Branch. We wanted to make our elected officials aware of the current state of these issues at nightime.
To read the notes from this meeting (available in English & Spanish), please click on the images below!
Winter Coat Drive 2023
CHEER helped host a winter coat donation and distribution. Our initial goal was to be able to distribute 500 coats to Long Branch residents at the Long Branch Community Center. However, with the help of our amazing community, we were able to distribute over 1,000 coats! Thank you to our amazing partners for making this happen! We could not have made this event possilbe without the help of Silver Spring Cares, the Montgomery County Recreation Department, the Silver Spring Regional Services Center, Annie Tulkin, County Executive Marc Elrich, and the Montgomery County Police Department.
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To read a report of the event, please click here!
UPDATE: Thank you for everyone's incredible support on our co-sponsored winter coat drive! Because of your continuous support, we were able to distribute an additional 44 coats to those in need! Huge thanks to Annie Tulkin for her support as always! Also, huge thanks to New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, Oak View Elementary School, Rolling Terrace, and Linkages to Learning for their additional support as well!
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To read a report of this event, please click here!
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Questions
For more information, please contact Vanesa, CHEER's Empowement and Leadership Director, at vanesa@communitycheer.org