Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 9-19-17

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Community And Law Enforcement Retreat Is Sept. 25
ED NARAIN ...Chairman, Board of Directors, CLEWS
A free LEADERSHIP RE- TREAT hosted by the Com- munity & Law Enforcement Workshops and Services Pro- gram (CLEWS) will be held Monday, September 25, 2017, 2-5 p.m. in the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Center at the Beulah Baptist Institutional Church, 1006 W. Cypress Street in West Tampa. CLEWS Pro- gram activities held during the past fiscal year will be summarized at the retreat. The event is open to the pub- lic and refreshments will be served.
CLEWS is sponsored by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commis- sioners, the United Way Sun- Coast and by the Corporation to Develop Communities (CDC) of Tampa, Inc.
Ed Narain, chairman of the board of directors of CLEWS, will greet attendees and present other members of the board. CLEWS Pro- gram Manager Fred Hearns, M. A., M. S., and Dr. Roy Kaplan will serve as training directors for the session. CLEWS Trainer, Dr. Brenda Walker, Esq., As- sistant Program Manager, Viola Luke and Program Li- aison, Tina Wright will pro- vide support.
“It is appropriate that we conclude the CLEWS pro- gram this fiscal year at Beu- lah Baptist Church,” Hearns said. “It was at a community meeting held at this church
COUNTY COMM. LES MILLER
last summer that Commis- sioner Les Miller was in- spired to seek funding from the BOCC for CLEWS to ad- dress citizen-law enforce- ment race relations in Hillsborough County.” United Way Suncoast also is a CLEWS sponsor.
Rev. Dr. W. James Fa- vorite, pastor of Beulah Bap- tist Institutional Church, is vice chairman of the CLEWS Board of Directors. Other board members are Mike Williams, Dr. Liana Fer- nandez Fox, Superin- tendent Pastor Charles Davis, Dr. Kathleen Heide and Marlene York- Monroe.
CLEWS conducted seven workshops during the past fiscal year. Workshops for adults were held in: Clair-Mel City/Palm River (December), Town ‘N Country (March), Gibsonton (May) and Bran- don (June). Youth workshops were held in Clair-Mel City/Palm River/Dowdell Middle School (January), North Tampa/ Belle Witter Elementary School (Febru- ary) and in Carrollwood/Buchanan Mid- dle School (August). Over 500 Hillsborough County residents attended these workshops. Hundreds of their comments and recom- mendations were compiled in a Report to the People and a report summary will be made available September 25.
Financial Counselor Addresses Health Forum Guests
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Friday, September 22nd, the Monthly Men and Women’s Health Forum will hold their monthly presenta- tion. The event will take place at 11 a.m., at the College Hill Church Of God In Christ, 6414 N. 30th Street. Superin- tendent Charles Davis is the pastor.
This month, the forum will focus on financial serv- ices. The organizers are wel- coming Mike Coker, of The Wealth Wave, as their guest speaker.
A native of Syracuse, New York, Coker graduated from Nottingham High School in 1978. Following graduation, he attended Central City Business Institute, in Syra- cuse, NY.
MIKE COKER Financial Services Counselor
He continued his educa- tion at Greenville Technical College, in Greenville, South Carolina, where he earned his degree in Business Man- agement.
The next step in his career was to complete coursework and become certified by the State of Florida in the areas of Mortgage Broker and Real
Estate.
Coker began gaining ex-
perience in the financial serv- ices industry in 1982 and became a Licensed Insurance Consultant in 1992. His expe- rience in the field spans 35 years serving and building relationships with residents and business owners throughout Central Florida.
His background includes pre-need funeral planning, mortgages, retirement plan- ning, education funding, budgeting and debt manage- ment.
The forum is free and open to the public. For addi- tional information about the forum, contact David Snow, III, at (813) 493- 5772, Coach Billy Reed, at (813) 744-4923, or Chester White, Jr., at (813) 327- 2804.
Candidate For Governor Of Florida:
Andrew Gilliam Campaigns In Tampa Over Weekend
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Florida’s next governor should support expanding Medicaid, increasing trans- portation options, and in- vesting in K-12 education.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Gilliam told a crowd of supporters gathered Saturday for a fundraiser at 7th Sun Brew- ery that he was the best per- son to do all the above.
Gilliam, who is Tallahas- see’s current mayor, said his strong desire to reach the highest office in the state is rooted in the losses that citi- zens have experienced.
“I’m tired of losing,” he said. “I’m fed up with losing because of who is penalized when we lose.”
More than 100 people sipped beer inside the Martin Luther King venue while lis- tening intently as Gilliam laid out his vision for Florida.
If elected, Gilliam said one of his first orders of busi- ness is expanding Medicaid.
Florida lost an estimated $6 billion when Gov. Rick Scott refused to increase Medicaid eligibility for more than one million citizens, Gilliam said.
Resurrecting high-speed
rail through the Tampa Bay area also would be revisited, he said.
Plans to provide the serv- ice connecting Tampa to Or- lando failed after in 2011, refused to accept millions in federal funds to initiate the project.
“We deserve to have a 21st century highway system... and transportation,” he said.
Boosting Florida’s educa- tion sector is another goal, with critical attention being given to the early-learning years between birth and age five, Gilliam said.
The poor treatment of teachers is leading to their exodus from the field – and hurting the chances of all Florida students having ac- cess to a “high-quality educa- tion,” he said.
“Those shouldn’t be the
problems of the third-largest state in the country,” he said. After his address, Lake- land resident, Rashidah Brookins and her husband, Aristotle said they liked Gilliam’s platform and plan to vote for him in next year’s
primary.
“He talks about the things
that concerns us,” she said. Aristotle agreed.
“He sounds genuine,” he
said. “I love that he’s all about raising the minimum wage.”
Tammy Charles, of Tampa, said Gilliam’s track record as mayor sets the foundation for his being a good governor.
“I feel like the state of Florida needs a shift politi- cally,” she said. “He’ll model what he does in Tallahassee throughout the state.”
Andrew Gilliam speaking to audience.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2017