CORRYVILLE — Lighthouse on Highland has sheltered 73 homeless youths ages 18-24 since its partial opening Jan. 30. The shelter, operated by Lighthouse Youth Services, opened to fill a 28-bed capacity two months later and is part of a sweeping Cincinnati plan to help move people experiencing homelessness to permanent housing.Many homeless youths needing shelter find it at the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine. In 2011, the Drop Inn Center, the region�s largest emergency shelter, provided shelter to 317 people ages 18-24. Those numbers were up from 2010, when 277 youths received care at the Drop Inn.Roland Kocsis is director of Lighthouse on Highland. Of the 73 people who�ve received shelter at Lighthouse, 49 have moved on, 39 to permanent or transitional housing. Even after ... Continue reading →

For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now beginning to slow.As of July 1, 2011, 50.4 percent of the nation�s population under 1 year was minority, up from 49.5 percent in the census taken April 1, 2010.In that same 15-month span, the national population of minorities under age 5 increased from 49 percent to 49.7 percent.An Enquirer analysis of local estimates released Wednesday showed the seven-county region defying the national trend slightly, with the percentage of minority children decreasing from 24.9 percent to 24.8 percent.But a closer look at the local black and Hispanic populations under age 5 reflects two larger regional trends that are ... Continue reading →

Each year, about 3,500 ex-offenders are released from Ohio prisons and come home to four-county Greater Cincinnati.And each year, even as rates have dropped to an 11-year low, about 1 in 3 of the former offenders will commit another crime that will land them back in prison. A major problem are state laws that prevent ex-offenders from gaining employment.Two pieces of legislation, introduced April 24 in the Ohio General Assembly and up for more committee review Wednesday and Thursday, are gaining broad political and social support as a way to further reduce the rate of repeat offendersThe latest collective voice calling for passage of HB 524 and companion legislation SB 337 is the Catholic Conference of Ohio. It is encouraging Ohio�s 2.1 million Catholics � ... Continue reading →

Frustration is mounting one year after the city introduced its ambitious homeless shelter relocation plan.The biggest concern is the uncertain future of the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine, the region�s largest emergency homeless center.Developer Cincinnati Center City Development (3CDC) and the Drop Inn Center have not been able to agree on a location. Queensgate, Mount Auburn or Corryville are the most likely destinations.• Homelessness increases in county in 2011�There are only so many spots to be had,� said Arlene Nolan, Drop Inn Center executive director. �It�s a lack of inventory. Everyone is frustrated.�The new location will be within 1.5 to 2 miles of the shelter�s current location on West 12th Street.The Drop Inn Center is among the homeless shelters and social service programs being moved ... Continue reading →

MIAMI TWP. — A near-fatal heart attack suffered as a high school junior severely limited Jennifer Sherman�s speech, prevented her from returning to Seton High School and caused her to live out her remaining few years in a nursing home.Yet these and other debilitating effects on her mind and body could neither touch her spirit nor reduce the innate way she affected people emotionally.�People said the same thing after her heart attack that they said about Jen before her heart attack,� said her father, John Sherman of Delhi Township. �She made them feel good. She inspired them.�Ms. Sherman, 20, who lived at Three Rivers nursing home in Miami Township, died May 7 at Cincinnati Children�s Hospital Medical Center, three days before her 21st birthday. She ... Continue reading →

When the Rev. Troy Jackson looks ahead at the next six months leading to the presidential election, he sees a littered landscape with toxic partisan politics and vicious tactics and one real loser � the democratic process.That�s why Jackson, pastor of University Christian Church, University Heights, has worked for two years to help build a coalition of religious leaders and ministers pull the political discussion back toward the poor and society�s responsibility to its most vulnerable members.Friday, more than 300 religious leaders will participate in the summit �United by Faith.� Scheduled from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the event will feature speakers and culminate with congregations signing onto the �Racial Justice Covenant.�The featured speaker is Michelle Alexander, author ... Continue reading →

AVONDALE — Broken glass, weeds and weather long since combined to shroud the hopscotch grid on the playground of the former St. Andrew School.Yet on Sunday, former St. Andrew student Karen Churchill-Hairston, 59, who has lived in Atlanta since 1971, wanted to take one more look for it with her first-grade teacher, Sister Marilyn Rose Dietz.�It was over here,� Churchill-Hairston, glass and loose gravel crunching underfoot, said as she and Dietz walked toward the playground�s north-east corner and the back of the now-empty St. Andrew Church building.�Sister was so young herself, all of 21 or 22 years old, she played with us, too. She�d run around like an airplane with us (arms outspread) and jump rope.�Sunday was a day of memories for Churchill-Hairston and about ... Continue reading →

AVONDALE — Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig moved a step closer Tuesday to forming a police-clergy council to battle crime and its causes in the city.In a meeting Tuesday morning with a 19 ministers and community leaders in an Avondale church, Craig said he saw great value in forming a partnership with church leaders.�You can bring the people,� Craig said in a crowded conference room at Church of the Living God.The meeting was the second in less than a week involving Craig and clergy from Avondale, Evanston and other predominantly black Cincinnati neighborhoods. Fourteen Avondale-based pastors were among three dozen people to meet Thursday in Craig�s District One office in the West End.Craig said churches and community organizers and developers need to include police on ... Continue reading →

Activists and organizations in Greater Cincinnati in favor of immigration reform, including leadership in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, will be watching the U.S. Supreme Court carefully Wednesday when it hears arguments on Arizona's immigration law.The arguments before the nation�s highest court will focus on whether states can adopt and enforce laws that govern immigrants who enter the country illegally.Three local groups � Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati (MARCC), American Jewish Committee Cincinnati Regional Office and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Catholic Social Action � have released a joint letter calling for the Supreme Court to rule against Arizona and its law, SB 1070.In 2011, MARCC, an interfaith coalition of denominations, developed the document �Principles to Guide Ohio�s Immigration Discussion,� which call for �fair and comprehensive ... Continue reading →