Guild Jazz Brunch Fundraiser
SUPPORT YOUTH PROGRAMS!!
4 CHANCES TO WIN
$1,000, $750, $500, $250
Get your Raffle tickets today!!
Drawing will be held at the Tri-County Urban League Gala
at Peoria Civic Center
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Need not be present to win!!
To purchase raffle or dinner tickets , call: 309.672.4354
Peoria, IL—Multiple Grammy Award-Winner and legendary soulful songstress, Regina Belle will be a special guest at Tri-County Urban League’s 13th Annual Black and White Gala on April 20, 2013 at the Peoria Civic Center Ballroom. Proceeds of the fundraiser will benefit programs of the Urban League.
Silent Auction & Social Hour—5:30 p.m.
Dinner—7:00 p.m.
Concert—8:30 p.m.
$125 per person ($150 after April 9th)
$1,000 for a table of 8
$1,250 for a table of 10
$40 (concert only)
The event is open to the public. To become an event sponsor or to purchase individual tickets, visit www.tcpul.com or call: 309.672.4354 to purchase dinner tickets. Concert only tickets are on sale at the Peoria Civic Center Box Office, all Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or call: 1-800-745-300 to charge by phone.
About Tri-County Urban League, Inc: Established in 1965, Tri-County (Peoria) Urban League’s mission is to advance the regional economy and quality of life in Central Illinois by promoting education and improving the employability skills, self-sufficiency, and social well-being of African Americans and people in need.
About Regina Belle: The legendary soulful songstress is a four-time Grammy Award winning R&B /Pop performer who rose to fame with a series of popular hits which include ‘Make It Like It Was’, ‘If I Could’, ‘Dream In Color’ and ‘A Whole New World’ (with Peabo Bryson, featured on Disney’s soundtrack of Aladdin). Family and church are central to her life. She is married with children to John S. Battle III, a senior pastor at New Shield of Faith Ministries in Atlanta, where she is a minister of music.
SAVE THE DATE:
Sunday, October 14, 2012
TIME:
2:00 PM
LOCATION:
Par-A-Dice Hotel Casino
21 Blackjack Blvd
East Peoria, IL, 61611
TICKETS:
$40.00 Per Ticket
$40.00 At the Door
___________________________________________________________________________________
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Portrait of Frank Campbell, unveiled during the 2012 Black and White Gala.The portrait was painted by Bill Hardin, a local artist and president of Hardin Signs.
“He was certainly an icon for our organization and our community,” said Laraine Bryson, who in 1992 succeeded Campbell as Urban League director.
Campbell, who became director of the newly created Urban League in 1965, spent a career promoting higher education and employment for blacks in skilled trades and administrative and professional jobs. He died in December 2010, at 80.
A portrait of Campbell will be unveiled at the event, Bryson said. Painted by Bill Hardin, a local artist and president of Hardin Signs, the portrait is to hang in the Urban League office at 317 S. MacArthur Highway.
Campbell might have appreciated this year’s guest artist, Kenny Lattimore, a crooner who graduated from Howard University before he embarked on a musical career.
Lattimore has been described as a modern-day soul man. He has said in numerous interviews he wants his music to show the “strong, but sensitive, caring side of black men.”
One of his best-known songs, the Grammy-nominated “For You,” was released in the mid-1990s and has been a popular wedding song ever since. He also scored rhythm & blues and gospel hits with songs recorded with his ex-wife, Chante Moore.
The name of this event intentionally highlights Urban League’s interracial history, according to Bryson. An interracial group formed the national organization in the early 1900s, and an interracial group founded the local affiliate in 1965.
Proceeds from the gala, the Urban League’s largest fundraiser, will be used for scholarships and other programs.
The Tri-County Urban League has been addressing community needs through its education and employment programs since 1965.
When she first got involved with the Tri-County Urban League, Laraine Bryson was just 14 years old. Entering the organization’s summer jobs program, she thought she might like to be a teacher someday, and was placed in a position at a local Head Start facility. “It did really solidify for me that that’s what I wanted to do—work with young kids,” said Bryson. She went on to graduate from high school, obtain a degree in education from Bradley University and teach in Peoria’s District 150. Her placement with the Urban League did exactly what it was supposed to: “It really sparked that first job and first career for me,” recalled Bryson.
Bryson’s ties with the Urban League remained strong throughout her college years, as she worked in the organization’s accounting department during summer breaks. She continued to do so after becoming a teacher. “It was a really great fit because by the time I got tired with the kids, I would come work with numbers, and by the time I got tired of the numbers, it was time to go back to the kids.”
But after teaching for seven years, Bryson decided to make a career change and enrolled in law school. Upon graduation, she worked as a trial attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before moving on to running the affirmative action and personnel departments at Illinois Central College. At that time, she accepted a volunteer position on the Urban League’s board of directors and was hired full-time as vice president in 1992. After being groomed for the role of president for 11 months, Bryson moved into her current job when the organization’s original president, Frank Campbell, retired in 1993.
After becoming affiliated with the National Urban League in 1964, the Tri-County Urban League began offering services to the community the following year. It became a member of the United Fund—now known as United Way—in 1967, the same year in which the League began offering its summer jobs program.
Contracting directly with the Department of Labor, the Urban League received grant dollars to hire disadvantaged youth with no work history. The 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds who met the program’s guidelines were referred to local nonprofit organizations for placements that would provide job training. Each participant worked with job counselors at the League to learn how to write resumes, present themselves appropriately and deal with conflict on the job. They were also given supervisors who mentored them at the organizations for which they worked. “It was a way for [youth] to be exposed to careers…plus they got a little money during those summer jobs,” said Bryson. The same referral model is still used today by the Urban League’s employment department for participants of all ages.
Back in the 1970s, when Bryson utilized the summer jobs program, “if you walked in with that referral, you pretty much were guaranteed that job,” she recalled. “Now when someone comes to us, they have several other barriers to get through before you can get them ready to send them to the job referral.”
Breaking Down Barriers
Serving more than 5,000 disadvantaged people each year—whether economically, educationally or socially disadvantaged—the Tri-County Urban League offers a number of avenues for those with barriers to employment. “In [our educational programs], we focus on the GED because many times, disadvantaged people have not finished school. They’ve not had a good experience in the traditional setting, so we provide an alternative,” Bryson explained. Working mostly with the chronically unemployed—those who have no work history or have been unemployed for over a year—the Urban League’s unemployment department helps each client find the path they need to finish their education and obtain gainful employment.
Sometimes, clients are able to obtain part-time placements while still working on their GEDs. The goal is to get their foot in the door, build employment history and continue working with the League to find a permanent, full-time position. “Unfortunately, sometimes disadvantaged people need something really fast,” said Bryson. “They want a quick fix, and, of course, they want to jump in at the top as opposed to working their way through. So that’s a process in and of itself, and keeping them engaged is sometimes a challenge.”
In addition to teaching job skills and GED classes, the Tri-County Urban League offers pre-GED, literacy and computer classes. These days, having a GED isn’t enough, explained Bryson; applicants must have basic computer skills as well. Wayne Cannon, employment coordinator for the organization, emphasized that his programs are becoming more tech-savvy in efforts to produce workers with the skills that today’s employers are looking for.
The local building trades and organizations like the Tri-County Construction Labor-Management Council also work with the Urban League to recruit minority workers into their field. Various grant dollars have provided funding, not only for the recruitment process, but also for the education necessary to bring applicants’ math skills up to the levels required for the trades’ entrance exams.
Economic First-Responders
The Urban League’s stated mission is to improve the educational, economic and social well-being of African Americans and similarly disadvantaged people. “You don’t always have to be low-income to get services,” Bryson explained. “And we don’t only serve African Americans. We’ll serve anyone who wants to get a GED, anyone who needs education assistance, employment assistance or counseling assistance. And [the latter] is more prevention, working with the child welfare system and building and strengthening families.”
Its affiliation with the National Urban League allows the Tri-County Urban League to take advantage of branding and training opportunities. “We have a movement,” explained Bryson. “There are 100 Urban League affiliates throughout 36 states and Washington, D.C., and the national [organization] has a five-pronged agenda.” This agenda focuses on empowerment in the areas of education and youth, economics, health and quality of life, civil engagement and leadership, and civil rights and racial justice.
In light of the lingering effects of the recent recession, the National Urban League released its 12-point Jobs Rebuild America Plan in January, calling for a variety of job training initiatives, expanded small business lending, tax reform and other measures designed to assist those most affected by the ongoing recession and address many of the underlying causes behind its inordinate impact on urban communities. These days, it’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs.
And our own local affiliate is on the front lines, an economic first-responder in the ongoing effort to ease the burden of those most profoundly affected by the recession. “As the economy gets worse, people who are not used to coming in and asking for services are now being forced to do that,” said Bryson. She noted that they have even started receiving calls from seniors who need to go back to work but have found their lack of computer skills to be a barrier.
Through the support of the Heart of Illinois United Way, grants, fundraisers and private donations, the Tri-County Urban League continues to offer its programs at minimal or no cost to any disadvantaged person looking to improve his or her situation in life.
Tri-County Urban League 2012 Black and White Gala will be held at the Peoria Civic Center Ballroom on April 21st. The special guest this year is Kenny Lattimore.
When: Saturday, April 21, 2012
Time: 5:30 pm – Silent Auction, 7:00 pm – Dinner, 8:30 pm – Concert
Where: Peoria Civic Center, Ballroom, 201 SW Jefferson St Peoria, IL 61602
For more information about attending the Silent Auction and Dinner, please call 309-672-4354. Tickets for the Concert may be purchased at the Peoria Civic Center Box Office or ticketmaster.com
In these tough economic times, one group is working to help underprivileged college students get into the workplace. Saturday,February 4, 2012 the Tri-County Urban League (Peoria, IL) partnered with Illinois Central College’s Harvesting Dreams program. It was in an effort to help men who attend Illinois Central College (ICC) learn how to “dress for success.” , and other clothing, to help the students prepare for a job interview.
“You know, you have to market yourself,” said Wayne Cannon, Employment Coordinator for the Tri-County Urban League. “It’s a very competitive job market out there, and we try to prepare our clients and the Harvesting Dreams students as well as we can, so when they do get out there, they do as well as possible.”
Organizers say while Saturday’s event had a specific demographic, anyone preparing for a job interview can receive help from the Urban League’s dress for success program.
Just contact us at (309) 673-7474
