The fact that entitlements compose most of our federal spending has been true for some time: Of our federal budget, roughly 42%, goes to Social Security: 23% , Medicare: 12% , Medicaid: 7%. In Memphis, above these entitlements, more than 4000 non profit agencies, receive roughly five billion dollars from the government, and one billion from private donations not including churches.

One of the gravest perils facing our country is the enormous expenditure for public assistance that is going on below our radar and is achieving very little in the way of intended results. Non profits, educational institutions and government agencies are receiving grants and other funds and are providing very little leadership, oversight or information on their outcomes. Fraud, duplication and using these funds for political purposes is common.

You pick up the morning paper and see an article about a major non profit agency that has been funded to help train community health leaders on proper diet and health care matters, a government agency is paying a dollar a tire for old tires picked up in neighborhoods, a middle aged woman is tired of drug dealing and violence in her neighborhood and is going to do something about it, a major non profit is going to increase it's delivery program to shut in's in the inner city neighborhoods, a small non profit agency is going to buy and remodel some dilapidated homes in an inner city neighborhood, a non profit group is going to visit neighborhoods to determine the number of derelict homes that need to be razed or remodeled, …… you turn on the television and hear about a man that needs assistance gathering clothing and mattresses for the homeless that his small agency wants to help, that a non profit agency received a grant of four million dollars to help reduce crime in neighborhoods, a non profit group that is going to clean up an inner city neighborhood, a University has a program that is going to work with an inner city neighborhood to improve their lives, a family needs emergency help because their home burned, a major non profit has a grant to visit neighborhoods to determine what assets are available to assist the residents and fraud is occurring in disability pensions ….. you then get a call from your church and they ask if you can volunteer to work in a food pantry, serve as a tutor in an inner city school or be a mentor for an inner city child, and they also want to update you on a program they have for improving the lives in a downtown neighborhood area ………you get a phone call from a non profit that wants to pick up any old clothing or other usable equipment that you don't need, ……..you get a phone call from a friend who tells you that a few minutes ago in the grocery store, she observed people swapping part of their food stamp total for cash so that they could buy beer, …..you go to your non profit board meeting and ask if they have a list of all of the other non profits that offer the same services, if it would be possible for their assets, ie, gym, indoor swimming pool or office space, to be used by neighborhood residents or another agency, during those hours their clients are not using it, if they work with the neighborhood association in finding out which neighborhood children are deserving or eligible for a private school scholarship, would like participate in team sports, receive computer training, could use a mentor, or need food, you then overhear the receptionist taking phone calls asking where the caller can go for job training, marriage counseling and literacy classes, the answer to all of the above is no!!!!…….you turn on your car radio and you hear a discussion admitting that billions of dollars of fraud is occurring the national Medicare program, and then a discussion about the five million dollars a year that is being given by the government for help for the 2000 Memphis homeless. …….You call a government homeless agency for more details and they will not take your call, give you an appointment or see you when you stop by, ….You are invited to a two hour evening meeting called by a major university leading a neighborhood program that has invited all neighborhood leaders to apply for two $1500.00 grants that will go to the best plan submitted by them to improve their neighborhood, nothing else is discussed. The attendees are very disappointed.

Commercial Appeal quote “45,825 tires with funds for a total of 55,000, at a rate of $1 a tire. The remainder of the $100,000 will be spent to administer the program, including the cost to have the tires hauled to a recycling facility in Mississippi”. Math????

Note how often “neighborhood” comes up and none of these agencies work together to coordinate to set up an infrastructure that all agencies can share. Note how few of these organizations even know what other agencies are doing.

No list exists of all non profits, government agencies and educational institutions providing services in Memphis. It has been speculated that these institutions do not want this information available to their donors. This list is not difficult to compile and an individual has made one that is fairly complete at http://www.improvememphis.org. This list needs to be maintained by an independent organization that is not involved is the public assistance area. The Memphis library has not been cooperative in helping with this effort.

A list of all neighborhoods and their leaders is needed. A governmental organization exists to support neighborhoods and maintain this list, but no effort has been made to ask agencies working in neighborhoods to provide this agency with updated information while they are working in neighborhoods. The data assembled by the governmental agency is not in a very usable format and not much improvement has been made in the list in the last few years. No effort has been made to help neighborhood groups set up websites, though a private program exists on line for this purpose. We hear about “Neighborhood Organizers” but what neighborhoods are they organizing?

We need a list of all of the funds coming into our community from all sources. The city government says that they are going to make a list of this sort available, but I have not been able to find one. I have accumulated a lot of this information.

I believe that all of these lists could be made and maintained for less than $120,000 a year. An independent group could take over these lists and provide information on line for all donors, users and agencies that need to know about all of the services and studies currently being conducted. We must take control of our public assistance programs.

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Dreamaid (http://www.dreamaid.com) is a socio-economic business that donates to the Dreamaid Charity (dreamaidcharity.org) to help the poor have access to the internet so they can become growing businesses selling artisan products online.

I've come to the conclusion that Charity alone will not cure the world's problems and we have to work symbiotically between business and Charity.

I started this three years ago and it is tough going but the best thing I ever did.

Best regards,

Peter McAteer
CEO Dreamaid