U.S. House of Representatives: Ohio District 11 candidate Beverly Goldstein sets sights on sustainable community growth
To an outsider, Northeast Ohio may seem like an undesirable place to live.
The seemingly never-ending, bone-chilling winters. Abandoned, beaten down houses and buildings leave a harsh reminder of economic downfall. Sports teams that have a reputation of breaking hearts. A river once so polluted that it went up in flames. A gritty place missing the glitz and glamour of other regions.
To locals, like Republican candidate Beverly A. Goldstein, Northeast Ohio is so much more. It is a place of opportunity and growth. It is a close-knit community. It is home.
“The only way to better our community is by providing more jobs, opportunities and assistance to start and grow your own business,” Goldstein says.
Goldstein is campaigning against incumbent Rep. Marcia Fudge to represent the 11th Congressional District of Ohio in Congress.
Life before politics
Residing in Ohio’s District 11 since 1971, Goldstein married an attorney and retired naval veteran, raising her three children in their home just outside of the city of Cleveland.
Goldstein devoted her career to bettering the community in which she was raised. After earning a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing, master’s in audiology and a doctorate in audiology and rehabilitation, she applied her knowledge to build a home-care audiology private practice, helping thousands of elderly persons to communicate with their loved ones.
Goldstein became very active in a variety of professional associations. She served as the chair for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association . Goldstein is the recipient of several awards for her work with communication disorders from the ASHA, the State of Ohio and the Ohio Speech-Language and Hearing Association.
She also has a deep-rooted background in counter-terrorism education. Goldstein has attended three counter-terrorism summits of the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism. Also, she has been a part of more than 100 seminars on national security throughout the United States.
Goldstein started her political career as a donor, member and leader of multiple national and international organizations. She served as the vice president of the Beachwood Schools Foundation. There, she created a full-day National Intelligence Briefing for all students, which was integrated into the school’s core curriculum.
Goal of community revival
An opportunity for real change is on the horizon, Goldstein believes. If elected to represent the 11th District in Congress, she seeks to strengthen the community that has been such a major part of her whole life.
Goldstein hopes to resolve crime issues, with the end goal to bring safety back to the residents of District 11. She says she will take action against the gang, drug and violence problems that are ravaging the community by unifying members to break down barriers resulting in this epidemic.
Recent events have caused the relationship between the community and law enforcement to be strained. Just as important, according to Goldstein, is how community residents act towards law enforcement officers. She plans to work closely with statewide experts and members of the district to develop effective ways to better connect policing to the community.
A second chance is priceless
For former convicts and their families, Goldstein wants to develop procedures that will make their transition back into the community as easy as possible.
“We must create gateways for them (ex-convicts) to attain essential employment,” Goldstein explains on her campaign website. “Chronic unemployment is the quickest way to re-incarceration.”
Many residents of this district believe they are stripped of the opportunity for meaningful employment, Goldstein says. As a result, she stresses the importance of job creation, vocational training and small business growth as core elements for communal well-being.
Job creation can be catalyzed by assisting “large companies to relocate to the area, encouraging local employers to utilize government training and hiring programs,” Goldstein stated. Vocational training programs will give employers the opportunity to fill jobs, and prepare individuals without college degrees to excel in these roles.
“We need to get people reading,” says Goldstein. “If you can read, you can advance yourself.” Goldstein believes that implementing adult-learning programs will establish job-readiness and increase employment.
The solutions go much deeper. “We need to make sure that we have transportation and childcare services to go along with new jobs and job training, so people can really get a job and begin to get a life,” says Goldstein. Life has many moving parts, and establishing programs to alleviate conflicting agendas will help make a transition to employment smoother.
In addition to job creation, Goldstein has an agenda that focuses on combating poverty, child hunger, homelessness, infant death, home foreclosures and failing public school systems.
Goldstein says she stands with the residents of Ohio’s District 11. She has heard what the people want resolved, and developed a campaign agenda resolve those issues. An understanding of the importance of a stable, unified community is the foundation behind her campaign.
Agreeing with Goldstein is JCU graduate and credit analyst at OFS Management, Jad Abdul-Aal, who believes change starts from the bottom up, with the people.
“Northeast Ohio is, in a sense, going through a modern day renaissance,” explained Abdul-Aal. “Strengthening the community gives all future progress a foundation to build on; it starts first with the people. Getting people employed and earning a steady income is critical.”
Northeast Ohio is a diamond in the rough. Posed against the rocky shores of Lake Erie, the untapped potential that this region holds remains to be seen. It’s a place full of genuine, hardworking people that deserve better. To Beverly A. Goldstein, this is an opportunity to reach those new limits by revitalizing the community that helped her become what she is today.
