'Energy Up' Demonstrates
Success as Obesity Intervention Program for Inner-City Girls
The effectiveness of the
"Energy Up" program developed by a lifestyle and fitness leader
known to her students as High Voltage, has recently been evaluated in an article
published in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. The health
brief titled "Energy Up" A Novel Approach to the Weight Management
of Inner-City Teens," describes the positive results of this school-based,
nutrition and fitness pilot program. The research gathered shows that the
"Energy Up" program works and is successful in dealing with behavioral
issues of adolescent girls.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/energy-up-demon.php
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Help for Pediatricians
in Treating Behavioral Health Problems Only Partially Successful
Continuing medical education,
newsletters and resource guides were only partially successful in changing
the way that pediatricians handled behavioral health problems, according to
a follow-up study at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. In 2004,
the same group reported in Pediatrics that pediatricians were diagnosing and
treating growing numbers of children with behavioral health problems -- about
15 percent of the children they see -- but did not always feel sufficiently
trained to fill this new role.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/help-for-pediat.php
**Civic Engagement / Civil
Society
NetSquared Conference
Announces $100,000 Innovation Award Winners and New Innovation Support Network
The competition and the
conference were created by TechSoup (http://www.techsoup.org), a nonprofit that
helps the global nonprofit community acquire and use technology to fulfill
their missions. The conference attendees and online voters assessed the projects
on the basis of their technological innovation, financial sustainability,
and social benefit. The winning projects will share half of a $100,000 cash
award, with the other 18 finalists dividing the balance of the award funds.
In addition, all of the finalists are eligible for substantial in-kind support
donated by the newly formed NetSquared Innovator Support Network to help them
turn their visions into realities.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/netsquared-conf.php
Predicting the Quality
of Life for Older Adults
As a growing number of baby
boomers retire, our society will have more older
adults than ever before, so it is crucial to determine what predicts quality
of life in older age. A joint study from the University of Alberta and University of Victoria, recently published in Research in
Nursing & Health, has uncovered that there are predictors of quality of
life for older adults. The replicated study indicated that financial resources,
health and meaning in life directly and positively influenced a person's quality
of life and health, while emotional support and the physical environment indirectly
affected quality of life through the older adult's sense of purpose in life.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/predicting-the.php
**Community Development
We Make Change: Community
Organizers Talk About What They Do
A timely new book by a veteran
community organizer helps to demystify this little-known profession and offer
a glimpse into the daily lives of the people who make changing the world their
life's work. We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About
What They Do --- and Why is a lively, readable collection of stories and observations
by organizers across the United States. This book explores the world of
community organizing through the voices of real people working in the field
--- organizers in small towns and big city neighborhoods, women and men, some
in their 20s, others in their 60s, of different races and economic backgrounds.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/we-make-change.php
Congress Should Increase
HUD’S Budget to Prevent Families from Losing Assistance and Address Growing
Needs
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, under the President's 2008 budget, total
funding for HUD programs would fall to a level that is $4.6 billion --- or
11 percent --- below the 2004 funding levels, adjusted for inflation. The
President is proposing these cuts despite evidence that growing numbers of
low-income families have serious housing affordability problems. Some 15
million low-income households have rent and utility costs that are unaffordable
under federal .
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/congress-should-1.php
**Economic Security
Investing in Parents
to Invest in Children
In remarks at the National
Summit on America’s Children, the president of MDRC
responded to compelling evidence about the effects of the environment on early
brain development and about promising interventions for poor children, as
well as concerns about the daunting challenges and frequent failures when
taking high-quality programs to scale. But even the most successful programs
for children are likely to be undermined if we don't address the poverty of
the families in which these children are growing up.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/investing-in-pa.php
**Education
Why Kids Need Learning
Opportunities During the Summer: Summer Slide Affects
All Children, But Summer Programs Offer a Solution
A recent study of Baltimore students by Johns Hopkins University researchers showed that 65 percent
of the achievement gap between poor and affluent children can be explained
by unequal summer learning experiences during the elementary school years.
Engaging summer programs not only offer a chance to practice and learn new
skills but also can provide nutritious meals and help keep kids active. Summer
programs can also have a positive impact on juvenile crime, support working
families, teach skills needed for the workforce, keep kids safe, and provide
much needed child care.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/why-kids-need-l.php
Learning from the Child
Care and Early Education Experiences of Immigrant Families
According to the Center
for Law and Social Policy, one of every five children in the United States is the child of an immigrant. Although
these children stand to benefit from high-quality child care and early education
programs, available data show that they are less likely to participate in
all types of non-parental care than children of U.S.-born citizens are. To
explore the reasons for the lower participation of children of immigrants,
CLASP conducted site visits across the country to learn first hand about the
challenges that immigrant families face.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/the-challenges.php
Interactive Education
Data by School District
The Editorial Projects in
Education Research Center announced the Beta version of a powerful
new online mapping tool to help the public, policymakers, and educational
leaders combat the graduation crisis. For the first time, comparable, reliable
data on graduation rates will be readily available for every school district
in the country. Produced in collaboration with the Redlands, Calif.-based
ESRI, this Web-based application will allow users to easily map out graduation
rates by zooming in on any of the nation’s individual school districts.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/interactive-edu.php
**Health
The General Public Lacks
Basic Medical Knowledge
The general public is worryingly
ignorant about the symptoms and risk factors that contribute to serious medical
conditions such as stroke and HIV/AIDS, according to a study published in
the online open access journal BMC Medicine. Surprisingly, those with university
degrees, a medical background or personal experience of an illness are only
slightly better informed. It is essential that people know the symptoms and
risk factors linked to serious clinical conditions since early detection can
positively influence treatment outcome, say the authors.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/the-general-pub.php
Policy Changes Have Direct
Effect on Nursing Home Care
States that set high staffing
standards for elder care in nursing homes are the only ones that come close
to having enough staff nurses to prevent serious safety violations, according
to a new study by a professor in the UCSF School of Nursing. The majority
of the nation's elderly and disabled in nursing homes remain in situations
where staffing is well below national recommendations for safe care, the study
found.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/policy-changes.php
Nursing Home Placement
Associated with Accelerated Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease
People with Alzheimer's
disease experience an acceleration in the rate of
cognitive decline after being placed in a nursing home according to a new
study by Rush University Medical Center. The findings suggest that the transition
from the community to a nursing home is particularly difficult for people
with Alzheimer's disease and that those planning for their care should consider
the possibility that experience in adult day care programs may help prepare
affected persons for institutional living
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/nursing-home-pl.php
Aerobic Exercise Helps
Maintain Muscle in Elderly
Why do older people tend
to lose muscle mass and grow frail? One important factor identified by medical
science is the reduced ability of the elderly to respond to the muscle-building
stimulus of the hormone insulin. Recent studies have shown that insulin provides
crucial assistance in building muscle, and that its ability to do so drops
off dramatically in the elderly. Now, a small but provocative study by medical
researchers in Texas and California suggests that a simple, cost-free
therapy appears to largely overcome that drop-off in insulin response: moderate
aerobic exercise such as walking.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/research-shows.php
Targeted Initiatives
Can Encourage People to Walk More
People can be encouraged
to walk for up to 30-60 minutes more per week if they are given the right
kind of help, finds a study published on bmj.com today. This could make a
valuable contribution to improving public health. Physical activity reduces
the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer of the colon. Walking is a
free and convenient way to be active, and most people can continue walking
into old age. Promoting walking could therefore help tackle the health problems
linked to today's inactive lifestyles.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/targeted-initia.php
**Substance Abuse
Access to Alcohol Among
Middle School Children
New research suggests that
if parents want to keep alcohol away from their middle school children, the
best place to start is at home. The study, reported in the June issue of
Preventive Medicine, shows that of 11-14 year olds who choose to drink, only
a small fraction (2.4% in the 6th grade, rising to 5.6% at the end of the
8th grade) obtain alcohol from commercial venues.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/access-to-alcoh.php
Drug Use Is Increasing
Among Young American Indians
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center have completed a study that compared
the age of first-time drug users across the nation to the age of first-time
drug users on and near two different American Indian reservations. Overall,
American Indian adolescents were found to be at higher risk for trying marijuana
than their peers across the country. The overall age for drug use and experimentation
has moved to a younger age group all across the nation. This research tells
us that greater attention needs to be paid to prevention strategies targeted
at younger children.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/05/new-study-shows.php
