Alliance for Children and Families Adds Project
Director for $2.6 Million Grant
Jonette
Arms has joined the Alliance for Children and Families as project
director of The New Age of Aging program, a newly-created position at the
Alliance, a Milwaukee-based national membership
association of nonprofit human service providers. Arms will be directing
the activities of The New Age of Aging, a $2.6 million, five-year grant the
Alliance received from The Atlantic Philanthropies
to respond to the needs of the rapidly expanding population of older adults
by improving the readiness of the nation's nonprofit human services workforce.
Changes sought by The New Age of Aging program across the social services
workforce include a sharper focus on aging as a service area, greater staff
interest in aging services, stronger commitment to training on aging issues,
implementation of new services, and enhanced collaboration among agencies.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/alliance-for-ch.php
Outdoor Alcohol Ads Boost
Kids' Urge to Drink
In the world depicted in
an alcohol billboard, bikini-clad babes clutch icy bottles, frothy beer flows
over frosty mugs and the slogan reads, "Life is good." Ads like
these may target adults, but children are getting the message too, a University of Florida and University of Minnesota study shows. Adolescents attending
schools in neighborhoods where alcohol ads litter the landscape tend to want
to drink more and, compared with other children, have more positive views
of alcohol, researchers report in this month's issue of the Journal of Studies
on Alcohol and Drugs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/outdoor-alcohol.php
**Civic Engagement
Make It Your Own Awards
- Opportunities to Engage in Democracy
The Youth Policy Action Center has been working closely with the
Case Foundation to help them shape a new approach to philanthropy. The Make
It Your Own Awards, a new initiative from the Case Foundation, launched on
June 26, 2007, is about giving grants, tools, and recognition to people who
are coming together to discuss what matters, form solutions, and take action.
Twenty semi-finalists will each receive $10,000 grants to start bringing their
ideas to life. Four final grant recipients will then be chosen by the public
using an online voting system. These finalists will each be awarded an additional
$25,000 grant. Applications are due on August 8th!
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/make-it-your-ow.php
Foundation with Real
Money Ventures into Virtual World
For the first time, one
of the nation's largest foundations is venturing into virtual worlds to play
host to activities and discussions and explore the role that philanthropy
might play there. The goals are to gain insight into how virtual worlds are
used by young people, to introduce the foundation to an audience that may
have little exposure to institutional philanthropy and to take part in and
stimulate discussions about the real-world issues that it seeks to address.
The MacArthur foundation, perhaps best known for
the so-called genius grants it hands out each year, has given the Center on
Public Diplomacy of the University of Southern California $550,000 to stage events in Second
Life, including discussions of how foundations can address issues like migration
and education.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/foundation-with.php
**Community Development
Strong Teens, Strong
Neighborhoods
Public/Private Ventures
is field-testing a new curriculum---Strong Teens, Strong Neighborhoods---designed
to increase reading and writing ability during summer hours. As the name
of the program indicates, the curriculum has a community focus; it was created
in partnership with Youth Communication, a nonprofit journalism training program
in New York City that publishes magazines and books
written by and for teens. During the course of the summer, youth will be
engaged in creating their own articles, to be compiled in a book, magazine,
newsletter or website.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/strong-teens-st.php
Analysis of New Voucher
Bill and Audioconference on Voucher Funding
On May
24, 2007, the House
Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 1851, the Section 8 Voucher Reform
Act (SEVRA) by a bipartisan vote of 52-9. Under Moving to Work (MTW), HUD
can grant agencies waivers of voucher and public housing program rules to
allow the agencies to experiment with different policies. Agencies can use
those waivers, for example, to raise rents on tenants substantially or to
place time limits on assistance, even for working families that cannot afford
market-rate housing on their own. The objective of the changes is to establish
a stable, efficient and equitable voucher funding policy.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/analysis-of-new.php
**Economic Security
National Symposium Forges
Discussions on Poverty
The Community Action Partnership
recently held the National Symposium on Poverty and Economic Security, part
of a multi-year anti-poverty initiative to help Community Action Agencies
and other organizations identify strategies for a national anti-poverty plan.
The Symposium brought together a cross section of practitioners, policymakers,
foundations, and researchers for a discussion on the causes and conditions
of poverty, and solutions and new strategies for ending it. It also incorporated
findings from state and local town hall meetings hosted by Community Action
Agencies and state Community Action associations that fight poverty on the
local level.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/national-sympos.php
Program Helps Low-Income
or Unemployed Residents Become Bus or Truck Drivers
Until recently, Sandra Castillo,
37, a laid-off factory worker, had never driven anything larger than a car.
But now she was at the wheel of a 30-foot-long school bus. At her side sat
Christopher Kaminski, an instructor in a program that was training her to
seek a new vocation as a bus driver. The program began in 1995 to train residents
of the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, and was later expanded to residents of the entire city, said
Tracy Anderson, director of program development at Brooklyn Workforce Innovations.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/program-helps-l.php
**Education
Family Involvement in
Middle and High School Students' Education
The third and final brief
from the Harvard
Family Research Project in its "Family Involvement Makes a Difference"
series synthesizes research studies that link family involvement in middle
and high school to youth's academic and social outcomes. Family involvement
in academics and learning remains important in the adolescent years. Unfortunately,
family involvement in education tends to decrease across middle and secondary
school, due in part to adolescents' increasing desire for autonomy and in
part to changes in school structure and organization. Yet family involvement
in education remains a powerful predictor of various adolescent outcomes.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/family-involvem.php
Learning a Sense of Community
Online
Children and their teachers
are already benefiting from online learning communities such as the Oracle
Education Foundation's Think.com, but there is a real opportunity for richer
learning with such systems that is yet to be tapped. The researchers found
that the best way that teachers and facilitators could help students reap
the rewards of using an online community is by encouraging their active engagement
by designing accessible and provocative online activities, managing access
to useful resources and, most of all, asking relevant and thought-provoking
questions that challenge the students.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/learning-a-sens.php
**Health
Curbing the Obesity Epidemic
The obesity epidemic has
become a major public health problem in both industrialized countries and
the developing world. The fact that obesity is mainly determined before puberty
implies that preschool detection of children at risk is essential along with
individual prevention programs provided by the school health services in liaison
with specialists. In June 20th issue of PLoS ONE,
a Swedish study reports a protocol that detects with high precision 30% of
all obese pre-adolescent children already at age 5 using only weight and height
data.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/curbing-the-obe.php
Weight Management Program
Cuts Diabetes Risk, Improves BMI in Overweight Children
A family-based weight management
program developed by researchers at Yale School of Medicine was more effective
at reducing weight, body fat, body mass index (BMI) and insulin sensitivity
than traditional clinic-based weight counseling. The researcher, a registered
dietician and certified diabetes educator, and her team conducted the one-year
clinical trial of 209 overweight children between the ages of 8 and16 to address
the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity, especially in the African
American and Hispanic population. The study measured the effectiveness of
the weight management program Bright Bodies, in comparison to care provided
at a pediatric obesity clinic.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/weight-manageme.php
Mothers' Second-Hand
Smoke Exposure Linked to Psychological Problems for Kids
Children whose mothers were
exposed to second-hand smoke while they were pregnant have more symptoms of
serious psychological problems compared to the offspring of women who had
no prenatal exposure to smoke, according to a new University of Washington study. The study provides the first
evidence linking mothers' second-hand smoke exposure while pregnant to their
children's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder.
The UW researchers found that those children whose mothers had been exposed
to tobacco smoke either by smoking or by being around smokers when they were
pregnant had more symptoms of ADHD and conduct disorder than children whose
mothers spent their pregnancies in a smoke-free environment.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/mothers-secondh.php
**Nonprofit Management
Nonprofit Governance
in the United States: Findings on Performance and Accountability
Nonprofit boards are increasingly
a focus of those interested in greater accountability and transparency, including
policymakers, media, and the public. To help inform current policy debates
and initiatives to strengthen nonprofit governance, in 2005 the Urban Institute
conducted the first ever national representative survey of nonprofit governance,
with over 5,100 participants. This study draws attention to the relationships
between the public policy environment and nonprofits. Another major purpose
of this study is to identify factors associated with promoting or impeding
boards' performance of basic stewardship responsibilities related to overseeing
and supporting the organization and its mission.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/nonprofit-gover.php
VoiceNation Launches Care2Call Initiative to Provide Free Voicemail Services
to Nonprofits Nationwide
VoiceNation,
the full service voice communication solution provider, has announced the
launch of its "Care2Call" program for charities and non-profits.
VoiceNation will provide voicemail and faxmail
services free of charge to qualified applicants, allowing these organizations
to reduce their operating costs while increasing efficiencies. "Many
charities have a staff of only one or two people, and if you do not have an
excellent communications system, important calls from donors or those in need are missed," said a firm representative.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/06/voicenation-lau.php
