HHS
Awards $3 Million for Adolescent Family Life Care Demonstration Grants
The Office
of Population Affairs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
announced awards totaling $3,213,917. Nine Adolescent Family Life (AFL) Care
Demonstration Grants were awarded to school districts, a faith-based
organization and seven community-based organizations. The AFL care
demonstration programs establish and evaluate innovative approaches to the
delivery of care to pregnant and parenting teens in an effort to ameliorate the
effects of too-early childbearing.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/hhs_awards_3_mi.php
Child
Development Campaign Expands to Target More Than 400,000 Child Care Facilities
Nationwide
A childhood
development campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is
designed to help increase awareness about the importance of tracking a child's
social and emotional development, including the potential early warning signs
of autism and other developmental disabilities. The new phase targets more
than 407,000 child care facilities in the United States and will provide free materials to help child care providers
and preschool teachers educate parents about child development and autism.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/child_developme_1.php
Lessons
Learned From Safe Kids/Safe Streets
Child abuse
and neglect can harm young people in ways beyond the immediate pain and
suffering inflicted. The Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS), and the
Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) agreed to fund and monitor these
communities, with OJJDP providing overall coordination. In 1997, DOJ selected
five localities to implement SK/SS. DOJ expected communities to become more
comprehensive and proactive in their efforts to combat child abuse and neglect,
improve coordination and collaboration across agencies, and deploy resources
more effectively.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/lessons_learned.php
**Civic
Engagement
Voter
Suppression Tactics Could Mar 2006 Election, New Publication Finds
In
communities across the country, voters could be subject to intimidation and a
variety of suppressive tactics meant to keep them from casting a ballot.
Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy center, published the details of
these potential challenges to voting rights in a new briefing paper. The Voter
Intimidation and Vote Suppression briefing paper, part of Demos' Challenges to
Fair Elections series highlighting trouble spots and voting rights problems in
the '06 election, shows how campaigns to suppress voter turnout take a variety
of forms, are often mounted in communities of color, and that many go unnoticed
or unchallenged until after it is too late.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/voter_suppressi_1.php
Black
Electorate Confront Obstacles at Polls But More Prepared to Make Their Votes
Count
An
aggressive voter education campaign launched by the National Coalition on Black
Civic Participation (NCBCP), and its Unity '06 Campaign, resulted in a more
informed and determined Black Electorate casting ballots in the Mid-Term
Election Cycle. While numerous instances of voting machine malfunctions,
inadequate supplies of ballots and voter registration errors were reported by
poll watchers and calls to national election hotlines, Black voters countered
by knowing their rights and taking action to protect their vote.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/black_electorat.php
Young
Voter Turnout Up for Second Major Election in a Row
Turnout
among 18 to 29- year-old voters increased by more than 2 million voters in the
2006 elections compared to 2002, according to an early exit poll analysis
released today as part of the first comprehensive look at the youth vote in the
midterm elections, presented by Young Voter Strategies. Turnout more than
doubled in the 36 precincts where groups like the nonpartisan Student PIRGs'
New Voters Project actively turned out this age cohort.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/young_voter_tur.php
Look
to Governors Races for Signs of Change
An op-ed
piece from the Brookings Institution
points out that less covered than the tensest, most partisan congressional
fights, the likely blowout wins of popular governors in both parties, such as
Arnold Schwarzenegger's race in California and Janet Napolitano's in Arizona,
propose a story line as suggestive and deserving of note as the high-profile
Iraq referendums and party-line slugfests. In these gubernatorial blowouts,
the easy re-election of nimble, energetic and pragmatic governors in key states
marks the success of non-ideological problem solving in an era that may be
growing tired of ideological partisanship.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/look_to_governo.php
**Education
Most
Schools Fail to Fully Adopt Reform Models Designed to Boost Student Achievement
An analysis
from RAND finds that schools that embrace
comprehensive reform models designed to improve student achievement frequently
do not fully adopt all practices recommended by the model developers. The
findings call into question whether the comprehensive school reform model
approach that has been adopted by more than 8,000 schools nationally can become
a key strategy to help improve student performance.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/most_schools_fa.php
Ten
Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act on Public Schools
According
to the Center on Education Policy, TEST-DRIVEN accountability is now the norm
in public schools, a result of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which is
the culmination of 15 years of standards-based reform. Many state and local
officials believe that this reliance on tests is too narrow a measure of
educational achievement, but NCLB has directed greater attention to
low-achieving students and intensified efforts to improve persistently
low-performing schools.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/ten_big_effects.php
Giving
Hope Back to Disabled Veterans
For most
people, Veterans' Day means a day off from work or school. But for more than
26 million veterans--two million who have disabilities--November 11 is a day
for reflection and often for those with disabilities, a day of concern about
what the future holds. Kent State University, in partnership with the Louis
Stokes Cleveland Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, has created a
program that offers veterans the opportunity to take control of their future by
obtaining entirely online degrees suited to their educational, physical and
mental needs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/giving_hope_bac.php
**Health
The
Impact of the Congressional Elections on Health Care
According
to Families
USA big changes in the composition of the House and Senate will have a
profound impact on national health policymaking in 2007 and 2008. As a result,
some issues, such as expansion of children's health care coverage and
improvements to the Medicare Part D program, will receive a tremendous boost
when the new Congress convenes in January. Since approximately 9 million
children continue to be uninsured, the real question before Congress is whether
the reauthorization process will expand health coverage and provide adequate
SCHIP funding for those children who don't have coverage and whose families
can't afford it.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/the_impact_of_t_1.php
Mental
Health Problems From Katrina Persist
Hurricane
Katrina left more than gutted houses and empty streets along the Gulf Coast. These
are the findings of a panel that was part of an annual Carter Center symposium on mental health policy. This year's focus is on
the psychological effects of Hurricane Katrina. Panelists said mentally ill
patients are still unable to get treatment and medicine because so few services
are available in New
Orleans and other
damaged cities. But the storm also triggered mental problems -- most commonly
depression and anxiety -- in people who had never before had them.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/_mental_health.php
**Hunger
and Nutrition
Post
Election Appropriations Outlook
The Food
Research and Action Center reports that Federal government programs (including
all food and nutrition programs funded in the Agriculture Approps bill and
human needs programs funded in the Labor-HHS-Education Approps bill) continue
to operate through funding via a continuing resolution (CR) that expires on
Nov. 17th, and decisions must be made as to how to proceed with all remaining
spending bills.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/post_election_a.php
**Substance
Abuse
Groups
Picked to Run $125 Million International Antismoking Campaign
The
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the World
Health Organization, and the World Lung Foundation have been tapped to
administer a new $125-million antismoking campaign funded by billionaire
Michael Bloomberg. They will work to help smokers quit, raise tobacco taxes,
monitor tobacco use, and measure the effectiveness of stop-smoking strategies.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/groups_picked_t.php
Adults
with Earlier Onset of Alcohol Dependence More Likely to Wait to Seek Treatment
One-fourth
of adults who were ever alcohol dependent sought help or treatment for a reason
related to their drinking at some point in their life, according to a recent
analysis of data from the National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol Related
Conditions (NESARC). Among those who sought help, those with earlier onset of
alcohol dependence took longer to do so.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/mt-static/archives/2006/11/adults_with_ear.php
