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**Children, Youth &
Families
The Wallace Foundation
Commits $12 Million to Help Strengthen Out-of-School Time Programs
The Wallace Foundation has
committed $12 million to help strengthen out-of-school time programs for
children in New York
City with the
goal of improving quality and building participation. . Earlier, Wallace
supported the gathering of data that showed gaps in neighborhood provision of
out-of-school time programs, and what New York City children and parents wanted
from them, as well as planning efforts based on that data.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050111.141722&time=06%2000%20PST&year=2005&public=1
Federal Policy for
Immigrant Children: Room for Common Ground?
A policy brief part of the
Future of Children Policy Brief Series by the Brookings Institution, offers
differing views on how to improve the well-being of children in immigrant
families in the United States. One approach
emphasizes the need to tie public benefits for immigrant families to work
through such policies as education and training and the earned income tax
credit for families with children, another argues that non-citizen
families should have the same eligibility for public assistance as citizen
families and support greater financial aid for early childhood education and
other forms of schooling.
http://www.brookings.org/es/research/projects/wrb/publications/pb/foc_14_2.htm
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Remembers AMBER
Alert Namesake
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), in
partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is participating in a
national effort to recognize the abduction of Amber Hagerman, the 9-year-old
girl whose 1996 abduction and murder prompted the creation of the AMBER Alert
program. In an effort to promote public
education of the AMBER Alert program, DOJ has produced three public service
announcements (PSA).
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41652
Child Welfare Spending
during a Time of Fiscal Stress
A brief from the Urban
Institute highlights some of the findings from the Institute's 2003 Child Welfare
Survey. States spent at least $22 billion on child welfare activities in state
fiscal year (SFY) 2002, with increases between SFY 2000 and SFY 2002 coming
from all levels of government.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9142
Comments
Regarding Changes to the Matching Requirements in the Child Care and
Development Block Grant
Comments from the Center for
Law and Social Policy, sent to the Child Care Bureau on January 8, 2005, respond to the proposed changes to the matching
requirements in the Child Care and Development Block Grant. CLASP is concerned that the proposed changes
could lead to reduced accountability and the potential for fraud and mis-expenditures. The comments outline the areas of concern
and suggest alternative approaches.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/ccdbg_comments.pdf
**Civic Engagement
Government Should Educate
Public for Stronger Democracy
A Vanderbilt University philosopher argues that the U.S. government should take action to strengthen democracy
by educating the public to be better citizens.
In a new book the author proposes that in political philosophy,
liberalism holds that the state exists solely to protect your liberty to do
whatever you want, so long as you're not infringing on other people's liberty,
in this way, liberalism defines freedom as noninterference, as being left alone,. By contrast, civic republicanism holds that
freedom means being a full citizen in a self-governing community. On the civic republican view, there is no
freedom outside of democratic participation.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050112.074758&time=08%2009%20PST&year=2005&public=1
**Community Development
A Snapshot of Community
Indicators Development
The Association for Community
Health Improvement announces the release of a Community Indicators Report that
presents a snapshot of community indicators' development, use and impact across
a range of topics, by weaving together presentation summaries from the
Community Indicators Conference held in March 2004 in Reno,
Nevada. The document
defines community indicators broadly as systems of measure pertaining to the
quality of community life, and focuses on health-related indicators
initiatives. It also provides links to the Community Indicators Consortium's
new web site and its member organizations.
PDF: http://www.communityhlth.org/communityhlth/files/files_resource/CommunityIndicatorsReport_1-05.pdf
Supermarket
Characteristics and Operating Costs in Low-Income Areas
This report, based upon an
examination of 32,000 supermarkets in the US that accept food stamps, explores whether poor people
pay more for food as well as similarities and differences among markets serving
poor, middle income and rich communities. In addition to retail food costs, the
report examines market characteristics (square footage, age, hours open, number
of checkout lines, and ownership traits); customer characteristics (income and
ethnicity); competition issues (wages, unionization, employee turnover, and
distance to nearest competitor); and other practices and measures.
PDF: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer839/aer839.pdf
Reservation Economic Summit
This year, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED)
celebrates 35 years of promoting economic development and creating business
success in Indian Country. RES is the
largest and longest running national American Indian business event and is the
premier gathering of Native entrepreneurs, Tribal representatives,
corporations, and government agencies. Last year, RES drew a record 1,600
participants.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41430
Bush Plans Sharp Cuts in
HUD Community Efforts
According to an article in
the Washington Post, the White House will seek to drastically shrink the
Department of Housing and Urban Development's $8 billion community branch,
purging dozens of economic development projects, scrapping a rural housing
program and folding high-profile anti-poverty efforts into the Labor and
Commerce departments.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/washpost/20050114/ts_washpost/a7862_2005jan13
**Economic Security
The Interaction of Child
Support and TANF
A study from MDRC suggests
that child support can be an important income source and can help welfare
recipients move toward self-sufficiency. More generous distribution rules
increase payment rates, but many parents still do not understand the
distribution rules.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/397/execsum.html
How Did the 2001 Recession
Affect Single Mothers?
The weakening economy and job
losses after late 2000 posed a tough challenge for welfare reform's employment
strategy. Would single mothers' employment gains evaporate or
not? Would wages erode as labor demand declined? Have the recent
increases in total employment translated into added jobs for single parents? To
answer these questions, the Urban Institute tabulated labor force and wage
trends among single mothers based on the monthly Current Population Surveys
(CPS) collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9143
Proposed Social Security
Reform Cuts Income Support
The Economic Policy Institute posits that a key
proposal by President Bush's commission on Social Security would prevent Social
Security benefits from growing along with general living standards in the
future. This would cause Social Security
to wither away over time and result in larger income declines for retirees, the
disabled, and survivors, and hurt working families with low and middle incomes.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20050112
The Flawed
"Population Plus Inflation" Formula; Why Taxpayer Bill of Rights
Growth Formula Doesn't Work
According to the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities, limiting the growth of state revenue collections
and state expenditures to a population-growth-plus-inflation formula is a
central provision of a new generation of tax and expenditure limits now being
promoted by national anti-government groups.
Under such proposals, state constitutions would be amended to bar state
and local expenditures from rising at a percentage rate that exceeds the rate
of growth of state population plus an inflation factor. Such formulaic limitations may sound
reasonable, but are actually a recipe for sharply reduced public services and
an impaired ability to respond effectively to public needs, federal mandates,
and changing circumstances.
http://www.cbpp.org/1-13-05sfp3.htm
**Education
Later Entry into Grade 1
Boosts Self-Esteem Later in Life
A new study from the University of Alberta suggests it may be better to enroll your child in the first grade
later than sooner. The study says that
students who entered Grade 1 at an older age relative to their classmates
scored significantly better years later on tests that measure self-esteem. This
is important, the study's authors say, because there is much evidence linking
higher self-esteem in childhood to happier, healthier, and more successful
lives as adults. Conversely, lower
self-esteem in childhood can lead to the development of a variety of emotional
disturbances and an increased risk of suicide
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/uoa-lei011005.php
Secondary School
Principals Encouraged and Cautiously Optimistic about President Bush's High
School Reform Proposal
The National Association of
Secondary School Principals is encouraged by the President's comments on the
need for federal support of high school reform efforts. The needs of America's economically diverse high school student population
are greater today than ever before. The President's proposal to provide federal
assistance to high schools is support long overdue from the federal government.
We sincerely hope that the President's pledge of significant resources for high
schools will be reflected in his fiscal year 2006 budget proposal that will be
released in the next couple of weeks.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41668
StudentsReview, the
Largest Free Provider of Student Opinion Has Released its First Official
College Rankings
StudentsReview released its
OFFICIAL college rankings, based entirely on what the students themselves have
to say about their schools. "After
four years and with nearly 25,000 in-depth surveys covering 2,500 schools,
StudentsReview found that Dartmouth
and the University of Chicago best fulfill its students’ expectations academically. StudentsReview's rankings do not care what
the college presidents think their rankings are based on student opinion, and
only on student opinion.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41479
**Health
Five Reasons to Learn to
Forgive from Harvard Women's Health Watch
According to an article in
the January issue of Harvard Women's Health Watch, forgiving those who hurt you
can improve your mental and physical well-being. "Five for 2005: Five
Reasons to Forgive" also defines what forgiveness is-and is not-and provides
an exercise to help you learn how to forgive.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41578
Study Shows Depression Intensifies
from One Generation to the Next
According to a new study by
researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute nearly
60 percent of children whose parents and grandparents suffered from depression
have a psychiatric disorder before they reach their early teens. This is more than double the number of
children (approx. 28 percent) who develop such disorders with no family history
of depression.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/cuco-css011005.php
Survey Finds Online Health
Information Poised to Become Important Resource For
Seniors, But Not There Yet
A national Kaiser Family
Foundation survey of older Americans found that as the Internet becomes an
increasingly important resource for informing decisions about health and health
care options, less than a third (31%) of seniors (age 65 and older) have ever
gone online, but that more than two-thirds (70%) of the next generation of
seniors (50-64 year-olds) have done so.
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia011205pkg.cfm
2005 Health Care Agenda
and Election Survey
A new Kaiser Family
Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health survey finds that Americans favor
malpractice reform and drug importation, but rank them low on the list for
Congress and the president.
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/pomr011105pkg.cfm
**Hunger & Nutrition
U.S. Diet Guide Puts Emphasis on Weight Loss
The federal government issued
new dietary guidelines for Americans on Wednesday, and for the first time since
the recommendations were introduced in 1980, they emphasize weight loss as well
as healthy eating and cardiovascular health.
The guidelines, which follow several years of reports that Americans are
fatter than ever, recommend eating many more fruits and vegetables, more
low-fat milk, more whole grains and increasing exercise to as much as an hour
and a half a day. But some critics question whether they will make any
difference in an increasingly fat America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/health/13diet.html?ex=1263358800&en=1f8721a5eaf6b8f8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt
Added Sugar Displaces Food
Groups Lowering Quality of Preschooler Diets
A Penn State University study
has shown that American preschoolers get about 14 to 17 teaspoons of added
sugar a day, on average, mostly from fruit-flavored drinks, high-fat desserts
and cola-type soft drinks which displace the grain, vegetable, fruit and dairy
food groups and lower the quality of their diet.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-01/ps-asd011205.php
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