|
SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE BUSH
GUEST-WORKER PLAN
From: Center for Community
Change
If President Bush is serious
about reforming the broken immigration system, he could start this year with
support of the bipartisan AgJOBS bill for farm
workers and DREAM Act for college-bound immigrant students, both of which are a
long way into the legislative process and almost ready for his signature.
President Bush must also help create a bipartisan and comprehensive reform
package, which must include a path towards permanent residency for hardworking
immigrants already in the United States; an increase in family visas; labor protections for
immigrant workers and wage protections for both U.S. workers and immigrant workers.
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#2
**Children, Youth &
Families
New Report Details Sexual Trends among Low-Income Black Urban Youth
According
to a new report from MEE (Motivational Educational Entertainment) Productions,
for many low- income Black urban youth, sex is seen as little more than a
transaction and mainstream messages about sex, love, and relationships are having
little impact in the inner city. This
report summarizes findings from 40 focus groups conducted in ten cities in
2002, and offers many insights from low-income Black youth (ages 16-20) on
their views about sex, relationships, pregnancy, abstinence and marriage. The California Endowment and the Ford
Foundation sponsored the report.
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/This_Is_My_Reality/default.asp
Children's Defense
Fund Reviews Congress in 2003
The Children's Defense Fund
released an analysis of decisions made by Congress over the past year and
determined that the President and Congress did much more for special interests
and the wealthy than they did for America's children.
While there were some important gains for all children and families, on
balance, the choices made by our federal elected officials in 2003 leave most
poor children with very little to look forward to this Christmas.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/release031223.php
Arranging and Paying for Child Care
A
report from the Policy Institute of California examines child care arrangements
and costs in California using data from 1997
and 1999. Findings include the share of children under six in child care,
choice of arrangements, child and family characteristics, work schedules,
monthly expenditures on child care, child care assistance, care settings for
preschool-age children, characteristics linked to preschool attendance, and the
costs of universal preschool.
PDF:
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/R_1203MOR.pdf
More Research Needed to Put Marriage Policies on Track
The
National Poverty Center hosted a conference to
synthesize what is known from existing research about marriage policies and
family formation issues. The Research
Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism’s newsletter features
recent research and policy issues on marriage and family formation. Marriage has become a major component of the
TANF reauthorization debates, as proposals in the Senate, House, and White House
have allocated significant resources to marriage promotion activities and
related research. Although there is an existing body of research on marriage
from fields such as psychology, demography, and child development, research on
marriage policy is sparse.
PDF:
http://www.researchforum.org/newsletter/forum71.pdf
**Civic Engagement
U.S. Nonprofits Stressed But
Coping, New Survey Finds
According to a new report by
the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies U.S. non-profit
organizations experienced significant fiscal stress over the past year, but
still managed to increase services and boost revenue. Surveying a nationwide group of non-profit
agencies in five fields, the Johns Hopkins survey is the most comprehensive
effort to date to document the actual effects of recent economic weakness and
government budget cuts on the nation's charitable organizations and those they
serve, and to assess how the organizations have responded.
http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/home04/jan04/listen.html
**Community
Development
Bush Administration
Announces New HUD "Zero down payment" Mortgage
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development is proposing to offer a "zero down payment"
mortgage. the proposal, part of HUD's
Fiscal Year 2005 budget request, would eliminate the statutory requirement of a
minimum three percent down payment for FHA-insured single-family mortgages for
first-time homebuyers.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-006.cfm
**Education
Diploma or Not, High School Students who Learn More will Earn
More
According to a new Brown University study, even in an economy that has moved from an
industrial to a technologically advanced base, basic skills matter. High school dropouts who scored higher on a
standardized test earned more when they entered the labor market than high
school dropouts with lower scores.
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2003-04/03-072.html
Lessons from Private
Sector Might Help Improve Education
According to a RAND Corporation
report, schools can
improve the quality of education they offer children if educators use lessons
from quality assurance programs carried out by businesses and the medical
profession. While the strong current
focus on high-stakes testing might make students and teachers work harder,
researchers warn that this focus can also cause “dysfunctional behaviors,” such
as officials setting standards too low, “teaching to the test,” or encouraging
some students to skip accountability tests.
http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG136/
Long-Awaited
Debate on School Vouchers
In an article published in
the American Behavioral Scientist, the controversial issue of
school vouchers heats up as Princeton University researchers challenge the conclusions of researchers from Harvard University. The Harvard
study found that vouchers significantly improved test scores for minority
children. Proponents of school vouchers, such as President George W. Bush, used
Howell and Peterson's research as the basis for their claims that vouchers
benefit minority students.
http://puck.ingentaselect.com/vl=18746902/cl=89/nw=1/rpsv/ij/sage/00027642/v47n5/s8/p658
**Health
Many
Men Would Rather Cope with STDs than Use Condoms
According to a new survey of
low-income African-American clinic patients , some men
may not be willing to use condoms regularly even after seeking treatment for a
sexually transmitted infection and acknowledging their protective value.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-01/cfta-mmw012204.php
New Data Available that Show Relationship between Diabetes, Obesity,
and Chronic Disease
According
to data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Medical
Expenditure Panel Survey, in 2001, about 12.4 million Americans age 18 and
older not living in institutions had been told by a physician that they had
diabetes. Adult diabetics were more likely than nondiabetics to have reported a
number of other chronic health conditions. Diabetics were more likely to have
asthma than adult nondiabetics, nearly three times as likely to have
hypertension, over three times as likely to have heart disease, and over four
times as likely to have ever had a stroke.
http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/papers/st34/stat34.htm
*Race in America
Black
Americans: Study Documents Differences within the Community, Part 1
A University of Michigan
study of more than 6,000 African American, Afro-Caribbean and non-Hispanic
white adults---the first known study to include a national probability sample
of Blacks of Caribbean ancestry---shows strikingly different patterns of
prevalence of major mental and physical disorders within the U.S. Black
population.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-01/uom-bau012204.php
Black Americans: Study
Documents Differences within the Community, Part 2
According to findings from a
new University of Michigan study, Nearly one out of three African
Americans report that they have been unfairly stopped, searched and physically
abused or threatened by the police.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-01/uom-bau_1012204.php
**State of the Union
New Report on Real State of the Union: Choices Failed
Low-Income Families, Workers in 2003
A
report released by the Coalition on Human Needs documents a state of the union
characterized by almost unprecedented long-term unemployment, nearly 35 million
poor Americans, 43 million people without health insurance, and inadequate
child care, job training, affordable housing, and other supports to enable
parents to get and keep jobs.
http://www.chn.org/issues/article.asp?art=2050
Does Your State Compare to
the State of the Union?
The National Center for Children in Poverty has just updated our data for
all 50 states and the District
of Columbia. To
get detailed population and income statistics for your state, go to "state
profiles" at www.nccp.org In the United States, 37 percent of
children live in low-income families. That's 26 million children whose parents
don't earn enough to provide basic necessities such as stable housing, reliable
child care, and adequate food.
http://nccp.org/state.html
Children's Defense
Fund Says State of the Union Address Ignored the Nation's Children and
Low-Income Families
The
Children's Defense Fund (CDF) said President Bush ignored the real needs of America's children and
families in his State of the Union Address last night, and that he is sending
the nation's limited resources to the wrong places. The Children's Defense Fund said the
permanent tax cuts at the core of the President's economic agenda will drain
the nation's scarce resources and do little for the economy, while widening the
economic and racial gaps that divide America
http://www.childrensdefense.org/release040121.php
**Substance Abuse
Substance Abuse Prevention:
Improving Outcomes
The RAND Organization has
released a manual that outlines a ten-step process to enhance practitioners’
substance abuse prevention skills while empowering them to plan, implement, and
evaluate their own programs. The manual’s text and worksheets address needs and
resources assessment; goals and objectives; choosing programs; ensuring program
“fit”; capacity, planning, process, and outcome evaluation; continuous quality
improvement; and sustainability.
http://www.rand.org/publications/TR/TR101/
|
