Human Services
Community Building
Digest

From: National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness:

ACTION NEEDED: If you work with emergency food and/or shelter providers, please contact your networks and ask them to fill out the survey.  The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness are surveying all emergency providers that directly serve clients--shelters, community kitchens, and food pantries.

http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#2#2

SUPPORT INCREASED FUNDING FOR JOB ACCESS IN THE TRANSPORTATION BILL

ACTION NEEDED: Contact your Senators and urge them to support increasing funding for the Job Access and Reverse Commute program at a rate that is equal to the rate at which transit funding increases overall. 

http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#3#3

Interested in bringing public policy makers and their low-income constituents together?

From: Walk A Mile Program

Walk A Mile is looking for community organizations to coordinate projects in 2004. Projects are either state-wide (all state legislators are invited to participate and any that agree are matched with constituents in their districts) or local (a project in a city, county or several counties that include policy makers and their constituents from that geographical area) and are coordinated by community organizations. Walk A Mile hopes to bring this project to every state!

http://webx.handsnet.org/webx?13@@.1dcfce7f

**Children, Youth & Families

Union Formation and Dissolution in Fragile Families

The Center for Research on Child Wellbeing has released a report from its Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study which examines union formation among unmarried parents who have just had a child together.  The study estimates the effects of economic, cultural/interpersonal, and other factors on whether (relative to having no romantic relationship) parents are romantically involved (living apart), cohabiting, or married to each other about one year after the child’s birth.

PDF: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP01-06-FF-Carlson.pdf

New Report Shows Quality Child Care Cuts Crime, Saves Money

The Denver Chief of Police helped Fight Crime: Invest in Kids release a report showing that quality child care cuts crime and called on Colorado Senators to back an increase in federal child care investments. That's especially important for Colorado, where, according to the report, only one in nine eligible children is currently served by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the federal government's primary source of child care assistance for working families.

Press Release: http://www.fightcrime.org/releases.php?id=86

Full Report PDF: http://www.fightcrime.org/reports/COCCDBG.pdf

After School Programming for School Age Youth

One consequence of welfare reform is the increased labor force participation of single mothers, often leaving children without parental supervision during after school hours.  A 2002 synthesis of research by MDRC’s The Next Generation Project hypothesizes that the lack of parental supervision during out-of-school time may lead to negative academic and behavioral outcomes for adolescents.  MDRC’s research demonstrated that adolescents (age 12-18) experience lower academic achievement when welfare policy moved their single parent to the workforce. 

http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/Publications/afterschoolprogramRN.htm

**Civic Engagement

Social Norms and Voter Turnout

According to research from Brookings, there are other considerations which induce people to take time out of their day to vote, and to the extent that these considerations are related to voters' true opinions, they will affect the outcome of the elections.  As much as we would like to believe otherwise, people do not turn out to vote solely to have a part in deciding public policy.  After all, the probability that one person's vote will swing the election is almost nil, while the effort of taking an hour or two out of one's day to cast a vote is decidedly not nil.

http://www.brookings.org/views/op-ed/20040126klemens.htm

**Community Development

Linking Economic Development and Job Creation for the Working Poor

A Resources for Welfare Decisions brief from the Finance Project highlights recent publications, electronic resources, and federal, state and local programs that focus on strengthening the link between economic development and job creation for the working poor.  With high unemployment and job turnover in many low-income urban and rural communities, states and localities are exploring ways to expand community revitalization efforts to include job creation and workforce development aimed at unskilled and semi-skilled workers.  Efforts have focused on linking standard economic development strategies to recruit new businesses, help existing businesses expand, and leverage funds for large-scale projects with a range of incentives and mandates for businesses and real estate developers.

http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/Publications/economicdevelopmentRN.htm

Trends in Worst Case Needs for Housing, 1978-1999 and Update on Worst Case Needs in 2001

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has released a report to Congress which examines the trends in worst case housing needs from 1978 to 1999, as well as new data from 2001.  Statistics are provided on renter households with severe needs for rental assistance, the supply of housing at different rent levels, the change in households with worst case needs since 1978, and the demographics of renters with worst case needs such as income, age, race/ethnicity, work effort, and geographical area.

PDF: http://www.huduser.org/Publications/PDF/trends.pdf

Rental Market Dynamics: Is Affordable Housing for the Poor an Endangered Species?

A new study commissioned by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research analyzes rental market data between 1995 and 1999 to examine the substantial movement of housing into and out of the rental stock.  The study focuses on six metropolitan areas: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Northern New Jersey. The authors track the sources of new rental housing, the reasons for loss of rental housing, and changes in affordability of the existing rental housing stock.

http://www.huduser.org/datasets/ahs/ahsreports.html

**Economic Security

African Americans, College Graduates Hit Hardest By Recession

The National Urban League released a new report showing that despite the improving economy, African-Americans and other low-income Americans are still being hurt more than whites by the jobless recovery.  The report from the League's Institute of Opportunity and Equality found that the African- American unemployment rate is double that of whites, and that they are more likely than whites to endure long-term unemployment; that more college-educated and high-skilled African-American workers are unemployed than their white counterparts; and that African-Americans have suffered disproportionate job losses in manufacturing.

http://www.nul.org/news/2004/jobless.html

Advancing Low-Wage Workers to Self-Sufficiency

Jobs for the Future develops models, strategies, and policies that enable adults to advance toward economic self-sufficiency for themselves and their families. Drawing on innovative workforce development efforts around the country, JFF publications, tool kits, and other resources respond to the challenges to advancement for low-wage workers.  Through a new series, Advancement for Low-Wage Workers, JFF seeks to elevate discussion of this critical issue within and outside the workforce field. Elaborating upon the themes in the series introduction, The Next Challenge, these occasional papers address public policy and on-the-ground practice.

http://www.jff.org/jff/approaches/econopp/showcase/adv_LowWageWorkers.html

Economic Growth not Reaching Middle- and Lower Wage Earners

The latest Snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute finds that the persistently weak labor market is taking a toll on the living standards of middle- and lower wage workers. The weekly earnings of these workers were lower at the end of 2003 than one year earlier (adjusted for inflation).

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots

**Education

Head Start Reauthorization: A Section-by-Section Analysis of the Senate Bill

The Center for Law and Social Policy analyzes the Head Start Improvements for School Readiness Act that was filed November 24, 2003.  This document provides an overview summary of the provisions of the Senate HELP Committee bill, a brief summary of key similarities with and differences from the House-passed reauthorization bill and a section-by-section analysis of the 117-page Senate bill.

http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1074882262.41/view_html

Head Start: the Right Start?

Researcher from Temple University researchers led a group of some of the country's top child development experts in a briefing for legislators and journalists to discuss what the latest scientific research tells us about what kids should know--and how tools currently available to assess that knowledge measure up (or don't).  "The state of assessment is not where the science is," according to a cognitive psychologist and expert in child language development who notes that measurement tools are vitally important as lawmakers assess Head Start against the backdrop of President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative.

PDF: http://www.temple.edu/circl/CIRCL_PreSchAssesmt.pdf

Head Start Children Receive More Health, Dental Services Than Other Poor Children

The Center for Law and Social Policy has released a new policy brief, the fourth in the Head Start Series, which describes the comprehensive services Head Start children receive. It presents data from Head Start Program Information Reports (PIR) from the most recent program year, 2001–2002, and compares them, when possible; to national data on the services low-income children and families receive.

PDF: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1075300806.3/HS_brf_4.pdf

Bilingual Approaches Produce Higher Reading Achievement

A new report analyzing more than three decades of research finds that bilingual education programs produce higher levels of student achievement in reading than English-only approaches.  The analysis conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the Success for All Foundation found that students participating in paired bilingual programs -- those offering ongoing instruction in a native language and English at different times of the day -- made the most dramatic gains in reading performance compared to their English-only peers.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-01/jhu-bap012304.php

**Health

Fund Targets Children's Mental Development

The Commonwealth Fund announce the second phase of the Assuring Better Child Health and Development initiative, which will focus on an often-neglected area of pediatric primary care—young children's healthy mental development. Lessons from the first phase of ABCD and a toolbox of resources are also available.

http://www.cmwf.org/../../programs/child/abcd_2ndpg.asp

Unemployment, Changes in Employment Patterns Explain Rising Rates of Uninsured

According to an analysis of U.S. Census data published in Health Affairs, increases in unemployment, changes in employment patterns, and rising health care costs have driven the increases in the number and percentage of uninsured Americans.  The decline in the number of Americans covered by employer-sponsored insurance has been the chief cause of the rising numbers of uninsured people from 2000 to 2002. Two-thirds of the people who lost insurance during this time were low-income adults.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w4.31

Physicians Can Help Family Members Caring for Dying Loved Ones

According to a UCSF Medical Center palliative care expert , physicians have five areas of opportunity to be of service to family members caring for patients at the end of life.  These interventions include promoting good communication with family members, encouraging appropriate advance care planning and decision-making, supporting home care, demonstrating empathy for family emotions and relationships, and attending to family grief and bereavement.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-01/uoc--pch012704.php

**Hunger

New Food Stamp Outreach Opportunity

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the Medicare Discount Drug Card Offers an Opportunity to Expand Food Stamp Enrollment among the Elderly and People with Disabilities.  Many of the people who are eligible for $600 in additional subsidies under the new temporary Medicare drug card that starts this summer are also eligible for $600 a year or more food stamps. This paper explores new opportunities to enroll low-income Medicare beneficiaries in food stamps.

http://www.cbpp.org/1-29-04fa.htm

**Reauthorization Activities

Human Needs Program Reauthorization for 108th Congress

A chart synthesized by the Coalition for Human Needs details the current status of the reauthorization of federal programs important to low-income and other vulnerable populations including what happened in the first session of the 108th Congress and what is expected in 2004.

PDF: http://www.chn.org/pdf/reauthorizationchart.pdf