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Survey Finds That Our Nation Has Inadequate Preschool Programs
A
landmark survey conducted by the National Institute for Early Education
Research of state preschool programs found that the states are "failing
our nation's children" with ten states spending nothing at all and the
level of funding "embarrassingly low in many, perhaps most other
states"...
http://nieer.org/yearbook/
Supply and Demand for Early Childhood Education in Illinois
According
to a new Illinois Facilities Fund (IFF) report, there is a spot available for
only 52% of zero to five-year olds needing care and education in Illinois. In some communities, thousands of children
lack access to needed services. The IFF's newly released report, “Moving Towards
a System: Tools, Benchmarks and Standards,” is the first-ever comprehensive
study to document the supply and demand for early education and care in each Illinois county and the
sixty-six largest municipalities.
http://www.iff.org/content.cfm/research
New Program to Curb Childhood Obesity Epidemic
The
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) has launched a new
program to help combat the war on childhood obesity. AACE's
Power of Prevention through Fitness and Nutrition is taking the message of the
importance of physical activity and good nutrition to America's youth.
http://www.aace.com/pub/press/releases/index.php?r=20040224
Kaiser Family Foundation
Releases Report on Role of Media in Childhood Obesity
The Kaiser Family Foundation
released a report today reviewing more than 40 studies on the role of media in
the nation's dramatically increasing rates of childhood obesity. The report
concludes that the majority of scientific research indicates that children who
spend the most time with media are more likely to be overweight. Contrary to
common assumptions, however, most research reviewed for this report does not
find that children's media use displaces more vigorous physical
activities. Children’s exposure to
billions of dollars worth of food advertising and marketing in the media may be
a key mechanism through which media contributes to childhood obesity.
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia022404pkg.cfm
Number of Children Linked
to Obesity for Mom and Dad
According to a new study from
Duke University Medical Center, the more children a person has, the greater the risk
he or she will become obese. From an
analysis of a large database of middle-aged Americans, researchers found women
faced an average 7 percent increased risk of obesity per child and men an average 4 percent increased risk per child. Researchers
attribute the weight gain to a busier lifestyle that may include a diet of more
fast food and leave less time for exercise.
http://news.mc.duke.edu/news/article.php?id=7421
How to Be Healthy in Old Age? Start With a Healthy Childhood, According
to Article in Demography
According
to a new study published in the February issue of the journal Demography,
Social conditions and a healthy family environment for children can lower the
risk of death for men more than half a century later. Having parents who worked in professional
jobs, growing up on a farm, and growing up in a two-parent family lowered
significantly the risk of death for men after age 45. In large part, the
association between a healthy environment in childhood and good health in old
age is explained by the achievements and lifestyle behaviors of the men in
their own adult careers -- those who had favorable conditions as boys were less
likely as older men to smoke, drink excessively, or be obese.
PDF:
http://www.pop.psu.edu/general/pubs/working_papers/psu-pri/wp0104.pdf
New Data on STDs
in Americans under 25 Highlight Need for Honest Sex Ed, Frank Talk:
A new report—Our Voices, Our
Lives, Our Futures—released by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill contains the first national
estimates on new infections among Americans ages 15-24 for eight major sexually
transmitted diseases. It also outlines strategies that can help to stem the STD
epidemic in the U.S., drawing on the latest research as well as the experiences of those
who will be most affected—youth.
http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/archives/feb04/jschoolreport022404.html
**Community and
Economic Development
MicroMentor Selected by HP to
Offer Online Mentoring to Budding Entrepreneurs
The
Aspen Institute today announced that HP has selected the Institute's MicroMentor program to match entrepreneurs from the nine
organizations in HP's Microenterprise
Development Program, designed to increase the capacity of both microenterprise organizations and
small business owners in underserved communities, with mentors who have
succeeded as business owners. MicroMentor is an
innovative mentoring program that uses the Internet to connect owners of very
small businesses, or "microentrepreneurs,"
to individuals who have successfully navigated business ownership, often in the
same industry.
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/index.asp?bid=9306
Job Trends over the Next
15 Years
The RAND Corporation analyzes
the shifting demographic patterns, the growing impact of technological change,
and economic globalization; three major trends that will shape the labor force
and employment relationships in the 21st century.
http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG164/
**Economic Security
Expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, Economic Growth Reduced U.S. Poverty
According
to an analysis published in the February issue of the journal Demography, the
expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)--from a maximum credit of $500
to $3,800 for lower-income workers--contributed up to 50 percent of the decline
in after-tax poverty during the 1990s.
PDF:
http://www.ukcpr.org/Publications/Demography_round2_final.pdf
The Squeeze: Helping Low-Income Families in an Era of Dwindling
Resources.
The
first guest in the Center for Law and Social Policy Audio Conference Series,
Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, offered his perspective on welfare reauthorization,
child care funding, transitional jobs, marriage promotion, abstinence
education, youth development, Head Start, and child welfare.
http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1077826905.9/view_html
Philadelphia's
Campaign for Working Families
An essay from the Brookings
Institution describes the efforts and strategies of Philadelphia's Campaign for Working Families to build and
implement an outreach program to alert families to the federal Earned Income
Tax Credit (EITC).
http://www.brookings.org/urban/eitc/20040224_houstoun.htm
Analysis
of Alternative Financial Service Providers
A study by the Urban
Institute finds that millions of households conduct financial transactions
without ever using mainstream financial services. Many of these consumers often
rely on alternative financial service providers--check-cashing outlets, payday
lenders, pawnshops, rent-to-own stores, and auto title lenders. These alternative,
nonbank financial service providers often carry high
costs, limiting low-income families' ability to accumulate assets and establish
a credit history.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8732
**Education
Poll Results Point to Parents' Concerns about Education
Poll results released by National PTA show that parents are worried
about the future of public education. Parents are seeing classrooms with
wall-to-wall desks and are opening their wallets to save art and music
programs. Additionally, an overwhelming 93 percent of public school parents
said that education will play a major role in their decision about which
candidate to support in this election year.
http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/pressroom/pr040224.asp
Who
Graduates? Who Doesn't?
A study from the Urban
Institute provides the most extensive set of systematic empirical findings to
date on U.S. public school graduation rates. The findings include
detailed descriptive statistics and analytic results for the nation as a whole,
by geographical region, and for each of the states. The study also offers a
detailed perspective on high school completion by examining graduation rates
for the overall student population, for specific racial and ethnic groups, and
by gender, and analysis of graduation rate patterns for particular types of
school districts.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8742
California Launches New School Improvement System to Provide
Insight, Access to School Performance Data
Just for the Kids-California
(JFTK-CA), an affiliate of the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA), and members of
the business and education community announced the public debut of a new
web-based school improvement system (www.jftk-ca.org) featuring data and tools
to help educators raise student achievement in California public schools.
In addition to performance snap shots of each school, the site offers a
unique feature that allows visitors to compare the performance of a specific
school to the top ten performing public schools in the state with comparable
demographic and biographic student populations.
http://www.basrc.org/news_events/press_releases/PressRelease_022504.html
SBC Foundation Makes $5M Grant to Fund Program to Address College Readiness among
Low-Income Students
In
the wake of recent research from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
indicating that only 32 percent of all high-school students are ready for
college, the SBC Foundation -- the philanthropic arm of SBC Communications Inc.
-- today announced a $5 million grant to the National Council for Community and
Education Partnerships (NCCEP). The grant represents the single largest private
donation to the federal program Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for
Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), and will be used to fund a competitive grant
program for initiatives that promote college-readiness for low-income students.
http://www.ed.gov/programs/gearup/index.html
**Health
New Analysis of Medicare
Drug Law
The Commonwealth Fund has
assembled a chartpack with more than 50 slides
highlighting recent research and analytical findings on Medicare, including an
overview of the new prescription drug law.
PDF: http://www.cmwf.org/../../programs/medfutur/medicarechtpk_debate_659.pdf
Worlds Apart: Films on
Cross-Cultural Care
Four short films and
accompanying study guide, produced with partial support from The
Commonwealth Fund, explore the issues of cross-cultural health care. Many researchers have documented the
shortcomings of the patient-physician communication process, concerns that
become far greater when patients' are minorities, don't understand English
well, or come from cultural traditions with which most American doctors are
unfamiliar. These films are available
online.
http://www.cmwf.org/../../programs/minority/worldsapart020504.asp
Federal Government Will
Forgo $188.5 Billion in Tax Revenue Through Favorable
Treatment of Health Care Benefits
According to a new analysis
posted on the Health Affairs Web site, exemptions for employer-provided health
coverage and other favorable tax treatment will result in $188.5 billion in
forgone federal tax revenue this year, with high-income families collecting a
disproportionate share of the benefit. The
study finds that the benefits of the tax deductions - sometimes called
"tax expenditures" - go disproportionately to higher-income
households because those households are more likely to have employer coverage
and are in higher tax brackets.
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w4.106
**Hunger and Nutrition
Food Stamp Program Participation by Eligible People
The Food Research and Action Center has produced a special analysis of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture report on Food Stamp Program participation by
eligible people. The USDA report shows a
significant gap nationally, with four out of ten eligible people not served,
and that gap much more significant in many states. The findings are based upon
data for an average month in FY 2001 and for the two previous fiscal years.
FRAC Analysis: http://www.frac.org/html/news/2001FSparticip_rates.htm
USDA Report PDF: http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/MENU/Published/FSP/FILES/Participation/Reaching2001.pdf
**Philanthropy &
Nonprofit Management
IS Releases Model Code of Ethics for Nonprofits, Foundations
Independent
Sector has adopted a Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for Nonprofit and
Philanthropic Organizations and released it as a model for use by nonprofit
organizations and foundations nationwide.
IS strongly recommends that all
nonprofits and foundations have a code of ethics and provides this model, as a
tool to help them develop a code or review an existing one...
http://www.independentsector.org/media/code_ethicsPR2.html
Real Results with Online
Tools: Leveraging the Internet for Successful Marketing, Fundraising and
Advocacy
Nonprofit organizations
interested in learning how to optimize use of the Internet to drive fundraising
and other forms of support will want to attend Convio's
luncheon seminars, March 9-April 22, in cities nationwide. "Real Results with Online Tools:
Leveraging the Internet for Successful Marketing, Fundraising and
Advocacy" will feature many of today's top nonprofits reporting on results
they have achieved with Convio's advanced Internet
tools - from increasing donor renewal rates by as much as 20 percent among
e-newsletter subscribers to raising more than $1 million dollars online in less
than a year.
http://www.convio.com/realresults
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