Human Services
Community Building
Digest

http://www.maketanfwork.org/action/March5th.htm

MARCH 4TH FOR CHILD CARE - The Child Care and Development Block Grant - our major federal child care program - is due to be reauthorized in 2002. This is our chance to seek major new federal funding for child care, writes Children's Defense Fund.  With a slow economy and growing state deficits, this is a critical opportunity to help families work and children learn. To make an impact in Congress, on March 4th, send an  e-card to your Senators and Representative, urging them to "march forth" for child care! http://capwiz.com/cdf/issues/alert/?alertid=103369&type=CO

For more from CDF on the reauthorization of the Child Care & Development Block Grant please visit

www.cdfactioncouncil.org/Indexcc.htm .

** Children, Youth and Families:

CHILDREN AT RISK: STATE TRENDS 1990-2000 - Coming March 7:  The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau will release the first analysis of conditions affecting the nation's children based on new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This sweeping look at state-by-state trends in child well-being over the past decade reveals wide gaps among states in child poverty and children's well-being and finds the economic boom failed to help most poor children. The report and its extensive tables will be available March 7 at:

http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/c2ss/

THE WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN INVOLVED WITH THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM: A National Overview - Most children involved with the child welfare system have experienced abuse or neglect and separation from a parent. Based on data from the National Survey of America's Families, an Urban Institute study finds that many are not faring well emotionally, behaviorally, educationally, or physically. While these children receive some services, their needs are substantial. The challenges for child welfare administrators are sizable, and the question for policymakers is whether child welfare agencies have the resources to meet them.

http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b43/b43.html

WELFARE REFORM: WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? -  Children in families on welfare or transitioning off since the implementation of welfare reform are at high risk for poor cognitive development and problem behavior according to a policy brief from Johns Hopkins' "Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study." 

http://www.jhu.edu/~welfare/19382_Welfare_jan02.pdf

APPLYING THE SCIENCE OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT TO PUBLIC POLICY - A special Neurons to Neighborhoods legislative hearing on Monday, March 11th from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. at the CA State Capitol, Sacramento will feature researchers from the National Academy of Sciences. During this time of budget cuts, the hearing is a timely reminder of the wisdom of investing in our youngest children. For more information, contact Andrea Price-Stogsdill at the Center for Health Improvement, (916) 930.9200 or apricestogsdill@centerforhealthimprovement.org

** Cross-cutting Conferences:

RECLAIMING AMERICA: A Conference on Progressive Strategy for a New Era - 2002 is a high-stakes year for American democracy. The Campaign for America's Future invites you to join hundreds of citizen and labor activists, policy experts, and progressive political leaders for a national conference on progressive strategy for the new era.  April 10-12 in Washington DC.

http://www.ourfuture.org

IDA LEARNING CONFERENCE: April 4-6, 2002 Windsor, Ontario, Canada - Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and similar initiatives can help millions of low-income families save, acquire assets, and build a secure financial future. With a burgeoning international interest in asset-building strategies, the 2002 IDA Learning Conference: International Perspectives on Asset Building provides the premier opportunity to learn and exchange ideas. Join this international dialogue that touches people, communities, and nations around the world.

https://www.idanetwork.org/Conf2002/pages/idaconf.html

WOMEN'S AGENDA CONFERENCE - While the role of women in the economy has changed over the last 60 years, the nation's laws and institutions have not. The Women in the Economy project of the National Center for Policy Analysis will release several studies at a March 4 conference at the National Press Club in D.C., including a report showing women are more likely to retire alone and elderly women are twice as likely as elderly men to live below the poverty level, due to work and investment patterns.

http://www.womenintheeconomy.org/wac/

** Health Policy:

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA'S DIVERSE TEENS: A Guide for Service Providers - Teen childbearing declined 22% in the U.S. between 1991 and 2000, but it remains high when compared with other developed nations. Many youth still begin having sex during their secondary school years, placing them at risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. This Child Trends guidebook translates the research and input from teens into practical applications to improve the delivery of effective reproductive health services. Cost: $15.

http://www.childtrends.org/publications.asp?topic=sexbehavoir

INVOLVING COMMUNITIES IN IMPROVING SEXUAL HEALTH EDUCATION - Sexual health education is too important to be left to schools; risky sexual activity is one of the leading health problems for youth and young adults. This free publication reports on how local education funds (LEFs), community agencies, and families have been a part of gathering information and creating partnerships with schools to improve sexual health education, specifically by creating and sustaining HIV/AIDS education programs.

http://www.publiceducation.org/cgi-bin/downloadmanager/publications/p100.asp

NEW MEDICAID AND CHIP WAIVER INITIATIVES - Broader use of waivers to restructure Medicaid coverage and an expedited process for states to obtain waivers will undoubtedly be at the center of Medicaid policy in the coming year.  An issue paper from Kaiser Family Foundation reviews Medicaid's legislative framework and the breadth and limits of the flexibility provided to states under current law and then describes new federal waiver policy and how that policy might affect key aspects of the Medicaid program, highlighting policy implications of the new "Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability"(HIFA) initiative.

http://www.kff.org/content/2002/4028/4028.pdf

PRESIDENT'S MEDICARE DRUG CARD: MEAGER RELIEF - The President's discount card proposal offers little in terms of prescription drug price relief for America's seniors, says a statement from Families USA. Despite skyrocketing pharmaceutical costs that are making drugs more and more unaffordable for seniors, this proposal offers very meager price relief.  According to the Administration, this proposal - at best - will provide 12.4% in savings to seniors, and for most seniors it well may be considerably less.

http://www.familiesusa.org

Kaisernet.org provides a summary of the president's Medicare drug card proposal:

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hpolicy.cfm#9771

** Housing:

ENDORSE THE NATIONAL HOUSING TRUST FUND - The National Housing Trust Fund Campaign is working to establish a National Housing Trust Fund that would build and preserve 1.5 million units of rental housing for the lowest income families over the next 10 years. The Campaign celebrates reaching the halfway mark in their goal to collect 4,000 endorsements from groups around the country by the end of 2002.

http://www.nhtf.org

HUD'S COMMUNITY GUIDE TO FACTORY-BUILT HOUSING - Free guide can help nonprofit developers decide whether factory-built homes would provide a viable alternative to more traditional onsite construction for developing affordable urban and suburban housing.

http://www.huduser.org/publications/destech/factbuilt.html

** Hunger & Nutrition:

FRAC's "STATE OF STATES" PROFILES HUNGER AND NUTRITION PROGRAMS ACROSS U.S. - Seven key federal nutrition programs reach millions of low-income children and adults, but there remain very large gaps for vulnerable people in every state. The Food Stamp Program is reaching millions fewer poor people, especially working poor people, than several years ago.  Food Research and Action Center's comprehensive state-by-state snapshot of the extent of hunger, and of states' use of federal programs to address nutrition needs across the country, identifies federal and state-level solutions: Congress should boost food stamp investments through pending farm bill; states should take good policy options.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/alert022602.htm

CALL TO ACTION: MORE FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY - This week in Washington D.C. people from across the country came together to share their stories about hunger and to help launch America's Second Harvest's National Call to Action. You can now read all of the delegates statements, add your own stories, and find more information and press materials at:

http://www.americassecondharvest.org/

UPDATE ON FARM BILL AND FOOD STAMP REAUTHORIZATION - A House/Senate conference committee is meeting to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill (H.R. 2646, formerly numbered in the Senate as S. 1731). The House bill reauthorizes the Food Stamp Program but earmarks only $3.6 billion (calculated over 10 years) in new funding for the nutrition title, compared to $8.9 billion in the nutrition title in the Senate Bill (calculated over 10 years). Conferees are aiming to expedite action in March, both to complete work, if possible, before the Easter recess (March 22nd) and before adoption of the FY 2003 Budget Resolution. Accordingly, anti-hunger advocates and allies should communicate with Members about the Farm Bill immediately, says Food Research and Action Center.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/alert022602FS.html

  America's Second Harvest, the Food Research and Action Center, and the American Public Human Services Association issued a joint statement on the Farm Bill and Food Stamp Program Reauthorization.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/leg/release022702.PDF

MATCHING FUNDS FOR ANTI-HUNGER AGENCIES MARCH 1 - APRIL 30 - For the fifth straight year the Alan Shawn Feinstein Foundation in Rhode Island is offering $1 million in matching funds to anti-hunger agencies throughout the country to help them raise funds. This year Feinstein is challenging the President to match his money.

http://www.feinsteinfoundation.com/press/01-11-27.html

** Legal Services:

HOUSE LSC OVERSIGHT HEARING RE-PLOWS OLD GROUND -  On February 28 the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing on the Legal Services Corporation. The hearing, chaired by subcommittee chair Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) was called to "review the compliance with congressionally mandated restrictions by those who have received LSC grants and look at the role of the board of directors in monitoring and overseeing the activities of the Corporation." NLADA has posted written statements submitted at the hearing:

http://www.nlada.org/Civil/Civil_LSC/LSC_Oversight_Hearing

** Substance Abuse:

CASA REPORT ON UNDERAGE DRINKING -  While its estimates that underage drinkers consume 25% of the alcohol sold in the U.S. came under question, a new report by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concludes that there is, by any public health standard, an underage drinking epidemic in America. The report, the result of two years of research and analysis, found that more than five million high schoolers (31%) say they binge drink at least once a month. The gender gap in alcohol consumption that for generations separated girls and boys has disappeared among younger teens.

http://www.casacolumbia.org/newsletter1457/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=103428

** Welfare Reform:

PRESIDENT BUSH RELEASES WELFARE REFORM AGENDA -  The president's plan would boost recipients' work requirements with no new money for child care assistance. It gives states new subsidies to encourage marriage and continues a ban on welfare payments to immigrants.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020226.html

RESPONSES FROM THE HUMAN SERVICES COMMUNITY:

President Bush's Welfare Reform Plan Leaves Millions of Children Behind, says a statement from the Children's Defense Fund.  His plan doesn't invest in the supports low-income families need to get and keep a job, such as child care, education, training, and transportation. Right now only one in seven children eligible for federal child care assistance gets it. It has been proven that in order to keep a job, families coming off welfare need child care.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/release020226.php

The Workforce Alliance says the plan signals an alarming move to reduce the already meager options for skills development and work-related advancement for TANF recipients

A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the Administration's TANF Proposals Would Limit - Not Increase - State Flexibility. CBPP and the Center for Law and Social Policy have prepared a series of background papers on key TANF issues, including:  funding, immigrants, reducing poverty by improving employment outcomes, families with barriers to employment and strengthening families.

http://www.cbpp.org/tanfseries.htm

The Bush Administration's proposal for the crucial next phase of welfare-to-work reform is inadequately funded, seriously erodes state-level power over policy decisions, and favors Beltway ideology over the practical lessons the states have learned during the first five years of reform, says a statement from National Center on Poverty Law.

http://www.povertylaw.org/aboutncpl/showpress.cfm?id=42

While welfare reform has dramatically reduced the number of people receiving public assistance, real improvements to the welfare system will not happen until America shifts focus from caseload reduction to poverty reduction, says The Alliance for Children and Families' Response to Bush's Welfare Reform Agenda.  In many welfare offices across the nation families are not being alerted to available support services. Former welfare recipients must know about access to continued services such as medical, food stamps and child care. And states must track these people to ensure they are on their way out of poverty, not just in exile.

http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/temp/0227-147.html

The Bush welfare reauthorization proposal runs counter to everything we have learned in the past five years about what helps poor families survive, writes National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support.  The plan calls for a massive increase in the number of people required to work, an unrealistic proposal in the best of economic times, but truly bizarre in the middle of a recession. The Bush plan exposes a huge gulf between the administration and moderate Members of Congress in both parties, not to mention the National Governors Association, whose proposal would expand what counts as work.

http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/temp/0226-112.html

The National Governors Association policy on welfare reform makes three key points:  Maintain flexibility, Maintain investment, Move toward greater program alignment.

http://www.nga.org/nga/lobbyIssues/1,1169,D_1257,00.html

If it passes Congress, the Bush administration's new welfare plan will increase poverty and homelessness, says a statement from the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. His plan places arbitrary workforce mandates on states, but does not give states the means to meet them. There are sensible and affordable alternatives, writes LACEHH.

http://www.lacehh.org/Erlenbush%20on%20Bush%2022-28.htm

At a time when unemployment has increased and the economy has slowed, the President's demand for more stringent work requirements misses the mark, says a statement from Bread for the World.  Approximately 40% of those who leave welfare are unable to find work, so adding a tougher work requirement without adding new job training and educational opportunities defies logic. Also troubling:  the President's proposal calls for a mandatory 40-hour work week but no new money for child care assistance.

http://www.bread.org/media/archives/2002_February_26.html

RHODE ISLAND WELFARE REFORMS MAKING POSITIVE IMPACT -  The state's unique approach to welfare reform -- the "Family Independence Program" -- has improved the well being of families and nearly doubled likelihood of employment, according to a new synthesis of independent studies.

http://www.unitedwaysene.org

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE DIFFERENT WELFARE-TO-WORK APPROACHES? Five-Year Adult and Child Impacts for Eleven Programs - The Office of the  Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation  has posted the Final Report of  the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies.  In the absence of any welfare-to-work program over a five-year follow-up period, approximately three-quarters of single-parent welfare recipients found jobs, and more than half left the welfare rolls. Few of the 11 studied programs improved on this already-high rate of job-finding, but nearly all programs helped single parents work during more quarters of the follow-up,  Measured combined income, however, was largely not affected.  All programs decreased welfare receipt and expenditures over the five years.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/NEWWS/5yr-11prog01/index.htm

** Work:

SUPREME COURT CASE ON EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES  - Chevron U.S.A. v. Echazabal is a major case in the Supreme Court's recent line of Americans with Disabilities Act cases. The court will decide whether an employer may reject a job applicant with a disability who is qualified to do the job and not a safety risk to others in the workplace, but whose health condition may be speculatively worsened by the workplace environment. A decision by the Court is expected this spring. National Council on Disability's amicus brief can be found at: http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/chevron_amicus.html

WORSENING ABUSES OF GROWING CONTINGENT WORKFORCE - A report to be released next week by the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, www.nationalcampaign.org,  documents worsening trends in the abuse of temporary workers, day laborers and other low-wage contingent workers. The report, "Permanent Struggle, Temporary Solution: Contracting Out America"  makes recommendations that would ensure more equitable and fair treatment of workers.  Policy experts and exploited workers will speak at a March 4 briefing. For a copy of the report, contact Jody Arlington at 202-518-8047 or jodyarlington@msn.com.

http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/temp/0228-115.html