Human Services
Community Building
Digest

From: The National Organization for Women

Please consider endorsing the “March for Women’s Lives” and/or sending out this call to your state, local and individual members so that they can have the option of coming to Washington, D.C. on April 25 to add their voices in support of girls’ and women’s autonomy and authority to determine their family formation and childbearing options and have full access and information regarding victim’s and family health services for all their reproductive and lifesaving health needs.  Contact NOW and/or the March office to find out how to get involved and on board.

http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#5

**Children, Youth & Families

Urban Youth Don't Feel Respected, Cared About or Trusted

More than half the urban teenagers surveyed in a study by a Cornell University researcher say they feel disconnected from their community. The reasons for this come, in part, from feeling discriminated against by unknown adults on the streets, in businesses and by the police.  The young people also report feeling disconnected from their schools. The older the students, the less connected they say they feel.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March04/youth.disconnected.ssl.html

Mixed Messages on Marriage

An editorial by a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Senior Research Scholar at the Council on Contemporary Families posits that fifty years ago, the overwhelming majority of Americans believed that anyone who wasn't married by their early 20s was an immature neurotic who would never achieve a successful adult existence.  According to a poll sponsored by the Network on Adult Transitions funded by the MacArthur Foundation, half of all Americans believe that one can become a mature, responsible adult without marrying. Many people have ceased to believe that marriage is even essential for its age-old purpose of having children. More than a third of first births in America now occur out of wedlock.

http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/media/press.php

How Couples Manage Parenting Forecasts Later Marital Quality

A new study from Ohio State University suggests that just because a married couple has a good relationship when a child is born is no guarantee the marriage will stay that way as their child grows older.  Researchers found that how a couple manages their parenting responsibilities when their child is 6 months old is related to the quality of their marriage when their child is 3.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chldmarr.htm

Should We Get Married in the Morning?

The Urban Institute finds that the majority of the gaps in poverty, low-income status, and food insecurity between children living in cohabiting and married couple families is accounted for by differences in characteristics such as parental education, age, and the number of hours worked. The benefits of marriage and unmeasurable characteristics, such as attitudes towards commitment, account for the rest of the difference. The authors conclude that successful marriage promotion efforts aimed at cohabiting parents could improve the outcomes for their children, but only to a limited extent.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8777

Connected by 25: A Plan for Investing in Successful Futures for Foster Youth 

An investment plan, produced by the Foster Care Work Group of the Youth Transition Funders Group, calls for government, foundations, community organizations, and individuals to mobilize their energy and resources with a greater focus on the future of foster youth and those aging out of foster care.  The transition from childhood to adulthood is often a precarious journey--filled with opportunity and risk.  With proper guidance and support, young people explore their unique talents and interests; develop knowledge, skills, and aspirations; and acquire the relationships and connections that they will depend upon for a lifetime.  Developing a strategy for public- and private-sector investments to help youth in foster care become connected by age 25 poses a significant challenge.

PDF: http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/publications/foster care final1.pdf

No Minor Matter: Developing a Coherent Policy on Paternity Establishment for Children Born to Underage Parents

The Center for Law and Social Policy finds that for the roughly 150,000 babies born each year to unwed minors, paternity establishment is a complicated issue.  Paternity establishment provides children with crucial financial and emotional support and access to larger extended families. At the same time, it can cause problems for minor parents: immature youngsters might enter an ill-advised marriage; a young man might sign an acknowledgment for a child who is not his genetic offspring; or a young woman who is a victim of incest or statutory rape might be better off if paternity is not established.  This policy brief offers recommendations to states for developing consistent laws and policies to address paternity establishment among minor parents.

Policy Brief - PDF: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1079040143.88/no_minor_brf.pdf

Full Report - PDF: http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1079039848.98/no_minor_rpt.pdf

**Civil Society

Subconscious Bias Kicks in Quickly and Skews Perceptions

New Northwestern University research shows that subconscious -- or implicit -- bias can emerge subtly but quickly from its hiding places in the psyche and cause even well-meaning whites to look at identical facial expressions of African Americans and European Americans and see greater hostility in the African American faces.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/nu-sbk030504.php

Redrawing the Map of Immigrant Settlement

A report from the Brookings Institution finds that unparalleled immigration in the 1980s and 1990s transformed many older immigrant gateways and created new ones.  This paper analyzes the new geography of American immigration and highlights how recent settlement patterns differ from earlier ones.  Among other findings, the U.S. foreign-born population grew 57.4 percent in the 1990s; by 2000 nearly one-third of U.S. immigrants resided outside established settlement states.

http://www.brookings.org/urban/publications/20040301_gateways.htm

**Community and Economic Development

The Smart Money Is on Smart Growth

According to the Brookings Institution compact development and reinvestment in urban centers can save taxpayers money and improve regional economies.  This paper reviews the best academic evidence on the fiscal and competitive advantages of smarter growth.

http://www.brookings.org/urban/publications/200403_smartgrowth.htm

Separate and Unequal 2004: Subprime Lending in America

"Separate and Unequal 2004" is the Association of Community Organizations' annual study on subprime lending.  Subprime lending continues to disproportionately plague low-income people and minorities and this report takes an in depth look at this in 117 metropolitan areas.  Subprime lenders continue to originate growing numbers of refinance loans   and subprime lending has grown faster than prime lending in the past year. 

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=1994

Bush Initiative to Provide Homeownership for 40,000

The Department of Housing and Urban Development published a final rule that will enhance home buying opportunities by expanding its offerings of adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) products on FHA-insured mortgages.  Potential homebuyers will be able to choose mortgages with periods of three, five, seven, or ten years, depending on their needs, during which time the interest rate would be fixed. The hybrid ARMs program was proposed by the Administration in an effort to increase opportunities for homeownership, particularly for minority families.

http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-024.cfm

HUD's Hospital Program is Bringing Medical Care to Communities across America

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Federal Housing Administration insured more than $240 million in mortgage loans for seven hospitals in five different states in FY 2003..Since the program began in 1968, FHA has insured over 320 hospital mortgages in 41 states and Puerto Rico, for a total in excess of $9.4 billion. Clients range from small rural facilities to some of the nation's top teaching hospitals. FHA insurance enables hospitals to enhance their creditworthiness because the United States Government backs their debt.

http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-020.cfm

**Economic Security

Block Grant Proposals Threaten Services for Families

The Coalition for Human Needs finds that a common theme has been emerging among Bush Administration initiatives in human needs programs: a variety of strategies are being proposed to shrink the federal role.

PDF: http://www.chn.org/pdf/blockgrantgridmarch2004.pdf

**Education

Challenges Facing the American Middle School

An analysis from RAND finds that Middle school students in the U.S. feel less positive about learning conditions and report more physical and emotional problems at their schools than peers in 11 other nations.

http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG139/

Can Teacher Quality Be Effectively Assessed?

A paper from the Urban Institute, describes the results of a study, based on a unique data set from North Carolina, assessing the relationship between National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification of teachers and elementary-level student achievement.  More specifically, the paper estimates student-level value-added models and test whether the value added by teachers certified by NBPTS differs from that of unsuccessful NBPTS applicants and nonapplicant teachers.  The findings indicate that NBPTS-certified teachers, based on student-achievement gains, appear to be more effective than their noncertified counterparts, and that NBPTS is successfully identifying the more effective teachers among NBPTS applicants.

http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8772

**Health

Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity May Soon Overtake Tobacco as Leading Cause of Death in U.S.

According to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association about half of all deaths in the U.S. can be attributed to largely preventable behaviors and exposures, with tobacco use and poor diet/physical inactivity accounting for the majority of preventable deaths,.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/jaaj-pda030404.php

Study Shows Poor Diet, Inactivity Close To Becoming Leading Preventable Cause of Death

The Department of Health and Human Services renewed efforts against obesity and overweight, announcing a new national education campaign and a new research strategy at HHS' National Institutes of Health (NIH).  A new study released by HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that deaths due to poor diet and physical inactivity rose by 33 percent over the past decade and may soon overtake tobacco as the leading preventable cause of death.

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040309.html

Cost for Obesity Growing Dramatically

An analysis from RAND finds that if obesity continues rising at its current rate in the U.S., by 2020 about one in five health care dollars spent on people ages 50-69 could be consumed by obesity-related medical problems.

http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB9043/

Problems Controlling Anger Lead to Weight Gain for Teens

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health report that teenagers who don't manage their anger, either by suppressing feelings, or the other extreme of losing one's temper, are at higher risk for weight gain than those who do.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/aha-pca022404.php

As Obesity Skyrockets, Joslin Diabetes Center Urges Action to Stem the Tide of Type 2 Diabetes

According to the Joslin Diabetes Center, statistically, adults in the U.S. have gained 2 billion pounds over the past decade, which is an average of one pound per year per person.  For every one pound increase in weight, there is a 3 to 4 percent increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, or about 800,000 new cases.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/jdc-aos031004.php

New Documentary Explores Links between Environmental Exposures and Children's Health

Grassroots Environmental Education, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to disseminating current scientific information about environmental toxins and human health, has announced the release of a new half-hour documentary entitled "Our Children at Risk."  Based on interviews with leading experts in the field, the new video explores the latest scientific research linking environmental toxins to children's health problems, and helps parents understand the issues and learn what they can do to reduce the risks in their homes, schools and communities.

http://webx.handsnet.org/webx?13@@.1dd004e2

Virginity Pledges Do Not Reduce Rates of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

A report released at the National STD Prevention Conference in Philadelphia sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that virginity pledges do not reduce the rates of STDs. After the Promise: The Long-Term Consequences of Adolescent Virginity Pledges found that young people who took "virginity pledges," public promises to remain abstinent until marriage, have the same rates of STDs as young people who had not taken such a pledge. The study concluded that teens who took the pledge were much less likely to use condoms when they did become sexually active.

http://www.siecus.org/media/press/press0053.html

Survey: Employers Support Job-Based Coverage

A new Commonwealth Fund report finds strong employer support for providing health insurance benefits for their employees. A majority of employers say that rather than expanding public insurance, they'd prefer a mandate for companies to either provide health benefits or pay into a fund to cover uninsured workers.

http://www.cmwf.org/../../media/releases/collins718_release03092004.asp

**Substance Abuse

Underage Youth Have Easy Access to Alcohol Web Sites

According to a report released by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, despite alcohol industry marketing codes promising to limit access to only legal- age adults, nearly 700,000 in-depth visits to alcohol company Web sites in the last six months of 2003 alone were from young people under the drinking age.

http://camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=19

Governors' Spouses Praise Groundbreaking Report Condemning Alcohol Web Sites with Kid-Friendly Content, Urge Monitoring

Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, a unique coalition of governors' spouses, federal agencies, and public and private organizations working together to prevent children from drinking, today urged parents and lawmakers to pay attention to the findings of a new study on youth and online alcohol advertising: Clicking with Kids: Alcohol Marketing and Youth on the Internet.

http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/gs/news/headlines.cfm?id=2835

'R.E.A.L.' Offers Multicultural Approaches to Substance-Abuse Prevention Among Middle-Schoolers

The program "Keepin' It R.E.A.L," developed jointly by Penn State and Arizona State University, has succeeded at teaching middle school students to say no to drugs by appealing to their traditional ethnic values, whether European-American, Hispanic or African-American.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-03/ps-om031004.php

**Violence Prevention

Increase in Calls to National Domestic Violence Hotline Prompts Launch of "Connections Campaign"

The National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) launched the Connections Campaign, a public/private sector partnership that teams up telecommunication and technology companies with the federal government to guarantee NDVH continue providing lifesaving assistance to victims of domestic violence. More than 16,000 calls monthly are answered by Hotline Advocates at the Hotline's toll-free number.

http://www.tcfv.org/Biden_event_NDVH_alert.htm

HHS Announces Anti-Trafficking Hotline, Awareness Effort

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a major public awareness effort to combat human trafficking and help its victims, including a toll-free hotline.  The federal government estimates that between 18,000 and 20,000 men, women and children are trafficked to the U.S. each year, part of a worldwide problem affecting between 800,000 and 900,000 people. Often, victims' passports, money and identification are confiscated by their traffickers as they are forced into prostitution, pornography and sweatshop labor. This modern-day form of slavery has become a $13 billion per year global industry.

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040311a.html