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JOIN THE GRASSROOTS ACTION
NETWORK
The National Alliance to End Homelessness is
excited to expand on an effort to tap into the energy and expertise of local
organizations in our fight to end homelessness.
The Grassroots Action Network is a growing coalition of local, regional,
and statewide organizations interested in taking action to inform federal
policy. The National Alliance to End
Homelessness works with Congress and the Administration on a variety of
legislative issues that directly impact how local communities can respond to
the needs of their most vulnerable residents.
http://www.endhomelessness.org/contact/action.htm.
HELP GAUGE COMMUNITY TRANSIT NEEDS: FILL OUT
TRANSPORTATION SURVEY
The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) is a special
initiative of the Center for Community Change. TEN is a loose coalition of more
than 50 grassroots organizations working towards transportation equity. TEN
stands for greater public involvement and government accountability in the
transportation planning process; environmental justice; adequate funds to meet
the transit needs of low-income people and people with disabilities; and real
jobs that support families. TEN also stands for the equitable distribution of
resources across states and metropolitan areas so economic development projects
meet the needs of all people without contributing to sprawl and economic
disparities.
www.communitychange.org/transportation
**Children, Youth & Families
The Improving Preventive Care Services for Children Toolkit
provides a practical approach for increasing the quality of preventive care for
children covered under Medicaid and SCHIP. It includes a simple process
improvement model to consistently follow; strategies for identification,
stratification, outreach, and intervention, including plan case studies; tools
to encourage providers to adopt streamlined preventive care practices; and
communications tactics for creating change.
http://www.chcs.org/ManagedCare/preventivecaretoolkit.html
Analysis of Early Head Start Programs
A special issue of the Infant Mental Health
Journal provides an in-depth study of program.
In just 6 years, Early Head Start has grown from 68 initial
grantees to some 650 programs and, by early 2001, was serving more than 55,000
families with infants and toddlers throughout the country. This issue
describes the program, its growth, and the changing policy and program
environment of its first five years. It
also explains how the federal and regional infrastructure supports Early Head
Start through training, technical assistance, and monitoring; summarizes the
design and conduct of the national evaluation and local research studies;
presents the key lessons that the research has yielded so far; and concludes
with an assessment of the challenges ahead for creating a solid base of
knowledge for programs serving low-income families with infants and toddlers.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issuetoc?ID=90511202
Children From 'Risky
Families' Suffer Serious Long-Term Health Consequences
In the first study to analyze more than a decade of
research showing how a family's social environment influences physical and
mental health, a team of UCLA scientists found strong evidence that children
who grow up in "risky families" often suffer lifelong health
problems, including some of society's most common serious ailments, such as
cancer, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression and anxiety
disorders, as well as early death.
http://www.webclipper.org/homepage3395/index_show.htm?doc_id=105741&frame_id=1131
**Community
Development
Innovative Program Assists Low-Income
Families with Homeownership
Self-Help Ventures
Fund uses an innovative secondary market program and a partnership with the
Latino Community Credit Union to help low-wealth families buy and stay in their
homes.
http://www.huduser.org/periodicals/fieldworks/0202/fworks3.html
HUD Releases A Community Guide to Factory-Built Housing
In an attempt to improve the quality and
environmental efficiency of affordable housing, HUD has published "A
Community Guide to Factory-Built Housing." This comprehensive guide is
designed to assist nonprofit developers in assessing whether factory-built
homes would provide a viable alternative to more traditional onsite
construction for developing affordable urban and suburban housing. Six case studies provide information on how different
developers have used modular or manufactured homes to provide affordable
housing.
http://www.huduser.org/publications/destech/factbuilt.html
HELP GAUGE COMMUNITY TRANSIT NEEDS: FILL OUT
TRANSPORTATION SURVEY
The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) is a special
initiative of the Center for Community Change. TEN is a loose coalition of more
than 50 grassroots organizations working towards transportation equity. TEN
stands for greater public involvement and government accountability in the
transportation planning process; environmental justice; adequate funds to meet
the transit needs of low-income people and people with disabilities; and real
jobs that support families. TEN also stands for the equitable distribution of
resources across states and metropolitan areas so economic development projects
meet the needs of all people without contributing to sprawl and economic
disparities.
www.communitychange.org/transportation
**Education
Major Educational Initiative Funded by the
Gates Foundation
Jobs for the Future
announced it would lead an initiative to dramatically increase high school
graduation and college attendance rates for the most disadvantaged youth. The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with Carnegie Corporation
of New York, the Ford Foundation, and W. K. Kellogg Foundation, has committed
more than $40 million to create 70 "Early Colleges." When students
finish these small high schools, they will have a two-year Associate of Arts
degree or enough college credits to enter a four-year, liberal arts program as
a sophomore or junior.
http://www.earlycolleges.org/
**Health Policy
Poor Patients Twice as Likely to
Die From Heart Disease
In the first analysis of its kind, Duke
University Medical
Center researchers have shown that
the poorest of poor Americans are more than twice as likely
to die of severe heart disease than similar patients with higher
incomes. Furthermore, it may be that the main explanation comes from what
happens in these patients' lives after hospital discharge.
http://www.webclipper.org/newsletter1131/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=105753
Study and Grant Program Covers Incentives in Improving Health Care
Quality
Providing incentives for those on the front line of health delivery is key to improving quality. Rewarding Results is a grant and
technical assistance program established to help purchasers and health plans
demonstrate that well-designed financial and non-financial incentives can
improve health care quality. The goal of Rewarding Results is to align
incentives with high-quality health care, as recommended by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.nhcpi.net/rewardingresults/index.cfm
HHS Grants to Improve Health Care in Rural America
Rural Health Outreach Grants
totaling $23.1 million will help increase access to primary health care
services for rural Americans within their own communities, especially for poor,
elderly, disabled and minority residents.
Rural Health Network Development Grants totaling $5.8 million are
awarded to public and nonprofit organizations representing networks of at least
three health care providers or organizations to help strengthen regional and
local service delivery systems in rural communities.
http://www.ruralhealth.hrsa.gov.
**Hunger
LEGISLATIVE ALERT FOR PENDING FARM BILL CONFERENCE
Senate and House conferees meeting over the Easter recess
engaged in negotiations on substantive policy priorities within the nutrition
title. Urge House/Senate Farm Bill
Conferees to support a strong nutrition title and the broadest possible legal
immigrant restorations. Specific messages on key provisions are included in the
alert. Urge members of Congress not on
the conference committee to weigh in with conferees with this message
http://www.frac.org/html/news/alert032102.html
**Philanthropy and Giving
Economic Downturn Affects Human
Service Providers
A recent Alliance
for Children and Families survey of nonprofit human service agencies found the
economic downturn last year caused a shortfall for a majority of annual giving
campaigns. "We suspected many
member agencies were impacted by the economy," said Peter Goldberg, Alliance
president and CEO. "Fundraising was significantly affected in 2001. What
makes matters worse, however, are the state and local
budget deficits. Human service agencies face serious service reductions while
the demand for their services continues to increase."
http://www.alliance1.org/
**Substance Abuse
Substance Use Among
Welfare Recipients: Trends and Policy Responses
The Joint
Center for Poverty Research has
issued a report on the incidence and implications of substance abuse among
welfare recipients. Substance use by
welfare recipients is frequently mentioned as an important barrier to
well-being and social performance. This article uses nationally representative
cross-sectional data and Michigan-specific panel data to summarize trends in
substance use among AFDC/TANF recipients. It also examines the prevalence of
substance dependence within the welfare population. Although almost 20 percent
of welfare recipients report recent use of some illicit drug during the year,
only a small minority satisfy criteria for drug or alcohol dependence, as
indicated by the short- form Composite International Diagnostic Interview,
CIDI-SF. The article concludes by considering policy responses to substance use
disorders following welfare reform.
http://www.jcpr.org/wpfiles/pollack_danziger_jayakody_seefeldt_SRI2001.pdf
April
is Alcohol Awareness Month
In response to questions about the statistics issued by Columbia
University's National
Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse, Stacia Murphy, President of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug
Dependence commented, "Regardless of the debate, the bottom line is that
alcohol is not a drink for children. Alcohol is a drug - a powerful,
mood-altering drug that affects children's changing and developing hormonal systems.
This is a critical public health issue and we need to stop abdicating
responsibility and worrying about percentage points."
http://www.ncadd.org/
**Work and Employment
Workforce investment agencies in five cities -- Baltimore,
Fort Worth, Milwaukee,
Pittsburgh and San
Diego) have directed some part of their funding to
faith-based organizations to provide employment-related services. This finding
appears in a recently released report from the
Urban Institute.
http://wdr.doleta.gov/opr/fulltext/document.asp?docn=6166
**Welfare
Reform
Readying Welfare Recipients for Work
A primary objective of the 1996
welfare reform law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), is to end poor families' dependence on public
benefits by helping them prepare for employment. As part of Manpower Demonstration Research
Corporation's Project on Devolution and Urban Change, this report examines how
four urban counties across the country have approached the challenge of moving
large numbers of welfare recipients into work.
Focusing on the period from 1997 through early 2001, the report draws on
interviews and observations conducted at the county welfare offices, a survey
of welfare office staff, and participation and expenditure data supplied by the
counties and the states in which they are located.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2002/UC_ReadyingWelfare/UC-ExSum.htm.
Welfare Policies Matter for Children and Youth:
Lessons for TANF Reauthorization
A policy brief issued by Manpower
Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) provides insights into the impact of
welfare reforms on school achievement.
The findings of the report are that the efforts to improve economic
security can benefit elementary-age children the effect on adolescents has not
been as positive.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2002/NG_PolicyBrief/NG_PolicyBrief.htm.
Impact of Recession and September 11 Seen on Welfare
Caseloads: Caseloads Up In Most States Between September and December 2001.
Most
states have had welfare caseload increases since September 2001, according to a
new survey by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). Forty states
reported higher caseloads in December 2001 than in September 2001. In addition, for the first time, the average
annual change in states' caseloads was an increase. From December 2000 to December 2001, the
average change across the states surveyed was a 3.8 percent increase.
http://www.clasp.org/pubs/TANF/Final_2001_Q4_Caseload_discussion.htm
Evaluation of Tribal Welfare to Work Programs
American Indian tribes use a number of programs, including the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the Native
Employment Works (NEW) program, to place members in jobs and to improve their
economic well-being.
The Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants
program offers tribes additional resources to supplement those of TANF, NEW,
and other programs by targeting the most disadvantaged welfare recipients and
helping those with significant barriers to employment make the transition from
welfare to work. This report, based on site visits to a diverse sample of 10
tribal WtW grantees, describes how the tribal WtW program has been implemented
in Indian country, the problems encountered, and the promising approaches
developed.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/wtw-grants-eval98/tribal02/index.htm.
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