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FOOD STAMPS FUNDING VICTORY! POLICY DEBATE CONTINUES
On March 19th, House and Senate conferees on the Farm Bill
(S. 1731) agreed to funding the Nutrition Title of the
bill at $6.4 billion over 10 years, an enormous leap from the $1.2 billion proposed
when the bill was first marked up last summer. It is also double the amount
approved by the House of Representatives ($3.2 billion) before conference
committee. The increased funding is without a doubt the result of the
overwhelming (thousands of calls) and effective grassroots participation and
leadership on this issue. Congratulations to everyone that has worked hard on
increasing funding for America's
hungry families.
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#1
**Children, Youth & Families
Nationwide Competition of Early
Head Start
The Administration on Children, Youth and Families announces
approximately $72 million in financial assistance to be competitively awarded
to local public and private non-profit and for-profit entities--including Early
Head Start and Head Start grantees--to provide child and family development
services for low-income families with children under age three and pregnant
women. Faith-based organizations are eligible to apply for these funds to
become Early Head Start grantees. The
closing date and time for receipt of applications is May 13, 2002
www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb.
Assessing the Context of Permanency and Reunification in the Foster Care
System
Improving the permanency of living arrangements for children
in the child welfare system has been a central focus of federal and state
policy for the past two decades. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997
creates faster timeframes for decision making and incentives for adoption to
move children more quickly out of the foster care system and find them
permanent living arrangements. This report provides a
description of current reunification efforts in the foster care system and
assess the status of reunification in permanency policy and practice.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/fostercare-reunif01/index.htm
How Youth Programs Manage Intake, Individual
Services Strategies and Case Files
The Employment and Training Administration of
the US Labor Department has announced the availability of a new technical
assistance guide for youth service providers. The guide addresses three areas
of service delivery -- the intake process, the individual service strategy and
case files. Featuring information from selected group of youth programs
throughout the nation, the guide contains sample forms and procedures for
evaluating case management systems as well as a providing a list and short-term
summary of assessment tools.
http://www.usworkforce.org/wia/whatsnew.asp#424
http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services/pdf/TEN4-01Iss.pdf
Sources of Funding for Youth
Services
The US Department of
Labor also sponsored the publication of "Sources of Funding for Youth
Services." This document, available online provides information on sources
of funds and proposal preparation for both newcomers and veterans in the
field. The publication presents
information on federal grants, with its outline of grant opportunities,
foundations, and websites for access to relevant programs and support.
http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services/pdf/sources.pdf
Marriage Plus and the Well-Being of Children
An annotated version
of an article by Theodora Ooms
of the Center on Law and Social Policy originally published in the
American Prospect describes the current debate about the role of federal and
state governments in promoting marriage.
The author suggests that liberals and conservatives might find consensus
on a "marriage-plus" agenda, which would put the well-being of
children first by helping more of them grow up in married, healthy, two-parent
families. A marriage-plus agenda does
not promote marriage just for marriage's sake.
It acknowledges that married and unmarried parents, mothers and fathers,
may need both economic resources and non-economic supports to increase the
likelihood of stable, healthy marriages and better co-parenting
relationships. http://www.clasp.org/pubs/familyformation/AmericanProspect.pdf
**Civic Engagement
New Report Identifies Necessary Skills to
Prepare Citizens for Civic Action
The Pew Partnership
for Civic Change has released two tools developed to help transform the citizen
engagement that we’ve seen grow since September 11 into real results. The first
tool is “how-to” knowledge based on three years of research in ten cities
across America that suggests new strategies to engage more citizens in
community leadership and to equip them with necessary skills. The second tool
is the Pew Partnership’s LeadershipPlenty, a
leadership-training program that guides communities through a nine-step process
to transform individual volunteers into a diverse team of civic problem-solvers.
http://www.pew-partnership.org/pdf/pceireport.pdf
http://www.pew-partnership.org/pdf/leadershipPlentyOverview.pdf
**Community
Development
HUD Publishes SuperNOFA for 2002
The Department of
Housing and Urban Development has published its Super Notice of Funding
Availability announcing that 2002 funds are available for many of its
programs. HUD will make $2.2 billion in
grants available to increase homeownership, ensure more affordable rental
opportunities, provide assistance to homeless people, and fund numerous other
critical housing programs across the country.
The SuperNOFA includes a "General Section" with application
procedures and requirements that apply to all the programs. HUD's Center for Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives has scheduled a Webcast for April 3, 1:30-3:30 p.m. to provide general
information about the SuperNOFA programs and process. To access that Webcast or
any of the others, go to http://www.hud.gov/webcasts/schedule/index.cfm#a
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr02-033.cfm
http://www.ruralhome.org/announce/hudsupernofa02.htm
Harvard Study Shows CRA Bolsters Lending to Low- and Moderate- Income
Borrowers
A study was conducted by the Joint
Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University demonstrates that during the
period from 1993 through 2000 that without the Community Reinvestment Act, home
purchase lending to low- and moderate-income borrowers and communities would
have decreased by 336,000 loans. The
study reveals that banks' lending to low- and moderate-income borrowers is
higher in geographical areas where federal agencies grade banks on CRA exams
than in localities where banks lend but are not subject to CRA exams. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition
strongly endorses the CRA Modernization Act of 2001 now before Congress to
ensure that there is no deterioration in the effectiveness of the CRA.
http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/pub/.
Strengthening Banking Services Under the Community Reinvestment Act
Despite the longest
economic expansion on record during the 1990s, 10 percent of all American
families and nearly half of all families moving from welfare to work—have no
bank accounts. A policy brief from the Brookings Institution finds that
creating stronger incentives for banks to reach out to underserved populations
is consistent with the statutory purposes of the CRA, because basic accounts,
savings, and financial education are critical for helping families achieve
financial stability and prepare themselves to qualify for consumer, home, and
business credit over the long run. A
strengthened service test is required to facilitate the development of new
markets and products by banks for underserved populations.
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb96.pdf
NCRC's 2002 Anti-Predatory
Lending Toolkit
The
National Community Reinvestment Coalition has released the 2002 edition of its
Anti-Predatory Lending Toolkit, a source of information that provides community
groups and consumer advocates with the "tools" to challenge lending
practices that contribute to the problem of predatory lending, consensus
building and NCRC¹s "Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act" fact
sheet. The Toolkit also can also be used
by financial institutions and government agencies as a primer on predatory
lending, including summaries of federal fair housing and fair lending laws,
notable lawsuits and best practices and responsible lending.
http://www.ncrc.org/svcs/pubs.html
http://www.ncrc.org/svcs/Toolkit_w_covers.pdf
Microenterprise Development for Urban and Rural Areas
The Employment and Training Administration of
the Labor Department is soliciting proposals to select a contractor to
aggressively market self-employment assistance as an effective workforce
development strategy and to test the effectiveness of providing micro loans and
entrepreneurial training services to workers through one-stop centers in urban
and rural areas. This announcement
outlines the seven key objectives of this ETA project.
http://www.usworkforce.org/wia/whatsnew.asp#422
Innovative
Public Housing Initiatives: An Annotated Bibliography
A new, annotated bibliography on public housing issues published
by Wayne State University’s School of Social Work provides researchers and the
public with an overview of emerging innovations in the field of public housing.
Innovative Public Housing Initiatives: An Annotated Bibliography, supported by
a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, identifies new methods and approaches being used by public housing
practitioners. It also reports on the results of these innovations
http://www.socialwork.wayne.edu/sswpublications.htm
*Read the response
of the National Low Income Housing Coalition to the Supreme Court’s decision on
the public housing “one strike” rule at: http://www.nlihc.org/press/pr03272002.htm
**Disabilities
HHS Announces Steps to Promote Community Living for People
With Disabilities – Additional Grants
The
Department of Health and Human Services presented reports from nine federal agencies
outlining more than 400 specific solutions that the agencies can implement to
support community living for the nearly 54 million Americans living with
disabilities. The reports stem from the first comprehensive federal review of
barriers preventing people with disabilities from living in their communities
instead of in institutions. HHS also
announced that the department will provide another $55 million to the
"Systems Change Grants for Community Living" program to enable states
to improve their community long-term care systems for people with disabilities
and long-term illnesses.
http://www.hhs.gov/newfreedom
**Health
Local Initiative Funding Partners Program to
Support Community-Based Health Projects
The Local Initiative Funding Partners (LIFP)
program is a matching grants program designed to establish partnerships between
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and local grantmakers
in support of innovative, community-based projects that improve health and
health care for underserved and at-risk populations. In 2003, up to $8 million
will be awarded through the program. Under LIFP, a local grantmaker (e.g.,
community foundations, family foundations, corporate grantmakers,
and others) proposes a funding partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation on behalf of a local applicant for grant funds to support projects
that are consistent with the foundation's two main areas of interest: health
and health care. Deadline for application is August 1, 2002
http://www.omhrc.gov/OMH/WhatsNew/2pgwhatsnew/funding204.htm
Many More Could Lose Medicare
Home Health Care
A report commissioned by the
American Association for Homecare finds that more than 800,000 patients around
the nation have lost access to home health care. These statistics are included
in an all-new, comprehensive study showing additional cuts to Medicare home
health services would likely jeopardize access and impede quality for beneficiaries. The study concludes that the 15 percent cut
to the Medicare home health, currently scheduled to go into effect this
October, should be eliminated -- a recommendation also made to Congress earlier
this year by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
http://www.aahomecare.org/govrelations/polisher-study.html
Saving Lives, Saving Money: Why
States Should Invest in a Tobacco-Free Future
Smoking-caused Medicaid spending
more than doubled from 1993 to 2001, and states that fund tobacco prevention
programs can save even more taxpayer dollars in reduced Medicaid costs than
previously known A new report, sponsored by the Legacy Foundation shows that a
25 percent reduction in smoking rates would reduce the state portion of
Medicaid expenditures that go to smoking-caused healthcare costs by $552
million annually. The study comes as
Medicaid cost increases are being frequently
cited as a large contributor to the budget deficits many states currently face.
www.americanlegacy.org
USDA Decides To End Participation in Program that Placed
Foreign-Born Doctors in Underserved Areas
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on March 1 ended its
participation in a program that allowed foreign-born physicians to practice in
underserved areas in the United States, a decision that could "threaten
the future" of a number of rural hospitals nationwide, the Kansas City Star reports. USDA
officials said the decision to end participation in the program is related to
"security considerations" in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (Dvorak, Kansas City Star,
3/25).
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hpolicy.cfm#10309
**Hunger
FOOD STAMPS FUNDING VICTORY! POLICY DEBATE CONTINUES
On March 19th, House and Senate conferees on the Farm Bill
(S. 1731) agreed to funding the Nutrition Title of the bill at $6.4 billion
over 10 years, an enormous leap from the $1.2 billion proposed when the bill
was first marked up last summer. It is also double the amount approved by the
House of Representatives ($3.2 billion) before conference committee. The
increased funding is without a doubt the result of the overwhelming (thousands
of calls) and effective grassroots participation and leadership on this issue.
Congratulations to everyone that has worked hard on increasing funding for
America's hungry families.
http://www.communitychange.org/alerts/default.asp#1
**Substance Abuse
April 3 – Seventh Annual Kick
Butts Day
Thousands of young people
nationwide will participate in more than 1,500 events in all 50 states. This year's Kick Butts Day comes as states
faced with large budget deficits are making critical decisions on tobacco
prevention initiatives. This year’s
event will send two powerful messages.
Kids want the tobacco industry to stop targeting them with advertising
and they want elected leaders to do more to protect them from tobacco.
http://tobaccofreekids.org
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/
**Violence Against Women
Funds Available for Violence Against Women Programs
The Violence Against Women Office of the Justice Department has
announced several grant programs. Safe
Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program, Technical
Assistance Program, Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus
Program and Education and Technical Assistance Grants to End Violence Against
Women with Disabilities. All of these programs
have deadlines for application or letters of intent in April.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/whatsnew.htm
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