**Children, Youth &
Families
Basic Facts about Low-Income Children:
Birth to Age 18
According to he National Center for Children in Poverty, after a decade of decline, the proportion
of low-income families is rising again and millions of children of low-income
parents find themselves without the basics, despite a majority of them living
in households with working parents. More than one-third of children in the
United States live in low-income families and 17
percent live in poor families. Young children are disproportionally affected.
http://www.nccp.org/pub_lic05.html
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children:
Birth to Age 6
According to he National Center for Children in Poverty, young children disproportionally live
in low-income families, and after a decade of decline, the rate is increasing.
In both rural and urban areas, more than half of all children under age 6
live in low-income families.
http://www.nccp.org/pub_ycp05.html
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children:
Birth to Age 3
According to he National
Center for Children in Poverty, almost half (43%) of infants and toddlers
in the United States (4.7 million children) live in low-income families and
21 percent (2.3 million) live in poor families. These early years are the
most critical for healthy brain development.
http://www.nccp.org/pub_ecp05.html
Children's Defense Fund
Announces Emerging Leaders Fellowship Class of 2005
The Children's Defense Fund
announced the acceptance of thirty-eight new fellows to its Emerging Leaders
SM Project. A program of the Children Defense Fund's Early Childhood Development
Division, the Emerging Leaders Project provides advocates for child care,
early education and school-age care with the information, support and resources
they need to be successful agents of change.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/050624.aspx
**************************************************************************
Have a Website? Place HandsNet
Headlines on your site – visit http://www.handsnet.org/addheadl.htm
************************************************************************
**Community Development
HUD Unveils Road to Reform
for American Homebuyers
The Department of Housing
and Urban Development outlined HUD's timetable to develop modern mortgage
rules that regulate how American consumers buy and refinance homes. The Department's
roadmap for reforming the regulatory requirements of the Real Estate Settlement
Procedures Act (RESPA) will include three informal meetings in July and August
with consumer organizations and industry representatives. In addition to these
Washington roundtable discussions, the Small Business Administration and HUD will
co-sponsor meetings in Los
Angeles, Chicago and Fort Worth to listen to the unique concerns of smaller real estate and
settlement service providers with an interest in RESPA reform.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-091.cfm
************************************
Get more information on
these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
************************************
**Economic Security
$2 Million Grant to Train
At-Risk Youth
The Department of Labor
announced a grant of more than $2 million to the Opportunities Industrialization
Centers (OIC) of America to offer skills training to young people ages 16-24. The funding
will support the "Developing Self Sufficiency for Youth Who Dropped Out"
project. OIC of America will work with eight affiliate sites across the country
that have established relationships with local One-Stop Career Centers and
the court system. The project will offer skills training, including basic
skills education, GED preparation, hands-on computer literacy training, adult
mentoring and post-program support. Affiliates of the program also will work
to secure work experiences and employment opportunities for participants.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20051167.htm
Labor Department Announces
$25.9 Million in Grants to Help Veterans Find Jobs
Thanks to 95 grants totaling
$25.9 million from the Labor Department more than 20,000 veterans will receive
the training they need to find good jobs. The grants were awarded under the
Department of Labor's Veterans' Workforce Investment Program (VWIP) and the
Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP). These grants are in addition
to other programs that the Department of Labor offers to help veterans successfully
transition into the workforce, including the Uniformed Services Employment
and Reemployment Rights Act, which protects the jobs and benefits of servicemen
and women returning to civilian life.
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/vets/VETS20051101.htm
**Education
Title I Funds: Who's
Gaining and Who's Losing: School Year 2005-06 Update
The Center on Education
Policy (CEP) has analyzed the fiscal year 2005 allocations released by the
U.S. Department of Education for the federal Title I program. These funds
are available to states and school districts in school year 2005-06 to educate
disadvantaged children. The report, Title I Funds: Who’s Gaining and Who’s
Losing School Year 2005-06 Update summarizes the Center’s findings about gains
and losses for states and school districts
Press Release - PDF: http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/TitleI_Funds_6July2005/TitleIFundsReleaseFinal2005.pdf
Full Report - PDF: http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/TitleI_Funds_6July2005/Title_I_Funds_6July2005.pdf
**Health
Once in the Doctor's
Office, Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Care Nearly Disappear
A new study from the Stanford
University School of Medicine has found that once U.S. patients visit a doctor for outpatient care, their
race and ethnicity make little difference in the quality of care they receive.
But the study also found that health-care providers have a lot of room for
improvement when it comes to caring for all of their patients. In fact, it
suggests there were only limited improvements in outpatient care during the
10-year study period.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/sumc-oit062405.php
Health Insurance Coverage
for Children up in 2004; Number of Uninsured Adults Stable
According to a new report
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health insurance coverage
for children showed continued improvement in 2004, and the percentage of working-age
adults without insurance coverage, which had been climbing in recent years,
did not increase last year. The report, which tracks insurance coverage since
1997, finds that the improvement in coverage for children reflects an increase
in public coverage-including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program--for
poor and near-poor children.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050629.htm
Trouble
Brewing? New Medicare Drug Law Puts Low-Income People at Risk
According to Families USA,
the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) was touted as a program that would help
all Medicare enrollees, particularly the neediest, obtain prescription drug
coverage. Now there is evidence that a flaw in the MMA will cause serious
harm to many of the most vulnerable elderly and people with disabilities.
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Media_Release_Trouble_Brewing
KaiserEDU.org - Redesigned
With New Features and New Tools
KaiserEDU.org, a comprehensive
website for health policy students, faculty and others has been redesigned
to include new features and tools providing easier access to the latest data,
literature, news, and developments in health policy. The site features from
the home page; consisting of searchable databases and links to publicly-available
national surveys and data sources; with links to the most recent table of
contents of leading health policy journals; and a directory of in health policy.
http://www.kaiseredu.org/
Health Care Choice Act
should be Named "Insurer Choice Act"
The following is the statement
from the Executive Director of Families USA, about the Health Care Choice
Act: "The Health Care Choice Act should be called the 'Insurer Choice
Act' because it allows insurance companies to avoid important state regulations
that protect consumers. Under this bill, insurers will be able to choose to
sell insurance out of states with the least amount of oversight, consumer
protections, and solvency standards. This bill would hurt more than 26 million
Americans who must rely on the individual health insurance market for coverage
because they are not offered health coverage through their employer or are
self-employed…”
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Media_statement_Health_Care_Choice_Act
**Hunger and Nutrition
Letter to Agriculture
Committee Leadership Urging Protection of the Nutrition Assistance Programs
The heads of America's Second
Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
and the Food Research and Action Center wrote to encourage the Agriculture
Committee to do everything in its power to protect the nutrition assistance
programs under the committee's jurisdiction from actions in the budget reconciliation
process that will add to the already millions of needy people that are hungry
or food insecure. The Committee on Agriculture has been instructed to reduce
$3 billion in mandatory spending under its jurisdiction, but the leaders strongly
encourage the committee to be mindful of the impact of nutrition cuts on the
most vulnerable in our communities and to keep any reductions in such assistance
as close to zero as possible.
http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/06.27.05.html
Food Stamp Participation
in April 2005 Nearly 1.5 Million above April 2004 Level
The Food Research and Action Center reports that food stamp participation dipped in April 2005
to 25,362,395, a monthly decline of 72,952, but a yearly increase of nearly
1.5 million people. Although the caseload has dropped in three of the first
four months of 2005, Food Stamp Program growth over the year reflects continuing
joblessness, state actions to improve access, and the effects of the food
stamp reauthorization implementation
http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/04.05_FSP.html
**Nonprofit Management
Coalition Leaders to
Learn Key Nonprofit Management and Fundraising
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions
of America (CADCA) will hold its Fourth Annual Mid-Year Training Institute
in Phoenix, AZ., July
25-28, 2005. Attendees can choose from a menu of intensive day-long workshops,
with an emphasis on the everyday challenges of running an effective organization-from
fundraising to board and volunteer management. By mastering key non-profit
management skills, grassroots leaders can provide more effective leadership,
regardless of their mission.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050627.073656&time=09%2026%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
**Substance Abuse
Smoking Deaths Cost Nation
$92 Billion in Lost Productivity Annually
According to new data from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking cost the nation about
$92 billion in the form of lost productivity in 1997-2001, up about $10 billion
from the annual mortality related productivity losses for the years 1995-1999.
The new lost productivity estimate when combined with smoking-related health-care
costs, which was reported at $75.5 billion in 1998, exceeds $167 billion per
year in the United States.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r050630.htm
