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HHS Launches New
Campaign to Encourage Adoption of Children From Foster
Care
The
Department of Health and Human Services announced a new national public service
advertising (PSA) campaign to increase public awareness and encourage adoption
of children from the foster care system.
The new ad campaign is part of HHS' five-year, multi-faceted initiative
called The Collaboration to AdoptUSKids, focused on
recruiting new families for the more than 129,000 children in foster care
waiting to be adopted. The PSAs will highlight the
adoption of older children (ages 8-17), who comprise 53 percent of children in
foster care who are in need of permanent homes. Of that number, 44 percent are
African American.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040715a.html
Abstinence
and Contraceptive Use Making Nearly Equal Contributions to Declines in Teen
Pregnancy
New research published in the
Journal of Adolescent Health indicates that both less sexual activity and
increased contraceptive use have made nearly equal contributions to the decline
in teen pregnancy rates between 1991 and 2001.
This is the first effort to calculate the relative contributions of
abstinence and contraception to the decline in teen pregnancy for the period
between 1995 and 2001.
Press Release – PDF: http://www.teenpregnancy.org/about/announcements/pdf/JAHPressRelease.pdf
Full Report - PDF: http://www.teenpregnancy.org/about/announcements/pdf/JAHarticle.pdf
**Community Development
Defeating
Administration's Plan to Restructure Low-Income Housing Program Top Priority
for Catholic Charities USA
At a time when millions of
low-income families lack affordable housing, Catholic Charities USA is pressing
Congressional budgeters to reject an Administration budget proposal that would
restructure and severely cut funding for federal the Housing Choice (Section 8)
Voucher Program—a very successful housing program that serves more than two
million low-income families, seniors, and disabled people each year.
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/content_displays.cfm?fuseaction=display_document&id=471&location=3
 Local
Consequences of HUD's Fiscal Year 2004 Voucher Funding Policy
A multi-state study from the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examines the local effects of funding
shortfalls in the "Section 8" housing voucher program.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-04hous.htm
Frequently Asked
Questions About the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2005
Housing Voucher Proposal
This analysis from the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities answers common questions about the
Administration’s proposal to reduce funding for housing vouchers sharply in
fiscal year 2005 and convert the voucher program to a block grant.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-9-04hous.htm
Bush Administration
awards $24.5 million to boost economic development and job growth in rural
America
The
Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $24.5 million in grants
to help more than one hundred rural communities in 36 states stimulate local economies, produce more affordable housing and boost job
growth. The funding is provided through HUD's Rural Housing and Economic
Development Program. In addition, these
grants are expected to generate nearly $48 million from other public and
private sources to further promote economic development and employment.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-065.cfm
**Economic Security
Nearly One in
Ten American Children Would Benefit from a Minimum Wage Increase
The Children’s Defense Fund
released a new report, “Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's
Well-Being.” The report shows that 7.2
million children would directly benefit if the minimum wage were raised to
$7.00 per hour.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/040708.asp
Full Report – PDF: http://www.childrensdefense.org/familyincome/minimum_wage_report_2004.pdf
Effects
of Recent Fiscal Policies on Today's Children and Future Generations
According to an analysis from
the Urban Institute, recent and proposed fiscal policies--the tax cuts,
proposals to make them permanent, and the Medicare prescription drug bill--will
hurt economic prospects for most of today's children and all future
generations. The programs will leave economic growth largely unchanged, but
will redistribute resources from future to current generations and, within each
generation, from low- and middle-income families toward an affluent minority.
These effects exacerbate the impact of underlying federal budget trends and
processes that will place significant, imminent pressure on funding for
children's programs. An expanded program of investments in children is both
feasible and desirable.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8922
**Education
Federal Kindergarten-Plus
Legislation Introduced To Help Close Student Achievement Gap
An American Federation of
Teachers' initiative- Kindergarten-Plus is grabbing state and federal attention
in only two years . The Kindergarten-Plus
Act of 2004 will provide funding to extend the kindergarten year and help close
the achievement gap. Kindergarten-Plus extends the school year by adding
instructional days in the summers before and after the regular kindergarten
year. The federal legislation authorizes $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2005 to
help states pay for Kindergarten-Plus programs.
http://www.aft.org/presscenter/releases/2004/071404_kplus.htm
$5
Million Investment in Providence After School
Alliance; Innovative Plan to Make Providence National Leader in Improving Kids'
After-School Learning Opportunities
The
Wallace Foundation has awarded a five-year, $5 million grant to help Providence implement its plans to
create a model system of after-school learning opportunities for children that
puts a premium on high quality. The
funds from the New York-based philanthropy will help launch and support the
Providence After School Alliance (PASA), a new
public-private partnership whose goal is to transform the system of out-of-school
time learning for Providence's children and
families.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20040713.143604&time=09%2049%20PDT&year=2004&public=1
**Health
Battling the Bulge in
Adolescents
According to the Center for
Disease Control, 9 million young people in America are overweight, making the need to promote nutrition
and health a public priority. Teaching children about healthy eating habits is
an important part of student health education in public schools. According to a
recent study published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, technology-based
teaching was more effective in increasing adolescent development of
self-efficacy for healthy eating.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/bpl-btb071504.php
Children
of obese parents face highest risk of being overweight
According to a new study by
Stanford University School of Medicine researchers, the factor that puts
children at greatest risk of being overweight is having obese parents. By identifying the risk factors that lead to
childhood obesity, the researchers hope to pave the way toward preventive
measures.
http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2004/july/obesity.html
Risky
Sexual Behaviors Reduced in High-Risk Adolescents with Targeted HIV Prevention
Intervention
A team of behavioral
scientists from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University has found that an intervention specifically tailored
to gender and culture can make a measurable difference in curbing risky sexual
behaviors. Despite studies showing that African-American adolescent girls are
at particularly high risk of being infected with HIV, no intervention strategy
designed specifically for this population has previously proven effective in
reducing the behaviors that lead to HIV risk.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-07/euhs-rsb070704.php
Gender-and
Culturally-Tailored HIV Prevention Programs can Work Well for African American
Teen Girls
According to a study in JAMA,
the Journal of the American Medical Association interventions for African
American adolescent girls that are gender-tailored and culturally fitting can
enhance HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)-preventive behaviors, skills, and
may also reduce pregnancy and some sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/292/2/171
NYC’s Poor at Greater Risk
for Chronic Diseases
A new report from the
Commonwealth Fund finds that Black and Hispanic New Yorkers, as well as poor
residents regardless of race or ethnicity, are more likely than whites to have
diabetes, HIV, and other diseases, and are at greater risk of dying prematurely.
PDF: http://www.cmwf.org/programs/newyork/karpati_disparities.pdf
**Hunger and Nutrition
Child
Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 Highlights
The Food Research and Action Center reports, that on Wednesday, June 30, 2004, President Bush signed the Child Nutrition and WIC
Reauthorization Act of 2004 into law (Public Law 108-265). The Act expands the
availability of nutritious meals and snacks to more children in school, in
outside school hours programs, and in child care; and
improves the quality of food in schools:
http://www.frac.org/html/federal_food_programs/cnreauthor/cnrc_highlights.htm
**Substance Abuse
Girls More Likely Than
Boys to Be Overexposed to Alcohol Advertising in Magazines
Research conducted by the
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University found
that underage youth saw more alcohol advertising than adults, on a per capita
basis, in magazines in 2002. The study
found that girls were even more overexposed to this advertising than boys. This
overexposure of underage girls to alcohol advertising comes at a time when
public health surveys have found for the first time that teenage girls are
drinking more than teenage boys.
http://camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=22
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