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The report can be found at:
http://childstats.gov/americaschildren/
The organizations supporting the effort are:
Catholic Charities USA, 703-549-1390, ext. 147
Child Welfare League of America, 202-639-4919
National Association of State Units on Aging, 202-898-2578
National Conference of State Legislatures, 202-624-8667;
United Way of America, 703-836-7112, ext. 497
American Public Human Services, 202-682-0100, ext. 288
More information can be found on WebClipper at:
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce2993
P.O.V.’s Community Engagement Department Invites You to
Participate in Our Campaign for Fenceline: A Company Town Divided
Airdate: July 23, 2002
P.O.V., the preeminent showcase
for our nation's boldest and most exciting independent non-fiction films, seeks
to entertain, inform and connect citizens to ideas, services and each other.
Through its Community Engagement Department, POV conduct’s outreach campaigns
around broadcasts in order to increase awareness of the films and the issues
that they raise. You are invited to partner with P.O.V. in order to bring these
films to audiences and communities.
Norco, Louisiana is a true
company town. Named after a refinery now owned by Shell Oil, Norco is home to
two distinct communities—one black and one white. Though separated by mere
blocks, their realities are worlds apart. Follow the link below to discover
the ways the ways in which you can participate in P.O.V.’s Fenceline: A Company
Town Divided campaign:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/fenceline/index.html
**Children, Youth & Families
Childcare - Fundamental
Facts
Six new online fact sheets
highlight key themes from a Minnesota childcare survey of 2,450 families with
children 14 and younger. Topics include stability and continuity, out-of-pocket
costs, children in their own care, childcare and working parents, children with
special needs, and care by relatives, friends and neighbors. Wilder Research Center
conducted the study for the Minnesota Department of Children, Families &
Learning. The fact sheets are online at:
http://www.wilder.org/research
The Impact of Welfare Sanctions on Children and Toddlers
Infants and toddlers in families whose welfare benefits were
reduced or eliminated by 1996 welfare sanctions have higher rates of
hospitalization and household food insecurity, according to a study published
in the July 2002 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
This is the first empirical clinical evidence of associations between welfare
reform and increased hospitalization and food insecurity for young children in
sanctioned families.
http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/csnappublic/reports.htm
OMB
Estimates Indicate That 900,000 Children Will Lose Health Insurance Due to
Reductions in Federal SCHIP Funding
A report from the Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities finds that because of a 26 percent reduction in federal State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funding
and rising enrollment, a substantial number of states are expected to have
insufficient federal SCHIP funding to sustain their SCHIP programs in coming
years. As a result, OMB projects that 900,000 children will lose their health
insurance between 2003 and 2006.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-02health.htm
New
Study Provides Student Perspectives on How Community Colleges Can Help Low-Wage
Workers Earn College Credentials
Results from a focus group-based
study released today by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC)
provide insights into how to lower barriers that prevent low-wage workers from
enrolling in and successfully completing community college programs — long
recognized as important pathways to upward career mobility. Called Opening
Doors: Students’ Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College, the new
report distills opinions from a cross-section of current, former, and potential
community college students to suggest how policy and program changes on the
part of the schools, public agencies, and private employers could make it
easier for low-wage working students to earn college credentials.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2002/opendoors_perspectives/opdrs_jugglingwork_overview.htm
**Community Development
MacArthur Foundation Announces Affordable
Housing Preservation Initiative
Deadline: July 15, 2002
To help spur the preservation of
affordable rental homes for low-income households, the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation has launched a multi-year Affordable Housing Preservation
Initiative. As part of this effort, the foundation intends to provide
long-term, low-cost loans through program-related investments (PRIs) to
exemplary not-for-profit organizations seeking to acquire, rejuvenate, and
provide long-term stewardship for a substantial inventory of affordable rental
housing.
http://www.macfdn.org/announce/announcement_archive/regional_housing.htm
Downtown and Business District Market Analysis
For the last three decades, small cities (population of less
than 100,000) all across our country have seen continued economic leakage from
downtown to outlying edge locations. The Center for Community Economic
Development has developed a market analysis workbook, designed to help local
business leaders, entrepreneurs, developers, and economic development
professionals understand the changing marketplace and identify business and
real estate development opportunities that are realistic and make sense for
their communities. It will introduce and guide the user through many of the
analytical techniques used in analyzing specific development opportunities for
a downtown area.
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/cced/dma/index.html
From Grants Program to Grassroots Movement: The Civic Action Network
The best symbol of the Civic Action Network's rapid emergence
in California's Central Valley may be the poster-size map its organizers use to
track activity. Nearly blank when the network began three years ago, it's now
covered by more than 150 dots, representing projects from Sacramento to Stockton
to Bakersfield. These projects are part of what began as a simple small grants
program and have now become a thriving network.
http://www.irvine.org/fr_news_2.1_democracy.htm
Funding for Women’s Business Centers
The Small Business Administration invites applications from
eligible nonprofit organizations for Women's Business Center (WBC) projects. A
WBC is a 5-year community-based project that is funded through a matching
grant. The project is a planned scope of activities that provide business
skills services targeted to women. The WBC services must include long-term
training and counseling pertaining to financial, management and marketing
assistance to benefit small business concerns owned and controlled by women.
Applications are due by August 12, 2002.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&docid=02-16785-filed
Request for Information on Community
Building Training Programs
Cambridge College, a community-oriented college that
develops courses based on the needs of adults returning to school is in the
process of creating a certification program on Community Building. The program
will be part of the Undergraduate Human Services Concentration and will enable
current activists and human service workers, and those interested in pursuing
this work to earn college credit and expand their skills to become change agents
in their communities. We are looking for other schools across the country and
training programs that offer such courses. This effort is part of a networking
process to connect to other Community Building Trainers and Activists across
the country to share experiences and resources. The process
includes interviewing people who identify themselves as Community Builders
to help us identify the skills and experiences needed to be effective in the
field.
If anyone has information related to Community Building,
please contact Joel Nitzberg at jknitz@rcn.com
The Website for the college is:
http://www.cambridgecollege.edu
Request for Information on
Technical Assistance Initiatives for CBO’s
The Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University
is embarking on an ambitious research project to help strengthen
university-community partnerships and capacity-building efforts, including the
training of a new generation of leaders for community based organizations (CBOs).
In an attempt to collect ideas to help tailor this program so it provides
maximum benefit for those organizations, they are compiling a list of
university-based applied research and technical assistance initiatives that
focus on capacity building of CBOs engaged in local economic and community
development. If you have anything to contribute or would like more information
please contact David Driskell, Visiting Scholar, at dd96@cornell.edu
**Education
Small Class Size Still Matters
In “The Class Size Debate,” an updated edition, economist
Alan Krueger of Princeton University argues that smaller classes improve
academic performance and future job earnings for millions of students.
"Reductions necessarily involve hiring more teachers, and teacher quality
is much more important than class size in affecting student outcomes. The Class
Size Debate uses detailed research and analysis on many aspects of the debate,
including student performance, test scores, education policies and
teacher-student ratios.
http://epinet.org/press/releases/class062102.html
AFT Study Reveals Charter Schools Not Meeting Expectations
The American Federation of Teachers has released a report
that found the vast majority of existing charter schools have failed to fulfill
their promise to bring greater achievement and innovation into the classroom.
The report suggests that policymakers should not expand charter school
activities until more convincing evidence of their effectiveness or viability
is presented. A call for greater accountability for charter schools dovetails
with a previous AFT study released in 1996.
The 1996 report is available at:
http://www.aft.org/research/reports/charter/csweb/sum.htm.
The 2002 Do Charter Schools Measure Up? The Charter School
Experiment After 10 Years report is available at:
PDF: www.aft.org/edissues/downloads/charterreport02.pdf.
Poll Shows African-Americans Support School Choice Options
A poll commissioned by the conservative Black America's PAC
(BAMPAC) of African American registered voters found that 63 percent of African
Americans with children would remove their child from a local public school and
send them to charter or private schools if given a choice. Overall, 48 percent
of African American voters would place their children in private or charter
schools if given a choice.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce29bd
**Health
Drug
Companies Spent Almost Two-and-One-Half Times as Much on Marketing,
Advertising, and Administration as They Spent on Research and Development
An analysis from Families USA finds that U.S. drug companies
that market the 50 most often prescribed drugs to seniors spent almost
two-and-one-half times as much on marketing, advertising, and administration as
they spent on research and development (R&D) in 2001. The report questions
the Bush administration’s 's assertions, and drug companies' claims, that high
and fast-rising drug prices are needed to support R&D.
http://www.familiesusa.org/new2001data.htm
Paying for Medical Value: A Better Outpatient Prescription Drug Benefit for
Medicare
A new issue brief released by The Century Foundation,
“Paying for Medical Value,” proposes an alternative approach for a prescription
drug benefit. This approach is based on the medical and therapeutic value of
the medications covered. His plan would address the major problems of the bills
currently under consideration in Washington: the likelihood that they will
either fail to provide access to important medicines for seniors or result in
excessive government spending on non-essential drugs.
http://www.tcf.org/
Medicare
Managed Care Program Helps Low-Income People But Suffers From Conflicting Goals
As Congress considers legislative proposals aimed at saving
Medicare+Choice, a new study published on the Health Affairs Web site shows
that under the best-case scenario, enrollment in the troubled managed care
program would stabilize at about 5 million beneficiaries. These findings are
important for low and moderate-income beneficiaries, who make up 55 percent of
M+C enrollees and rely on M+C plans because they cover drugs and other supplemental
benefits. If M+C were completely eliminated, the authors write, more than 30
percent would end up with Medicare coverage only, raising the number of
beneficiaries with no coverage for drugs and other supplemental services to 6.5
million from 5 million.
http://healthaffairs.org/WebExclusives/Thorpe_Web_Excl_071702.htm
HHS Awards Nearly $19 Million for Health Center Improvements
The Department of Health and Human Services announced 149
grants totaling nearly $19 million as part of the Consolidated Health Center
Program to help the nation's health centers provide a greater variety of health
care services to more Americans in rural and inner-city areas. The awards will
create new oral health care delivery sites as well as expand services at
current centers, and expand the availability of mental health, substance abuse
treatment and pharmacy services at existing health centers.
http://newsroom.hrsa.gov/releases/2002releases/serviceexpansion.htm.
Nominations Sought for Community Health
Leadership Awards
Deadline: September 30, 2002
Each year, the Robert Wood
Johnson Community Health Leadership Program (CHLP) honors ten outstanding
individuals who have overcome long odds to expand access to health care and
social services to underserved and isolated populations in communities across
the United States. Each honoree is awarded $120,000 -- $105,000 for program
support and $15,000 as a personal stipend. To be eligible, candidates must be
in "mid-career," with at least five and no more than fifteen years of
community health experience; working full-time at the grassroots level.
http://www.communityhealthleaders.org/
**Homelessness
Effectiveness of Integrated
Services for Homeless Adults with Serious Mental Illness
A 2002 report to the California
legislature details California’s pilot Community Mental Health Treatment
Program that has shown promising results by greatly reducing hospital stays and
arrests, which has saved the state an estimated $23 million dollars. The
program has been expanded from 3 counties to 34 other cities and counties.
Funding has increased from an initial $10 million to $55 million.
http://www.dmh.cahwnet.gov/PGRE/Integrated%20Services.htm
**Hunger and Nutrition
New Funding Program That Helps Black Farmers Market to Inner City Co-ops
Bringing locally grown, farm-fresh foods into school
lunchrooms in California; marketing the fruits and vegetables of black farmers
in Illinois to an inner city neighborhood on Chicago's West Side; and helping
small-scale hog farmers in North Carolina compete with the massive factory
farms that are dominating the market with products high in hormones and
antibiotics -- these are just a few of the projects undertaken by grantees of a
new W.K. Kellogg Foundation funding program, the Food Systems Higher
Education-Community Partnership.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce29c7
**Substance Abuse
With increased availability of illegal drugs and
acceptability of women drinking and using drugs, women are approaching a
dubious form of gender equality, according to "Women & Addiction:
Gender Issues in Abuse and Treatment," a research report issued by the
Caron Foundation, an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center. The full
report, which includes a self-test for women on alcohol and substance abuse, is
available at:
http://www.caron.org/pub_rep.asp
**Technology
Bipartisan Support Represents Remarkable First Victory for Community
Technology Supporters
The US Senate appropriations subcommittee voted to fund two
community technology programs - the Technology Opportunities Program and the
Community Technology Centers program - at levels comparable to last year's
amounts, despite the Bush Administration's recommendation to eliminate these
programs in their FY03 budget. "Today's actions represent an important
victory for those who believe the federal government should continue its strong
leadership role in ensuring that all Americans have the technological access
and skills needed to benefit from and participate fully in the Information
Society," said Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, the lead sponsor of the Digital Empowerment
Campaign.
http://www.civilrights.org/library/detail.cfm?id=9563
Grant Program to Bring Broadband to Rural America
The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announces a pilot grant
program for the provision of broadband transmission service in rural America.
For FY 2002, $20 million in grants will be made available to provide broadband
transmission service on a "community-oriented connectivity" basis.
The "community-oriented connectivity'' approach will target rural,
economically-challenged communities and offer a means for the deployment of
broadband transmission services to rural schools, libraries, education centers,
health care providers, law enforcement agencies, public safety organizations as
well as residents and businesses.
Applications are due by November 5, 2002
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&docid=02-17018-filed
Violence Prevention
Gun Safety Programs for Children, Teens Are Ineffective
A new report from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
finds that programs to train children and adolescents to stay away from guns,
or behave responsibly on their own around guns, do not work. The report from
says that instead of trying to change youth behavior around guns, policymakers
and parents should focus on keeping kids away from unsupervised contact with
guns, whether at home or in the community.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce29c1
Training Opportunity for Violence Prevention Professionals
National Funding Collaborative
on Violence Prevention (NFCVP) is sponsoring Immersion Training: Collaborating
to Prevent Violence and Promote Peace. Over 200 participants will engage in a
3-day training session for practitioners in violence prevention and community
building. Training includes self-assessment, simulations, peer exchange,
hands-on exercises, skill building and tool application.
Date: December 12-14,2002
Place: Washington, DC
Fees: $500 early bird,
$595 regular
Deadline to register: November 15, 2002
http://www.nfcvp.org/home/
**Welfare Reform
Welfare Rolls on the Rise Again
On July 16 The Washington Post published "Welfare Rolls
on the Rise Again," an opinion column by University
of Maryland Professor
Douglas J. Besharov,
Director of the Welfare Reform Academy. Professor Besharov presents new
evidence that--after seven years of dramatic declines--welfare caseloads are
rising again. He argues that congressional reauthorization of the 1996 Welfare
Reform Act needs to take these circumstances into account. Access this article
directly at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9578-2002Jul15.html
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