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Digital Divide…Where To Go From Here
An issue brief from the
Kaiser Family Foundation, “Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,”
includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the
nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of
connection, and what children are doing online.
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia091604pkg.cfm
Harvard Family Research
Project (HFRP) has Released Two New Publications on Evaluating Out-of-School
Time (OST) Programming for Kids.
In the "Issues and
Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation" series of briefs, HFRP has
published brief number 8, entitled "Promoting Quality Through
Professional Development: A Framework for Evaluation." This brief examines OST professional
development efforts and offers a framework for their evaluation.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/afterschool/resources/issuebrief8.html
In the "Out-of-School
Time Evaluation Snapshots" series, HFRP has published snapshot number 5,
entitled "Detangling Data Collection: Methods for Gathering Data."
This new Snapshot describes the common data collection methods used by current
OST programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/afterschool/resources/snapshot5.html
**Civic Participation
Survey Shows Which Issues
May Influence Women's Votes
According to a survey,
Workingwomen Speak Out, conducted by the Business and Professional Women's
Foundation, domestic issues are far more important to workingwomen than
terrorism and international. When asked "which issues will influence your
vote the most," fully 79% of the respondents chose "domestic issues
such as joblessness and education" and only 21% choose "international
issues such as terrorism and trade."
http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=5461
African Americans, Voting
Machines, and Spoiled Ballots - A Challenge to Election Reform
According to research from
the Century Foundation, many states' failure to implement measures outlined in
the Help America Vote Act threatens to undercut the reliability of the 2004
election results for a variety of reasons, one of which has received far too
little attention: African-American votes disproportionately go uncounted when
punch-card and, to some extent, “central count” optical-scan machines are used.
http://www.tcf.org/4L/4LMain.asp?SubjectID=1&ArticleId=486&TopicId=6
**Community Development
Federal
Program Leads to Better Homes and Neighborhoods for Public Housing Residents
In a series of reports the Urban
Institute shows how the federal HOPE VI housing program is improving living
conditions for former residents of the nation's most distressed public
housing. Those who leave the troubled
housing developments as part of HOPE VI revitalization efforts are moving to
accommodations with fewer problems and to neighborhoods with less poverty,
significantly less crime, and slightly more racial diversity.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8985
HUD Recognizes 14 Local
Communities for Outstanding Achievement in Community Development
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development announced 14 communities are receiving HUD's Community
Development Excellence Award for their outstanding work in using Community
Development Block Grant funding to create better communities and to improve the
lives of their lower income residents.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-088.cfm
**Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Journal -
Causes and Correlates: Findings and Implications
The Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announces the availability of
Juvenile Justice Journal, Volume 9, a 40-page Journal focusing on research that
assesses how and why children become delinquent, and its value in preventing
and combating delinquency.
http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=11800
Mentally
Ill Kids in Jail as Help Is Cut: They Become Trapped in Criminalizing System
In a column published in the
San Jose Mercury News a policy researcher at the Urban Institute explains that
nearly 2,000 children in need of mental health treatment are languishing in America's jails. A Congressional report reveals that in
two-thirds of all states, mentally ill youth are locked up, often without
charges, simply because no local treatment is available. Despite such sobering
facts, many states are cutting back services for mentally ill youth. To break
this vicious cycle, better mental health assessment at the justice system's
front door is needed and the juvenile justice system and communities need to
provide a range of services, including coordinated cross-agency case management
of mentally ill youth.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=8981
**Health
Poverty, Depression, and
Congressional Inaction
The Century Foundation
highlights a study about the relationship between income, poverty and depression
in mothers of young children, published in the American Journal of Public
Health, which provides evidence that poverty too often is a cycle that draws in
children at an early age. While the results of the depression study argue for
programs that provide comprehensive financial and educational support for
low-income mothers and their children, such help will not be coming from
Congress this session.
http://www.tcf.org/4L/4LMain.asp?SubjectID=4&ArticleID=720
**Hunger
and Nutrition
Rethinking School Lunch:
The Center for Ecoliteracy Launches Comprehensive Initiative
The Center for Ecoliteracy
has unveiled a comprehensive initiative that addresses the epidemic of
diet-related diseases prevalent among the 54 million school-age children in the
United
States.
Rethinking School Lunch advocates educating children to make healthy food
choices by integrating curriculum with school lunch programs while
strengthening ties between schools and local farmers. The initiative's intended audience is
parents, teachers, school administrators and food service directors. A free,
186-page online guide from the Center includes planning tools to implement programs
that address nutrition, health, and school lunches through an integrated
curriculum.
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/rethinking/rsl.html
Food Stamp Participation Increases in June 2004 Tops 24 Million Persons
An
analysis from the Food Research and Action Center finds that participation in
the Food Stamp Program in June 2004 (the latest data available) increased by
187,901 persons from the previous month, to 24,163,504 persons. Some of this
increase was due to continuing high rates of joblessness, states improving
access, and the effects of the food stamp reauthorization implementation. The June 2004 level of Food Stamp Program participation
represented a rise of nearly 2.4 million persons compared to the June 2003
level and more than 7 million persons since July 2000 (when program
participation nationally reached its lowest point in the last decade).
http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/Latest_FSP.html
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