|
**Children, Youth &
Families
Many Grandparents are Living with Grandchildren without Parents Present
In 2000, the Census Bureau
for the first time collected information on grandparents who were primary
caregivers for their grandchildren. The numbers revealed that about 5.8 million
grandparents were living with grandchildren under the age of 18. Forty-two
percent of these grandparents were responsible for the care of their
grandchildren.
http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/multimedia/grandparents.html
Teens Seek Information about Sex, Relationships Almost a Year before
Inquiring About Preventing Pregnancy, Sexually Transmitted Infection
According
to a Planned Parenthood Federation of America study, teens writing to a
reproductive health information Web site inquire about sex behaviors an average
of a year earlier than they ask about disease or pregnancy prevention. The study yielded three primary findings:
concerns over sexually transmitted infections were rarely mentioned; relatively
few males submitted questions to the site; and teens asking about sex behaviors
were significantly younger than those asking about reproductive health services
and preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/031009_teenwire.html
U.S. Infant Mortality, Teen
Birth Rates Down, Prenatal Care Up
The
infant mortality and teen birth rates in the United States declined from 2000
to 2001, and more pregnant women received early prenatal care in 2001 than in
1990, according to the National Center for
Health Statistics' 471-page annual report on the health of people in the
United States.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=20192
Relief
of Poverty Linked to Improvement in Some Childhood Psychiatric Symptoms
According to researchers at Duke University Medical Center, relief of poverty appears to be associated with
improvement in symptoms of behavioral psychiatric disorders in children, such
as problem conduct and "oppositional defiant disorder" (ODD). However, relief of poverty resulted in little
change in symptoms of emotional disorders like depression and anxiety.
http://dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=7117
**Civil Society
Pew Hispanic Center Releases Latino
Population Projections
The
Pew Hispanic Center released population
projections for the Latino population which shows that as it continues to grow,
the composition of the Hispanic population is undergoing a fundamental
change. Over the next twenty years this
will produce an important shift in the makeup of the Hispanic population with
second-generation Latinos emerging as the largest component of that population. This shift has profound implications for many
realms of public policy, and indeed for anyone seeking to understand the nature
of demographic change in the United States.
PDF:
http://www.pewhispanic.org/site/docs/pdf/PHC%20Projections%20final.pdf
**Community
Development
State Networks of Local
Comprehensive Community Collaboratives
A brief from the Finance
Project explores the various financing and governance strategies that several
state networks of local collaboratives use to coordinate and support their
efforts to improve comprehensive supports and services for children and
families. The brief also presents
considerations for decision makers who are involved in establishing and
maintaining such networks, as well as examples of state-local collaborative
initiatives that have used particular financing and governance strategies to
support and sustain their networks.
PDF:
http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/Publications/collaborative.pdf
International Community Quality of Life Conference - Advances in the
Science and Practice of Community Indicators.
The
National Association of Planning Councils (NAPC) is co-sponsoring a conference,
to be held in Reno, NV, March 10-13, 2004, which will focus on increasing the knowledge
base about measuring community quality of life through planning, development
and use of community quality of life indicators. The purpose of the overall conference is
cross-fertilization and synergy-building among the many interests and
approaches making up the community indicators movement. NAPC is responsible for developing a series
of workshops and presentations on social indicators and invite submissions of
proposals for a workshop or presentation on social indicators. The submission
deadline is November 3,
2003.
http://business.wm.edu/isqols/community/
Microsoft Support of
Community-Based Technology and Learning Centers
Microsoft's corporate
foundation, through its Unlimited Potential (UP) Program, is accepting funding
applications to support Community-Based Technology and Learning Centers
(CTLC). In early September, Microsoft
announced a first round of UP grants, totaling $8.1 million in cash and
software for 82 nonprofit organizations, and said it will commit more than $1
billion to the initiative over the next five years.
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/citizenship/giving/apply/guidelines.asp
HUD Recognizes
Indianapolis as Model 'Homeownership Zone'
The
Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Indianapolis the
Department's first Homeownership Zone Award for the creative way the City used
a $4 million HUD grant to stimulate other public and private contributions to
turn 'Dodge City,' a 26-block neighborhood in Indianapolis known for gunfire
and boarded up properties, into Fall Creek Place, a mixed-income community
being developed within the City's Homeownership Zone.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr03-108.cfm
HUD Expands
'Reaching the Dream' Initiative in Four Cities
The Department of Housing and
Urban Development announced four more cities will participate in the Reaching
the Dream Initiative to encourage more faith-based and smaller grassroots
organizations across America to promote homeownership. The Reaching the Dream initiative will help
faith-based and community grassroots organizations in Atlanta, Albuquerque,
Chicago and, Nashville to establish homebuyer awareness programs in these
areas.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr03-106.cfm
The Cost of War to Cities and Counties
The
National Priorities Project offers new information on the cost of war to cities
and counties, both for the new request of $87 billion, and the total costs of
war in Iraq. For more information, to view the list of
cities, or to request your own city, go to:
This localized information offers an important opportunity to convey to
your senators and representatives the consequences to your state and city of
federal spending priorities.
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Issues/Military/Iraq/CostOfWar871411006.html
**Disabilities
Disabilities and Postsecondary Education
The
National Council on Disability released People with Disabilities and
Postsecondary Education in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act (HEA). Students with disabilities, who now are estimated to
represent nearly 10 percent of all college students, currently experience
outcomes far inferior to those of their non-disabled peers. The purpose of this paper is to provide
background that might guide reauthorization of the HEA to better support
students with disabilities to achieve equal postsecondary outcomes.
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/education.html.
NCD Publishes Abridged Olmstead Report
The
National Council on Disability released an abridged version of its report
Olmstead: Reclaiming Institutionalized Lives.
The report measures progress to date in the implementation of the
landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C and related federal and
state government initiatives. It
concludes that community-based services work, but more needs to be done.
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/reclaimabridged.html.
**Economic
Security
Children in Low-Income Families Fare Better with Work Supports
The
National Center for Children in Poverty reports that recent five-year findings
from the New Hope project corroborate other studies that show the positive
effects of increased work supports on employment, income, and child
well-being—even if the program is not directly targeted to children. Current language proposed in the 2003
reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash
assistance program created by the 1996 welfare reform legislation would make
the well-being of poor children its overarching purpose. The results of
large-scale random assignment experiments like New Hope can help guide government
officials to identify the policies that have the most positive effects on
children but still support the goal of moving people off welfare and into the
workforce.
http://www.researchforum.org/newsletter/forum64.pdf
Making Ends Meet: How Much Does it Cost to
Raise a Family in California?
A
report from the California Budget Project estimates the amount families need to
earn in order to achieve a modest standard of living in California and ten state
regions. These budgets include the
typical costs of housing and utilities, child care, transportation, food,
health coverage, payroll and income taxes, and miscellaneous expenses for four
family types.
PDF:
http://www.cbp.org/2003/2003MEMfinal.pdf
State EITC Online Resource Center
:
The
Hatcher Group and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation have introduced a new
Website providing reports, articles, and polling data on the federal and state
Earned Income Tax Credits.
http://www.stateeitc.com/
The Mismatch Between Federal Unemployment Benefits and Current Labor
Market Realities
The Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities finds that most recipients of federal unemployment insurance
run out of benefits before being able to find jobs, a sign of the fundamental
mismatch between the temporary federal unemployment program and the severity of
current labor market problems.
http://www.cbpp.org/10-15-03ui.htm
**Education
Gates Grant Launches
Effort to Refocus Nation's School Dollars to Help Children Achieve
A four-year effort to
retarget the nation's education spending begins this week with the help of a
$5.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The School Finance Redesign Project will send
15 researchers to four states to "follow the money" in different
kinds of schools and recommend how to spend more of America's $360 billion annual investment
in public education on specific practices that help children succeed.
http://www.crpe.org/hot/introFinanceRedesign.shtml
**Health
Severe
Obesity on the Rise in the U.S.
According to a RAND
Corporation study
the proportion of Americans with clinically severe obesity increased from 1 in
200 adults in 1986 to 1 in 50 adults in 2000—growing twice as fast as the
proportion of Americans who are simply obese.
http://www.rand.org/hot/press.03/10.13.html
About 33% of U.S. Residents Born in 2000
Likely To Develop Diabetes
According
to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about
33% of U.S. residents born in 2000
will likely develop diabetes in their lifetimes. The study found that women have a 38.5%
lifetime risk for diabetes, compared with 32.8% for men, and that women have a
higher risk at all ages. Hispanics had the highest lifetime risk for diabetes
among all ethnic groups.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=20256
Analysis Compares Practices at California Medical Groups with
Counterparts in the Rest of the Country
According
to a report published by Health Affairs, physician organizations in California are more likely than
their counterparts outside the state to be paid for improving health care
quality, and are more likely to follow care management or similar practices for
treating chronically ill patients. The
wider application of care management processes by California’s medical groups and
independent practice associations may be linked to the more frequent use of
financial performance tools, other external incentives for improving quality,
and increasing investment in clinical information technology.
http://www.healthaffairs.org/WebExclusives/Gillies_Web_Excl_101503.htm
Hispanics
Face High Rates of Unstable Health Care Coverage, Low Rates of Preventive Care
According to a new analysis
by The Commonwealth Fund, nearly half of Hispanics under age 65 and two-thirds
of working-age Hispanics with low incomes were uninsured for all or part of the
year in 2000,. Uninsured Hispanics have low rates of some preventive health
services: just 39% of uninsured Hispanic adults with diabetes had annual foot
exams (needed for early identification of problems that could lead to
amputation) compared with 67% of Hispanics with insurance.
http://www.cmwf.org/media/releases/doty684chartpack_release10162003.asp
Report Documents
Growing Disparities in Health Care Coverage Between
Immigrant and Citizen Children
The Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities finds that disparities in the health coverage of citizen
children and immigrant children have been growing since 1996 legislation
restricted immigrant children's eligibility for Medicaid or SCHIP. The Senate's
Medicare drug bill includes a bipartisan proposal that would allow states to
restore coverage for legal immigrant children.
http://www.cbpp.org/10-14-03health.htm
HHS Awards More Than $65
Million to Eliminate Health Disparities
The Department of Health and
Human Services announced the awarding of $65.1 million, by the National
Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
(NCMHD). These funds support the
advancement of health disparities research and the elimination of health
disparities among racial and ethnic minority and medically underserved
communities. The NCMHD was designated by
Congress to lead, coordinate, support and assess the NIH research effort to
reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities as they affect racial and
ethnic communities and medically underserved individuals.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20031010.html
**Welfare and Welfare Reform
Welfare Caseload Remains Relatively Flat in Second Quarter of
2003
The Center for Law and Social
Policy reports that welfare caseloads remained essentially flat in the U.S. between March and June 2003. The national welfare caseload has declined
each year since 1997. However, the rate of decline has steadily slowed, and now
the national caseload appears essentially flat. This new analysis also notes
the sharp contrast between flattening welfare caseloads and rising food stamp
caseloads between 2001 and 2003.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1066331390.64/caseload_2003_Q2.pdf
A Means to an End: Integration of Welfare and Workforce
Development Systems
The Center for Law and Social
Policy reports that during the last decade, before and after implementation of
the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, state welfare
agencies became increasingly focused on linking low-income families with
employment. At the same time, in implementing the Workforce Investment Act of
1998 (WIA), states created “one-stop centers” and focused on addressing the
fragmentation and duplication that has often plagued state employment and
training programs. The transformation of state welfare and workforce systems
has prompted states to assess the relationship between the two systems. This report
describes how four states—Florida,
Ohio, Utah,
and Wisconsin—have approached integration of TANF and WIA services
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1066309407.22/means_brf.pdf
|
