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**Children, Youth & Families
Supporting Loving Families: After the Adoption
The Child Welfare League of America finds that more and more adoptive families
find they need extra help with special needs after the adoption. For children
who have been adopted from the child welfare system, permanency is a start
but not a solution, and a loving family is a blessing but not a cure-all.
When an adoption is finalized, it may put an end to the paperwork, but it
doesn't end the special needs of adoptive families and children.
http://www.cwla.org/articles/cv0211supporting.htm
Many of California's Young Children Live in Poverty; High
Numbers of Immigrant Parents, Low Parental Education Key Factors
According to a study released by the Public Policy Institute of California
one-fifth of California's youngest children are growing up poor. ). Despite
a decline in recent years, the state's poverty rate for children under the
age of five remains higher than it was two decades ago and higher than child
poverty levels in the rest of the United States.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce945c
Minorities as Majority: Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile
Justice
In the first of two articles The Child Welfare League of America that though
Congress amended the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 1992
to make it a "core requirement" for states to demonstrate efforts
they're taking to reduce disproportionate minority confinement, a decade of
data gathering has produced little in the way of reversing this phenomenon.
Statistics confirmed what child welfare professionals suspected all along:
Far too many children of color pass from protection to punishment.
http://www.cwla.org/articles/cv0211minorities.htm
Asian American Families Protect Kids from Substance Use
Research from UC Davis finds that strong family ties and good parent-child
communication appear to be protecting Asian American youth from drug and alcohol
use. The study has implications for counseling. "Using the importance
of the family, counselors can target intervention efforts by improving communication
within the family and working on generation gaps that might be formed through
the differing experiences between immigrants and their native- born kids,"
the researcher says.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce9455
**Civil Society
Why Women, Blacks Don't Like War: Researchers Look at 50 Years of Opinion
Research
Researchers at UC Davis report that say extensive public opinion research
over the last half century shows that in almost all realms of foreign and
domestic policy women are less favorable than men to U.S. military intervention
abroad. Other studies show that blacks have been less anticommunist than whites
during the Cold War, less supportive of high levels of defense spending and
less enthusiastic than whites about armed intervention abroad.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce9451
Beyond
the Prison Gates
A report from the Urban Institute finds that though the number of parole
revocations has increased dramatically, there exist substantial variations
between states. In some states, parole violators constitute more than one
half of their prison admissions. These profound shifts at the national and
state level raise basic questions about the role of parole in American sentencing
policy.
HTML: http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=73&Template=/TaggedContent/NewReports.cfm&PublicationID=7980
PDF: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310583_Beyond_prison_gates.pdf
**Community Development
Discrimination
in Metropolitan Housing Markets
A new report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
based on Urban Institute research finds that the nation is making real progress
in combating housing market discrimination. New estimates indicate that while
discrimination persists against African Americans and Hispanics searching
for homes in major metropolitan areas, its incidence has generally declined
since 1989.
HTML: http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=73&Template=/TaggedContent/NewReports.cfm&PublicationID=7982
PDF: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/Phase1_Executive_Summary.pdf
Race and Ethnicity Play Key Factor in Sale of High-Cost Refinance Loans
According to a Consumers Union study Black and Hispanic families who refinance
their homes in Texas are finding out that race still matters. Black borrowers
are 3.9 times as likely to end up with a refinance loan from a high-cost "subprime"
lender than White borrowers, while Hispanics are 1.6 times as likely, even
after factoring out income and the loan-to-income ratio.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce9453
HUD Awards Grants to Convert Existing Housing into Assisted Living Facilities
The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants to help
convert existing multifamily projects into assisted living facilities for
the elderly. The $54.3 million in grants will used to upgrade apartments
to meet the needs of the elderly in twelve states. Assisted living facilities
are designed to accommodate low-income elderly and persons with disabilities
who can live independently but need assistance with activities of daily living,
such as assistance with eating, bathing, grooming, dressing and home management
activities.
http://www.hud.gov:80/news/release.cfm?content=pr02-136.cfm
**Disabilities
NCD Releases Brief on Americans with Disabilities Act
(Note Corrected URL from 11/1/02 Digest)
The National Council on Disability (NCD) released A Carefully Constructed
Law, the newest addition to the ongoing policy brief series analyzing and
responding to certain problematic aspects of the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The report , responds to the
supposed uncertainties and ambiguities that the Supreme Court has perceived
that the ADA was not carefully considered nor carefully written by explaining
how the Congress carefully considered, negotiated, and fine-tuned the ADA
before enacting it, as well as the 25 years of methodical Congressional study
that preceded its passage.
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/carefullyconstructedlaw.html
**Economic Security
Businesses
Can Do More to Attract, Retain African-American Employees
Researchers at the University of Michigan Business School and Florida A&M
University find that as more minorities than ever before are joining the U.S.
workforce, American businesses can do more to accommodate them - especially
African-Americans. Compared with their white counterparts, African-American
workers have lower levels of job satisfaction and commitment to their employers,
the researchers say.
http://64.95.130.47/webx?13@@.1dce9458
**Education
State Poverty-Based Education
Funding: A Survey of Current Programs and Options For Improvement
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has
released a 50-state survey of state education funding programs that provide
additional resources to local schools based on poverty rates. State
and federal policymakers are increasingly focused on creating high standards
of academic achievement for all students. This paper explores policy options
for policymakers working to implement or expand programs designed to improve
education funding for low-income children.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-7-02sfp.htm
**Health
Health
Care Issues To Be Important, But Not Top Priority for New Congress, Analysts
Say
The Kaiser Family Foundation Website provides an
excellent overview of the implications of last Tuesday’s election on a variety
of health care issues. Republican lawmakers, who will assume control of
both the House and Senate in the 108th Congress next year, will likely use
their "substantially increased power" to "change the national
debate" on health care and enact market-based reforms, the Wall
Street Journal reports.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=14476
AIDS Conference Participants Call for Culturally Appropriate AIDS Prevention
Strategies Targeting Africans, African Americans
Participants in a three-day Pan-Africa AIDS conference
in Nashville, TN, called for improved strategies for fighting HIV/AIDS in
Africa and among African
Americans. The attendees, who included the first lady of Burundi and Ed Sanders,
a member of the Presidential Advisory Council
on HIV/AIDS, said that current efforts to fight HIV/AIDS within both populations
were "failing dismally" and that new strategies should better account
for differing cultural practices and beliefs.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=14393
Diabetes Assoc.
Launches Newest Latino Outreach Program
The American Diabetes Association's DAR (Diabetes Assistance and Resources)
Latino Outreach Program will launch its newest program created to help persons
in the Latino community appreciate that participating in regular dance activities
and following healthy eating habits can help control or prevent type 2 diabetes.
Through a variety of activities, including partnerships with other health
care and civic organizations within the Latino community, the American Diabetes
Association's DAR Latino Outreach Program provides a host of community-based
materials that volunteers and staff nationwide use to spread the word about
diabetes in the Latino community.
http://ada.yellowbrix.com/pages/ada/Story.nsp?story_id=34139589&ID=ada
HHS Announces
Creation of Medical Reserve Corps Unit
The Department of Health and Human Services announced 42 grants totaling
$2 million to community- based organizations to begin building local Medical
Reserve Corps (MRC) units that will help local communities prepare and respond
in the event of a public health emergency. The local MRC units are comprised
of local citizens, volunteers who are trained to respond to health crises.
The volunteers' responsibilities will include emergency response, logistical
planning, records keeping, assisting in public health and awareness campaigns
and public communications.
http://www.medicalreservecorps.gov/index.htm
Medicare+Choice Enrollees Faced Rising Premiums, Benefit
Cuts, and Increased Costs in 2002
In 2002, Medicare+Choice plans cut back on benefits
such as prescription drug coverage while enrollees faced a 40 percent rise
in monthly premiums and substantial cost-sharing increases, according to two
new Commonwealth Fund reports. The first report, from Mathematica Policy
Research, finds that average out-of-pocket health care costs for Medicare+Choice
enrollees in 2002 are $1,786, up 24 percent from 2001 and 83 percent from
1999, with enrollees in poor health facing the steepest cost increases.
Issue Brief – PDF: http://www.cmwf.org/programs/medfutur/gold_average_OOP_costs_575.pdf
Press Release: http://www.cmwf.org/media/releases/achmangold575580_release11012002.asp
Trends in Medicare+Choice Benefits and Premiums, 1999-2002
The second report from the Commonwealth Fund finds that the percentage of
enrollees in a Medicare+Choice plan requiring hospital cost-sharing more than
doubled, from 33 percent in 2001 to 78 percent in 2002. Copayments for physician
office visits increased as well.
Report – PDF: http://www.cmwf.org/programs/medfutur/achman_trendsM+C_580.pdf
Press Release: http://www.cmwf.org/media/releases/achmangold575580_release11012002.asp
