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**Children, Youth &
Families A
Children's Defense Fund analysis of recently released birth and death
statistics from 2001 finds that core federal maternal and infant health
goals are not being achieved. The goals, part of Healthy People 2000,
were set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the
first Bush Administration in 1990. Among five key measures for which
reliable data exist, only the target for lowering mortality for all
infants has been reached. Goals for maternal mortality, early prenatal
care, low birthweight, and very low birth
weight are not being met. http://www.childrensdefense.org/release031119.php Children's
Mental Health Resource Kit The
Children’s Defense Fund has released a Children’s Mental Health Resource
Kit designed to help promote access to and increase availability of
mental health screens and assessments for children through Medicaid
and the Children’s Health Insurance Program programs as an essential
first step in ensuring appropriate mental health treatment for children.
It is designed to help users gather information in their states and
lead to other resources as they work to improve and expand mental health
screens and assessments for children. http://www.childrensdefense.org/mentalhealthresourcekit.php Developmental Specialists
Work Well in Pediatric Practices As part of the Commonwealth
Fund's Healthy Steps for Young Children initiative, 15 pediatric practices
around the country incorporated early child development specialists
into their clinical teams. A new evaluation, "Developmental
Specialists in Pediatric Practices: Perspectives of Clinicians and Staff"
finds that the specialists have become well integrated into the practices
and are being consulted for a variety of developmental concerns. http://www.cmwf.org/../../programs/child/minkovitz_pediatricpractices_itl_689.asp Teen Web Site Teaches Financial Literacy Teachers
looking for a way to help teens make sense out of money can find engaging
and fun resources at "Sense and Dollars" created by Maryland
Public Television with the support of CitiFinancial
and Citigroup Foundation. The site teaches teens through interactive
activities based on real-life situations, how to earn, spend, save,
and invest wisely. Sense and
Dollars, developed in collaboration with educators and economic organizations,
incorporates a hip design with interactive activities and tools to engage
middle and high schoolers. http://senseanddollars.thinkport.org **Community
Development Balancing Growth and Quality of Life: National Smart Growth Achievement
Award Recipients Announced Finding
a balance between growth and development reaps rewards. Five communities
were recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency for their innovative
approaches to projects ranging from the revitalization of brownfields
to the renewal of urban centers, while still maintaining a sense of
community identity and respect for the environment http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm Brookings has produced
a set of new "one-stop" guides to key indicators and comparative
rankings from Census 2000. Guides
are now available for 23 of the nation's largest cities in the Living
Cities network. http://www.brookings.org/es/urban/livingcities/databooks.htm House-Senate Conference
Committee Poised to Decide Fate of Housing Voucher Funding According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, decisions expected to be made in the
next few weeks by a House-Senate conference will determine whether sufficient
funding will be available to support housing vouchers that are in use
serving low-income families. http://www.cbpp.org/11-14-03hous.htm HUD announces $50.9 million
in rental housing vouchers to help families with disabilities The
Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $50,983,616 million
in housing assistance vouchers to 1,336 housing agencies and non-profit
organizations. These rental assistance
vouchers are given exclusively to households, who have family members
with disabilities, to make leasing private housing affordable. The Mainstream Program Vouchers enable recipients
to rent housing units by paying generally no more than 30 percent of
their income for rent with HUD paying the remainder. http://www.hud.gov/content/releases/pr03-125.cfm HUD awards $6.87 million
to 20 colleges and universities to revitalize nearby neighborhoods
The
Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $6.87 million
in grants to 20 colleges and universities to help harness their physical
and economic resources -- and the knowledge, creativity and energy of
faculty and students -- to create stronger, healthier neighborhoods
near their campuses. The program is designed to help 2- and 4-year
colleges and universities develop and sustain effective community partnerships.
http://www.hud.gov/content/releases/pr03-105.cfm HUD study shows more than
one in four Native American renters face discrimination According
to a study released today by the Department of Housing and Urban Development,
Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets, Native Americans in
the metropolitan areas of http://www.hud.gov/content/releases/pr03-126.cfm **Economic
Security Children in Low-Income
Families Fare Better With Work Supports Recent
five-year findings from the New Hope project published by the Research
Forum, 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) would make the well-being
of poor children its overarching purpose. The results of large-scale
random assignment experiments like PDF: http://www.researchforum.org/newsletter/forum64.pdf **Education Charter Schools Resource Kit A
comprehensive resource kit for state and local decision makers involved
or interested in charter schools has been created by the National Association
of State Boards of Education (NASBE).
The interactive CD includes the latest information on critical
charter school policies related to: school goals, accountability, authorization
and oversight, equity and access, funding, and emerging issues. In addition,
the kit provides active Internet links to a treasure trove of research
and information resources such as each state's charter school office
and national evaluation studies of charter schools. http://www.nasbe.org/Front_Page/Press_Release.html **Health Update on Presidential
Candidates' Health Reform Plans The Commonwealth Fund
updated its analysis, Health
Care Reform Returns to the National Agenda: The 2004
Presidential Candidates' Proposals, to reflect Gen. Wesley
Clark's health care reform plan, released October 28. PDF: http://www.cmwf.org/programs/insurance/collins_reformagenda_671.pdf People Eligible for Medicaid Personal Care Services Get More Home Care,
Use Nursing Homes Less When They Direct Their
Own Care According
to the results of a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
Arkansas Medicaid enrollees who had the opportunity to direct their
own personal care services using a cash allowance were much more likely
to actually receive such services than were enrollees who were eligible
for services but had to get them in the usual way, from an agency. Furthermore, even those who did obtain care
from agencies received only about two-thirds of the hours of care to
which they were entitled, the study found. http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.w3.566 More Doctors Favor
National Health Insurance According to an Indiana
University School of Medicine study, nearly half of physicians in the
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/iu-mdf111803.php Percentage of Immigrant Children without Health Insurance is on the Rise
A
Children’s Defense Fund analysis has found that the percentage of immigrant
(i.e. non-citizen) children without health insurance coverage increased
from 39.2 percent in 2000, to 41.6 percent in 2001, and 42.1 percent
in 2002. The back-to-back increases suggest an upward
trend that could continue unless action is taken. By contrast, the percentage
of all children who are uninsured did not change between 2001 and 2002,
remaining at 11.6 percent. PDF: http://www.childrensdefense.org/pdf/ICHIA_report_111303.pdf Women and Men Differ
on Adopting Healthy Behaviors According to a new study
from the http://www.hbns.org/news/sexes11-17-03.cfm Racial Differences
in Survival Rates after Prostate Cancer Treatment A new study from the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, shows that Black men tend to have poorer overall survival
rates than white men after being treated for localized prostate cancer. Several reasons could account for these disparities,
one is that black patients had reduced access to specialized radiation
therapy, another possible explanation is genetic
differences between races in response to prostate cancer treatment. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/uonc-sfr111803.php *****Medicare Prescription
Drug Legislation Comparison Chart
for House, Senate, and Conference Agreement Medicare Bills The Coalition on Human
Needs has published a comparison prepared by the Committee on Energy
and Commerce Democratic staff. PDF: http://www.chn.org/pdf/medicarecomparisonchart.pdf
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Medicare conference agreement would
leave a substantial number of the 6.4 million dual eligibles
-- low-income Medicare beneficiaries who are also eligible for Medicaid
-- worse off by requiring them to pay significantly higher co-payments
for prescription drugs than they do now and removing access to certain
drugs they currently receive. http://www.cbpp.org/11-18-03health-pr.htm American Federation of Teachers/Healthcare on the Medicare Prescription
Drug Bill The
following is a statement by Sandra Feldman, president, American Federation
of Teachers/Healthcare on the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill: It is becoming clear that the Medicare prescription
drug bill will do more harm than good. Congress should reject this deeply
flawed plan and develop a true bipartisan bill that provides a prescription
drug plan that strengthens the Medicare program. This is what our seniors
expect and deserve. http://www.aft.org/press/2003/111703_medicare.html NACHC Statement on Medicare Reform, Prescription Compromise Proposal Following
is a Statement by Dan Hawkins, vice president for federal, state, and
public affairs, The National Association Of Community Health Centers,
regarding the Medicare reform and prescription compromise proposal: "We welcome the Medicare Reform and Rx
compromise agreement now pending, because it ultimately expands seniors'
access to prescription drugs and doubles the number of low-income seniors
who will receive fully-subsidized drug coverage. Equally important,
the Medicare compromise proposal accomplishes those objectives without
undermining current federal programs, notably the 340B drug discount
program, designed to make medicines affordable to low-income families
not covered by Medicare or private insurance. http://www.nachc.com/lawsregs/smed.asp Prescription Drug Benefit Will Shift Burden to Taxpayers According
to a new brief analysis written by a senior fellow at the http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba463/ **Hunger and Nutrition 2002 Food Stamp Program
Participant Access Rates The Department of Agriculture
has calculated state-by-state "participant access rates (PARs)" for calendar year 2002. The PARs
measure the extent to which low-income people are participating in the
Food Stamp Program. The USDA
recognized states for superior achievements, including the four states
with the highest PARS and the two states with the most improved PARs.
http://www.frac.org/html/news/PARates111803.htm **Philanthropy and Civic
Engagement Fiscal Crisis in the States - The Impact on Nonprofits Warning
that programs of interest to the nonprofit sector will face "death
by a thousand cuts for years to come," two new reports released
by the Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund suggest that people
dependent on crucial, community-based services across the nation will
suffer for years even after the predicted economic rebound.
This crisis is already having a negative impact on the nonprofit
sector, since nonprofits, on average, rely on government contracts and
grants for 31 percent of their income. http://www.nonprofitresearch.org/newsletter1525/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=198786 Interracial Interactions
are Cognitively Demanding A new http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/dc-iia111303.php Use of Internet in
Presidential Campaigns, Lessons of 2000 Race Campaign strategists
who want to make the best use of the world's latest media technology
- the Internet - may find a new book by political scientists at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, and Brigham Young University,
that analyzes how candidates used the Internet in the 2000 presidential
election, what worked, what didn't, and why. http://webx.handsnet.org/webx?13@@.1dcf999c **Substance Abuse New Survey Showing Large Decline in High School Smoking Is Proof that
Tobacco Prevention Measures Work The results of the 2002
National Youth Tobacco Survey released by the American Legacy Foundation
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides new
evidence that tobacco prevention programs, tobacco tax increases and
other tobacco control measures are working to significantly reduce youth
tobacco use in this country. The survey results, find that the cigarette
smoking rate among high school students declined by about 18 percent,
from 28 percent in 2000 to 22.9 percent in 2002. http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/Script/DisplayPressRelease.php3?Display=709 Study Suggests that
Stop Smoking Efforts are Working According to an assessment
published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, states that
took part in an 8-year demonstration project on smoking cessation have
achieved a reduction in the prevalence of adult smoking.
The American Stop Smoking Intervention Study initiated in 1991
by the National Cancer Institute, provided funding to 17 states to promote
smoke-free environments, counter tobacco advertising and promotion,
limit tobacco access and availability, and increase tobacco prices through
new excise taxes. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/jotn-ssu111303.php **Welfare and Welfare
Reauthorization Congress Should Not Rescind Welfare-to-Work Funds A
paper from the Center for Law and Social Policy discusses a provision
in an appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Senate that would rescind
$211 million in Welfare-to-Work funding that states and localities had
been authorized to spend over the next year. The loss of these funds
would force states and localities to reduce or eliminate programs providing
employment services for welfare recipients with serious employment barriers.
http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1068839596.33/view_html Welfare Recipients will not Seek Help if it is too Far Away According to a new http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2003-04/03-054.html Marriage Promotion
Plan must take Social Science Research into Account According to a http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/asa-mpp111703.php ************************************ The WebClipper Digest
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