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**Children, Youth & Families
A
Study of African American and Latino/Latina Parents in the United States and Resources These Parents Need to Succeed
The Building Strong Families
2004 Study is the second study in an ongoing collaboration between YMCA of the USA and Search Institute around strong families and
parenting. Following its 2002 counterpart which examined the resources that
families have or need to raise children that thrive, the 2004 study examines
the same family strengths, challenges and resources, this time among African
American and Latino/ Latina families. Both studies are part of the larger
Abundant Assets Alliance, which combines the resources of the YMCA of the USA, YMCA Canada, and Search Institute.
http://www.abundantassets.org/building.cfm
A Decade in Development,
Juvenile Drug Courts are Growing in Popularity, But Do
They Work?
According to The Urban Institute, since 1994, federal and
state governments have invested more than a billion dollars in drug courts,
specialized programs that supervise substance-abuse treatment for certain
nonviolent offenders. The courts give offenders an opportunity to change their
behavior and stop using illegal drugs before becoming enmeshed in the legal and
penal systems. Yet, without more program
evaluation data, whether adult drug courts work or can be duplicated with
juveniles is unclear.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9063
Annual Survey Finds High-Quality State Preschool Programs Are the Exception, Not the Rule
The second annual survey of
state preschool programs, The State of Preschool: 2004 State Preschool
Yearbook, a project of the National Institute for Early Education Research,
found a huge disparity in availability from state to state and even within
state boundaries. The report concludes that "across our nation, high-
quality and readily available state-funded preschool programs are the exception
rather than the rule."
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40034
**Civic Engagement
Where Minorities Give -
Education is a Top Choice
Long overlooked, donations by
minorities are gaining attention and clout. In the New York metro region, for example, a recent study of 166
donors of color found that their charitable giving in the past year ranged from
$200 to $1 million, with the median at $5,000. That's higher than the median
for all donors in New
York State - about $4,000 - although the interviewees also had
incomes that were higher than average. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1122/p15s01-wmgn.html
Online Hip-Hop Literacy
Program Gets $800,000 Grant
The National Urban League's
Online Hip-Hop Reader Program, which was launched here this year as a pilot
program designed to enhance the reading habits, Internet usage and civic
engagement of high school students, will expand its agenda and reach out to
more youths thanks to an $800,000 grant from the Verizon
Foundation. The foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon
Communications, also funded the pilot program.
http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=5587
**Community Development
Community Development
Financial Institutions Program
The Treasury Department
invites applications for the FY 2005 Financial Assistance Component of the
Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI). This program
provides assistance to CDFIs that have comprehensive
business plans for creating demonstrable community development impact through
the deployment of capital within their respective target markets for community
development purposes. Approximately $22 million in FY 2005 funding is expected
to be available for awards; cost-sharing of 100 percent is required.
Applications are due Feb. 24, 2005.
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/06jun20041800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/04-24986.htm
New Law Will Increase
Native American Homeownership
A new law has been enacted
that raises the loan guarantee limit for a U.S. Housing and Urban Development
loan guarantee program to 95 percent - up from 80 percent. This move encourages
banks and other lenders to extend mortgage loans to Native Americans, which
will increase homeownership in Indian Country.
The Homeownership Opportunities for Native Americans Act of 2004 raised
the loan guarantee limits for HUD's Title VI Tribal Housing Activities Loan
Guarantee program, making it more advantageous for private mortgage lenders to
make loans to tribes for affordable housing activities, including
homeownership.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-139.cfm
**Economic Security
New Report Finds Pay
Inequity Still Great; YWCA Leads the Fight to Close the Pay Gap
"The Status of Women in
the States," a recently issued report by the Institute for Women's Policy
Research, found that women in the District of Columbia have made great gains closing the gender-based income
gap. According to the report, D.C. women now earn 92.4 percent of men's
earnings for full-time, year-round work. Nationwide, however, the report
indicated that, on average, women still earn just 76 for every dollar earned by
a man.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40100
Tax Bracket and Tax
Liabilities for Families With Children
This tax fact from the Urban
Institute shows that almost half of all children (and 80 percent of kids living
with single parents) live in households that currently do not pay any federal
income tax (net of credits). Thus, unless a new tax credit or an expansion of a
tax credit is made refundable, the subsidy cannot help those children, who are
presumably the most economically vulnerable.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9064
Social Security and Income
The Snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute examines the
importance of Social Security benefits and finds that these benefits account
for the majority of income for many elderly households.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_11182004
Will the Appropriations
Bill Provide a Sufficient Increase in Low-income Energy Assistance to Cover
Spiraling Home Heating Costs?
According to the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, because of large increases in home heating costs in recent
months, the funding level that Congress provided for the Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program in the recently enacted omnibus appropriations bill for
fiscal year 2005 is not sufficient to cover the expected large increases in
home heating costs. Many poor households
assisted by the program, the majority of which include a person who is elderly
or disabled, may face considerable additional hardship during the coming
winter.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-19-04bud.htm
**Education
Crime in Schools Fell
Sharply Over Decade, Survey Shows
According to a report issued
by the Justice Department and the Department of Education ,
crime in the nation's schools fell sharply from 1992 to 2002, part of the broad
decline in crime in the last decade.
School crime dropped to an annual rate of 24 violent incidents per 100,000
students from 48 violent incidents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/national/30crime.html?ex=1259557200&en=bfe7d69551347eb4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt
Community Schools: The
Time is Now!
Join the Coalition for
Community Schools for the 2005 National Forum of the Coalition for Community Schools,
three days of learning and networking with people working to create community
schools across the country. Visit successful Chicago community schools to see how they work, participate
in interactive skill-building workshops, and hear from well-known senior
education, community, and political leaders discussing the benefits of
community schools.
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/%28tlj2mi55gnh3rm45pdir1b2o%29/Info/Invitation.aspx?e=b914598b-00ad-4760-af50-da7eb6ed3103
Parts of Special-Ed Bill
Would Shift More Power to States and School Districts
In updating the law governing
special education for the nation's 6.5 million disabled students, Congress has
given state and school officials more power to shape the terms for providing
services to disabled children, paring down rights that advocates for such students
had won during the Clinton administration. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/education/22special.html?ex=1258866000&en=0ab6a42cac044b01&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt
**Health
Parents Failing to
Recognize Obesity in their Children
According to a study in the
British Medical Journal, Many parents are failing to recognize obesity and
overweight problems in their children.
Researchers surveyed the parents of 277 children and found that only a
quarter recognized when their offspring were overweight. Where children were
obese, a third of mothers and 57% of fathers thought their sons and daughters
were "about right". http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/bmj-pft112404.php
Study finds Mental Health
Needs of Older Adults Substantially Underserved
According to a recent
national study by researchers at Texas A&M University individuals aged 65 and older are unlikely to receive
needed mental health treatment in the United States. Drawing upon
data from the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, the
researchers found that older adults were three times less likely than younger
adults (individuals aged 18-64) to receive outpatient mental heath care.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/tgso-sfm112304.php
Low-Income Medicare
Beneficiaries Can Expect Substantial Help From
Prescription Drug Law
According to a new report
released by the Kaiser Family Foundation low-income people with Medicare who
sign up for new Part D drug plans and receive the additional subsidies -- an
estimated 8.7 million people -- are projected to pay 83 percent less for
prescription drugs in 2006 than they would have spent if the Medicare drug law
had not been enacted. Those who enroll in
the new drug benefit but do not receive the low-income subsidies -- an
estimated 20.3 million people -- are projected to pay on average 28 percent
less out of pocket for their prescription drugs as a result of the new law, the
analysis finds.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20041119.133646&time=06%2030%20PST&year=2004&public=1
HIV/AIDS in Georgia
New reports released at a
Morehouse School of Medicine briefing show the disproportionate impact HIV is
having on minorities in Georgia and important differences in how minorities view
HIV/AIDS compared to whites.
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/pomr113004pkg.cfm
New Data Show Rates of US
HIV/AIDS Diagnoses Are Steady; Racial Disparities Persist
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention announced that rates of HIV/AIDS diagnoses in the United States stayed steady for the years 2000-2003, but sharp racial
disparities remain. Rates of HIV/AIDS
diagnosis and the number of new diagnoses of HIV per 100,000 population
regardless of whether infection has progressed to AIDS among non-Hispanic
African-Americans in the United States were significantly higher than among other racial and
ethnic groups. The rate of HIV/AIDS diagnosis among African-American females in
2003 was more than 18 times higher than among white women and almost five times
higher than among Latina women. In addition, African-American women accounted
for 69 percent of female HIV diagnoses during 2000-2003.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r041201b.htm
Health Care and Social
Assistance Revenues Reach $1.3 Trillion, Census Bureau Reports
The U.S. Census Bureau
reported that revenues for the nation's health care and social assistance
industries rose 7 percent to $1.3 trillion in 2003 from $1.2 trillion in 2002.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=107-11222004&site=rss
To Err Is Human, Five
Years Later
Five years ago, the Institute of Medicine galvanized the public and medical community with To Err Is Human, its
report on medical errors. An article in Health Affairs finds that there has
been some, but not sufficient, progress in making health care safer.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=250749
**Hunger & Nutrition
Congress to Approve $35
Billion for Food Stamps, $12 Billion for Child Nutrition Programs
On Saturday, November 20,
Congress initially passed H.R. 4818, the FY2005 Omnibus Conference Report, which
funds programs contained in nine separate appropriations bills, including
Agriculture, Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and VA-HUD. It is
important to note that all discretionary programs (excluding Defense, Military
Construction, Homeland Security and supplemental spending), are subject to a
0.8% across the board funding reduction from appropriated levels. This is not
true for entitlement and mandatory programs.
http://www.frac.org/Legislative/Omnibus_FY2005.html
**Welfare Reform
CLASP Audio Conference
Transcript
Jason DeParle,
an award-winning New York Times reporter, discusses his book, American Dream:
Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare. University of Pennsylvania sociologist Kathy Edin and
CLASP Policy Director Mark Greenberg join DeParle to
discuss the findings of the book.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1100808273.19/DeParle_AC_transcript.pdf
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