Human Services
Community Building
Digest

NEW WEBSITE: LIFT – Let’s Invest In Families Today

A new Website from the National Center for Children in Poverty provides resources on low-income children and families in the US and by state.  It is interactive and allows users to create custom charts by state or on specific topics such as food stamps, Section 8, a basic family budget, parental education level, and more.  The Website also includes an income converter, which allows users to determine any income level as a percentage of the federal poverty level or as a percentage of a state’s median income.

http://lift.nccp.org/

How States Use Contracts to Shore Up Child Care Choices

A presentation given at the State Child Care Administrators Conference in July, summarizes a April 2003 Center for Law and Social Policy study that found that although nearly half the states use contracts to shore up child care supply for low-income families, the full potential of contracting has not yet been tapped.

Presentation PDF: http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1060880736.51/Seattle_Contracts.pdf

Full report PDF: http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1049464392.49/untapped_rpt.pdf

Policy Brief PDF: http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1049463746.59/untapped_brf.pdf

Changing Populations: The Latino Parent Study

With funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Illinois Facilities Fund undertook the first-ever study of the child care preferences of Latino parents in the Chicago metropolitan area.  This work creates a planning tool for community organizations and government agencies.  The study shows that Latina mothers want preschool child care centers and community-based organizations in their neighborhoods.

PDF: http://www.iff.org/resources/content/3/6/documents/iff_latino_study.pdf

Environmental Factors Key in Developing Children's Intelligence

A new book, which offers advice to parents for improving their children's IQ, posits that a child's IQ is shaped long before he/she enters elementary school and is affected more by environmental factors than previously thought.  Maximizing Intelligence, written by an education expert and public policy professor at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, says that intelligence is influenced by a series of factors, and that parents have more impact on a child's developing intelligence than anyone -- or anything -- else.  According to the author, to maximize this impact, parents have to do certain things, even things before their child is conceived.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/961824/posts

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Reaches Out to Working Parents through Corporate Doors

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is reaching out to corporations in hopes of helping employees better protect their children.  As a free public service, "No Child Should Be At Risk - Prevention Works" workshops will be conducted on-site at each corporate location. Corporations provide the workplace space and NCMEC provides a nationally acclaimed speaker.  Each one-hour workshop is designed to help teach parents how and why children fall victim to abduction and sex offenders, how to minimize a predator's opportunity, and how to reduce risks as well as providing parents practical rules to live by.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=1419

**Civic Engagement

Win Donors with Tools of Persuasion

An article in the latest issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review draws on years of research into influence and persuasion to offer four proven tools that will help nonprofit fundraisers to win donors.  The article describes the ways savvy individuals can make full use of these four tools for bettering society and providing fulfillment to willing donors of nonprofit organizations

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/ssir/summer2003/cialdinisummary.html

**Community Development

YO! Pilot Enhances Communities

The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts announced a cooperative agreement with the National Endowment for the Arts to support the Youth Opportunity (YO!) Arts Partnership.  This program is designed to introduce and enhance the quality of arts activities taking place within selected Youth Opportunity Community Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=4623

** Economic Security

Ending Poverty: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage

A new book from Temple University Press points out that the unemployment rate is really only about half of the number of people who need full-time jobs and that another 30 million plus are working at wages less than $8.20 an hour and not able to support themselves and their families.  It suggests a need to reeducate ourselves about poverty and work; reviews some of the myths about poverty and work; discusses creating a new measure of poverty, and looks at the costs of our current situation.  The first chapter is available for free online.

http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1675_reg.html

2003 State Legislative Highlights: Expanding Unemployment Insurance For Low-Wage, Women & Part-Time Workers

A report from the National Employment Law Project finds that in recent years, policy makers in the states have actively debated unemployment insurance (UI) reforms to fill the gaps in the program that penalize low-wage, women and part-time workers.  The report summarizes the state legislative reforms enacted in 2003.  It focuses on policies expanding the program to benefit more unemployed workers as well as selected state measures that undermine the UI safety net.

http://www.nelp.org/ui/state/access/2003ui.cfm

**Education

Foundation to Commit $6 Million to Promoting Access to Early Childhood Education

The Joyce Foundation will commit approximately $6 million over the next three years to support policy initiatives aimed at securing universal access to preschool for Midwest children ages three to five. Grants will support projects designed to inform policymakers and the public about the benefits of a high-quality preschool education, especially for low-income and minority children; build support for increased funding and improved coordination at the state-level; and improve the quality of preschool teachers by expanding access to education and training.

http://www.joycefdn.org/news/content/pressreleases/2003-08-12-education.html

State High School Exit Exams: Put to the Test

As part of a multi-year study of state high school exit exams, the Center for Education Policy has published second in a series of annual reports on the subject.  This report updates and expands the first year's findings and includes some original research. New topics covered include the costs associated with these exams, states' responses to increased pressure about these exams' impacts, and the exams' interactions with NCLB.

Full Report: http://www.ctredpol.org/highschoolexit/1/exitexam4.htm

Summary: http://www.ctredpol.org/highschoolexit/1/puttotest.summary.aug03.pdf

Effects of High School Exit Exams on Dropout Rates

The Center for Education Policy convened a panel in to discuss the most recent research on the possible link between high school exit exams and dropouts.  This piece summarizes that day's discussion and includes recommendations for a research agenda and steps states should take to better understand this phenomenon.

PDF: http://www.ctredpol.org/highschoolexit/1/hspanel.summary15mar03.pdf

Broad Foundation Taps Young MBAs to Transform Urban Public Education

The Broad Foundation today launched an innovative residency program to recruit, train and place young business leaders in urban school districts across the country.  The Broad Residency is an intensive two-year management development program. It will give young business leaders the opportunity to immediately assume managerial positions in the central operations of an urban school district. New York City's public school district rivals many of the nation's Fortune 500 companies in size and complexity.  Trained and supported by The Broad Foundation, the participants will apply their executive knowledge and skills to drive the organizational changes necessary to increase student achievement in New York City.

http://www.broadfoundation.org/med-news/2003-0807.shtml

School-Based Suicide Prevention Program Is First National Initiative Shown to Increase Help-Seeking

A paper published in today's Adolescent and Family Health is the first to document a dramatic increase in help-seeking as a result of a national, school-based suicide prevention program. Schools participating in Screening for Mental Health's SOS Suicide Prevention Program reported a significant increase in help-seeking by depressed students.  The SOS program was also recently designated as a "promising program" by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), becoming the only suicide prevention program selected for its National Registry of Effective Programs (NREP).

http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/sos_highschool/index.htm

**Health

Childhood Obesity: Research & Recommendations for Combating Epidemic

Making physical activity an integral part of the daily school schedule, improving the nutritional quality of school lunches, restricting or banning sales of soft drinks in the schools and improving insurance reimbursement for obesity treatment were among the recommendations offered by University of Buffalo faculty members testifying before a joint Senate and Assembly hearing on preventing childhood obesity.

http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol34/vol34n29/articles/ObesityHearing.html

CDC Flu Campaign Strives to Reduce Disparities in African American Community

Pediatric infectious diseases specialists described the myths and barriers that keep adults, particularly African Americans, from getting an annual flu shot. "Many African Americans distrust the American health care system and many believe the myth that flu shots cause the flu." Lives depend on getting the truth about vaccines to those who need to know."  The CDC estimates that 36,000 people die every year from complications of the flu, especially older Americans.

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSANP000/333/7228/367949.html

Breast Cancer Program for Suggests Importance of Access to Screening

Low-income women participating in an Oregon breast cancer screening program had a higher incidence of breast cancer than women in other screening programs, according to Oregon Health & Science University researchers. The study suggests women without access to care may use screening programs for evaluation and treatment of breast disease because they have no other avenue to care.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/ohs-bcp081103.php

HHS Awards More than $30 Million to Strengthen Rural Hospital Networks

The Department of Health and Human Services announced more than $30 million in grants to states to improve health care for rural Americans by strengthening rural hospital networks, supporting State Offices of Rural Health and encouraging rural health care coalitions.  "These grants help maintain and upgrade small hospitals in remote areas and coordinate and improve health care delivery in rural parts of the country," according to the Department Secretary.  "Both steps are vital elements of strategies to make high-quality health care more easily available to rural Americans."

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030807a.html

**Hunger

Food Stamp Participation Increases in May 2003 to More Than 21.5 Million Persons

According to Food Research and Action Center's analysis of preliminary monthly data from USDA, participation in the Food Stamp Program in May 2003 (the latest data available) increased by 293,272 persons from the previous month, to 21,547,187 persons,. The May 2003 level of Food Stamp Program participation represented a rise of nearly 2.25 million persons compared to the May 2002 level, about 4.3 million persons compared to May 2001, and more than 4.66 million since July, 2000.

http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/03may.html

**Substance Abuse

Alcohol, Automobiles and Youth

A study in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research examines ethnic differences among adolescents who engage in driving after drinking and riding with drinking drivers.  Underage drinking and driving continue to cause significant numbers of injury and death. Riding with drinking drivers may be even more dangerous for adolescents than drinking and driving. New findings indicate that drinking and driving, and riding with drinking drivers, may be particularly problematic among Latino youth.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/ace-aaa080703.php

Educational Attainment May Predict Drinking Outcomes Following Alcohol Treatment

The relationship between educational attainment and alcohol use is 'bidirectional,' for example; alcohol use may hinder educational attainment; whereas education may serve as a protective factor against the development of alcohol-use disorders. A study in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that educational attainment may also be able to predict drinking outcomes following alcohol treatment.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/ace-eam080703.php