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July 27, 2006Alcohol Abuse Remains the Leading Substance Abuse Problem in Rural America
Rural Assistance Center: Although media reports have declared that rural America is facing a methamphetamine crisis, alcohol abuse remains a far more prevalent problem in small towns and rural areas of the country. A new report from The Carsey Institute...
Welfare Reform Roundtable: Reviewing a Decade, Previewing the Future
The Urban Institute" Writers and critics of the landmark 1996 welfare reform bill took part in an Urban Institute roundtable event with federal officials, state and local human service practitioners, researchers, and analysts to mark the legislation's approaching 10th anniversary....
Government Work Supports and Low-Income Families: Facts and Figures
The Urban Institute: Welfare reform in 1996 was accompanied by an increased focus on policies that help low-income parents find and keep employment and support their families as many moved into low-wage jobs with few benefits. The core supports that...
A Decade of Welfare Reform: Facts and Figures
The Urban Institute: The passage of welfare reform law in August 1996 signaled the end of "welfare as we know it." The legislation transformed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) into the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program,...
July 26, 2006
Department of Education Awards $15.5 Million to Help Students Develop Strong Character and Good Citizenship
From Education Newsfeed: Schools in California, New York, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Illinois and New Mexico will share $15.5 million in grants designed to help them implement programs that...
Education Department Announces Benefit to Students with Extension and Expansion of Pilot Programs
From Education Newsfeed: U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Ray Simon today announced the extension and expansion of two pilot programs designed to help struggling K-12 students. The two pilots, which were initiated by the Department of Education last year, are...
Big Box Living Wage Ordinance Passes in Chicago; ACORN and a Community-Faith-Labor Coalition Secure Living Wage Law
From U.S. Newswire Releases: On July 26th, the Chicago City Council approved an ordinance that will require Big Box retailers to pay workers a living wage. The ordinance will require a $10 minimum hourly wage and $3 an hour in...
Two-Thirds of States Qualify as "Needy States" for Extended Counting of TANF Job Search and Job Readiness Assistance
From Center for Law and Social Policy: The changes made by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and the corresponding regulations have increased pressure on states to place TANF recipients in federally countable activities. "Needy states" may qualify for extended...
New Report Shows Progress in Reading First Implementation and Changes in Reading Instruction
From Education Newsfeed: Children in Reading First classrooms receive significantly more reading instruction and schools participating in the program are much more likely to have a reading coach, according to the Reading First Implementation Evaluation: Interim Report, released today by...
Education Department Announces $19 Million in Library Grants
From Education Newsfeed: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced 78 school districts across the country would receive the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Grant to improve students' reading achievement. A total of $19 million will be awarded to...
July 25, 2006
NARAL Pro-Choice America Calls Passage of 'Child Custody Protection Act' A Threat to Teen Safety
From U.S. Newswire Releases: Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called the Senate's passage of the so-called "Child Custody Protection Act" an irresponsible action that will do nothing to protect young women's safety or improve family communication. "The passage...
FRC: U.S. Senate Acts to Protect Parents' Knowledge of Children's Abortions
From U.S. Newswire Releases: Today, the U.S. Senate voted 65 to 34 to approve the Child Custody Protection Act S. 403, which would make it a federal offense to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion if this...
July 24, 2006
Early Results from the Healthy Kids Evaluation
Mathematica Policy Research Mathematica conducted this survey of parents with children enrolled in the Los Angeles Healthy Kids program. Early findings reveal that the initiative is improving children's access to primary care and easing parents' concerns about meeting their children's...
July 23, 2006
Giving up driving may be express lane to long-term care
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Although the slower driving habits of some seniors often steam impatient younger motorists, researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have found that elders who stay behind the wheel are less likely to enter nursing...
Language barriers compromise health care for 50 million Americans who do not speak English
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: While passions flare on all sides of the language debate, the sad truth is that the language barrier negatively impacts health care for 50 million (19 percent) U.S. residents who do not speak English at...
New training technique helps alcoholics in battle with the booze
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new training technique developed in the UK is proving successful in helping excessive drinkers curb their alcohol abuse. Researchers funded by the Economic and Social Research Council have experimentally tested a computer-based training programme...
A Whole 'Nother World
From MDRC: Each year thousands of young people begin their college careers in community colleges. The lower cost, more convenient location, and flexible admissions standards of community colleges make them an attractive educational alternative for many students, especially those from...
Weaker job market re-opens racial income gap
From Economic Policy Institute: Compared to the full-employment job market of the latter 1990s, the weaker post-2000 labor market has reversed significant progress in racial income gaps. In 1995, the median income of African-American families was 60.9% of that of...
Trying to Keep Child Care in the Family
From NYT > National: States struggling to fill a void left by parents lost to drug addiction, AIDS and incarceration are increasingly using such programs to deal with the rising costs of foster care. Thirty-eight states have such programs, more...
Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners
From MDRC: In recognition of the enormous human and financial toll of recidivism, there is new interest among researchers, community advocates, and public officials in prisoner reentry initiatives, particularly those focused on employment. Yet the results described above do not...
Analysis of New Interim Final TANF Rules
From Center for Law and Social Policy: On June 29, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued regulations regarding the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. In this process, it is critical that states maintain focus on...
July 20, 2006
Secretary of Labor Announces Nearly $6 Million in Grants to Train Workers in the Financial Services Industry
Department of Labor: U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced five grants totaling $5,989,023 to train workers for careers in the financial services industry. Today's announcements are part of the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative, a strategic...
Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families
The Brookings Institution: Public and private leaders have a substantial, and widely overlooked, opportunity today to help lower income families get ahead by bringing down the inflated prices they pay for basic necessities, such as food and housing. In general,...
Challenges and Opportunities in Children's Mental Health: A View from Families and Youth
National Center for Children in Poverty This report documents critical issues in children's mental health policy and service delivery from the perspective of the key stakeholders-families and youth. Based on a meeting to inform a 50-state policy study, the report...
HHS Approves Plan to Expand Coverage to 3,000 Additional Children in Montana
HHS News: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today approved a Montana plan to expand health coverage to 3,000 additional children from low-income families in the state. The state's enrollment cap will increase from 10,900 to 13,900, as authorized by the Montana...
A Public Education Primer: Basic Facts about the U.S. Education System
Center On Education Policy This primer provides a comprehensive picture of the nation's public schools with data about students, governance, funding, achievement, teachers, and non-instructional services. As much as possible, the data compiled here come from the federal government---primarily from...
Catholic Charities USA Criticizes Congress, Administration for Increasing Poor Families' Burdens
Catholic Charities USA "Ten years after the landmark welfare reform legislation that created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, new regulations set forth recently by Congress and the Administration place unfair burden on married welfare recipients and families struggling...
The Role of After-School Programs in Children's Literacy Development
Chapin Hall Children's motivation to write is fueled when they feel they've written something that gets a positive response from important adults, another characteristic of the exemplary programs in our study. After-school programs are particularly well suited to fostering the...
A Self-Study Guide for Managers and Staff of Primary Support Programs for Young People
Chapin Hall Parents, teachers, educators, business people, those who work in juvenile justice and law enforcement, health and safety professionals, and the public as a whole sometimes worry about risky behaviors and lack of educational support for young people during...
Reaching New Heights - Trends in Community Economic Development
National Congress of Community Economic Development NCCED released its Fifth National Census.The report "Reaching New Heights", measures the quantitative achievements of community-based development organizations. The new census--the fifth since 1988--records significant increases in the number of homes and apartments produced,...
July 19, 2006
Toward a New Child Care Policy
Toward a New Child Care Policy Child care policy in the United States has focused primarily on helping working families (or parents preparing to enter the workforce) afford child care. A large portion of mothers, including mothers of the youngest...
July 17, 2006
Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study
Public Schools Perform Near Private Ones in Study - New York Times The Education Department reported on Friday that children in public schools generally performed as well or better in reading and mathematics than comparable children in private schools. The...
Mayor Provides Progress Report on Homelessness in New York City
NYC.gov In a keynote address to the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference in Washington, DC, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced two new efforts to build on New York City's historic efforts to solve homelessness. New York City...
Hard-Working at School, Sluggish at Home
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: What motivates students of different ages to complete their math homework assignments? A study published in the July/August issue of the journal Child Development sheds new light on the age-old issue of homework, finding that...
NAACP Leaders Take HIV Test, Call For National Black AIDS Mobilization
From U.S. Newswire Releases: Newswire/ -- The African-American community is facing a state of emergency. This emergency stems from the epidemic known as HIV/AIDS. In February, the organization released The Way Forward, a national report on the State of AIDS...
July 16, 2006
Underage Drinking Costs Society More than Illicit Drugs, Study Says
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: A new study estimates that underage drinking costs the U.S. $62 billion a year and results in 3,200 deaths and 2.6 million other "harmful events," PNN Online reported June 30. The study conducted...
Seattle Houses Homeless Alcoholics Who Continue to Drink
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: "Chronic public inebriates" have been given government-financed apartments in Seattle and allowed to keep drinking, a new twist on addressing the related issues of homelessness and addiction, the New York Times reported July...
Early Drinking Linked to Alcohol Dependence
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: Youths who begin drinking alcohol early in life are significantly more likely to become dependent on alcohol later -- many before they even reach the legal drinking age -- according to a study...
CASAConference on Tobacco and American Youth
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: The CASACONFERENCE will feature nationally recognized experts and leading television and print journalists, and will explore the issue of tobacco and substance abuse, with a strong emphasis on identifying causes of and preventing...
Basic, regular training helps doctors treat alcoholism
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A few hours of extra training can dramatically improve doctors' ability to treat alcohol-dependent patients. A study published today in the open access journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy reveals that patients suffering from...
Treatment Access Tough for Rural Methamphetamine Users
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: Experts say that addiction treatment works for methamphetamine users, but those who live in rural areas -- including regions most affected by meth abuse -- often don't have access to treatment, the Arkansas...
Partnership to Deliver High School Courses Online
From Ascribe Newsfeed: The partnership gives students, of all ages around the world, a new way to successfully complete their U.S. high school education, obtain a diploma, take advanced placement (AP) courses or prepare for higher education. "We are excited...
Bush Administration Plans Medicare Changes
From NYT > Health: The Bush administration says it plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 percent to 30 percent for many complex treatments and new technologies. The changes, the biggest since the...
Seeking Help Could Quadruple the Likelihood of Abstinence
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: To quantify the effect of help seeking on recovery from alcoholism, researchers in the United States analyzed data from 4,422 adults who had participated in a nationally representative survey and developed alcohol dependence...
Tobacco Policy Grants from RWJF
From Funding News: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will provide funding for groups that develop effective tobacco prevention and cessation policies and projects. Read more from this post....
Jobs-Plus: A Promising Strategy
From MDRC: MDRC's study of Jobs-Plus, an employment program for public housing residents, offered the first hard evidence that a work-focused intervention based in public housing can effectively boost residents' earnings and promote their self-sufficiency. Congress may wish to consider...
July 14, 2006
Reports On HUD's Moving To Work Demonstration Raise Serious Questions
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities A series of reports by HUD's Inspector General have found serious flaws in the implementation of the Moving to Work (MTW) housing demonstration, including ineffective oversight by HUD and poor use of funds by...
Creating Communities of Practice to Support Quality After School Programming
Harvard Family Research Project: This includes program monitoring and evaluation, fostering organizational cultures that promote continuous improvement, and building systems of services that link providers and promote quality. The goal of the interactive 2-day meeting was to bring together the...
July 13, 2006
Housing With Services Helps Rural Communities
Housing Assistance Council: The "housing plus services" model, which provides both affordable housing and supportive services tailored to residents' needs, enables many rural organizations to meet their communities' specialized needs, according to a new report from the Housing Assistance Council....
Rural IDA Program Successes Reported
Housing Assistance Council: IDA programs match low-income individuals' savings to enable them to reach specific goals. For this pilot program, participating families used their savings to buy homes or to improve homes they already owned. "IDAs help people to help...
Nearly $8 Million for 20 Grants Awarded to Help Recruit, Train and Retain New Teachers
Department of Education: The U.S. Department of Education today awarded 20 grants totaling $7,865,995 million under the Transition to Teaching program to help high-need school districts recruit and retain highly qualified mid-career professionals, including qualified paraprofessionals, and recent college graduates...
31 Million Awarded to 19 School Districts to Promote Safe Schools, Healthy Students
US Education Department: More than $31 million in grants have been awarded to 19 school districts in 14 states as part of a joint effort by the U.S. departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice to support schools...
Nonprofits Spend Much Time and Money Meeting Reporting Requirements
RAND: A RAND Corporation study issued today recommends actions that nonprofit social services providers can take to reduce the large amount of time and money they spend complying with reporting requirements set by organizations that provide them with funding. In...
HUD releases $3 billion in emergency funding to Mississippi
Housing and Urban Development WASHINGTON -- Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson today announced he is releasing $3 billion to the state of Mississippi to help thousands of homeowners in the state to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Last April,...
Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding award additional $4.2 billion for Louisiana's long-term recovery
Housing and Urban Development: Bernardi, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin made the announcement during a news conference at the State Supreme Court in New Orleans. HUD is also inviting the states of Mississippi, Alabama,...
Summer Is No Picnic for Hungry Children Missing School Meals
Food Research and Action Center: About 2.8 million children received meals at parks, schools, religious congregations, recreational programs, and other community sites through U.S. Department of Agriculture summer meals programs on an average day in July 2005. Unfortunately, that represented...
Campaign for Children's Health Care Seeks to Make Expanded Health Coverage for Children a National Priority
Families USA: The Campaign, in which Families USA is playing a leadership role, seeks to raise public awareness about the more than 9 million uninsured children in this country. "It is high time that the 9 million uninsured children in...
Path to citizenship and out of poverty
Economic Policy Institute: If you've followed the immigration debate, you've probably heard the phrase "creating a path to citizenship." Under the more welcoming approach to immigration reform, these people, after paying a fine, would have the opportunity to become naturalized...
Slow job growth in second quarter reflects pace of overall economy
Jobs Picture, July 7, 2006 During the second quarter of the year, payrolls grew by 108,000 per month, well off the previous quarter's monthly rate of 176,000, and the slowest quarter since 2003Q3 (when the economy finally pulled out of...
Mentoring and Depression Among High-Risk Youth
Public/Private Ventures : Positive Support examines potential benefits of matching high-risk youth with faith-based mentors. Drawing on surveys and interviews with young people who participated in the National Faith-Based Initiative, we found that mentored youth were less likely to show...
July 11, 2006
A Guide to Disability Statistics from the National Health Interview--Disability Supplement
The Urban Institute This paper describes the data in the National Health Interview Survey--Disability Supplement (NHIS-D) and how this trove of information can be used to better understand the lives of people with disabilities. One product of this effort is...
July 06, 2006
Help Me Grow Program Promotes Children's Healthy Development
Commonwealth Fund Developed by pediatrician Paul Dworkin, M.D., physician-in-chief for Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Help Me Grow trains and supports pediatric practitioners in screening and assessing potentially at-risk children and in eliciting parents' opinions and concerns. Last June, child health...
Making Developmental Screening Routine in Pediatric Practice
Commonwealth Fund Nationally, about 16 percent of children have some form of disability, including speech and language delays, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and emotional or behavioral problems. Even for children without problems, screening offers a way for providers to solicit...
Bringing Legal Immigrants into the Mainstream
Brookings Institution: One piece of the Senate bill proposes that illegal immigrants who adjust their legal status pay back taxes and other fees. Echoing the debate raging in the halls of Congress, the public debate is centered on what to...
$15 Million Collaboration on Prevention for Older Americans
HHS: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced a $15 million collaboration with The Atlantic Philanthropies to improve the health and quality of life for older Americans at the community level. As the leader of President Bush's HealthierUS Initiative, Secretary Leavitt has...
Suit Challenges New Law Requiring More than 50 MillionPeople in Medicaid to Document Citizenship
Families USA: A lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Chicago challenges the validity of a new law that requires 50 million Medicaid recipients to prove their citizenship with passports, birth certificates, and other special documents---or lose their public health...
A New Start for Katrina's Displaced
Urban Institute Gulf Coast residents began bracing for the start of hurricane season June 1. At about the same time, thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees were dealt another serious blow: the Federal Emergency Management Agency informed them that they are...
Working with Disability
Mathematica Policy Research: How Much Are Medicaid Buy-In Participants Earning? Authorized by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) and the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 (TWWIIA), the Buy-In program allows states to expand Medicaid...
July 04, 2006
Tests Show 70 Percent Less Exposure to Tobacco Smoke
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: Tests of nonsmokers indicate that exposure to secondhand smoke in the U.S. may have fallen as much as 70 percent between 1998 and 2002. WebMD reported June 7 that researchers from the Centers...
Line Drawn Connecting Violence and Local Liquor Stores
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: Alcohol sales at local liquor stores tend to increase violence in their neighborhoods regardless of location, while bars tend to make violent neighborhoods worse, according to a study from the Pacific Institute for...
Report Says Black Youth See More Alcohol Ads
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: African-American youths are exposed to more alcohol advertising than their counterparts from other racial groups, according to a study from the Center on Alcohol Marketing to Youth (CAMY). The Robert Wood Johnston Foundation,...
Dramatic Increase in National Treatment Admissions for Meth Coincides with Increase in Criminal Justice Referrals
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: The number of national treatment admissions reporting methamphetamine as the primary substance of abuse increased dramatically from 1992 to 2004, according to data from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS). At the same...
New Study Shows a 'Tidal Wave' of Underage Drinking Costs
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: With the summer party season in full-swing this long July Fourth weekend, a newly published study shows that underage drinking costs America nearly $62 billion a year. At thousands of youth parties across...
Surgeon General's Report Underlines Secondhand Smoking Dangers
From Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs News: The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report this week saying that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and called for legislation and other steps to make more places...
Science Confirms: You Really Can't Buy Happiness
From washingtonpost.com : When Warren Buffett announced last week that he will be giving away more than $30 billion to improve health, nutrition and education, people all over America reflected on his remarkable generosity, pondered all the noble things the...
Chinese Ministers Consult With B'nai B'rith on Senior Housing Issues
From U.S. Newswire Releases: B'nai B'rith International (BBI) shared its expertise on senior housing with government officials from the People's Republic of China. BBI's Associate Director of the Center for Senior Services and Director of Senior Housing, Eugene Fogel, outlined...