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Editor's Note
It's a great week to get the facts -- on everything from housing, homelessness, and teen work readiness to health care, child support and how fathers influence girls' math skills. The 2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book is out today, which pairs nicely with the America's Children well-being report from ChildStats. To couple the data with inspiration, check out the Tools section, below, and read Connect for Kids' articles on innovative efforts underway in Hampton, Virginia and Iowa. Keep us posted on your work, everyone! Caitlin Johnson weekly@connectforkids.org To read PDF files, download the free Adobe Reader. |
New on Connectforkids.org
 Cultivating A New Natural Resource: Youth As Change Agents
Hampton, Virginia, a 400-year-old city once dubbed "Crabtown" for its abundant seafood, has an exciting new natural resource: youth as change agents. In April 2007, 40 community leaders from coast-to-coast gathered there for an "Innovations Site Visit" to learn more about the city's award-winning, holistic model for youth civic engagement. Here's what they saw.
 Iowa Leads the Way in Building a Case for Quality Youth Programs
Measuring and improving quality is one of the main challenges facing the field. A comprehensive quality assessment program in Iowa is beginning to uncover lessons about measurement and whether quality can drive policy and funding decisions. This Forum for Youth Investment Ready by 21 profile takes a look at the early results.
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2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book
 KIDS COUNT 2007
Hot off the press! The 2007 data was released today (July 25). This year's essay, "Lifelong Family Connections: Supporting Permanence for Children in Foster Care," focuses on the more than 700,000 children who spend time in foster care each year, and what can be done to strengthen the family relationships that these young people need. The press release notes that since 2000:
- Four areas have improved: the child death rate, teen birth rate, high school dropout rate, teens not in school and not working.
- Two areas saw slight improvement: infant mortality rate, teen death rate.
- Four areas have worsened: low-birthweight babies, children living in families where no parent has fulltime year-round employment, children in poverty, and children in single-parent families.
 Puerto Rico Counts
This year's edition will include data on children living in Puerto Rico -- a first for KIDS COUNT, which has been publishing the annual Data Book since 1990. The National Council of La Raza has a section specific to the estimated 1 million children living in Puerto Rico. |
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Tools for Working with Youth
Apathy is Boring -- Youth Friendly Guide
Apathy is Boring promotes
active community and civic involvement among youth and helps adult
organizations reach, engage and integrate young voices and perspectives
into their work. Check out the Youth Friendly Guide for tips for
intergenerational partnerships and tools for U.S. and Canadian
organizations to involve youth.
 Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to Literacy, Video Production and Social Change
Youth "speak the language of media" -- do you? This guide from the Educational Video Center helps youth workers and teachers empower youth to speak their mind while developing critical literacy in every form of media. (Free excerpts; cost of full book is $18.95 plus postage.)
"So, What Do You Do?" -- Creating an Elevator Pitch
This two-part series will help you craft a concise and
memorable pitch (the length of an elevator ride) to help you make the most out of opportunities to build support for the
work your organization does. The second part, "Avoiding Message
Pitfalls and Making the Pitch," is available on the GrantStation Website. Members can access the first section by logging in.
Grants for Youth Service Day Lead Organizations
Looking for a way to increase participation in your programs while
connecting with the larger youth service movement? Youth Service
America is looking for lead agencies for Global Youth Service Day on
April 25-27, 2008. Apply to receive a $2,000 planning grant sponsored
by State Farm Companies Foundation, as well as direct assistance and
support from Youth Service America. Deadline: September 17, 2007.
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Reconnecting Youth
 Youth and Opportunity: Recommendations for Congress
Several new Center for Law and Social Policy papers offer clear and comprehensive recommendations to Congress on reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act and the Workforce Investment Act so they address issues of school readiness, higher education, and job readiness and opportunity, especially for under-served youth. Check out:
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Housing and Homelessness
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Turns 20
On July 22, housing advocacy organizations marked the 20th anniversary of the McKinney-Vento Act. In a press conference with Members of Congress, advocates called the anniversary "bittersweet" because, although the act helps families and children with housing and education continuity, it needs more funds to reach eligible families and keep pace with diminishing funds for affordable housing. In addition, homelessness in the U.S. has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Some resources:
 The State of the Nation's Housing 2007
From the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, this report examines U.S. housing and homeownership trends and demographics and finds that overall home sales fell 10 percent in 2006, and affordable housing continued to decline. The number of households paying more than 30 percent of income on housing hit a record 37.3 million in 2005. Federal assistance to very low-income households reaches only about one-quarter of eligible renters and virtually no homeowners. The report says both structural and public policy shifts are needed to reverse this trend. |
Child Support Enforcement
 Movement to Protect Child Support Enforcement Gaining Ground
The child support enforcement program helps over 17 million children and their custodial parents collect child support. Last year, Congress cut federal funding for the program. Bills have been introduced in Congress to restore the funding, which advocates say could cost families $11 billion in uncollected child support over the next 10 years. The National Women's Law Center has a list of Senators and Representatives who are co-sponsoring the bill.
 Basic Facts About Child Support
The Child Support Enforcement Program is an effective federal-state partnership. For more information, check out:
- Basic Facts -- slides created by CLASP, the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), First Focus and the National Women's Law Center.
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Health and Health Care
Marian Wright Edelman Calls on Congress and the President to Boost SCHIP
Nine milion children lack health insurance in the U.S. The Senate Finance Committee reached a bipartisan agreement to add $35 billion to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) over the next five years by increasing federal taxes on cigarettes. The full Senate is expected to vote this week. President Bush has said he will veto the bill. In this clip, the Children's Defense Fund's Marian Wright Edelman calls on Washington to do more to truly leave no child behind.
More SCHIP resources:
- A new poll finds that 91 percent of Americans support expanding SCHIP to cover more children (Georgetown University Center for Children and Families)
 America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2007
Twenty-five percent of the U.S. population are kids; so how are they doing? Each year, the Forum on Child and Family Statistics examines key indicators of children's well-being, including family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical safety, behavior, and education. In brief this year: a greater share of kids live with at least one working parent, fewer live in "food insecure" households, and fewer high school students are having sex. However, the percentage of kids without access to adequate healthy water and the lack of affordable, safe housing are rising.
Child Safety and Mortality
Race matters when it comes to deaths by injury, and the disparities have not changed in 20 years. American Indians/Alaska Natives and blacks have consistently higher rates of injury death; Hispanics have rates comparable to or just below; and Asian/Pacific Islanders have significantly lower death rates than white children. Find out more in the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Summary.
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Education News
 Meeting the Challenge: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools
Learn from districts that have been successful in recruiting and retaining quality teachers -- that's the central message of this new American Federation of Teachers' report. It offers specific examples of how strapped schools and districts marshaled resources to provide (1) administrative support, (2) adequate funding for salaries and school improvements, (3) safe and orderly working conditions, and (4) adequate time for training, planning and instruction, among other successes.
 It Figures: How Dads Influence Daughters' Interest in Math
A long-term University of Michigan study examines the roots of the continuing gender gap in math and science performance and finds, among other things, that Dad's matter. As fathers' gender stereotypes increase, girls' interest in math drops, while boys' interest in math increases. (Thanks to Dads & Daughters for this heads up.)
 NCLB Seen as Curbing Low, High Achievers' Gains
A University of Chicago study offers some evidence for the suggestion that NCLB encourages schools to focus on the middle-performing students to boost state exam scores and meet required school targets. Education Week reports on evidence that students at each end of the academic ability spectrum -- those who are least able and those who are gifted -- may be getting left behind. (Free registration required.) | |
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Caitlin Johnson and Thaddeus Ferber
Connect for Kids and the Forum for Youth Investment
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