The Health Resources and Services Administration has a new funding opportunity. Up to
$375,000 will be awarded for demonstration projects to improve health care access in
rural areas. RFP deadline: October 16. For more program information, click here.

This program awards up to $10,000 for collaborative initiatives that support the vision
objectives in Healthy People 2010, which address examinations and prevention, eye
diseases, injury and safety and vision rehabilitation. Deadline: August 29, 2008.

If you work with teens with disabilities, you’ll want to know about the Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work (TTW) program. Its Youth Transition portion offers funds for organizations that help students receiving Social Security disability benefits find employment. Is it right for you? Melody Goodspeed, Youth Transition Specialist for TTW answers some common questions about the funding.

The day-long White House Conference on Helping America's Youth, held last Thursday at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was a high-profile culmination of First Lady Laura Bush's interest in efforts to keep teens and young adults on track. Connect for Kids' Jan Richter spoke with youth advocates about the conference, and about what we can do for this sometimes hard-to-help group.

The National Association of Children's Hospitals—N.A.C.H.—is the public policy affiliate of NACHRI. N.A.C.H. is a trade organization of 133 children's hospitals and supports children's hospitals in addressing public policy issues that affect their ability to fulfill their missions to serve children and their families. N.A.C.H. fulfills its mission and vision through federal advocacy, collaboration and communication designed to strengthen the ability of children's hospitals and health systems to influence public policy makers, understand federal and state policy issues, advance access and quality of health care for all children, and sustain financially their missions of clinical care, education, research and advocacy.

Waypoint Corvallis is committed to helping local schools in their fundraising efforts. Their goal is to educate people about corporate programs and bring local businesses into partnership with their local schools.

Vocational education programs, child care, and health insurance for low-income children are targeted for cuts in President Bush's proposed fiscal 2006 budget. Connect for Kids Advocacy Director Jan Richter follows up on her Feb. 7 look at the local impact of federal budget decisions with a round-up of how the president's plan stacks up for kids.

Want to monitor how your program is performing so you can improve your services or make a stronger case to donors? Find guiding questions and tools on conducting a self-evaluation on the new Planning and Evaluation Center (PERC) Web site.