July 2001

July 2001 - December 2001

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 9, 2001, No.1

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

COMMUNITY BUILDING
Capacity building as it relates to the overall quality of life in the communities nonprofit organizations serve. John S. and James L. Knight Foundation report includes libraries. Click here for more information.

Library Connections include:
LIBRARY SERVICES FOR THE POOR. Click here for more information.

PEOPLE OF COLOR
For all our hard-fought alliances and hopes for unity, delving into the dynamics between immigrants and U.S.-born people of color remains a difficult and even risky proposition. These dynamics challenge us to make sense of extraordinary demographic and economic transformations, to bend our minds in new forms of analysis, and to face the delicate constructs that define our racial identity and positioning within the world. Click here for more information.

Library Connections include:
MINORITY CONCERNS. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 11, 2001, No. 2

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

REBUILDING COMMUNITIES

Rebuilding Communities (RCI) is a seven-year initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, designed to provide the supports needed to help transform troubled economically disenfranchised neighborhoods into safe, supportive and productive environments for children, youth and their families. The Foundation works in partnership with community-based organizations on comprehensive strategies to reverse social isolation and disinvestment in low-income neighborhoods. Click here for more information.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PLANNING COUNCILS (NAPC): CORE COMPETENCIES

NAPC is a membership organization of citizen-led, community-based non-profit social service planning agencies that serve small and large communities throughout the United States. Planning councils all across the country share a common mission: to marshal human and financial resources to improve the quality of life for people in their communities. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 13, 2001, No. 3

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

Preventing Problems vs. Promoting the Positive: What Do We Want for Our Children?, May 2000. This discussion of positive aspects of youth development does not mention libraries as a community resource. How can we ensure that our cultural and community programs are included in these discussions?

Small Community Quarterly, the new, free electronic newsletter published by the National Center for Small Communities (NCSC). For new readers' information, the NCSC provides small-town decision-makers with tools to govern effectively and skills to expand local economies, protect natural resources and preserve community character. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 17, 2001, No. 4

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

Is your library in one of these cities?
Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Camden, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Hartford, Indianapolis, Louisville, Miami, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oakland, Philadelphia, Providence, San Antonio, San Diego, Savannah, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington. These are locations for: Casey Foundation's Neighborhood Transformation / Family Development initiative

Neighborhood Transformation / Family Development is a long-term strategy to advance the premise that children do better when their families are strong, and that families do better when they live in supportive communities. We believe any serious effort to improve outcomes for children must support families in their child-rearing roles, and that families must have access to multiple forms of support in their own neighborhoods to do the best job of raising their children. This strategy involves working in specific sites to improve the prospects for families living in tough neighborhoods, as well as building public will, supporting system reforms, promoting policies, and strengthening and connecting organizations and disciplines that contribute to family success. Click here for more information.

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Two Ends of the Rainbow: Intergenerational Family Support Bridges the Gap
Click here for more information.

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A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 19, 2001, No.5

NEXO-NEWSLETTER OF THE JULIAN SAMORA RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Positive changes and improved community attitudes towards the migrant and seasonal farm worker (MSF) population will result from a better understanding of the population's diverse economic contributions to the region. Michigan focus, but generalizable to any community where MSF population exists. Click here for more information.

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LEARNING TO READ - "SCIENTIFICALLY"
Rethinking Schools article by Gerald Coles examines the string of infomercials that are coercing schools by enforcing "scientifically-based" reading programs. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 23, 2001, No. 6

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

LEARNING COMMUNITIES/COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Learning in community can take a variety of forms. Terms used to describe the phenomenon of groups (communities) of individuals learning together include learning communities and communities of practice; these terms are appearing more frequently in the literature. Click here for more information.

ASSESSING WELFARE REFORM AT THE STREET LEVEL

As debates begin next year on reauthorizing welfare reform, policymakers will need to know more than what works in terms of measured indicators. They will also need to know how things work. How are staff at welfare offices, training programs, job placement units, and work sites translating the idea of reform into the reality of practice? What does this mean for the welfare experience as encountered by recipients in different places and under varied conditions? Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
July 25, 2001, No. 7

Sources and sites for librarians building community.

NEW LOCALISM TO NURTURE ACTIVE AND INFORMED CITIZENS

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. Click here for more information.

ADVOCACY COMMUNICATIONS

"Now Hear This: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications" Review of what's involved in planning a successful communications effort. Click here for more information.

BUILDING COMMUNITY TOOLS

Community-based organizations fighting for access to housing, better jobs, economic development, and a voice in their neighborhoods have enough struggle to face: it's critical that they have strong organizations that can withstand the pressures of working for change. Click here for more information.

2-1-1 is the national abbreviated dialing code for free access to health and human services information and referral (I&R). 2-1-1 is an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable number that makes a critical connection between individuals and families in need and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies. 2-1-1 makes it possible for people in need to navigate the complex and ever-growing maze of human services' agencies and programs. By making services easier to access, 2-1-1 encourages prevention and fosters self-sufficiency. Click here for more information.

This list of resources does not aim to describe or prescribe methods of library outreach to jornaleros; we know of no such resources. Rather what's intended is to point toward information that will assist librarians in crafting services to these workers. Click here for more information. Compiled by Bruce Jensen. Click here to access PLUS--Public Libraries Using Spanish.

National Neighborhood Coalition- New report examines the findings and policy recommendations of researchers and practitioners addressing the effects of smart growth on affordable housing. Ultimately, the research suggests that careful planning and a regional approach to affordable housing must be a fundamental component of smart growth. Click here for more information.

Institute for Educational Leadership manual offers strategies for community organizations and schools to communicate and work effectively with each other. Click here for more information.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is asking for public comments on barriers in federal policy that might impede the ability of people who have disabilities to fully participate in community life and requests public suggestions on how federal agencies can better support people with disabilities and help them live more independently in their communities. Comments due by August 27. Click here for more information.

Activities include public education, policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and technical assistance. Click here for more information.

Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

DIGITAL DEMOCRACY: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN THE 21st CENTURY: NATIONAL CIVIC LEAGUE'S 107th CONFERENCE

Technology's impact on community building has received little attention outside discussions on the digital divide. This conference will seek to address how technology can be harnessed to strengthen community by highlighting best practices and models of online community engagement projects. It will demonstrate how practitioners at the local level are leading efforts that utilize technology to strengthen democracy. It will assess the obstacles that technology projects must overcome in effective community-building efforts. It will also seek to answer whether there are limits to using online programs to strengthen community. Click here for more information.

The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute recently launched a community-organizing project called the Neighborhood Circle. The project is comprised of twelve local groups committed to organizing their communities using ABCD principles whose efforts are being guided by a national training director. ABCD offers a unique contribution to ways of thinking about community organizing in that it emphasizes that all individuals in a community have valuable gifts to contribute, that most local associations can be contributing to the well-being of the community, and that the key to a strong community is that producers actually live inside the community. ABCD has clear core values about keeping citizens central, encouraging a focus on developing local economies seeking cooperation rather than competition, being inclusive, inviting innovation and creativity, developing sustainable initiatives that last, and supporting place-based neighborhood work. Click here for more information.

Even before the recent decline in the economy, the country was faced with the paradox of hunger amidst prosperity, record-high employment but with many struggling to make ends meet, and an increasing wealth gap of concern to liberals and conservatives alike. Families that consider themselves part of the nation's solid middle class struggle from paycheck to paycheck, worried about mounting bills, unforeseen health expenses and college education for their children...This document reflects the assumption that we can do better, and that the idea of asset development holds the key to a unifying policy vision for the future. Asset development is a concept that embodies common goals and shared values across much of the political spectrum, because its goal is social mobility and poverty reduction by building human capital and financial wealth, in tandem with policies to achieve adequate incomes. Scroll down on the page (link below) for asset development papers. Click here for more information.

Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Concern is growing about the mounting evidence that many disadvantaged and minority workers get stuck in low-level entry jobs that don't pay well and offer no opportunities for advancement. Several strategies are presented to deal with this issue. Includes bibliography. Click here for more information.

While Hispanic families have benefited from the economic expansion, many have had a more difficult time moving out of poverty than other American families. In part, this is because economic gains for Hispanic families are the result of working more hours rather than from improvements in skills, occupations, and wages. Consequently, many Hispanic families remain extremely vulnerable financially, have little savings, few assets, and work in jobs without benefits and long-term security. Click here for more information.

Children who had moved at least three times during their elementary years had reading scores on nationally normed tests that averaged 20 points lower on a 99-point scale than those of children who had not moved. This multi-faceted initiative educates the school community about the effects of moving. Could youth services in public libraries help? Click here for more information.

Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

This groundbreaking paper, published by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, uses case studies of issues affecting children and families-as well as interviews with more than 30 academics, policymakers, and advocates-to argue that values are a key part of the policymaking process. The paper demonstrates how advocates for children must learn to develop proposals that resonate with public values about work and family, and then market their ideas by using language and stories that make sense to ordinary citizens.

A new study on rural poverty finds that the rural poor have fewer opportunities to find work and less chance of finding financially rewarding jobs than their urban counterparts. Calls for stimulating job investment and support services in these areas. (Note: this is a pdf file.) Click here for more information.

This 115-page report, released by Economic Policy Institute (EPI) at the end of last month, "is the most comprehensive study of family hardships ever published." The report examines the plight of the working poor by determining basic family budgets for communities across the nation -- the amount of money a family needs for food, housing, utilities, child care, transportation, and health care -- and comparing these figures to wage statistics. The report concludes that two-and-a-half times more families fall beneath the basic family budget levels for their communities than fall below the federal poverty line. Click here for more information.

In families where welfare-to-work programs have resulted in reduced family income, children are more likely to suffer negative effects according to a recent Children's Defense Fund (CDF) study. The report finds that programs that are most helpful to children are those that raise family income and economic security. Click here for more information.

Race, though always a social construction and ever changing, will be up for some real stretching this summer at the World Conference Against Racism. In fact, the meeting's full title, the World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, is just one indication of how big the tent will be. A significant push for the expansion came from Europe, where groups lobbied to ensure that ethnic cleansing and anti-Semitism made it in the mix. Groups working on Anti-Semitism united with those from Eastern Europe to form almost 80 percent of the region's World Conference preparatory meeting participants. The net effect is the broadening of scope from that of the first two gatherings that had a shorter name--World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination. Click here for more information. Click here for more details regarding The Transnational Racial Justice Initiative (TRJI), a project of the Applied Research Center.

Educators are struggling to improve student learning inside the classroom, while community builders are working from the outside to mobilize residents and organize coalitions to build the community's social, educational, physical, economic and political infrastructure. Usually, however, these groups are isolated from one another. This report focuses on ways for educators and community builders to forge common ground and engage each other in new ways to help improve student learning. It will help community school advocates understand how to work more effectively with school and community leaders. The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) - a non-profit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C. - works to achieve better results for children and youth. At the heart of our effectiveness is our unique ability to bring people together to identify and resolve issues across policy, program, and sector boundaries. (It is the third item on the following page) Click here for more information. Note: you can go right to the pdf file - it will say "bad box" but it works fine and it's a great report. Click here to access the pdf file.

The Center for Arts and Culture has posted a paper by David Bollier, a Fellow at the New America Foundation, called "Can the Information Commons be Saved? How Intellectual Property Policies are Eroding Democratic Culture & Some Strategies for Asserting the Public Interest," examines the paradox of the Internet age -- unprecedented access to information and the simultaneous convergence of "commercial forces . . . to make information more scarce, or at least more expensive and amenable to strict market control." The Center believes that a shrinking information commons should be of critical concern to the creative sector where a vibrant public domain and viable fair use provisions are essential to the sector's health. Click here for more information.

The Kansas Interpretive Traveling Exhibits Service - KITES - may be just what you're looking for! Schools, museums, libraries, arts councils, retirement homes, and others can benefit from KITES. Click here for more information.

History on Wheels: Outreach Program Nevada Historical Society. Click here for more information.

From Caseload Reduction to Poverty Reduction National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, 8/29/2001. A new vision for TANF will require profound cultural change at every level. Policymakers and political elites will have to acknowledge that TANF needs to accommodate the realities of the low-wage labor market and low-income families today. States and welfare administrators will have to change the orientation of the system from "beat them down" and "get them off" to "lift them up." A PDF report at the site of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support --first item under "latest reports." Article & links at Neighborhood Funders Group. Click here for more information.

The Black Community Crusade for Children's mission is to ensure that no child is left behind and that every child has a Healthy Start, A Head Start, A Fair Start, A Safe Start, a Moral Start in life, with the support of caring parents and nurturing communities. Coordinated nationally by the Children's Defense Fund. Click here for more information.

FAMILY RESOURCE INFORMATION,EDUCATION, AND NETWORK DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (FRIENDS)

(FRIENDS) is the National Resource Center for the Community-Based Family Resource Services (CBFRS) program. A service of the Children's Bureau, FRIENDS works with many partners including National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect, to support efforts to prevent child abuse and provide support services to families. FRIENDS offers a range of services designed to assist states, tribal organizations, and local programs in the development of community-based family resource programs and networks throughout the United States. FRIENDS is a collaborative effort between two organizations with many years of experience in delivering training and technical assistance, the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, Inc., and the Family Support America. Together they are able to offer a broad range of services and materials. Click here for more information.

National Institute for Literacy's electronic newsletter, a new monthly publication full of the latest information on activities to move adult and family literacy from the margins to the mainstream. Click here for more information.

JoCoFamily.Net is funded through a Juvenile Crime Prevention grant from the Tenth Judicial District of Johnson County, Kansas. It has been created by the Johnson County Library( http://www.jcl.lib.ks.us/ ) with support from the District Attorney's Office and Juvenile Intake and Assessment Center. This information service provides 24-hour access to community resources and legal information for Johnson County families of at-risk youth. Click here for more information.

ZERO TO THREE's mission is to promote the healthy development of our nation's infants and toddlers by supporting and strengthening families, communities, and those who work on their behalf. We are dedicated to advancing current knowledge; promoting beneficial policies and practices; communicating research and best practices to a wide variety of audiences; and providing training, technical assistance and leadership development. Click here for more information.

DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media. Click here for more information.

The National Rural Funders Collaborative (NRFC) is a new funding and learning initiative designed to leverage over the next 10 years $100 million to strengthen and sustain rural communities and families facing persistent poverty. NRFC was created in July 2001 through the joint efforts of seven U.S. foundations. The goal of NRFC is to expand to include other public, private and corporate private resource partners at the local, regional and national levels, thereby enlarging the commitment to rural America. The basic strategy for doing so is to encourage and help establish meaningful, engaging and effective partnerships to unite regional and national funders and community partners. Click here for more information.

A new report from the Urban Institute and Community Voices offers a detailed analysis of the uninsured working population (15.5%)Compares the relative merits of two key means of expanding coverage: tax credits or public programs. Suggests that health insurance subsidies for low-income workers are the most efficient way to expand coverage. Click here for more information.

It is very difficult to access the American Red Cross Site right now, but keep trying by clicking here. Some information is available on the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Web site. You can access it by clicking here. For those in Latin America, click here.

The Interfaith Alliance is a non-partisan clergy-led grassroots organization dedicated to promoting the positive and healing role of religion in the life of the nation and challenging those who manipulate religion to promote intolerance. With more than 130,000 members drawn from over 50 faith traditions, local Alliances 38 states, and a national network of religious leaders, The Interfaith Alliance promotes compassion, civility and mutual respect for human dignity in our increasingly diverse society. Click here for more information.

It would be a mistake for advocates to retreat in our pursuit of the social justice agenda, because, as Jane Addams taught us, "peace is not merely the absence of war but the nurture of human life." Ultimately, peace will elude us until we intervene to end poverty and inequality at home and abroad. Click here for more information.

The Orion Society is an award-winning publisher, an environmental education organization, and a communications and support network for grassroots environmental and community organizations across North America. It is a nonprofit membership organization with 8000 members, individual and organizational, representing all fifty states and thirty-one foreign countries. Click here for more information.

The Rockefeller Institute's Urban and Metropolitan Studies center seeks: to present a fuller picture of the actual strength and diversity of metropolitan neighborhoods, especially those that are predominately-minority and working- or middle-class; to gauge the effects of neighborhoods on residents, particularly children; to closely examine efforts by residents and other stakeholders to improve the future of their neighborhoods through Comprehensive Community Initiatives and otherwise; to explore linkages between inner-city areas and regional economies; and to identify public policies that can help ensure the stability of non-poor communities and by extension, help turn around their poorer counterparts. Click here for more information.

The National Community Building Network (NCBN) is a national network that serves as hub for brokering information and connections among community builders. NCBN regularly brings its members together and helps community builders become more effective so that their actions have a greater impact on neglected low-income communities. The mission of NCBN is to promote and advance community building principles, in practice and policy, to achieve social and economic equity for all children and families. The principles that undergird the work of the NCBN: Integrate community development and human service strategies; Start from local conditions; Build on community strengths; Support families and children; Foster broad community participation; Forge partnerships through collaboration; Require racial equity; Value cultural strengths. Click here for more information.

Major national effort to help youth in foster care make successful transitions to adulthood. Nonprofit organization formed by two of the leading foundations focused exclusively on child and youth well-being: The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Casey Family Programs. The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative brings together the people and resources needed to help youth make the connections they need to education, employment opportunities, health care, and housing. Click here for more information.

The Finance Project discusses how the Child Care and Development Fund authorized by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act can be used for collaborative projects. Available for download. Click here for more information.

Living Wage Resource Center to track the living wage movement and provide materials and strategies to the new campaigns that are cropping up everywhere. Brief history of the national living wage movement, background materials such as ordinance summaries and comparisons, drafting tips, research summaries, talking points, and links to other living wage-related sites. Compiled by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Click here for more information.

Who is a refugee? A refugee is a person who has fled his or her country of origin because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The United States accepts approximately 75,000 refugees each year from diverse regions of the world. The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) Refugee Service Center specializes in the development of materials that help refugee newcomers understand fundamental aspects of life in the United States. Orientation materials cover such topics as housing, community services, transportation, health, employment, and cultural adjustment in several Asian, European, African, and Middle Eastern languages. Click here for more information.

Focusing on gaps forces people to see education as a valued resource that is distributed differently to different students, inviting questions about the educational system's fundamental fairness and a sober consideration of what it will really take to ensure that students who struggle academically learn what they need to learn, of what truly is required so that no child is left behind. Click here for more information.

National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) series of four HeadsUp! Network programs designed to assist Head Start management teams at all levels of implementation of family literacy services. Each program draws upon the rich experience of NCFL staff as well as staff from various Head Start programs to address specific issues around the implementation of family literacy services in Head Start Program series kicks off on September 28, 2001 at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Click here for more information.

Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. "Seek help if you have a mental health problem or think you have symptoms of a mental disorder. The recommendation to seek help is particularly vital, considering the majority of people with diagnosable disorders, regardless of race or ethnicity, do not receive treatment. The stigma surrounding mental illness is a powerful barrier to reaching treatment. People with mental illness feel shame and fear of discrimination about a condition that is as real and disabling as any other serious "

The White House and Congress are negotiating over the cap on discretionary spending for FY 2002, which starts next week. If the Administration holds to the $691 billion limit on outlays -- and still pushes for the increases it wants for defense and education spending - it will mean across-the-board cuts in non-defense discretionary programs of between 2% to 5%. See OMB WATCH. Click here for more information.

The Enterprise Foundation is building America, one community at a time. We work with partners to provide low-income people with affordable housing, safer streets and access to jobs and childcare. We provide loans, grants and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations that are building and revitalizing local neighborhoods. We have a national network of 1,900 nonprofit organizations, public housing authorities and Native American Tribes in more than 700 locations. Click here for more information.

The Connection Gap: Why Americans Feel So Alone, By Laura Pappano. Rutgers University Press.
Better Together: Report of the Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America, John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University. Click here for more information.

ADULT LITERACY: NAAL 2002: OVERVIEW
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), planned for the year 2002, is a national survey of the literacy abilities of adults. The sample is representative of the non-institutionalized population ages 16 and older who are living in households in the United States. The NAAL will describe the status of literacy in the nation and states. Click here for more information.

For over a decade diverse groups throughout the world have endeavored to create an EARTH CHARTER that sets forth fundamental ethical principles for a sustainable way of life. The goal of sustainable development is full human development and ecological protection. The EARTH CHARTER recognizes that humanity's environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical, and spiritual problems and aspirations are interconnected. It affirms the need for holistic thinking and collaborative, integrated
problem solving. It is about freedom, justice, participation, and peace as well as environmental protection and economic well-being. Click here for more information.

The launching of the first annual U.S. EARTH CHARTER Community Summits was September 29, 2001. Summits occurred simultaneously in cities across the country: Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Denton, Texas; Honolulu, Indianapolis, Jackson, Mississippi; Philadelphia, Portland, Maine; San Francisco, Seattle, and Tampa all hosted Earth Charter Community Summits, each with an agenda tailored to the particular city, but linked together by satellite at the beginning and end of the day.

Millions of households in the United States cannot afford to pay for decent housing. Far fewer people know the extent of the affordability problem in their own communities. The National Low Income Housing Coalition produces Out of Reach in an effort to provide this information to policy makers and advocates. Click here for more information.

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) October 2 announced the introduction of the FIRST THINGS FIRST ACT of 2001 (H.R.2999) to help the federal government meet the long term critical needs of millions of Americans and respond to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Schakowsky pointed out that Congress allocated an unexpected $55 billion to deal with the recent tragedy and to bolster national security, thus adding additional demands on the budget. "Just as critical are the 5.4 million families with urgent housing needs, the 13 million seniors and people with disabilities without any prescription drug coverage, and the students who are now learning in overcrowded, crumbling schools. Click here for more information.

According to the poverty report issued by the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, the poverty rate in 2000 was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 1999. About 1.1 million fewer people were poor in 2000 than in 1999 -- 31.1 million versus 32.3 million. The poverty rate in 2000 was the lowest in 21 years -- not statistically different from the rate in 1979 or the record low of 11.1 percent set in 1973. In addition, the number of poor families fell by nearly half a million over the period, to 6.2 million in 2000. Press release below provides links to reports. Click here for more information.

Workplace mentoring has been identified as an important aspect of work-based learning in projects conducted under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act. By establishing relationships with caring and competent adults who can provide emotional support and facilitate skill development, less-experienced youth and adults are more likely to bridge the gap between school and work. Click here for more information.

Trends in CHIP Expenditures: State-by-State Data. A new brief reviews the latest data available on states' use of CHIP funds and explores the effect of a pending dip in CHIP funding on states' ability to provide health care coverage to uninsured, low-income children. Click here for more information.

"Protecting America's Children Against Terrorism Act" introduced by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) on October 11, 2001 would make sure the special health needs of children are taken into account in responding to the threat of terrorism. Provides funding to implement 2-1-1, a universal and easy-to-remember telephone number designed by the United Way and the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems to assess the needs of children and families and connect them with available services, many being coordinated by the over 400 hotline numbers established in the wake of the September 11th attacks. Click here for more information.

The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) will increase the earnings of over 18 million low-income working families in the U.S. by more than $30 billion this year. This survey provides the first look at how the EITC, and the working poor families it benefits, are distributed in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas. All reports available on Brookings Institution site. Click here for more information.

The Latino Technology Network (LTN) has been awarded a federal grant to establish a virtual private network to connect 12 diverse Community Based Organizations (CBOs) across the nation. The LTN project will facilitate information sharing, web hosting, education, health, public policy education, and promote cooperation among groups providing services to Latino communities. Community Technology Centers will be established within 11 of the organizations for educational and technology training. Click here for more information.

The Afterschool Alliance was launched publicly in September 1999 as a coalition of public, private, and nonprofit organizations dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of after school programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. The Alliance was formed on the belief that after school programs are critical to children and families today, and that the need for programs is not adequately addressed. As many as 15 million children have no place to go after the school bell rings. These children are at significant risk of getting poor grades, being victims of crime, or participating in anti-social behaviors that have grave consequences and costs to society. Click here for more information.

The sweeping changes to the welfare system in the late '90s came about during a period of unprecedented economic growth and high employment. While much research on how families are faring reflects the impact of a booming economy, how families will fare in a welfare-to-work policy environment during a recession has yet to be tested. At this Urban Institute panel, state welfare administrators and policy analysts had lots of ideas for improving welfare-to-work programs to help low-wage families sustain earnings and access benefits necessary to support a family. Click here for more information.

All the feature articles in this issue deal with one theme-community colleges. Community colleges have gone through a half-century of significant change, evolving from liberal arts schools preparing students for 4-year colleges to schools more focused on technical and vocational training, often with missions explicitly oriented toward local economic development. Click here for more information.

WOMEN, INFANTS, CHILDREN FUNDED INSUFFICIENTLY
Hundreds of thousands of low-income women, infants and children could be turned away from an acclaimed federal nutrition program in Fiscal Year 2002 because of insufficient funding based on obsolete economic projections, according to a recent report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the National Association of WIC Directors. Click here for more information.

Ways and Means legislation provides extremely limited assistance to unemployed workers. The package speeds up the transfer of $9 billion already slated to be shifted from the federal unemployment insurance trust funds to state unemployment accounts. It also provides states with $3 billion through the Social Services Block Grant to provide health coverage for unemployed workers. These provisions are unlikely to offer much assistance to the unemployed or to provide much stimulus to the economy. Click here for more information.

Our schools remain largely segregated and are becoming more so. Segregated schools are still highly unequal. Segregation by race relates to segregation by poverty and to many forms of educational inequality for African American and Latino students; few whites experience impoverished schools. Efforts to overcome the effects of segregation through special programs have had some success, but there is no evidence that they have equalized systems of segregated schools. Click here for more information.

Many jurisdictions are looking for new ways to house not only low-income residents, but also working families who fill critical positions in the labor market. One of the ways in which jurisdictions are meeting this challenge is through inclusionary zoning, a program that principally requires developers to include affordable homes when they build a particular number of market-rate homes. Issued by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. Click here for more information.

Welfare offices in many states have been haphazard in linking clients to pregnancy prevention and other family formation services, particularly where state policy gives them little or no support. In addition, they have only recently made job retention and advancement a high priority. Improving the performance of welfare offices would be facilitated by removing conflicting requirements across programs as well as by improving the training of workers and coordination across human services agencies. Click here for more information.

Schools that share facilities with community-based organizations also greatly benefit their students and families. Schools with shared facilities are able to offer: broader learning opportunities for students, high-quality services for students and families, higher student achievement, and a more efficient use of tax dollars. Click here for more information.

With unemployment headed toward 6%, perhaps higher, concerns are growing about the adequacy of the government's safety net for the jobless and the poor. Even a mild downturn would be the first hard-times test of a dramatically altered system of aid for the needy, says The Christian Science Monitor. As welfare recipients hit five-year limit, states have less for needy. Click here for more information.

The National Training and Information Center was established in 1972. Its mission is to build grassroots leadership and strengthen neighborhoods through issue-based community organizing. Crime prevention through community organizing is one of the most common concerns identified by the leaders of community groups with which NTIC works. NTIC publishes DISCLOSURE, The `national newspaper of neighborhoods,' covers issues of concern to communities and highlights the actions of grassroots neighborhood groups across the country. Click here for more information.

In a recent report "Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace: Taking the Lead on e-Learning Policy," the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) concludes that an ad hoc education technology system is developing that exacerbates existing education disparities and cannot assure a high standard of education for all students. Click here for more information.

The National Partnership for Women and Families (http://www.nationalpartnership.org/index.html) has launched a Campaign for Family Leave Benefits. Since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted in 1993, it has helped 35 million Americans take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for their new babies and sick family members, and to recover from their own serious illnesses, without hurting businesses. Yet too many women and men simply cannot afford to take unpaid leave, even when their families need them most. The bipartisan Family Leave Commission found that nearly two-thirds of employees who did not take needed leave cited lost wages as the primary reason. Click here for more information.

As policies are developed to bridge the digital divide these must be linked to broader strategies for social change. For full downloadable report go to PolicyLink and click on "publications." PolicyLink is a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization, dedicated to advancing policies to achieve economic and social equity based on the wisdom, voice, and experience of local constituencies. For more information on PolicyLink, please click here.

Cultural Policy is an unsettled universe that encompasses such varied issues as public benefit, patronage and philanthropy, the non-profit sector, artists' rights and intellectual property, national heritage and cultural patrimony, the cultural industries, public education, privatization, pornography and censorship, entertainment markets and cultural tourism. The Center for Arts and Culture, America's first independent think tank for arts and cultural issues, co-sponsored a workshop, "Teaching Cultural Policy," hosted by Joan Jeffri, Columbia University, and J. Mark Schuster, MIT, at Columbia University Teacher's College. The report from that workshop is available on the Center's website. Click here to visit the Center's website. Click here to read the report.

The National Family Support Mapping Project is a Family Support America project to locate and collect information on every family support program in the country and to create a national database of comprehensive information on family support programs. Click here for more information.

Leadership for a Changing World seeks to recognize, strengthen and support leaders, and to highlight the importance of leadership in improving peoples' lives. The program seeks to confirm that resourceful leaders are bringing about positive change in virtually every community. These outstanding leaders and leadership groups work in such areas as economic and community development, human rights, the arts, education, human development, sexual and reproductive health, religion, media, and the environment. Click here for more information.

The major school policy trends and current spending priorities are failing to address the widespread racial inequalities in our schools and are, in fact, exacerbating institutional racism. High-stakes testing and maximum-security school environments are both essentially punitive measures that amount to sophisticated forms of racial profiling and punishment of students of color. These punitive policies also detract attention and resources from positive reforms that have proven results in improving educational excellence and equity - such as expanding the pool of high-quality teachers so that there's a top-notch teacher in every class, and reducing the size of schools and classes. Click here for more information.

"Medicaid Budgets Under Stress: Survey Findings for State Fiscal Year 2000, 2001, and 2002" is a survey of states detailing current Medicaid spending, the factors contributing to the growth, and what states are doing to curb the growth. This report was substantially completed prior to September 11; therefore, an update was commissioned that conveys the outlook since September 11. "Medicaid and State Budgets: An October 2001 Update" surveyed twenty states with four additional questions to assess the radically changed environment. Click here for more information.

Regional Stewards recognize the interdependencies between four spheres: new economy, livable community, social inclusion, and governance. They work across boundaries of jurisdiction, sector, and discipline to connect these four spheres and create opportunities for their region. Click here for more information.

Gentrification and displacement can result when new investments in neglected communities produce new and renovated housing stock; new businesses; and improved community services-highly sought goals in disinvested communities. With strategic planning, however, long time, low-income community members-primarily people of color-can be protected and the neighborhood culture preserved. This toolkit features successful approaches to equitable development. Click here for more information.

The following facilities were included in the census count: emergency shelters (with sleeping facilities); shelters for children who are runaways, neglected or without conventional housing; transitional shelters for people without conventional housing; and hotels and motels used to provide shelter for people without conventional housing. (a pdf file) Click here for more information.

"Red Tape, Silver Hammers, and Shattered Ashtrays: What States and Communities Can Learn from Eight Years of Federal Reinvention." The National Partnership for Reinventing Government, a legacy of the Clinton Administration, created a government that worked better, cost less, and got results Americans care about.

(Brookings Institution article). The Bush plan for rewards and sanctions puts schools with large percentages of impoverished students at a particular disadvantage. Bush is right to encourage high standards for every student. Yet nearly four decades of research dating back to the landmark Coleman Report makes plain that such students, on average, don't score as high as affluent students, regardless of how expertly they're taught. What encourages the best teachers and principals in those schools to get out of bed in the morning is not some vision of perfection, but the belief that with hard work and determination they can make their schools better over time. Click here for more information.

More than half (57%) of the 2.5 million people who identify themselves solely as American Indian and Alaska Native in the 2000 Census live in metropolitan areas. This issue brief describes the large and growing urban Indian population, their health status, and the major federal health programs and federal-state programs that are available to improve Native Americans' access to needed health services. (Kaiser Family Foundation Report). Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 16, 2001, No. 37
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

What is museums' role in the civic enterprise? How do museums build social capital and contribute to community life? What do communities and museums have to offer one another? How are they pursuing the possibilities for engagement today? What should they aim for? A project of the American Association of Museums. Click here for more information.

Just as many old economy businesses have transformed themselves in order to participate in the new economy, city governments will have to alter their economic development policies to address the particular needs of high-tech firms. Instead of simply focusing on traditional programs designed to retain and attract large companies, cities must begin to focus more on retaining and attracting skilled employees. Those cities that maintain a high quality of life and encourage networking between digital-age entrepreneurs and other sectors of the economy are likely to do best in the post-industrial order. From the Center for an Urban Future. Click here for more information.

The 1996 reforms shifted the focus of welfare-to-work programs away from education and training and instead moved toward a focus on immediate job placement. The thinking was that the experience of working would be enough to propel new workers into higher paying and more skilled jobs. Evidence of cycling between welfare and work, however, shows that adults are having difficulty holding jobs. Whether to increase education and training and allow training to count toward work requirements are likely to be important topics of discussion during reauthorization. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 19, 2001, No. 38
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Study measures the extent to which our fellow Americans are seeking emergency food assistance and the response to hunger by a nationwide network of charitable hunger-relief agencies and volunteers. From America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization. Click here for more information.

How to elevate the importance of ending poverty on a national level? The objective is to transform local and state organizing on jobs and welfare issues into a movement that tackles economic justice more broadly. The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support is a national coalition of grassroots organizations in 40 states that seeks to advance progressive anti-poverty policies at the state and national levels. Click here for more information.

"Communities at Work: A Guidebook of Strategic Interventions for Community Change" outlines six interventions that local education funds have successfully used to create lasting change in public school districts: (1)community dialogue, (2) constituency building, (3) engaging practitioners,(4) collaboration with districts, (5) policy analysis, and (6) legal strategies. This framework is helpful for communities working together to engage citizens and mobilize resources to solve community problems. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 21, 2001, No. 39
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

The Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) promotes the widespread availability and use of digital network technologies in the public and non-profit sectors. TOP grants have played an important role in realizing the vision of an information society by demonstrating practical applications of new telecommunications and information technologies to serve the public interest. Click here for more information.

National Book Scholarship Fund from Laubach Literacy. Typically, funding for literacy programs is inadequate and dwindling, while the demand for these educational services is exploding. A major roadblock to meeting this need is the high cost of acquiring the printed materials necessary to work effectively with existing students and to start new efforts. The National Book Scholarship Fund confronts this problem by providing in kind grants of books and other materials local programs can use to expand their current efforts and start new initiatives. Click here for more information.

The Census Bureau released the most comprehensive and detailed data on American families in 64 cities across the country on November 20, 2001. The Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS) data detail housing, language, income and other statistics. The C2SS, which used the American Community Survey (ACS) methodology and questionnaire, is the largest survey ever conducted by the Census Bureau outside a decennial census. As part of a re-engineering of the 2010 census, the ACS would eliminate the need for a census long form in the future by producing up- to-date data on communities and population groups every year. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 26, 2001, No. 40
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

HUD (Housing and Urban Development) believes the best approach for alleviating homelessness is through a coordinated community-based process that provides a comprehensive response to the differing needs of homeless individuals and families. This concept, called a Continuum of Care, has been implemented in over 400 communities across the country. This Web page resource will provide general information about the Continuum of Care, as well as materials that can be used by communities to enhance their Continuums. Click here for more information.

State by state report on the status of 2-1-1 implementation. 2-1-1 is the national abbreviated dialing code for free access to health and human services information and referral (I&R). 2-1-1 is an easy-to-remember and universally recognizable number that makes a critical connection between individuals and families in need and the appropriate community-based organizations and government agencies. 2-1-1 makes it possible for people in need to navigate the complex and ever-growing maze of human services' agencies and programs. By making services easier to access, 2-1-1 encourages prevention and fosters self-sufficiency. Click here for more information.

Museums make their unique contribution to the public by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the things of this world. Historically, they have owned and used natural objects, living and nonliving, and all manner of human artifacts to advance knowledge and nourish the human spirit. Today, the range of their special interests reflects the scope of human vision. Their missions include collecting and preserving, as well as exhibiting and educating with materials not only owned but also borrowed and fabricated for these ends. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 28, 2001, No. 41
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

A city is not a bundle of first impressions. It is a collection of details about the practice of urban public management. The material in this issue - a series of 35 report cards about America's largest city governments - is a digest of those details. For each city a few of the most important elements - both positive and negative - are presented. (Maxwell School of Government and Public Affairs, Syracuse University) Click here for more information.

The "USA PATRIOT Act" (PL 107-56) could pose big problems for nonprofits, especially those that advocate changes in US foreign policy or provide social services to individuals that become targets of government investigations. The central problem is a vague, overbroad definition of a new crime, "domestic terrorism". (The attacks of September 11th are crimes under pre-USA PATRIOT Act law, making this provision unnecessary.) In addition, greatly expanded search and surveillance powers can be invoked under a lowered threshold, requiring only that investigators assert that information sought is relevant to a foreign intelligence investigation. Click here for more information.

In October 2000, some 3.8 million of the 34.6 million young adults living in the United States had not completed high school and were not currently enrolled. From the early 1970s into the late 1980s, dropout rates declined and the gap between whites and blacks narrowed, but since 1990 both dropout rates and differences between whites and blacks have remained fairly constant. Hispanics continued to have the highest dropout rate. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
November 30, 2001, No. 42
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Art, Culture and the National Agenda is a multi-stage project on national policy challenges in the arts and culture. Designed to highlight policy options for Congress and the President, Art, Culture and the National Agenda also seeks to establish the vocabulary for a continuing national dialogue about the value of creativity and cultural heritage in our individual and collective lives. Click here for more information.

The debate over reauthorizing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) will begin in earnest when Congress convenes for the second session of the 107th Congress in January 2002. Funding must be reauthorized by October 2002. Some of the issues to be debated will include funding levels; policies on sanctions, exemptions, and time limits; child care and child support funding and program design; job training and other work supports; the role of Food Stamps and Medicaid and the effects of reform on these programs; supports for immigrants; and marriage and out-of-wedlock childbearing. One final issue likely to arise is whether lowering poverty should become a goal of welfare reform programs. The results of the debate will likely to shape the direction of welfare reform for the remainder of the decade. (Joint Center for Poverty Research). Click here for more information.

State Health Facts Online. This new resource contains the latest state-level data on demographics, health, and health policy, including health coverage, access, financing, and state legislation. (Kaiser Family Foundation) Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 3, 2001, No. 43
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Life in the 21st century seems more complex than ever, as adults cope with the demands of multiple roles, the stresses of a fluid workplace, and the pressures of child and elder care. Causes include technological advances; the changing nature of work, workplaces, and working relationships; international economic competition; the changing demographics of workers, families, and communities; and longer life spans, among others. These subjects comprise what Kegan (2000) calls "the hidden curriculum of adult life" ; in this curriculum, adult roles-parenting, partnering, working, and living in an increasingly diverse society-are "courses" in which we are enrolled. This ERIC Digest describes a selection of adult education approaches to helping individuals negotiate the curriculum of life challenges. Click here for more information.

The December issue of e-literacy, the National Institute For Literacy's monthly electronic newsletter, is now online. Articles include: "Equipped for the Future" tools now available in Spanish. NIFL and HEAD START collaborate on family literacy; NIFL assists American Foundation for the Blind in national training program. Click here for more information.

Legal Service Corporation mission: promote equal access to the system of justice and improve opportunities for low-income people throughout the United States by making grants for the provision of high- quality civil legal assistance to those who would be otherwise unable to afford legal counsel. New Report: State justice communities examine priorities given changing demographics (census), new technology, emerging legal needs, commonalties among diverse communities, and severely marginalized client populations. Programs create staff positions charged with working with special client populations and staff members are encouraged to collaborate with the community to and apply bold strategies in addressing community problems. State justice communities examine leadership within a multicultural framework and use the results in staff and leadership training.(pdf). Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 5, 2001, No. 44
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

The National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness is the only national center specifically focused on the effective organization and delivery of services for people who are homeless and have serious mental illnesses. The Resource Center's activities enable the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) to facilitate service systems change through field-based knowledge development, synthesis, exchange, and adoption of effective practices. Click here for more information.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition publishes The Advocates' Guide each year to supply low income housing advocates with knowledge about the full range of federal housing and community development issues and to equip you with the latest information about federal housing and community development policy. Click here for more information.

Animating Democracy Initiative (ADI) is a four-year programmatic initiative of Americans for the Arts' Institute for Community Development and the Arts. ADI seeks to foster artistic activity that encourages civic dialogue on important contemporary issues. The Lab identifies and selects worthy arts-based civic dialogue projects and strengthens them through financial support and connections to other resources. Projects offer key opportunities to support the creation, presentation, and/or exhibition of new work or enduring work of the past that may advance: artistic practice in relation to civic dialogue; experimentation and innovation in approaches to dialogue; and/or strategies for building organizational capacity to successfully support arts-based civic dialogue work. Individually and collectively they offer opportunity to study and deepen field knowledge of principles and best practices of arts-based civic dialogue work. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 7, 2001, No. 45
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Center for Arts and Culture report discusses crucial ways in which America's communities can be identified with, and supported and enhanced by, their art and culture. Art and culture are intrinsic to nations and to communities within nations. The term "art and culture" encompasses all creative expressions - in support of, or in opposition to, a nation's or a community's flavor and essence, that ally it with and distinguish it from other nations or communities - that can be read, heard, viewed, and/or participated in. Click here for more information.

Leaders and teachers at low-performing schools must move beyond the idea that their students can't achieve at high levels. These leaders need to study how things are done at high-performing schools and to emulate some of the successful strategies as they plan improvement at their schools. If there are differences between the educational experiences of students at the high-performing schools and students at the low- performing schools, these differences must be targeted for change. SREB report. Click here for more information.

Provides insight to the world of our non-profit colleagues. An Urban Institute report on out-come management for non-profit organizations. The Agenda for Action seeks to encourage nonprofit organizations to focus their management practices and decisions on the results they intend to achieve for their participants. This focus goes beyond just measuring the results to actually using the results to increase the effectiveness of their services and improve their service outcomes. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 10, 2001, No. 46
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

Afya (Swahili for "health") is a participatory action research project designed to engage African American women in assessing and increasing their access to quality health information and services. At the same time, it nurtures their interest, proficiency, access, and participation related to information technology and the Internet. Through the Afya project, we are striving to develop a practical vision for library engagement in community health and the digital divide that promotes social justice through community-wide alliances that model more democratic and participative relationships. Thus, Afya is concerned, fundamentally, with developing new social technologies (ways that people communicate and collaborate) as well as new digital tools and resources. Professor Ann Peterson Bishop is PI. Graduate School of Library and Information Science - University of Illinois. Click here for more information.

It now appears that Santorum, Lieberman and the White House are close to an agreement on a compromise that includes 1.) tax incentives for giving, 2.) provisions for equal treatment of nongovernmental organizations that apply for federal grants, 3.) fast track processing by the IRS of applications for 501(c)(3) status by small organizations applying for federal funds, and 4.) funding for six new programs. Santorum and Lieberman have not introduced a bill yet, although partial drafts have been circulated. Here is a summary of what is currently proposed. Click here for more information.

Increases in unemployment may mean that low-wage workers who left welfare for work; worked, but still received welfare; or worked, but never received welfare, will face loss of income and increased hardship. Since housing costs comprise the largest proportion of a low-income household's expenditures, the new economic environment may increase the number of families who are unable to make rent or mortgage payments, and who may potentially face homelessness. Federal and state funding streams for homelessness prevention-related services are fairly fragmented and limited, making it difficult to address the problem in a comprehensive or rapid way. This Resources for Welfare Decisions describes publications and resources for preventing homelessness, as well as examples of state and local homelessness prevention initiatives. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 12, 2001, No. 47
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

How we can ensure economic security, for all Americans? The upcoming debate offers a tremendous occasion to focus the nation and its leaders on the needs that all households have for a meaningful chance to achieve economic well-being, and it can start a discussion that one day results in a new domestic framework with asset-building policy as its common core. An asset policy framework appeals to fundamental values: opportunity, choice, personal responsibility, fairness, and social responsibility. Authors: J. Larry Brown and Larry W. Beeferman. Click here for more information.

Public/Private Ventures is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of social policies, programs and community initiatives, especially as they affect youth and young adults. In carrying out this mission, P/PV works with philanthropies, the public and business sectors, and nonprofit organizations. Click here for more information.

As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of public dollars for private religious schools, one of the questions is how the curricula in religious schools differs from that of public schools, particularly on sensitive matters of politics and religion. Frances Patterson, an assistant professor at Valdosta State University in Georgia specializing in education law and professional ethics, recently examined the content in textbooks used in as many as 10,000 evangelical and fundamentalist Christian schools. Items 2 & 3 on front page of RETHINKING SCHOOLS:AN URBAN EDUCATIONAL JOURNAL (Winter 2002). Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 14, 2001, No. 48
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

The Mohawk Valley Library Association (MVLA) is looking for farmers, agricultural administrators, community health professionals, "next generation" farmers, concerned consumers and the general public to join in exploring a wide range of issues focusing on farm safety in its widest interpretation -- from tractor safety to financial planning and risk management; the quality and safety of our food supply; and ways to attract young people to farming so as to insure a secure future for them and the local agricultural economy. See also the MVLA site on ECONOMIC VIABILITY IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE.

Washington, DC -- Hunger and homelessness rose sharply in major American cities over the last year, according to a new survey released today by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Requests for emergency food assistance climbed an average of 23 percent and requests for emergency shelter assistance increased an average of 13 percent in the 27 cities surveyed. The 17th annual report found an increase in requests for emergency food assistance in 25 of the 27 cities surveyed. There was no change in the other two cities. The average increase reported in emergency food assistance requests was 23 percent. The largest increases were reported in Santa Monica (50 percent), Phoenix (44 percent), Charlotte (42 percent), Salt Lake City (35 percent), and Portland, Oregon (34 percent). Top story on page. Click here for the full report.

1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." The central challenge for social change organizing in the coming period is to fight on a political terrain where policy priorities and public discourse have shifted dramatically in support of a conservative agenda centered around the "War on Terrorism." Our response to two key challenges will largely determine our effectiveness: shifts in local policies to support a fortified security apparatus, and shifts in racial discourse to "acceptable" forms of racial profiling. Click here for more information.

A LIBRARIAN AT EVERY TABLE
December 17, 2001, No. 49
Sources and sites for librarians building community. Click here for more information.

The footprint measures human impact on nature. In order to live, people consume what nature offers. So, every one of us has an impact on our planet. This is not bad as long as we don't take more from the Earth than it has to offer. But are we taking more than we should? The Ecological Footprint measures what we consume of nature. It shows how much productive land and water we occupy to produce all the resources we consume and to take in all the waste we make. Click here for more information.

Nearly 4 million adults were enrolled in adult education classes in the United States in 1999. Of those, 47% (or 1,695,516 adults) enrolled in English as a second language (ESL) programs that received funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE). Given this large population of English language learners, the need to examine the quality and structures of adult ESL instruction and to improve our programs and teaching strategies is timely and necessary. From the National Center for ESL Literacy Education. Click here for more information.

A comprehensive, step-by-step guide to strategic planning. The toolkit helps cultural organizations respond strategically to a rapidly changing environment, and builds the planning skills of volunteer and professional cultural leaders. It identifies the hallmarks of excellence in planning and gives practical advice about planning's many challenges. From National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Click here for more information.

With unemployment rising and housing costs still high, cities around the country are experiencing a new and sudden wave of homelessness. Shelters are overflowing, and more people this year are sleeping on floors in dingy social service centers, living in cars or spending nights on the streets.

In New York, Boston and other cities, homelessness is at record levels, a consequence of a faltering economy that has crumbled even further after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released last week found that requests for emergency shelter in 27 cities had increased an average of 13 percent over last year. The report said the increases were 26 percent in Trenton; 25 percent in Kansas City, Mo.; 22 percent in Chicago; 20 percent in Denver; and 20 percent in New Orleans.

An unusual confluence of factors seems to be responsible for the surge. Housing prices, which soared in the expansion of the 1990's, have not gone down, even though the economy has tumbled. A stream of layoffs has newly unemployed people taking low-wage jobs that might have otherwise gone to the poor. Benefits for welfare recipients are expiring under government-imposed deadlines. And charitable donations to programs that help the disadvantaged are down considerably, officials around the country said, because of the economy and the outpouring of donations for people affected by Sept. 11.

"This is an unprecedented convergence of calamities," said Xavier De Souza Briggs, an assistant professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "It's really a crisis."

More than half the cities surveyed by the mayors' group reported that in the last year people had remained homeless longer, an average of six months.

There is no total number for the homeless nationwide. Experts said it was difficult to compare the situation with statistics in previous decades, because counting methods have improved. Yet, several experts said they believed that the increases reported by cities like Boston and Chicago reflected a national trend.

"My impression is there is more homelessness now than there was 20 years ago," Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, said, adding that he believed that economic factors were not the sole explanation.

"I think that there must be a greater segment of our population that has tenuous connections to family and friends, and therefore has fewer resources to fall back on when something very bad happens like when they lose their job," he said.

An increasing proportion of the homeless are families with children, compared with the chronically homeless who often have serious mental illness or substance abuse problems. Requests for shelter from families with children increased in three-quarters of the cities surveyed. In more than half, families had to be broken up to be accommodated in shelters.

Some newly homeless people have jobs but do not earn enough to allow use of a home. Low-cost housing is so tight that one-third of the vouchers for the Section 8 subsidized-housing program are being returned unused, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Several experts and advocates for the homeless predicted that the number of homeless people would rise in coming months as states and cities, facing budget crises and burdened with security costs, scaled back on financing for housing and other programs that help keep people from becoming homeless, like rent assistance and health care.

A senior policy analyst for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, Patrick Markee, said: "Now, especially since Sept. 11, we're seeing the recession effect, low-wage workers who were just holding on, messengers, people who work in restaurants turning up at our door. We're going to see it get worse over the next few months."

In Rhode Island, the state is dropping a $5 million housing program from its budget. Yet this month, a crush of homeless people forced the opening of a shelter in an old convent in Warwick, the first new shelter for the homeless in the state in 10 years. This year, 120 families with children have slept on the floor of Travelers Aid, a social service center in Providence that is not a shelter.

In New York, the number of people in shelters, 29,802 as of last month, is the highest ever. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of families in shelters has grown 50 percent in three years, to 6,669, while the percentage of children in shelters has risen 60 percent, to 12,576. Mr. Markee said 1,500 families were being housed in welfare hotels, three times as many as three years ago.

In Boston, officials conducted a census of the homeless on Dec. 10 and found 6,001 homeless people, a record, said Kelley Cronin, director of the Emergency Shelter Commission. Ms. Cronin added that the number of people on the street, 277, was also the highest on record.

Chicago reported in the mayors' survey that the number of people who were homeless or receiving emergency assistance to keep them from becoming homeless had jumped, to 19,421 from 15,682 last year.

In a school district in Sacramento, Liane Ramirez, who works with homeless families, said she had already seen twice as many families living in their cars as she had seen in the previous few years combined.

"We feel like we're seeing a lot more first-time scared-to-death homeless," Ms. Ramirez said. "And we're looking at working homeless, not just welfare homeless."

Before Sept. 11, the Boston Rescue Mission, a large shelter, had a $90,000 contract with Delta Air Lines to clean the carpets of its planes. The contract, which the airline had been planning to double, employed 30 homeless people from the shelter, said John Samaan, the president of
the mission. After Sept. 11, Delta halved the contract instead, putting one-third of the workers out of work.

In Portland, Ore., the Goose Hollow Family Shelter, the largest family shelter in the city in the winter, usually receives thousands of dollars in donations in September, said Chuck Currie, its director. This year, it received one contribution, for $100.

"I've heard other agencies say contributions have dropped 20 percent to 70 percent," Mr. Currie said.

Programs that provide services to the homeless are also bracing for the state budget cuts.

In Illinois, homeless services are highly likely to be affected by state plans for a $485 million budget cut.

"It's going to send programs like ours into a tailspin," said Diane Nilan, an administrator at a large shelter in Aurora, a Chicago suburb whose shelter has been so crowded that Ms. Nilan has asked for a portable classroom to add space.

In many cities, shelters said they were seeing more people who became homeless after having lost jobs or being priced out of apartments.

In Dallas, Oscar Turner, 52, was laid off from his $8-an-hour job as a Wal-Mart greeter in early October and has been staying at free shelters, unable to afford the small rent that he had paid before. Mr. Turner has looked for work with the city as a crossing guard or maintenance worker, but so far, he said, "it's not going too good."

In Charlotte, N.C., Tyrone Hicklen, 43, was laid off at a party-supply store and has been living in shelters for two months. Unable to find work, he is heading to Kansas to enroll in a truck-driving school.

In Rhode Island, John Swenson, 44, took refuge at the Warwick shelter with his 10-year-old son, Michael, after he could not find work at his home in Hyannis, Mass., and lost a part-time job cooking hamburgers in Warwick.

"It's kind of late in life to be needing something," said Mr. Swenson, unemployed for the first time in 15 years and used to $14-an-hour jobs.

"I knew there were shelters," he said, "and that's part of what kept me out of them. On the Cape, I helped paint the shelter in Hyannis. I went from painting a shelter to being in one."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

DIVERSITY IN A NEW AMERICA
How is diversity changing the country? In light of the changes, what next for policy? In this issue of the Brookings Review, an assortment of scholars and analysts considers both questions. Although they do not, and could not, arrive at any one conclusion, they have in common the premise that diversity is not what it was even a decade or so ago. Like the country it shapes and then reshapes, diversity is new every day. Click here for more information.

WORKING POOR
Families working in the low-wage labor market often struggle to make ends meet despite their work efforts. Welfare reform has helped to draw attention to the issues facing working families who remain in poverty, and has blurred the distinctions between welfare recipients and the working poor. This web page provides links to descriptive information on the working poor and their circumstances, as well as to policy issues regarding the working poor. The types of interventions that can help working poor families include safety-net programs, work incentives, and workforce development services. (Welfare Information Network). Click here for more information.

CAMPAIGN 3PM
"What is the most influential time in a child's life? It's between 3 and 8-- every afternoon, after school." That message, delivered over the past year in a national ad campaign by Boys & Girls Club alumnus and spokesperson Denzel Washington, will be communicated farther and wider than ever in a new youth advocacy campaign launched in December 2001 in New York. Click here for more information.