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September 17, 2008

From January 2005 through December 2007, 3.6 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported . . . The number of displaced workers was about the same as the level (3.8 million) recorded in the previous survey that covered the period from January 2003 to December 2005.

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Over the last 25 years homeless families with children have emerged as a distinct subgroup of the U.S. homeless population. In 2007, between one-third and one-half of all homeless persons in the United States were members of families with children. Among homeless women, approximately two-thirds were living with minor children, 80% of whom were under eleven years of age. The increase in family homelessness over the last quarter century has coincided with a growth in the number of single-parent families and a general decline in social support networks for such families.

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In recognition of the changing landscape of Alzheimer's disease, with a growing constituency of people in the early stages, the Alzheimer's Association launched its national Early Stage Initiative in 2006. The cornerstone of this Initiative is an advisory group of people with earlystage Alzheimer's that serve as spokespersons, advocates and advisors to the Association, offering first-hand insight into the experience of a person with Alzheimer's. During the first year of the Initiative, members of the Early Stage Advisory Group clearly indicated that it was important not only to listen to them as representatives of people with the disease, but that the experiences and perspectives of those nationwide would be equally insightful, suggesting a need to cast the net much wider to capture as much input as possible. Therefore, we explored ways in which to facilitate an active dialog directly among those with Alzheimer's nationwide. Ultimately, the Alzheimer‟s Association decided to host a series of early stage town hall meetings around the country to give voice to people with early-stage Alzheimer‟s, allowing us to listen and learn about their experiences and perspectives on the disease. This series of town hall meetings stands as the first-ever nationwide discussion about Alzheimer‟s disease by people with Alzheimer‟s disease.

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The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 project (EPPE3-11) is a longitudinal study using multi-level modelling to investigate the effects of home background, pre-school and primary education on pupils’ attainment and social / behavioural development.

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In his recent review of the future role of the social rented housing sector, John Hills (2007) observed that levels of worklessness within the social rented sector are disproportionately high, even when taking into account the relatively high levels of disadvantage apparent among the tenant base. This report presents the key findings to emerge from a study commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that set out to explain the relatively high levels of worklessness apparent within the social rented sector.

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September 16, 2008

This report covers the treatment and conditions of the growing number of older prisoners in England and Wales.

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Between 2006 and 2007, real median household income rose 1.3 percent, from $49,568 to $50,233 . . . . a level not statistically different from the 1999 prerecession income peak. This was the third annual increase in real median household income. Compared with 1967, the first year for which household income statistics are available, real median household income has increased 29.6 percent.

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Interpretation: This report indicates that substantial variations in health-risk behaviors, chronic diseases and conditions, and the use of preventive health services exist among adults from state to state and within states and underscores the continued need for prevention and health promotion activities at the local, state, and federal levels.

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Youth are the tribes’ most precious resource. American Indians and Alaska Natives rely on their youth to carry their tribes and traditions into the future. Unfortunately, violent crime, substance abuse, and mental health issues prevent some tribal communities from upholding thatresponsibility. By holding the focus group, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention gathered information that it hopes will result in more responsive programs and ultimately ensure a brighter future for many of these children.

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The Children's care monitor 2008 is our first annual report of what children and young people living away from home or getting help from children's social care services have told us about six things that are important to their lives: keeping safe, bullying, having a say in what happens to them, making complaints and suggestions, education, and care planning for people being looked after in care. The monitor provides children's own evaluation of the state of social care as they experience it.

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This report draws upon evidence from the national evaluation of community strategies to consider how equality and diversity are addressed within community strategies in a selection of local authorities between 2003 and 2007.

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September 15, 2008

This report presents findings from research to establish whether giving young people control and decision making power over resources in their local area led to an increase in provision of quality positive activities and the levels of participation by young people.

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In 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36.5 million people, or 12.3 percent of the population, lived at or below the offi cial poverty threshold, roughly the same number as in 2005. The majority of the Nation’s poor were children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year. However, 7.4 million were among the working poor—those who spent 27 weeks or more in the labor force, working or looking for work, but whose incomes still fell below the offi cial poverty level. These individuals represented 5.1 percent of all persons aged 16 years and older who were in the labor force for 27 weeks or more in 2006, down from 5.4 percent the previous year.

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Hallam University were commissioned to undertake a literature review of international evidence of workfare programmes. Three countries were chosen as offering interesting and relevant examples of workfare type programmes: the US, Canada and Australia. It was clear from the outset that it would not be possible to import wholesale programmes from other countries into the UK, but that there would be key lessons.

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As a result of the generally low quality of child care in the United States and the increased emphasis on accountability in education policy, quality rating systems (QRSs) are proliferating in the child-care arena. QRSs assess child-care providers on multiple dimensions of quality and integrate these assessments into an easily understood summary rating (such as from 0 to 4 stars). These ratings are intended to help parents, funders, and other stakeholders make more informed choices about child care and to encourage providers to improve. Most QRSs are actually QRISs — quality rating and improvement systems — since they include feedback and technical assistance to help providers improve the quality of their care. However, there has been very little empirical examination of the validity of these systems — how reliable their multiple components are, how effective they are in helping providers to improve the quality of care they provide, and how much children benefit from such improvement. This study assesses the QRIS developed by Qualistar Early Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado that was one of the first organizations to create a QRIS.

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This report presents RAND Europe's analysis of data generated by the Vital Communities programme between October 2005 and August 2007. The Vital Communities programme provides creative and artistic activities for children, their families, and wider communities in nine locations across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. RAND Europe was asked to evaluate the available evidence and data from a rigorous and analytical point of view in order to examine the effects attributable to the Vital Communities programme.

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This code of practice contains guidance on the deprivation of liberty safeguards for professionals involved in administering and delivering the safeguards and for people who are, or could become, subject to the deprivation of liberty safeguards, and for their families, friends and carers, as well as for anyone who believes that someone is being deprived of their liberty unlawfully.

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September 12, 2008

Californians make more than 10 million visits to hospital emergency departments annually. Many of these could be avoided with timely care from family physicians or outpatient clinics. This issue of California Counts presents a comprehensive portrait of emergency department care from several perspectives. Among its findings: The Central Valley and Los Angeles are home to some of the most crowded emergency departments in the state; patients with Medi-Cal coverage visit emergency departments more than do the uninsured; and Hispanics and Asians are less like to use emergency care than whites.

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This study is about understanding the relationship between recent immigration and social cohesion in the context of other social and economic transformations that affect everyday life for everyone living in the UK. Current public debates often associate increasing ethnic diversity resulting from immigration with the erosion of social cohesion. This research suggests that issues of deprivation, disadvantage and long-term marginalisation, unrelated to immigration, must also be considered – as well as how people relate to each other – to ensure social cohesion.

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Families and their children experience poverty when they are unable to achieve a minimum, decent standard of living that allows them to participate fully in mainstream society. One component of poverty is material hardship. Although we are all taught that the essentials are food, clothing, and shelter, the reality is that the definition of basic material necessities varies by time and place. In the United States, we all agree that having access to running water, electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephone service are essential to 21st century living even though that would not have been true 50 or 100 years ago.

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Adult obesity rates increased in 37 states in the past year, according to the fifth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2008 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Rates rose for a second consecutive year in 24 states and for a third consecutive year in 19 states. No state saw a decrease. Though many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities, the report concludes that they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis.

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Provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999. This Bulletin is the seventh in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) series. Information on sexual assault was gathered from NISMART–2 interviews with victims and their families.

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September 11, 2008

Includes: Total Population, Age and Sex Distribution, Median Age, Children (under 15 years of age), Children Aged 0-4 Years, Working Age Population (aged 15-64 years), Older People (aged 65 years and over), Sex Ratio

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Approaching poverty and deprivation in the context of place is an increasing focus of regeneration policy. How can integration be strengthened between social and economic interventions for deprived places, and what are the key challenges to more effective delivery? This paper summarises evidence about the underlying forces affecting place-based economic deprivation across Britain, and explores how interventions aimed at both people and places can be strengthened to tackle disadvantage.

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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regularly prepares long-term projections of the future paths of revenues and outlays for the Social Security program. This latest report presents projections for the 75-year period from 2008 through 2082. . . . The projections differ somewhat from earlier results because of newly available programmatic and economic data, updated assumptions about future demographic and economic trends, and improvements in CBO’s models. Such long-term projections are necessarily uncertain; nevertheless, the general conclusions presented here hold true under a wide range of assumptions.

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Homelessness encompasses a variety of situations. It can refer to long term homelessness, short stays in shelters, or living in non-traditional housing. Many families move in with relatives or friends – doubling-up – to avoid becoming homeless. The cause of homelessness varies greatly from state to state, but past research has generally focused on one of two theories of causation. While one area of research has concentrated on city-level factors as the main cause of homelessness, another has focused on individual and family characteristics. Because of limitations in data, these two perspectives have rarely been studied in conjunction with one another. This brief is based on analyses of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study that examines the relative contribution of both family- and city-level factors in predicting family homelessness and doubling-up.

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Provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism. The Bulletin reviews all of the extant research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles to adult criminal court.

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While politicians from all parties are committed to tackling relative poverty, the debates lack a robust definition of a minimum income standard (MIS), below which people’s incomes should not fall. This study devised a minimum income standard for Britain based on what members of the public said, and shows the cost of covering basic goods and services for different household types. The project blends the best elements of the two main methods that have been used to develop budget standards in Britain in recent years. It reconciles the views of experts with those of ordinary people, allowing budgets based on social consensus to be tested against expert knowledge and research. As such, the MIS represents a new and important tool for informing social policy in order to promote fairness and well-being in Britain.

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September 10, 2008

This report assesses key small area datasets for target setting, performance monitoring and wider contextual analysis. It is one of two reports published from the Neighbourhood-level Indicator Datasets project, which is aimed at local authorities and their partners wishing to use neighbourhood-level data.

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articles

September 17, 2008

September 16, 2008

September 15, 2008

September 12, 2008

September 11, 2008