CFK Weekly—September 25, 2000

We encourage distribution of this information! If reprinting in whole or part, please attribute it to Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org).

September 25, 2000 NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS
**SchoolsforSale-dot-com
**Reading, Writing...and Advertising? Commercialism in Public Schools
**Moms Vote and Your State
**Commercial-Free Public Schools

CONNECT TODAY
**Creating a Family Community Center

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ON THE MOVE
**Youth Development: Issues, Challenges and Directions
**Younger Americans Act
**City Voices, Children's Needs

HELP FOR AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS
**Making an Impact on Out-of-School Time: A Guide
**The Beyond the Bell Toolkit
**After-School Action Kit for Parents
**Public Wants More Help in Supervising Kids After-School

TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY BUILDERS
**Online Fundraising: Who, When, Where, What Gives?
**Connecting Programs to People

TEEN GIRLS AND TRAUMA
**Girls Say They Keep Quiet About Sexual Coercion
**Inner City Adolescent Girls and Trauma

THE EARLY YEARS COUNT
**Schools Paying Attention to Early Years
**Can Domestic Violence Limit Effectiveness of Home Visitation?
**Good Early Childhood Programs Work
**Children's Picture Book Database

REPORTS IN BRIEF
**High School Completions at Record High
**Preventing Adolescent Gang Involvement
**Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court in the 1990s

CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
**Hispanics Fast Becoming Nation's Largest Minority
**El Cuidado De Su Hijo Pequeno

HEADS UP
**The Census Report on Income and Poverty
**From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Early Child Development
**Surgeon General to Release Report on Children's Mental Health

FOCUS ON THE STATES
**State Children's Health Insurance Programs: All Over the Map
**Child Care Subsidies: Strategies to Provide Outreach to Eligible Families
**State by State News

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS
http://www.connectforkids.org

**SchoolsforSale-dot-com
by Susan Phillips
Parents, teachers and school administrators just don't have a clue how good some companies have become at using computers and technology to reach children in school with advertising and marketing campaigns. That's the opinion of Nancy Willard, founder of Responsible Netizen, an organization that's calling on concerned adults to wake up and smell the cookies.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Reading, Writing...and Advertising? Commercialism in Public Schools
Connect for Kids summary
While computers may be the new frontier in efforts to sell products to school children, more familiar strategies -- exclusive contracts with soft-drink companies, television commercials on school cable system -- continue to make inroads at school districts around the country. A new report from the General Accounting Office finds that such commercial activity in schools is on the rise. Find out what's happening in this Connect for Kids summary.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Moms Vote and Your State
With the help of the members of the National Association of Child Advocates, we have now posted information about what's at stake and who's campaigning for kids at the state level in this election season. Find information and links for your state in the "State Campaigns" section of Moms Vote on Connect for Kids.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Commercial-Free Public Schools
What can parents and other adults do to combat the rising tide of marketing to kids in schools? The Center for Commercial-Free Public Education is a non-profit organization addressing this issue.
http://www.commercialfree.org/index.html

CONNECT TODAY

**Creating a Family Community Center
Doris Smith is hoping to create a place in her community where parents and children can come together for parenting support, training and respite. As a foster parent, she writes, "I see a need for parent to be fostered along with the children." Can you offer advice on getting started, or information on similar programs in your area?
http://www.connectforkids.org/thread_msg2030/thread_msg_show.htm?message_id=22764

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ON THE MOVE

**Youth Development: Issues, Challenges and Directions
What if we looked at the teenager hanging out on the corner not as a problem waiting to happen, but as a youth about to develop? Would we begin to think in terms of what he needs to thrive, instead of what he needs to just stay alive? That's the ?paradigm shift? underlying the youth development movement. Public/Private Ventures' new book takes stock of this movement, its promise and challenges.
http://www.ppv.org/content/reports/youthdevvolt.html

**Younger Americans Act
New legislation to provide federal funding for local youth development programs and to establish an Office of National Youth Policy in the Executive Office of the President was introduced with bipartisan support in Congress on September 20, 2000. Shay Bilchik, head of the Child Welfare League of America, called the proposed legislation historic in that it ?fundamentally shifts our attention to establishing positive youth development as a national priority.?
http://www.cwla.org/communic/jjyma092000.html

The legislation would fund programs that parallel the five ?promises? of the America's Promise initiative. http://www.americaspromise.org

**City Voices, Children's Needs
We know many urban parents worry about the quality of education for their children, supervision after-school and violence in their communities. It turns out that these are major concerns for city officials as well, according to this report from the new Institute for Youth, Education and Families of the National League of Cities. Interviews with city leaders in 28 cities revealed that city leaders want better partnerships with their school districts to improve learning and greater investments in youth development to reduce violence. They see new stresses for families and communities presented by income gaps in the new economy and they see an important role for cities to respond to the needs of children, youth and families. Call 888-571-2939 for a copy.
http://www.nlc.org/IYEF.htm

Read about Karen Pittman, a leader in the youth development movement, in an exclusive Connect for Kids interview. http://www.connectforkids.org/content1549/content_show.htm?attrib_id=292&doc_id=7998

HELP FOR AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS

**Making an Impact on Out-of-School Time: A Guide
If you were a community organizer who wanted to upgrade the after-school options in your community, how would you go about identifying needs, planning age-appropriate activities or finding resources? Here's a practical overview from the National Service Resource Center.
http://www.etr.org/nsrc/pdfs/niost/impact/impact.html

**Beyond the Bell Toolkit
This manual helps you think through the management, programming, evaluation and other issues involved in developing and sustaining an after-school program.
http://www.ncrel.org/after/bellkit.htm

**After-School Action Kit for Parents
The Afterschool Alliance offers advice on finding or starting a quality program, identifying program needs and what resources to tap for help.
http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/asaction.html

**Public Wants More After-School help in Supervising Kids
Sixty-eight percent of Americans polled agree that investing in after-school and educational child care programs should be a higher priority than tax cuts, according to Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. In a new poll, law officials and violence victims' families spoke of the need for better supervision in the after-school hours, or the ?prime-time? for crime.
http://www.fightcrime.org/reports/backtoschool900.html

Connect for Kids' Out-of-School Time feature has more information on providing kids someplace to go and something to do.  http://www.connectforkids.org/content1553/content.htm

TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY BUILDERS

**Online Fundraising: Who, When, Where, What Gives?
Guest moderator Michael Stein, Internet strategist and nonprofit consultant, will be online at Helping.org this week (September 25?29) to help nonprofit organizations understand strategic approaches to online fundraising and help them navigate the maze of online tools available. Forward your questions to npresources@benton.org and join the discussion.
http://www.helping.org/nonprofit

**Connecting Programs to People
Thanks to the Institute for Educational Leadership, a report summarizing 140 major federal programs affecting children and families is now available to the public. ?Federal Programs for Children and Families: A Tool for Connecting Programs to People? from the Congressional Research Council helps community leaders and policy makers figure out the best way to use federal programs to meet the needs of individual children, families and communities.
http://www.policyexchange.iel.org/pubs/Federal_Programs_for_Children.html

For more information, look up ?Community Building? in Connect for Kids Topics A-Z.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm

TEEN GIRLS AND TRAUMA

**Girls Say They Keep Quiet About Sexual Coercion
According to a survey by Smartgirl.com, girls may feel uncomfortable telling their parents about an experience with rape or sexual coercion, because they feel that they -- not their attackers -- are at fault. Smartgirl.com is calling on parents to be supportive when setting rules so their daughters won't fear asking for help or reporting a scary situation to their parents.
For a summary of the findings, e-mail Isabel Walcott isabel@smartgirl.com.
http://www.smartgirl.com

**Inner City Adolescent Girls and Trauma
Most adolescent girls living in inner cities are exposed to one or more types of traumatic events in their home and community, new study findings document. Fill out a brief registration on Medscape.com to read this document. On the pop-up screen, "click Canel" to access this article.
http://psychiatry.medscape.com/27129.rhtml

THE EARLY YEARS COUNT

**Schools Pay Attention to Early Years
"School Involvement in Early Childhood,? a new U.S. Dept. of Education report, considers why schools should be involved in early childhood and what roles they should play. The report explores successful state preschool programs credited with improving readiness for kindergarten: Georgia's voluntary pre-kindergarten funded in part by state lottery funds and North Carolina's Smart Start, providing subsidies to improving child care quality.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/schoolinvolvement/

**Can Domestic Violence Limit Effectiveness of Home Visitation?
Home visiting programs for new mothers have been shown to be effective in reducing or preventing child maltreatment, but recent research finds an important limitation in their effectiveness. In households where mothers are frequently abused by their domestic partner, home visits do not reduce child maltreatment. The research and an editorial about what this finding means for policy makers are in the September 20, 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n11/abs/joc00422.html

**Good Early Childhood Programs Work
As policy makers and others debate government funding for pre-kindergarten programs and Head Start expansion, a working paper from the Joint Center on Poverty Research reviews evaluations of several center-based early childhood intervention programs. ?What We Know about Early Childhood Interventions? finds that well-designed, well-funded early interventions can have large and significant effects on school readiness and subsequent child outcomes.
http://www.jcpr.org/policybriefs/vol2_num10.html

**Children's Picture Book Database
E. Wayne Carp, child historian and H-Childhood Book Review Editor, recommends the University of Miami Children's Picture Book Database of over 4,000 picture books for children, searchable by discipline or alphabet, to help teachers, parents and librarians find young children's books that are appropriate for specific topics or interests.
http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks/

Visit the Connect for Kids' Early Years feature to find what you need to make your community work for families of young children.
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1554/content.htm

REPORTS IN BRIEF

**High School Completions at Record High
More than four-fifths of all adults age 25 or older in March 1999 had at least a high school diploma, according to the Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/educ-attn.html

**Preventing Adolescent Gang Involvement
This Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention bulletin describes the key characteristics of youth gangs and looks at risk factors for gang membership.
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/gangsum.html#182210

**Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court in the 1990s
This Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention describes lessons learned from four studies of juvenile justice transfers to adult criminal court in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah.
http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/court.html#181301

CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

**Hispanics Fast Becoming Nation's Largest Minority
By 2005, Hispanics may become the nation's largest minority group. The percentage of Hispanics in the total population could rise from 12 percent in 1999 to 24 percent in 2050.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-05.html

**El Cuidado De Su Hijo Pequeno
The Spanish language version of the American Academy of Pediatrics' ?Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5? will be on sale for $15.95 in October. You can place your orders now at 888-227-1770.

HEADS UP

**The Census Report on Income and Poverty
The annual Census reports on income and poverty will be released September 26 at a news conference to be broadcast live via the Internet. These annual reports help track how well young families are prospering in the new economy. The reports will be posted online after 10:30 am, September 26.
http://www.census.gov

**From Neurons to Neighborhoods: Early Child Development
?From Neurons to Neighborhoods,? a new review of brain research and early child development from the Board on Children, Youth, and Families will be released on October 3 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Preliminary information is available. http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9824.html

**Surgeon General to Release Report on Children's Mental Health
Based on input from parents and professionals at last week's conference, the Surgeon General's office will develop a national action plan to improve the quality and access of mental health services to children suffering from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, serious mental illness and various forms of debilitating behavioral and emotional difficulties. Watch for the report to be released in mid or late October.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov

FOCUS ON THE STATES

**State Children's Health Insurance Programs: All Over the Map
Some states have made good progress in extending health insurance to kids through their state Child Health Insurance Programs (CHIP), but some states have lost ground, according to this report from the Children's Defense Fund. Find where your state ranks on CHIP and on CHIP/Medicaid combined.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/chip/cdfchip_report.pdf

**Child Care Subsidies: Strategies to Provide Outreach to Eligible Families
The Welfare Information Network describes outreach strategies being used at the state and local levels to inform low-income families about their child care options and their eligibility for assistance.
http://www.welfareinfo.org/ChildCareSubsidies.htm

**State by State News
Check out news about kids and the upcoming elections in your state in the ?state by state? section of the Connect for Kids Web site.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1576/index.htm

Here's a sample of this week's additions to our state pages.

Arizona.
A report in the Arizona Republic, found that black children in state care due to abuse or neglect are the most likely to be forgotten and twice as likely as other kids to remain in foster care.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=379

California.
An evaluation of 21st Community Learning Centers in San Francisco reports that the San Francisco Beacon Initiative, long-time partner with Connect for Kids, was a major factor contributing to the first year's success.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=381

Colorado.
The state that suffered the Columbine school shooting is struggling with the issue of gun control in a heated ballot initiative campaign.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=382

Connecticut.
This state now ranks first in the nation in per capita income and hourly wages for its low, median and high-wage workers. But, the state's poorest families experienced declining wages.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=383

District of Columbia.
Researchers addressed issues of child maltreatment and protection as part of a Washington, D.C. briefing on September 14.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=385

Florida.
The Healthy Community Initiative of Greater Orlando organized area youth to take oral histories from seniors about their lives.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=386

Maryland.
The Public Education Network reports that Baltimore's local education fund is backing ?Achievement First,? a whole-school change initiative modeled after successful reform efforts in New York City and Boston.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=397

Nebraska.
Voices for Children in Nebraska will be co-hosting a coffee on October 13 to discuss making the November election a successful one for children and families. For information call 402-597-3100.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=404

North Carolina.
This month's issue of "Community Update" from the U.S. Dept. of Education features Charlotte's largest center for the Bright Beginnings initiative.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=410

Ohio.
The Children's Defense Fund reports on the Early Childhood Initiative in Cuyahoga County, Cleveland.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=412

Washington.
According to the Children's Defense Fund, Seattle's Project Lift-Off is using information from a survey of parents and youth to create an affordable and accessible system of early care and education, and after school programs.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=426

West Virginia.
The Annual Children's Policy Forum, November 28-29, 2000, in Charleston brings together a variety of children's advocates, social workers, educators and others to learn about upcoming policy issues that may arise in the coming legislative session.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=426

Wisconsin.
The Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning reports that the Milwaukee Common Council voted to delay final action on filing a lawsuit against the lead paint industry on behalf of the city.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=427
 

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Jan Richter, Outreach Specialist and the Connect for Kids team
Jan@benton.org