Family Well Being News
"Their family of three is being featured in the debut edition of a DCF Facebook campaign called 'Homeless 2 Home' -- created after staffer Carrie Hoeppner triggered an outpouring of help when she posted on her personal Facebook page about a homeless family facing Christmas without food. "
"House Republicans have hit upon a noxious scheme to help pay for an extension of the payroll tax cut: a tax increase on millions of poor working families."
"Since then, America has polarized. The word “class” doesn’t even capture the divide Murray describes. You might say the country has bifurcated into different social tribes, with a tenuous common culture linking them."
"A report from Portland State University and the Coalition of Communities of Color delivers grim news about Latinos living in Multnomah County: They are poorer, their jobless rate is higher, and the teen birth rate is six times that for whites."
"A 38 percent increase in poverty probably is responsible for more abuse and neglect in Huron County. 'This report shows a staggering increase of confirmed child abuse and neglect victims, from 26 in 2009 to 62 in 2010,' stated Becky Gettel, Huron County Great Start Collaborative executive director, about a new Kids Count report."
"Livingston County's child poverty and teen pregnancy rates were lowest among Michigan's 83 counties over the past decade, according to the Kids Count in Michigan Data Book released this week. The county had the lowest rate of child poverty statewide with about 8 percent of county children in poverty compared with 22 percent statewide."
"Sara Sanders of North Little Rock has taken her four children to the Little Rock Pediatric Clinic for nearly eight years - in exchange for benefits that go beyond just physical health. Through age 5, each well-child visit to the clinic comes with an added bonus - a new book."
"Marin County educators fear that the budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown could eviscerate the county's early childhood education programs, leaving dozens of low-income families with no one to care for their children during the day."
"When it comes to child well-being, however, research suggests that family structure is a better predictor of children's psychological and social welfare, whereas poverty is a better predictor of educational attainment. Being raised by unmarried parents in a poverty household is, obviously, problematic."
"Here are some highlights from this week’s news on family tax credit issues."
"One in eight children in Michigan lives in a household grappling with job loss and one in every 20 has had his or her life disrupted by a home foreclosure. This year, as in previous years, creating an economic climate that leads to more jobs remains the top priority for our governor and lawmakers. An emphasis on educating kids and putting their parents back to work is the best weapon for fighting poverty."
"'People ask me what am I doing here,' she said, recalling responses when others learn that she's in transitional housing. 'They say, You don't look like the type of person that's supposed to be here. But I say to them ... you can't put a face on homelessness, and you can't look at me and say because you think I look like a better person that I'm not homeless, because I am.'"
"Kids living in poverty can face a lot of extra challenges that hurt learning... Every public school district in the midstate saw an increase in the percent of children living in poverty 2007-2010 and some saw percents nearly double, according to a report recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau."
"This crisis encompasses Sacramento and a growing number of communities across the nation. According to Sacramento County's most recent homeless street count, the number of homeless families has risen more than 12 percent since 2009."
"To participate, recipients must be working and not receive any federal or state cash assistance, must reside in Collier County or Bonita Springs, have a child younger than 3 (they age out of the program on their third birthday) and must have an income that does not exceed 185 percent of the poverty level as per Women's, Infants and Children's (WIC) guidelines."
"[I]f you ask why America is more class-bound in practice than the rest of the Western world, a large part of the reason is that our government falls down on the job of creating equal opportunity."
"Homeless advocates say more and more families are in Garrett's shoes, and even in a community known for its generosity, there's not enough help to go around. For years Teresa McLaughlin, the director of Pikes Peak Homeless Outreach focused her efforts on the homeless camps of Colorado Springs, where single men and women tried to eke out an existence by living in tents."
"A new report says that investing in quality child care and education will produce a well-trained work force down the road."
"Republican Mitt Romney's tax plan would increase taxes on low-income families while cutting taxes for the middle class and rich people, according to an independent study released Thursday."
"Brevard County is not typically considered a poor county, yet many Space Coast schools have in excess of 80 percent of students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program, a key indicator of the risk of hunger and poverty in an area."
"Santorum, who actively pushed for welfare changes as a member of Congress, talked about the effects of the 1996 reform law, telling the audience, 'Guess what happened? Poverty levels went down to the lowest level ever for ... one of the areas that had the highest level of poverty historically, which is African-American children.'"
"In November, a public-interest law firm sued the state Department of Social Services in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of Irene and another CalWORKS recipient, charging that the practice of going after children for welfare money mistakenly overpaid to their parents in years past violates California law.”
"She's been homeless five times this year while waiting for help to pay her rent. Lakesha Hackett, 26, of Durham and her four young children depend on a burdened local-federal system of housing vouchers, that's part waiting and part lottery, to help people like her make rent so they're not on the streets."
"That's why the nonprofit A Child's Place is having volunteers wrap the hundreds of gifts it is passing out this year as part of its holiday program for homeless families. It's estimated there are more than 4,000 homeless children enrolled in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools."
"Some students arrive without food in their bellies. Others don't have winter clothing to protect them from the cold. Greta Hinderliter has spent 13 years assisting homeless children for the Natrona County School District. When she started out, she identified 19 homeless children. "
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