Kindering Center Presents: 2006 Speakers Series for Families with Kids with Disabilities

6:30 – 8:30 pm, 16120 NE 8^th St., Bellevue, Washington

October 10^th – Don Meyers presents “Brothers and Sisters of People with Special Needs: Unique Concerns, Unique Opportunities”; December 5^th – Dr. Chuck Cowan presents “Moving Forward: Diagnosis and Therapy for Children with Cerebral Palsy. For more information or to register, contact Jennifer Clark at: Jennifer.clark@kindering.org.

Single Moms Raising Disabled Children: A New Challenge?

A recent study indicates that children with disabilities are significantly more likely than other children to live with single women as their primary caregivers. This featured discussion invites you to consider the findings of this study and share your observations and opinions about the implications it may have for the field of children’s mental health. For more information, go to: www.rtc.pdx.edu/pgFeaturedDiscussions35.php.

Enhancing Unmarried Couple Relationships to Improve Parenting

Intervention programs designed to strengthen unmarried couples' relationships and to promote healthy marriage could potentially further strengthen families by increasing positive parenting for young children, according to a recent study. While the association between a positive partner relationship and better outcomes for children has been shown in extensive research with married couples, this study found similar results with unmarried biological parents. The authors suggest that programs designed to strengthen couples' relationship skills and to encourage marriage could potentially result in an increase in positive parenting for young children. To read the full report, go to: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?issue_id=2006-08&article_id=1203.

Study Finds Family Characteristics Have More Influence on Child Development 

A compendium of findings from a study funded by the National Institutes of Health reveals that a child's family life has more influence on a child's development through age four and a half than does a child's experience in child care.  According to the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, "Child care clearly matters to children's development, but family characteristics - and children's experiences with their families - appear to matter more." The findings are detailed in a new booklet available as a pdf file at: www.nichd.nih.gov/childcare.

Bibliography: Research on Early Childhood Education

The Fine Network at the Howard Family Research Project has compiled a bibliography of research on early childhood education. Our recently updated bibliography features research on family involvement in early childhood education and lists journal articles, theses, books, and reports from 1999 to 2005. For more information, go to: www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/bibliography/ece.html.

Family Involvement Makes a Difference: New Research Briefs

The Family Involvement Network of Educators (FINE) has launched of a new series of research briefs on family involvement in education. This evidence-based series, Family Involvement Makes a Difference, includes recommendations and innovative ideas for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in their efforts to create an early childhood system that engages the families of infants and toddlers. The first brief in the series, Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education, synthesizes the latest research on how family involvement contributes to young children's learning and development. http://www.zerotothree.org/policy/newsletters/20060918.html.

Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Family involvement matters for young children’s cognitive and social development. But what do effective involvement processes look like, and how do they occur? This research brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement-that is, the research studies that link family involvement in early childhood to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works. For more information, click here.

New National Institutes of Health Web Site for Child Health and Human Development

The Component of the National Institutes of Health that conducts and supports research on human development, medical rehabilitation, and the health of children, adults, families, and communities, launched its redesigned Web site. The new National Institute of Child Health and Human Development site provides easy access to information for patients, the general public, scientists, and the news media. For more information, go to: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/.

Danger Looms for Children’s Health Care in 2007

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a program created in 1997 to expand health care coverage to the millions of uninsured children living in the U.S., faces federal funding shortfalls for fiscal year 2007. These shortfalls are quite alarming; especially at a time when the Census Bureau is reporting that the number of children without health insurance grew to over 8 million in 2005, the first time the proportion of uninsured children has risen since 1998.  For years, SCHIP allowed more children to receive coverage, bucking the trend of declining health insurance among adults.  But now, insufficient federal funding for SCHIP has started to make things worse, with 17-18 states unlikely to be able to sustain their existing SCHIP programs in fiscal year 2007.  SCHIP is up for reauthorization in 2007.  If Congress does not increase annual block grant funding beyond the FY 2007 level of $5.04 billion, shortfalls will worsen each year. For more information on the SCHIP funding shortfalls and for links to additional resources please visit RESULT’s website at: http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1561.

New National Research: Perceptions of Depression, ADHD, and Stigma among Youth 8-18

Approximately one in ten American children and youth experience a behavioral, emotional, or mental health disorder that could be identified and treated. Stigma associated with mental illness can dissuade young people and their families from seeking help. Staff at the Research Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health at Portland State University collaborated with the polling firm, Harris Interactive, to produce two surveys focusing on perceptions of mental health difficulties and the associated stigma among children and youth aged 8-18. A nationally representative sample of more than 1,300 U.S. children and teenagers responded to one survey, which was conducted online by Harris Interactive® this June. An additional survey, conducted by Harris Interactive® in August, gathered similar information from more than 3,600 adults. To view the full report, click here.

Successful Strategies for Recruiting, Training, and Utilizing Volunteers Handbook

This handbook is designed for community groups and faith-based organizations seeking to maximize the skills of their volunteers, expand their services to the community, and enhance their effectiveness. Although the handbook focuses on prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance abuse and mental illness, the principles described in the handbook can be applied to any field and should help organizations understand how to implement and manage a successful volunteer program. You can access this and many other helpful resources at: www.hhs.gov/fbci/publications.html.

Free Guide Shares Budget-Building Tips, Tools & Case Studies

“Adding It Up: A Guide to Developing a Children, Youth and Families Budget” is a new publication providing practical advice on planning and implementing a data-collection effort that summarizes spending on children, youth, families and communities in a given state or locality. It is designed for use by decision-makers and community leaders who work on CYF budgets. The guide, published by the forum for Youth Investment in conjunction with The Finance Project, covers topics such as planning for a children, youth and families (CYF) budget; using the budget; building the budget and data-collection strategies. Data-collection tools, secondary data sources and resources are also included. The guide is available at: www.forumfyi.org/Files/cyfguide.pdf.

Gotta Blog – Why Blogs Matter for Your Nonprofit

By Nancy Schwartz for Fundsraiser

There are few who will discount blogs’ role as a key component of online culture. If anything, blogs are quickly becoming popular with established users of the Internet, according to a late 2004 study on blogs by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. A quick reminder – a blog is a website that takes the form of an online journal, updated frequently with running commentary on one or many topics. This study, paired with a prior Pew report indicating 59 percent of Americans access the Internet as of 2002, begs the question: What, if any, impact do blogs have on how the public gets their news and information? The answer, not surprisingly, appears to be mixed. But what’s clear is that blogging (writing and reading), like Internet usage, is growing at a phenomenal rate. Even if your nonprofit isn’t blogging, organizations that are coming for the same donors, members, volunteers and participants are likely to be doing so. As a result, it’s a venue you can’t ignore any longer. For more information or to read the full article, go to: http://www.fundsraiser.com/jul06/gotta.html.

Making a Love Connection: Teen Relationships, Pregnancy, and Marriage

This resource, though the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, outlines key steps to preventing teen pregnancy. Specifically, the paper reviews strategies to teach teens about healthy relationships “success sequence” that will best promote the achievements of their future goals for family and work and practical skills to help teens successfully navigate the transitions into adulthood, and engage parents as first teachers. For more information, go to: www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/marriage.asp.

Federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Program

Programs urging abstinence-only until marriage funded under the 1996 federal welfare reform law have little demonstrable positive impact on young people, according to an interim report by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. The report found that youth in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs were more likely to take virginity pledges and reported views that, on average, were more supportive of abstinence and less supportive of teen sex than did those in the control group – but whether there is an impact on actual behavior is unclear. According to the study, programs’ reliance on “fear and shame” ultimately leads to responsible sexual behavior. The study’s authors note that the evaluation is not representative of the more than 900 federally funded programs. For more information, click here.

Children Raising Children: City Fails to Adequately Assist Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Foster Care

This report explores gaps in services to New York City foster youth who are pregnant or who have young children, presents the results of a survey of foster care agencies, and provides recommendations for improving services to this population. Recommendations are presented and include: strengthen sex education programs for all adolescents in the foster care system in an effort to reduce the pregnancy rate; expand mother/baby foster care programs and maternity residence programs to meet the need in the foster care system; report annually the number of pregnancies and young mothers in care, as well as the total number of children of young mothers in the child welfare system; report annually the number of slots available in critical programs; standardize training and services delivery for all youth in foster care who have children or become pregnant and standardize training for foster parents of young parents in foster care. For more information, go to: http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/documents/FosterCareSurveyReportFinal.doc.

A Program for Teenage Parents and Their Families

Boys and girls who become parents while they are teenagers are essentially children raising children. So programs that are designed to help teen parents to be as effective as possible must also address this fact, and have content and assistance that helps these teens to cope with their own particular stage of development at the same time that they are involved in raising their own children. A unique program that is designed with these dual purposes in mind is the Nurturing Program for Teenage Parents and Their Families. The program addresses the fact that these are adolescents who are coping with their own stage of development, as well as parents who are coping with their infant’s and young children’s development. For more information, go to: www.ciccparenting.org/NurturingPrograms.aspx#1.

New Guide for Latino Faith Communities on Teen Pregnancy

Faith, Hope, and Love: How Latino Faith Communities Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy - a new resource available in English and Spanish from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy - provides faith leaders serving Latino families ideas to help young people avoid too-early pregnancy and parenthood. Currently, half of all Latina teens get pregnant by age 20 and Latina teens have the highest teen birth rate among major racial/ethnic groups. Created in partnership with distinguished group of advisors, the new Faith, Hope, and Love guide highlights the strong connection between faith and preventing teen pregnancy. It also provides practical tips to help young people navigate the difficult issues of love, sex, and relationships and avoid teen pregnancy. To order, go to: https://www.teenpregnancy.org/store/item.asp?productId=303.

Prevent Child Abuse America and the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community Based Child Abuse Prevention has created a new resource that is now available on the FRIENDS website. This toolkit contains practical information, materials and guidelines on how to best implement reframing research to increase public understanding of child abuse prevention. For more information and to access the toolkit, go to: www.friendsnrc.org.

Incredible Years Parenting Program Seeking 4-6 yr olds for FREE Intervention

The Parenting Clinic has a grant to evaluate the effectiveness of their 20 week parenting group and 20 week child social skills group for families with a 4 to 6 year old child who is over-active, inattentive and difficult to manage. These two programs have repeatedly been evaluated as effective interventions for challenging children and have been disseminated throughout the US and Europe. This program is FREE! Interested families will be screened by phone and then receive a thorough assessment. They are recruiting children and families NOW with the hope of starting their first parent group/child group in late October. If you have families that might be interested, please have them contact the Parenting Clinic at (206)543-6010.

FRIENDS Resource Directory Updated

The FRIENDS National Resource Center has just updated its Resource Directory – Collaborating and Coordinating: A Listing of Potential Partner Organizations for CBCAP. Please share this information with your colleagues. We hope you will find this useful as you build your continuum of child abuse prevention services in your state. This resource can be found on the FRIENDS National Resource Center web site by using this link: www.friendsnrc.org/download/resource_directory.pdf.