April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

Each April, people across the country join together during Child Abuse Prevention Month to help raise awareness and promote ways in which together we can prevent these occurrences in our communities.  The blue ribbon used in the campaign is a symbol used nationwide.  In Washington, the blue ribbon campaign has one clear message:  Keep Kids Safe.  Your participation could make a world of difference in the life of a child, family or community.  To order your FREE blue ribbon materials, visit our website at http://www.wcpcan.wa.gov/temp_order_materials.asp.  For more information on the Washington State Blue Ribbon Campaign, or to become a partner, please contact Chris Jamieson, WCPCAN Communications Director, at (206) 389-2412 or jamiecd@dshs.wa.gov.

Email Addresses to Change Soon!

Just something to watch for: WCPCAN staff members will soon have new email addresses. Sometime later this month, WCPCAN staff emails will change from being something @dshs.wa.gov to @wcpcan.wa.gov. We are excited to strengthen our identity in this way, and email to the dshs exchange will forward for a while, but be on the lookout for the change so that you can update your address book and keep in contact with us.

Great Products Available from WCPCAN

Don't forget! "Keep Kids Safe" Special License Plates are now available from the Department of Licensing. License plates can be purchased at any time - right away or when you renew your tabs. Purchasing them is easy, and they make a great statement: that you support children! Plates cost $45 initially and $30 each year to renew, on top of regular licensing costs. The majority of that money goes to the Children's Trust Fund and is used to fund community-based agencies doing prevention work and Shaken Baby Syndrome awareness! Also available, are the Heirloom Birth Certificates. These beautiful, frame-worthy, legal birth certificates are a great gift to commemorate the birth of a new baby - or any person, young or old born in Washington State. For information on how to purchase either of these items, go to our website at: http://www.wcpcan.wa.gov/.

Relationship/Marriage Strengthening Work

The community stakeholder meeting with national Healthy Marriage Initiative expert Theodora Ooms was a great success. Ooms, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, has written extensively on the topic and has first hand knowledge of marriage strengthening efforts currently underway across the country. Many community members attended the forum and provided great insight and information. There is now a new online resource at the Resource Center for the Healthy Marriage Initiative which is available at: http://www.healthymarriageinfo.org/. In addition, a workgroup grew out of this forum to develop some concepts for a potential grant proposal for funding a statewide marriage/relationship strengthening proposal for Washington. If you would like more information about that or to participate, contact Joan Sharp at: sharpjd@dshs.wa.gov.  

Lack of Staff Capacity and Skills Limit Policy Work by Many Nonprofits

By Ret Boney - from Philanthropy Journal

When nonprofit staff members are stretched beyond capacity, it can be difficult to free up time for public-policy work and advocacy. But that work is important, experts say, and a little training and strategic use of boards and coalitions can broaden a group's policy and advocacy impact, even if the nonprofit lacks a staff member dedicated to policy. In many cases, nonprofit executive directors take on responsibility for policy and advocacy activities, but that is rarely the optimal course, says Elizabeth Heagy, president of the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. "When you have the executive director in charge of the advocacy work, less of it will get done because that person is spread so thin," she says. "Those organizations have less involvement." To read the full article, go to: www.philanthropyjournal.org/lu.cfm?lu=2897.

Final 2006 Budget Bill Cuts Services to Abused and Neglected Children

This Center for Law and Social Policy brief was written by Vicky Turetsky and Casey Trupin. On February 8, 2006, President Bush signed into law the 2006 federal budget bill, which includes provisions to decrease federal funding for a range of services that help children who have been abused or neglected. It also removes foster care payments for some low-income relatives caring for children at risk of abuse and neglect, and restricts access to some Medicaid services for children in foster care. The bill makes two modest improvements to child welfare funding, but they are not sufficient to offset the cuts. This brief examines the bill's impact on child welfare funding. For more information and to read the full article, go to: www.clasp.org/publications/2006_budgetandfostercare_cj.pdf.

The Education Begins at Home Act (S 503 and HR 3628)

Prevent Child Abuse America is one of several cosponsoring organizations planning two Washington, DC congressional briefings to highlight the Education Begins at Home Act (EBAH) and garner additional support fro the bills. The briefings are intended to educate a sizeable audience of House and Senate staff about the home visiting field - what it is and isn't, the variety of ways it benefits children and families, and what the research says about home visiting as a service delivery approach. Program sites and client families are being recruited to speak at the briefings. Congressional staff from EBAH lead sponsors will be present to answer questions about the legislation from their colleagues. EBAH would extend to a broad range of families the opportunity to benefit from Healthy Families America and other quality home visitation programs. The legislation would provide $500 million over three years to help states establish or expand quality home visitation programs. Currently, Rep. Inslee, Rep. McDermott and Senator Cantwell are co-sponsors of these bills. To find out more about this legislation or how to encourage your legislations to be sponsors, go to: http://capwiz.com/pca/issues/alert/?alertid=8055876.

Working with the Media

The attention decision makers pay to your issues may depend upon the attention paid by the media as well. Good advocates regard the media as deserving as much attention as working with elected officials and working with the grassroots. There are three reasons to work with the media: politicians pay attention to the media (it provides a way to check the community pulse); media can be used to reach other voters; and misinformation that appears in the media needs to be challenged. This article features links to tips on writing letters to the editor and press releases. This is an excerpt from Part 2 of the OMB Watch publication So You Want to Make a Difference. For more information, go to: http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/204.

Head Start and Child Care Bureaus Undergo Major Changes

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced plans to reorganize two major bureaus whose services and programs affect infants, toddlers and their families. Currently, the Child Care Bureau and the Head Start Bureau operate as independent divisions within the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF). ACYF is a division of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). Under its reorganization plan, HHS will move the Head Start Bureau out of ACYF, elevating the bureau to report directly to the Assistant Secretary of Children and Families (ACF). At the same time, this restructuring will, in effect, eliminate the Child Care Bureau, consolidating its functions into another division of ACF, the Office of Family Assistance. The Office of Family Assistance is responsible for overseeing this HHS welfare programs. At this time it is unclear exactly what effect, if any, this reorganization will have on services for babies, toddlers and families. For more information, go to: http://www.zerotothree.org/policy/. 

Kids, Cuts, and Consequences: How Cuts to Effective Programs Hurt Our Children

Budget cuts often have a cumulative effect, as children and youth benefit from state services in many ways, including: education and public libraries; public health and health care; environmental protection; playgrounds, parks, pools, and rinks; services for individuals with disabilities; child welfare and other social services; emergency and affordable housing programs; and programs to support families economic security. This report provides a review of programs and services that were affected by the Massachusetts fiscal crisis that began in 2002, and documents the impact of these cuts on children and youth. To read more, go to:

www.thehome.org/site/pdf/Kids,%20Cuts,%20and%20Consequences.pdf.

Supporting Marriage to Improve Child Well-Being

As part of the effort to support healthy marriages, many states and jurisdictions are looking to marriage and relationship education (MRE) programs developed for specific populations. Many of these newer programs are tailored for low-income parents, unwed parents, or racial or ethnic minorities and they cover such topics as parenting, communication, domestic violence, and accessing services. A recent policy brief from the Family Strengthening Policy Center (FSPC) explores the potential of these programs to strengthen families and improve the lives of children. The FSPC policy brief examines the differences between traditional MRE programs and newer programs and presents case studies of four MRE programs being piloted in different areas of the country. To read the full brief, go to: www.nassembly.org/fspc/documents/marriageed_000.pdf.

Expectations of Unmarried Parents

One population targeted by Marriage & Relationship Education Programs is low-income, unmarried new parents and parents-to-be. Reasons for the drop in the marriage rate for this group were the focus of a recent article in the "Journal of Marriage and Family." The authors used survey data and interviews to discover why low-income parents who say that they plan to marry at the time their child is born do not follow through on their plans. When interviewed about why they remained unmarried 1 year after their child was born, most parents revealed a number of financial and relationship prerequisites that they felt needed to be met first. They cited financial concerns, worries about the quality of the relationship, and fear of divorce as reasons not to marry. To read the full article entitled: High Hopes but Even Higher Expectations: The Retreat from Marriage among Low-Income Couples, click here.

Irreconcilable Differences? The Conflict Between Marriage Promotion Initiatives for Cohabiting Couples with Children and Marriage Penalties in Tax and Transfer Programs Encouraging and strengthening marriage continues to move up the U.S. social policy agenda. This analysis uses nationally representative data on cohabiting couples with children from the 2002 round of the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to assess marriage penalties or bonuses facing these couples. It examines the consequences of 2003 federal tax laws, and the incentives that will be in place in 2008 as the final marriage-related provisions of 2001's tax reform are phased in. To read the full article, go to: www.urbaninstitute.org/uploadedpdf/311162_b-66.pdf.

MCH Library Launches Knowledge Path about Autism

The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) library released a new knowledge path about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) identification and intervention. This electronic resource guide includes information on (and links to) web sites, electronic and print publications, and databases containing resources about biomedical research into the causes of ASD; resources that address the communication, education, and vocational challenges associated with ASD; and resources about ASD's impact on family life. It is available at: www.mchlibrary.info/knowledgepaths/kp_autism.html.

When Your Child Has Special Needs

The March, 2006 Every Child (a supplement to ParentMap Magazine) is devoted to the issue of children with special needs. They address the financial burdens of long-term health care, therapy options, integrated preschool, information about the Fathers Network (a WCPCAN funded program) and provide links to resources. For more information, go to: http://www.parentmap.com/everychild.htm.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Children with Disabilities - Technical Assistance and Dissemination to Improve Services and Results

This program promotes academic achievement and improves results for children with disabilities by supporting technical assistance, model demonstration projects, dissemination of useful information, and implementation activities that are supported by scientifically based research. Three awards will be made at a maximum of $400,000 each. For more information, go to: http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=7574.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: The Gerber Foundation

The Gerber Foundation's mission focuses on infants and young children. Accordingly, priority is given to projects that improve infant and young children nutrition, care and development from the first year before birth to three years of age. Programs should support a specific nutrition or health intervention and have defined outcome parameters. The Foundation gives priority to projects of national or regional impact. Projects should be sufficiently focused to make a felt difference in the field of interest. Grants are limited to three years in length. While there is no policy affecting the dollar amount of Foundation grants, there are some practical considerations. Projects requiring small grants (generally under $50,000) are typically local in scope and impact, and therefore may not be within the scope of national funding initiatives. Large requests (greater than $1 million annually) may exceed available Foundation resources. For more information and to apply, go to: http://www.gerberfoundation.org/application_procedure.htm.

CLASP Audio Conferences - Now Free and Online!

Starting this month, CLASP audio conferences will become free audio files, available right from your computer. While they hope this makes their calls accessible to even more listeners, they don't want to lose sight of the collaboration and discussion that our audio conferences spark - they still encourage you to convene your colleagues and hold a lunchtime session. You can stream the audio or burn a CD and play it in your organization's conference room! Now, free and online! Audio will be available starting the morning of March 31^st. Registration is easier than ever, just visit: www.clasp.org/audioconf.php.

Resources for Helping Parents Pay the Costs of Raising Children

Parents can learn a great deal about nearly every facet of money management from using the books, bulletins and fact sheets that are available from the Cooperative Research and Extension Program at Rutgers University. To access their resources, go to: www.rcre.rutgers.edu/pubs/subcategory.asp?cat=7&sub=1001.

Preemie Magazine & March of Dimes Collaborate on Parent Education Resources

Preemie Magazine and the March of Dimes have announced a partnership to bring resources and information to parents of the more than 500,000 premature infants born every year in the United States. The two organizations will collaborate to reach parents and professionals through print publications, websites and special projects. The magazine will soon launch a column by former HMHB Board Member Scott Berns, MD, MPH, who serves as vice president of chapter programs for March of Dimes. The spring 2006 issue of Preemie Magazine will also be distributed at more than 200 March of Dimes offices across the country. For more information about this partnership, go to: www.preemiemagazine.com/downloads/PMandMOD.pdf. For more about Preemie Magazine, which was founded in March 2005 by the mother of a premature baby, go to: http://www.preemiemagazine.com/.

Healthy Families America Johns Hopkins Study

Johns Hopkins recently conducted a study on the Healthy Families Alaska programs. The study did not show prevention of child abuse and neglect, however, there were four areas of significant differences between the control group and the HFA group:

reduction in poor quality environments; reduction in maternal parenting stress; increase in knowledge of child cognitive development; child behavior seen as more positive (less child problematic behaviors). Johns Hopkins did not suggest stopping the program, but they did make recommendations for changes. To view the whole study, go to: http://hss.state.ak.us/ocs/publications/johnshopkins_healthyfamilies.pdf.

How are States Using Community-Based Child Care to Provide Pre-K?

As states continue to expand public pre-k initiatives, many are using community-based settings - including centers, family child care, and Head Start - to serve children. Each state has made a series of policy choices that can impact the degree to which community-based providers can participate. These state-by-state summaries offer a detailed look at states' decisions to promote a mixed-delivery model for pre-K services. These summaries contain data from the surveys underlying the comprehensive 2005 CLASP report, All Together Now: State Experiences in using Community-Based Child Care to Provide Pre-Kindergarten. To read the state-by-state summaries, go to: http://www.clasp.org/publications/stateprofiles.htm.

What Makes Supervision Work: Recommendations from the Home Visiting Field

This report summarizes research that emerged from the work of the Home Visit Forum. Focus groups were conducted with supervisors from various programs and they were asked these questions: What organizational or contextual factors do you need to be a successful supervisor? Are there other factors that also help you do your job? What do you think your staff needs most from you? What do you do to support staff so they can be successful in implementing the goals and objectives of your program? To read the full report, click here.

Early Education Benefits Low Birthweight Infants

A new study discusses the findings of an 18-year follow-up of low birth weight infants, some who were provided with early preschool and others who did not participate. The study finds that the children who received early education, particularly the "heavier" low birthweight group had better academic and behavioral outcomes (i.e. less risky behaviors) as their lives progressed than their peers who did not. This has important implications for education and health policy, given the positive outcomes measured over the years. In terms of public health priorities, the results strengthen the case for greater investment in early education for pre-term infants. For more information, go to: www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?id=10396.

2^nd Annual Community Forum and Resource Fair

April 8^th, 12 pm - 3 pm, New Holly Family Center, Seattle, Washington

RxHelp for Washington

Last Year, RxHelp for Washington helped over 135,000 people in Washington State qualify and receive the medicines they need for free or nearly free. Now we need to make sure that Washington's children take advantage of this program. With over 130,000 children in Washington without medical coverage a new free program called RxHelp for Kids can help. With over 475 patient assistance programs, covering more than 2,500 medications, RxHelp for Kids can make an impact and help children in need receive the medicines they need. Have the names of your prescriptions ready and call this number for more information: 1-888-779-2527 or go to:  http://www.rxhelpforwa.org/.

Silent Struggle: A New Theory of Pregnancy

 Pregnancy can be the most wonderful experience life has to offer. But it can also be dangerous. Around the world, an estimated 529,000 women a year die during pregnancy or childbirth. Ten million suffer injuries, infection or disability. To David Haig, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, these grim statistics raise a profound puzzle about pregnancy. "Pregnancy is absolutely central to reproduction, and yet pregnancy doesn't seem to work very well," he said. "If you think about the heart or the kidney, they're wonderful bits of engineering that work day in and day out for years and years. But pregnancy is associated with all sorts of medical problems. What's the difference?" New research has offered support to this idea as well. By understanding these hidden struggles, scientists may be able to better understand psychological disorders like depression and autism. To read the full article on this from the New York Times, click here.

Making Early Developmental Screening Routine

Dane Fliedner has a simple message for parents: "You know your child better than anyone."

Fliedner, a pediatrician who works at a clinic just south of Los Angeles, is part of a growing number of pediatricians who see parental observation as a powerful tool for predicting a child's possible disabilities, developmental delays and other challenges. It is the same message that the Los Angeles County Early Identification & Intervention Group has been trying to spread for the last two years. The group, which now collaborates with roughly 100 agencies in the sprawling county of Los Angeles in Southern California, is a strong advocate for a three-pronged approach: early screening using high-quality tools based on parent observation; quick follow-up from health care providers; and help for families in finding and accessing the resources they need. For more information on how they achieve these goals, and to read the full article, go to: http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3939.

Evidence-Based Practice Manual

A new desktop resource is now available for practitioners in health and human services fields. The "Evidence-Based Practice Manual: Research and Outcome Measures in Health and Human Services" is an interdisciplinary volume of evidence-based assessment measures, treatment plans, and interventions. The 104 chapters were written by prominent researchers in such fields as social work, medicine, psychology, and criminal justice. To order, go to: www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/SocialWork/?view=usa&ci=0195165004.

The Vital Importance of Evaluation

Many people think of evaluation as taking a snapshot of outcomes at the end of a program to prove to a funder that the program worked. Some people don't hold evaluation in much regard; they believe they are getting too little information too late in the day, especially if their program fell short of expectations or made no difference at all. However, evaluation can, and should, be used as an ongoing management and learning tool to improve an organization's effectiveness. For more information and to read the full article, go to: http://www.industrymailout.com/Industry/LandingPage.aspx?id=48635&p=1.

Steps to Smart Program Evaluation

Program evaluation, the process of studying the effects of program activity on client populations, can be helpful to planning because of the wide variety of information it can provide. Although many organizations speak highly of the need for program evaluation, not all of them utilize such an approach, especially if they consider themselves to be in straitened circumstances. Program evaluation can be seen as a form of investment, and, like any investment, requires care in order to make it as effective as possible. Any evaluation involves learning, and that can take a great deal of time. It can be time well spent, however. To read the full article, go to: http://ga0.org/nptimes/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=4143051#tip3.

Assessing an Agency's Cultural Competency

A toolkit for the self-assessment of agency cultural competency has been developed by the El Paso County, CO, Greenbook Initiative. The toolkit, which can be downloaded for free, is a comprehensive collection of surveys, interviews, facility checklist, and document reviews, as well as reports from two sites where the toolkit was piloted. The toolkit allows agencies to survey staff, volunteers, and clients regarding their perceptions and experiences with agency policies. It also directs agencies to examine their mission statement, policies, procedures, outreach, communications, and physical facilities with a view toward cultural competency. The toolkit provides a definition of cultural competency that stresses the ability of an agency to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. For more information and to download the tool kit, go to: www.thegreenbook.info/documents/el_paso_toolkit.pdf.

Disproportionality of Minorities in Child Welfare: Synthesis of Research Findings
From Children's Home Society of Washington
This research synthesis discusses findings on the disproportionality of minority children in the child welfare system. It focuses on two dimensions of disproportionality: disproportionate representation and disproportionate treatment. A research agenda is proposed for investigating disproportionality that addresses: developing common definitions of important terms, increasing the inclusion of different racial and ethnic groups, acknowledging the variation of family context and functioning, understanding the variation of geographic contexts, examining the contexts and operations of the child welfare system, and enhancing methodological approaches and techniques. For more information & to read the full report, go to: www.chs-wa.org/Paper_Synthesis_of_Research_Robert_Hill.pdf.

Making the Case for Investments in Education for U.S. Hispanics

By 2005 nearly one in five U.S. residents will be of Hispanic origin. A new National Research Council report looks at the current state of American education specifically as it impacts the diverse range of Hispanic students, and finds that increased, targeted investments in education and training could benefit not only Hispanics, but the country as a whole as baby boomers shift into retirement. For more information and to read the report, go to: www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20060301b.html.

Understanding and Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disproportionality in the Front End of the Child Welfare System

This report, from the Center for Social Services Research (CSSR) in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California at Berkeley, examines the nature of disproportionality in the front-end of the child welfare system. This article is composed of three sections: the first outlines the problem; the second describes and assesses interventions that have developed to address the problem and concludes with a section on the implications of the study's findings for research and practice. To read the full report, go to: http://cssr.berkeley.edu/bassc/public/dispro_summ.pdf.

Framing Public Issues

FrameWorks Institute 2005

This toolkit was created by the FrameWorks Institute to help issues advocates learn and apply new communications thinking to frame their work for better public understanding and engagement. You will learn how to answer questions like the following: What shapes public opinion about the issues that affect children, families, poor people, communities? What role does the news play? How do policymakers gauge public opinion? How can I do a better job of helping people see the realities my organization struggles to address every day? The answers to these questions will help you translate your vision of what can be done to improve public life into a language that engages ordinary people and advances their interest in policy and program solutions. For more information, go to: www.frameworksinstitute.org/strategicanalysis/FramingPublicIssuesfinal.pdf.

New Childcare Website

Child Care Resources has a new website. Interested in how to find child care? How to tell if it is high quality? Want to read about facts and trends? Would you like to watch CCR's luncheon video? This new website contains all of this and more. Check back often as they will update and add to it regularly. To view the site, go to: http://www.childcare.org/.

Basic Facts about Low-Income Children, 2006

There are more than 73 million children in the U.S. Forty percent of them live in low-income families, often going without even though the majority of low-income parents work. "Low-Income" is defined as below twice the federal poverty level. This easy-to-navigate resource from the National Center for Children in Poverty examines children in low-income families by age, including family characteristics, trends and changes, region and other variables. To learn more, go to: http://nccp.org/pub_bdf.html. 

Third Annual Light of Hope Event: An Evening with Pat Cashman

April 20^th, 7pm, 2006 Seattle, Washington

In observation of National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, Washington State CASA invites you to their 3rd annual "Light of Hope" signature fundraising event. This year they have invited Pat Cashman to celebrate their volunteers and partners in advocating for our most vulnerable children. Since the work they do is sometimes so hard, they believe laughter is the best medicine and they hope you will join them for this entertaining program. General Admission $20 doors open at 6:00. Tickets are also available at: http://www.washingtonstatecasa.org/.

Play: Honus & Me

March 31^st - June 11^th, Seattle, Washington

A boy, baseball, and an amazing trip through time. Seattle Children's Theater & Treehouse go to bat to help our community's foster kids pursuer their dreams - you can help too! Buy your tickets today at: http://www.sct.org/.

Public Health Forum

April 11^th, Spokane, Washington

May 9^th, Kennewick, Washington

June 13^th, SeaTac, Washington

Every five years, the State Board of Health holds public forums around the state as it prepares a report that will guide the activities of state health care agencies. The Spokane forum is scheduled to take place on Tuesday the 11^th from 4 to 6:30 pm at the Public Health Center, 1101 West College Avenue. Forums in Kennewick and SeaTac are tentatively scheduled for May 9^th and June 13^th respectively. For more information about the forums, contact the State Board of Health at: http://www.sboh.wa.gov/ or email wsboh@doh.wa.gov or call (360) 236-4110.