Joan Sharp: joan@wcpcan.wa.gov  

Maria Gehl: maria@wcpcan.wa.gov 

Chris Jamieson: chris@wcpcan.wa.gov

Kristen Rogers: kristen@wcpcan.wa.gov

Toni Peycheff: toni@wcpcan.wa.gov

Sophy Chan: sophy@wcpcan.wa.gov

New Washington Postpartum Depression Awareness Website

WCPCAN is pleased to announce the launch of Washington State's new "Speak Up When You're Down" education campaign for postpartum depression awareness. The campaign's key messages are that PPD is real and help is available, but it starts with being able to talk about it. Campaign materials will focus on providing basic information about the signs and symptoms of postpartum mood disorders, and offer a toll-free phone number and website. For more information, visit the new "Speak Up When You're Down" website at: www.speakup.wa.gov.

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/.

This guide on legal rules on lobbying and election related activities, published by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Washington Office for Advocacy, is an excellent summary of Internal Revenue Service rules. It includes a handy list of dos and don'ts. To read more, go to: http://www.uua.org/uuawo/pdf/the_real_rules_summary.pdf.

Congress Returns, House Considers 2007 Federal Budget

After a weeklong recess, Congress is back in session, facing the fiscal year 2007 budget plans - as well as controversial immigration measures, tax cuts, and domestic program funding in the coming weeks. This week, the House takes on its 2007 budget proposal, which is expected to include even deeper cuts to domestic programs than the Senate plan, approved March 16. The Coalition on Human Needs site offers background information and more. For more information, go to: http://www.chn.org/issues/budget/.

How to Educate Public Officials about Your Issues

When organizing an advocacy campaign to change public policy, tactics such as phone calls to elected representatives, letters to the editor, and other forms of public education are all important. However, sometimes the most effective tool for change is a face-to-face meeting with legislators. Such meetings provide an opportunity to educate elected officials about issues important to your organization and to ask for their support.  There are two ways for nonprofits to organize such briefings - by arranging meetings with individual legislators and by holding briefings where groups of legislators and staff can learn more about your issues. Read more for strategies on successful communication with elected officials, including special tips for preparing a Capitol Hill briefing at: http://www.npaction.org/article/articleview/669/1/228.

Guide to the 2007 Budget: What's at Stake for Human Needs

In March, the Coalition on Human Needs released a helpful guide to the 2007 budget plans - a much easier read than the hundreds of pages of the actual budgets! To view, go to: http://www.chn.org/pdf/FY07BudgetAnalysis.pdf.

2006 is an Election Year: Be Ready to Help America Vote

With elections at the state and federal level this year, nonprofits have many opportunities to support the democratic process by helping America vote. NPAction.org is pleased to launch Nonprofits Can Help America Vote, a special section of resources dedicated to guiding and increasing nonprofit organizations' activities around elections. Learn about how nonprofits can engage voters in registration and education activities; help implement the Help America Vote Act's (HAVA) guarantees of fair elections and voting rights; and continue issue advocacy during an election year. Information about online resources for polling places, candidate information, and election administration agencies is also available. Check back often as we will update the latest election news and showcase organizations acting as good nonprofit citizens. For more information, go to: http://www.npaction.org/article/archive/271.

The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of developmental delay and service use among children in the child welfare system and to identify factors that influence these outcomes. The study found that rates of developmental delay are high and developmental services are underused, particularly by young children in the child welfare system. Strategies for overcoming barriers to using early intervention services should be implemented. For more information, go to: http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/cwlibrarian/index_act.cfm?topicid=6&pubmonth=03&pubyear=2006.

Preventing Infections, Protecting the Developing Brain

Infections before and after birth are a major cause of developmental disabilities. Take herpes simplex. In adults, this virus causes cold sores and genital herpes, conditions that can be uncomfortable, but not life threatening. However, herpes simplex can kill newborns. It can also cause brain lesions that may result in a wide range of developmental disabilities, depending on which parts of the brain are damaged. For more information, go to: http://depts.washington.edu/chdd/outlook/outlook06_17.1.pdf#zoom=95.

Save the Date! An African American Healthy Marriage Initiative Forum

June 16, 2006, Seattle, Washington

This AAHMI Forum is an opportunity for faith-based and community organizations to learn about this important subject: Healthy Marriage in the African American Community. Join us as we share information and build skills through panels, plays, and presentations from prominent leaders. For additional information regarding this event, please contact Janice King-Dunbar at (206)615-2716 or jking-dunbar@acf.hhs.gov or go to: http://www.aahmi.net/.

The old message was a new-age one, brimming with words like, "technology," "automatic," and "electronic." It focused on the "EZ" nature of the transaction, attempting to appeal to the sensible side of donors. These days, as nonprofits' organizational constraints tighten, charities are replacing sensible with sensibility, and injecting emotion into their monthly giving appeals. Bob Wesolowski, president and founder of Caring Habits, Inc., a New York City-based third party processor of nonprofits' monthly donation programs, spoke about this change in messaging at the 2006 Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation Conference in Washington D.C. According to Wesolowski, "Organizations generally don't make the same commitment to monthly giving that they do to, for example, planned giving." For more information, go to: http://www.nptimes.com/enews/Mar06/news-032706_1.html.

Free Resources at Nonprofit Nuts & Bolts Site

The Nonprofit Nuts & Bolts website offers a number of free resources to professionals in the nonprofit sector. In addition to helpful links to listservs, discussion groups, online publications and other resources, Nonprofit Nuts & Bolts also has a page featuring dozens of free-access management articles. Among the topics: board relations and member relations, technology, volunteer management and special events planning. To access these free articles, go to: www.nutsbolts.com/np-articles.htm. For more nonprofit management freebies, go to: www.nutsbolts.com/np-resources.htm.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Target Store Grants

The program awards reading grants to schools, libraries and nonprofit organizations.

Arts grants are given to programs that bring the arts to schools or make it affordable for families to participate in cultural experiences. Family violence prevention grants support groups working to make individual homes and entire communities safer, such as funding child abuse counseling programs and shelters. Eligible applicants must be nonprofit organizations with 501 (c) (3) status, schools, or units of government. Most grants average between $1,000 and $3,000. For more information, go to: http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/10001791/target.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRC) Program

Application Deadline: May 15^th, 2006

The purpose of the PIRC program is to help implement successful and effective parent-involvement policies, programs, and activities that lead to improvements in student academic achievement and strengthen partnerships among parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and other school personnel in meeting the educational needs of children. To apply for this grant, click here.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Ludwick Family Foundation

Ludwick Family Foundation is a philanthropic organization committed to assisting a broad array of groups that are working to make a positive difference in the world. The Foundation focuses it's funding on tangible items that tend to remain with an organization such as new vehicles or equipment replacement and modernization, improvements to facilities, and educational materials. Although many requests fall within our guidelines and certainly merit support, the Foundation is only able to make grant awards to approximately 20-25 organizations each year. All Foundation grants are to be used exclusively for charitable public benefit purposes. Continuing long-term support is not the intent of Ludwick Family Foundation grantmaking. Grants range from $5,000 to $50,000 and are made for a single year. August 31, 2006 is the application deadline. For more information, click here.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

Established in 1999 with a gift from Michael and Susan Dell, the Foundation has an endowment of more than $1 billion. The Foundation believes a child's future begins with a healthy environment. A healthy environment includes access to educational opportunities and quality health care. In addition, safe and engaging after school programs, quality early childhood care services and primary needs such as food, clothing and environments that are free from abuse enable children to grow into successful and healthy adults. The Foundation's aim is to work as a catalyst for enduring, systemic change. Using a collaborative approach, existing programs and organizations are sought that will serve as links that address unmet needs in five essential focus areas - health, education, safety, youth development and early childhood care. In addition, the Foundation selectively funds short-term projects that tend to have a positive and immediate effect on children. Ongoing deadline. For more information, go to: http://www.msdf.org/default.aspx.

Join the new Play & Learn Group - at Cascade People's Center, every Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Play & Learn provides peer support for parents and caregivers as well as school readiness activities for children ages 0-5. Caregivers and children participate in activities together including: story time, painting, puzzles, making collages and musical enrichment. All are specifically designed to develop children's fine motor, verbal, and social skills so that when the child enters kindergarten he or she will be ready to hit the ground running. Play & Learn also meets at Garfield Community Center (Tues. and Thurs. 10:30-12:30) and Windsor Heights (SeaTac, Wed. 10-12). For more information, go to: http://www.cascadepeoplescenter.org/.

May 3^rd, 1 - 2 pm EST, ONLINE

Mounting evidence is showing that well-focused investments in early childhood development yield high public and private returns. Among the different strategies that encourage positive outcomes in young children, home visiting programs have seen some of the most promising results. Many states have made substantial commitments to these programs, which send trained visitors to the homes of expectant and new parents to support them in providing safe, healthy environments to their children. Although a growing body of research has been evaluating the merits of different home visiting models, much less is known about what it takes to reproduce and sustain proven programs successfully in new settings. This web seminar will explore some of the difficulties and challenges states and the programs they support encounter in building systems that reproduce positive results. For more information & to register, go to: http://www.about.chapinhall.org/conferences/charting/conference.html.

Randomized Trial of the Early Start Program of Home Visitation: Parent and Family Outcomes

The objective of this study was to examine the extent to which the Early Start program of home visitation had beneficial consequences in the areas of maternal health, family functioning, family economic circumstances, and exposure to stress and adversity. The study found a consistent lack of association between maternal and family outcomes and group membership. There were no significant differences between the Early Start and control series in any comparisons. This evaluation suggested that the Early Start program failed to lead to parent- and family-related benefits. This absence of benefit for parent/family outcomes is contrasted with the benefits found previously for child-related outcomes, including child health, preschool education, child abuse and neglect, parenting, and behavioral adjustment. This comparison suggests that home visitation programs may provide benefits for child-related outcomes in the absence of parent- or family-related outcomes. For more information, go to: http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/cwlibrarian/index_act.cfm?topicid=4&pubmonth=03&pubyear=2006.

Recognition for Healthy Families New York

The Promising Practices Network of RAND Corporation has added Healthy Families New York (HFNY) to its list of "Programs That Work." HFNY received the recognition when a recent program evaluation showed generally positive outcomes, including a reduced incidence of child abuse or neglect, for the at-risk mothers and infants who participated in the program. Based on the national Healthy Families America model, HFNY is a community-based prevention program that seeks to improve the health and well-being of children at risk for abuse and neglect by providing intensive home visitation services with specially trained paraprofessionals. The target population consists of expectant parents and parents with infants less than 3 months old who are considered to be at high risk for child abuse and neglect. The evaluation of HFNY, conducted by S. Mitchell-Herzfeld, was supported through a grant from the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A complete program description and discussion of the evaluation process can be found on the Promising Practices Network website: www.promisingpractices.net/program.asp?programid=147.

Free Online Course on Bonding and Attachment

The Child Trauma Academy offers a variety of free online courses on child trauma. Their newest course, Bonding and Attachment in Maltreated Children, provides basic information on definitions of bonding and attachment, as well as a discussion of how attachment can be impaired when a child is abused or neglected. Optional CEU credits are available for successful completion of the course. Visit the website to take the course and to view other course offerings: http://www.childtraumaacademy.com/.

Launch of Web-Based Tool for New Parents

The March of Dimes has launched a new web-based, interactive educational tool for parents, "Understanding Your Newborn." This online resource provides information about how newborns signal their parents about their feelings and needs. Topics are covered in six different modules: States of Awareness, Infant Sleep, Senses, Reflexes and Movements, Crying and Playing/Break Time. To view "Understanding Your Newborn" (which requires Flash version 7.0 or higher), go to: www.marchofdimes.com/prematurity/1808.asp.

Early Intervention Programs Shown to Have Positive Long-Term Effects

Programs aimed at early childhood development can have long-term positive effects on the children they reach, suggest a new study in the March 2006 issue of Pediatrics. The study is an 18-year follow-up of the Infant Health and Development program (IHDP), an intervention focusing on infants born preterm and thus at risk for health and developmental problems. "The sustainability of effects reinforces the importance of such programs, and the need to make these services available and accessible to at-risk infants early on," said principal investigator Marie C. McCormick, M.D., Sc.D., professor of maternal and child health at Harvard School of Public Health. The research also supports extending such programs to a wider range of children. To read the full article, go to: www.rwjf.org/newsroom/newsreleasesdetail.jsp?id=10396.

Perspectives on Father Involvement: Research and Policy

In this report the authors describe the state of current research on father involvement and point to ways in which research findings might inform the economic and public policies that affect fathers. A central aim of this report is to highlight limitations of past research and policies on father involvement and to raise questions that the authors hope will guide future efforts in this area. They begin this report with a discussion of recent economic, political, and social trends and events that have led to a growing interest in the father's role in the family. They review research on (1) the social roles served by fathers, (2) the different types of father involvement, (3) the child outcomes affected, (4) the direct and indirect pathways through which father involvement influences children's development, and (5) the factors that predict father involvement. They examine how public policies have affected father involvement to date and discuss the current state of research and policies on fatherhood. Finally, they conclude with a set of recommendations for future research and policy initiatives that will be critical to advancing both theory and practice in this area. For more information & to read the full report, go to: www.srcd.org/documents/publications/spr/spr13-2.pdf.

Father Involvement and Children's Wellbeing

This month's rtc updates web forum features a discussion of the outcomes of father involvement. This is an important topic in the context of efforts to promote family-driven services in the field of children's mental health. There is a need to recognize the complexity of the family and family roles in the U.S. today. A better understanding of father involvement is important if models of family participation are to be applicable to a variety of types of family structure and family member roles. You are invited to read more and share your experiences and views on this important topic by posting your comments to the web page: www.rtc.pdx.edu/pgFeaturedDiscussions.php.

Rising Out-of-Pocket Spending for Medical Care: A Growing Strain on Family Budgets

An average 18 million U.S. families face out-of-pocket medical care costs each year that strain their budgets (and qualified as "high" relative to their income). These families are more likely than others to have trouble getting needed care and paying for it. The share of families struggling under the burden of these costs is up from 1996 - and according to this Commonwealth Fund report, more families are likely to spend a larger share of their budgets on health care in the coming years. For more information, go to: http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=347500.

Early Intervention in Low Birth Premature Infants: Results of the Infant Health and Development Program

Reaching kids with comprehensive services early in their childhoods can boost learning, behavior, and other outcomes later in life-that's the word from a study that offers the most comprehensive evidence to date on the impact of quality early learning programs, particularly for premature babies. The results of this randomized 18-year, follow-up study were published in the March issue of Pediatrics. Interestingly, babies in a lighter low-birthweight group (≤ 2,000 g) did demonstrate gains at age 3, but had little gains over a control group by age 18. The study authors say more research is needed to identify the educational, environmental or biological factors that can promote or impede sustained effects of early educational intervention. For more information, go to: http://www.rwjf.org/research/researchdetail.jsp?id=2464&ia=144.

Improving the Delivery of Health Care that Supports Young Children's Healthy Mental Development

This new report, entitled: Improving the Delivery of Health Care that Supports Young Children's Healthy Mental Development: Early Accomplishments and Lessons Learned from a Five-State Consortium, from the National Academy for State Health Policy, is a summary of activities and learnings from the 5 states that received ABCD2 Grants. The focus is on screening for social emotional delays and mental health problems in birth to three, Medicaid populations. Some of the states also included maternal depression activities as well. To view the full report, go to: www.nashp.org/files/cw14_final_website.pdf.

New Information on the Mental Health Transformation Website

The summaries of public testimony to subcommittees and listening sessions, plus feedback from individuals, organizations and others are now posted under the "Articles" section on the Mental Health Transformation website, under "Public Testimony Summary and Analysis". Subcommittees met April 7 to review and confirm the summaries before forwarding them to the Transformation Work Group. The March 2006 issue of the Transformation News is also in this section. For more information, go to: http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/mentalhealth/mhtsig.shtml.

Pediatricians' Role in Prevention

Routine pediatric care offers a prime opportunity for screening families for the major risk factors for child maltreatment. Through the Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: A Role for Pediatricians project at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, pediatric residents were trained to recognize risk factors among low-income parents who brought their children to the University's pediatric clinic. Residents were also provided with listings of community resources, so that parents could be connected to services. Preliminary data from parent interviews indicated that special training in recognizing risk factors for child maltreatment improved the pediatric residents' intervention with parents suffering from depression, domestic violence, and stress or lack of social support. This type of prevention intervention has a number of advantages, including its low cost, pattern of routine visits with parents and children, and emphasis on prevention. The ability to identify risk factors for child maltreatment early on allows pediatricians to link parents with services to help prevent child abuse and neglect. For more information on the Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect project, go to: http://cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov/articles.cfm?article_id=1130.

How Often Should You Send an Email?
Even though few people have experience with regular emails to a donor database, and fewer still have tested variations in frequency, many people, some far removed from your fundraising department, won't hesitate to tell you how often you should send an email.  According to Rick Christ, senior consultant at NPAdvisors.com, in Warrenton, VA, instead of listening to them, listen to your donors. First, of course, you must understand that sending an email is not important. Getting a response is important. Every email should ask its reader to do something -- tell a friend, sign a petition, read an article online, make a contribution. That's the first question you need to answer: What do we want, or need, our donors to do right now? To read the full article "Ten Actions to Ask of Your Email", go to:  http://www.npadvisors.com/NewContent/100263.asp.

Fonda to Foundations: Pay-up

The increasing difficulty of raising operating funds is resulting in a program-driven environment where it's easy for nonprofits to veer off their mission. Foundations need to understand the importance of helping provide nonprofits with stable operating funds. Those were among the comments made by actress Jane Fonda during the opening plenary speech at the Association of Fundraising Professionals'43rd Annual Conference on Fundraising in Atlanta. To read the full article by Craig Causer, go to: http://www.nptimes.com/dishoftheday/story1.html.

Employee Burnout

Workers in the nonprofit sector are susceptible to work overload, because nonprofits often have fewer resources and higher expectations to solve "truly monumental problems," according to a recent article from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. For more information and to read the full article, go to: http://www.ssireview.com/pdf/2005WI_Feature_Maslach_Leiter.pdf.

Power and Parenting Assessments: The Intersecting Levels of Culture, Race, Class and Gender

This article uses a case example to highlight some of the complexities of working with minority ethnic families. It addresses the dilemmas that exist for therapists and other professionals when carrying out cross-cultural assessments of parenting. In this article, the authors will examine how professionals' constructions impacted the assessment process with regard to family life, culture and mental health. The authors will draw out implications for clinical practice in this area. For more information, go to: http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/cwlibrarian/index_act.cfm?topicid=7&pubmonth=03&pubyear=2006.

In the Immigration Debate, Consider the Children

One group may risk being forgotten in the heated controversy over immigration reform: children of immigrants (who may or may not themselves be immigrants). These children comprise more than 26 percent of all low-income children in the United States, but despite need, they're less likely than other children to benefit from government assistance programs. For more information, go to: http://nccp.org/pub_cif.html.

Breaking Down Barriers between Immigrant Families and Early Education: Project Overview and Preliminary Impressions (Power Point)

By Deeana Jang and Hannah Matthews

CLASP's Breaking Down Barriers project is intended to address the barriers immigrant families face in accessing high-quality early education programs. This presentation offers background and preliminary impressions from CLASP's site visits in sample states across the country and interviews with immigrant-serving organizations, immigrant community leaders, policymakers, and others. Challenges and barriers identified include: too few connections between early education providers and immigrant-serving organizations; too few bilingual and bicultural providers; and a lack of affordable, high-quality programs in communities. For more information, go to: http://www.clasp.org/publications/breakingdownbarriers.pdf.

Children of Immigrants Resource Kit

In the discussion over immigration, one question is often lost: whether and how to integrate the children of long-term illegal immigrants fully into U.S. society - which is for many, the only society they have ever known. In this toolkit, Connect for Kids offers some resources to put this issue into perspective. For more information, go to: http://www.connectforkids.org/node/4016.

Using Child Development as the Cornerstone of Academic Success

A Civilrights.org series of articles examines innovative education reform programs - this article focuses on the Comer School Development Program (SDP), which integrates child psychiatry and education. Among other things, SDP encourages schools to spend energy on healthy child development and to include attention to social interaction, relationships, collaboration, and "no-fault" decision-making to create healthy learning habits for class and beyond. For more information, go to: http://www.civilrights.org/issues/education/details.cfm?id=41533.

Prevention through Parenting with Parents

A unique approach to preventing maltreatment of infants and toddlers capitalizes on the natural relationships between childcare providers and parents. Childcare providers are trained to provide support, guidance, and information to parents and to intervene effectively when risk factors for abuse and neglect are identified. The program, Partnering with Parents: Preventing Abuse and Neglect, provides training for trainers and a curriculum for use with early childhood educators, directors, and family childcare home providers. Preliminary evaluation data have been collected through self-reports from 240 trainers and more than 2,700 childcare professionals trained by the trainers. These data indicate that trainers experienced an average knowledge gain of 26 percent in such areas as relationship-based training strategies, observation, flexible response, and the impact of abuse and neglect on infants and toddlers. Their trainees showed a 19-23 percent increase in knowledge. The Preventing Abuse and Neglect: Parent-Teacher Partnerships in Child Care curriculum will be available from ZERO TO THREE this summer. For more information about the program and training of trainers, go to: www.zerotothree.org/partneringwithparents.

National Statistics on Child Abuse and Neglect for 2004

According to a report released on April 4 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 872,000 children were found to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2004. From 2001 to 2004, the rate of victimization decreased, from 12.5 per 1,000 children in 2001 to 11.9 per 1,000 children in 2004. That represents a significant decrease from 1993, when the rate of abused and neglected children peaked at 15.3 per 1,000 children. An estimated 1,490 children died from abuse or neglect in 2004, more than 80 percent of whom were younger than 4 years old. While the rate of victimization has decreased, the rate of children whose cases were investigated has increased. For more information & to read the full report, go to: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/index.htm.

Families Frequently Encountered by Child Protection Services: A Report on Chronic Child Abuse and Neglect

This research involves a series of analyses of two samples of families, a very large statewide Missouri sample and a sample from one Minnesota County. The families were followed for several years to examine patters of reports of child maltreatment, child protection cases, child removals and costs. The report contains reviews of literature on chronic neglect and the relationship of poverty and social isolation to the emergence of "chronic neglect" families. It is concluded with a series of policy recommendations. For more information, go to: www.iarstl.org/papers/FEfamiliesChronicCAN.pdf.

A Comprehensive Approach to Prevention

Growing concerns about the consequences associated with the nearly 1 million cases of child maltreatment reported each year have led to increased focus on effective child abuse and neglect prevention programs. A recent publication, "Developing a Comprehensive Approach to Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: Strategies for State and Local Policymakers," looks at programs that have shown some success in reducing risk to children and explores how other jurisdictions and agencies might apply the lessons learned. Two different complementary strategies are discussed: Coordination of prevention efforts across public agencies, including the use of common intake and assessment forms; coordinated case management; and co-locating staff; and development of a community-based model of prevention, including a differential response system and a local decision-making body. Examples of these types of programs are provided. An appendix describes Federal funding sources that may be used to support prevention efforts. The publication is available on the Finance Project website at: www.financeproject.org/publications/childabusesb.pdf.

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

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. Forums are tentatively scheduled in Kennewick and SeaTac 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.

King County Children and Family Commission Safe Communities Letter of Intent

The King County Children and Family Commission is soliciting letters of intent to support youth at-risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system in King County. The Commission's Safe Communities program seeks to reduce youth at-risk involvement in the juvenile justice system through a mixed portfolio of projects that include best practice, promising practice and innovative project approaches. A total of up to $354,000 will be awarded to a limited number of community partnerships on an annual basis. This letter of intent is for funding beginning in 2007. Safe Communities projects are expected to be funded for three years. The deadline for this letter of intent is May 26, 2006 at noon. For more information, click here.