Due to a significant rent increase at WCPCAN's Pioneer Square location, we will be moving to new offices in APRIL. We are just moving down the street, but the move may cause some communications issues for a few weeks as we get our phone, internet and mail services sorted out. Watch for information about our address change in the near future. Our email addresses will stay the same, however. Thanks for your patience as we sort through this process!

Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education

WCPCAN is the lead agency for a grant to utilize the Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education (SFECE) curriculum. The SFECE leadership group identified 10 parent-provider teams to pilot this project with. These teams will be convening for their first retreat at Rainbow Lodge March 1st & 2nd, and a state delegation including parent leaders will be participating in a SFECE Summit in San Diego in May. In addition, WCPCAN is writing a new e-newsletter focused on child care and prevention issues. If you would like to sign up to recieve this bi-monthly newsletter, go to: https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:Join/signupId:15181.

Make a Difference for Your Cause: Strategies for Nonprofit Engagement in Legislative Advocacy

The Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI) has produced this very valuable resource for nonprofit organizations, Make a Difference for Your Cause, free online and available to purchase in bulk copies. It describes all the steps and resources needed for a nonprofit organization to use legislative advocacy to advance their mission. The guide tells the stories of other nonprofits that have used advocacy to advance their goals, such as the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program. It addresses all of the elements to build organizational capacity and the components to develop a strategy. The publication also details the legal issues involved, outlining the lobbying activities nonprofits can and cannot do. For more information or to download the publication, go to: http://ga6.org/ombwatch/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=2503052.

Do you get the WCPCAN Legislative Update?

We are a third of the way through the 2007 state legislative session and decisions are being made about how to spend your tax dollars and what policy changes need to be made in this state. Are you up to date on the legislation that impacts children and families and potentially your agency? Every week during session, WCPCAN produces a Legislative Update to keep you abreast of where legislation impacting children and families is in the process. If you would like to sign up for this free electronic update, go to: https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:Join/signupId:2202.

GRANT OPPORTUNITY: Mini-Grants for Technology Linking Communities to Congress

If your organization has an idea for using technology in your advocacy work on federal issues, and just needs some financial support to get it off the ground, the Sunlight Foundation may be able to help. They have 10 mini-grants of $1000-$5000 for creative projects that serve Sunlight's purpose of using technology to strengthen the link between Members of Congress and the people they represent. For more information on the application process and links to resources on technology and advocacy, go to: www.npaction.org/article/articleview/735/1/245.

FRIENDS Building Skills for Leadership: Meaningful Parent Involvement

This teleconference from September 2006 features presentations on successful training models and practices to involve parents and other adults in a meaningful way in civic engagement. The focus was on preparing parents with the skills and knowledge to work within systems to improve outcomes for their children, families and communities. This information will be helpful to you in your efforts to implement meaningful parent leadership. To listen, go to: www.friendsnrc.org/resources/event.htm#parent.

Solo Parenting / Standing Up for Single Moms

By Rachel Sarah

Apparently no one ever told Randi Anderson that single moms can’t do it all. In between raising her two-year-old son by herself, starting a new job, and completing her Master’s in Public Administration, 34-year-old Randi Anderson has spearheaded a national non-profit for single moms called Single2Mother. For Anderson, her “new community” involves planning monthly potlucks and playgroups, as well as facilitating an online dialogue about every issue single moms face, from “How do you deal with stress?” to “How do we explain our family situation to our children?” For more information on Single2Mothers, go to: http://www.single2mother.org/. Or to read the full article on Anderson, from the Parents Action for Children e-zine, go to: http://www.parentsaction.org/.

The Parent Academy

Launched by Superintendent Rudy Crew at Miami-Dade Country Public Schools, The Parent Academy (TPA) is a large-scale, privately funded, district-wide parent involvement program. You can read about TPA in the article “Teach Your Parents Well” recently published in Teacher Magazine. For more information, go to: http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2006/12/01/03parents.h18.html?clean=true.

Strengthening Family Resilience

Now in a fully revised, updated, and expanded second edition, this clinical resource and text presents Froma Walsh's family resilience framework for intervention and prevention with clients dealing with adversity. The author describes key processes in resilience for practitioners to target and facilitate. Guidelines and case illustrations address a wide range of challenges: sudden crisis, trauma, and loss; disruptive transitions, such as job loss, divorce, and migration; persistent multi-stress conditions of serious illness or poverty; and barriers to success for at-risk youth. New chapters present resilience-oriented approaches to recovery from major disasters and demonstrate community-based and international applications. For more information, click here.

Effective Strategies for Preventing Child Maltreatment

For the new publication, The Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention, Chapin Hall Research Fellow Deborah Daro was co-author of a chapter that highlights interventions that have demonstrated a reduction in child abuse and neglect reports, and other improved child safety outcomes. Effective and promising strategies citied in the chapter include home visitation programs, child assault prevention efforts, family support efforts, and early intervention programs. To read more about the chapter, “Interventions to Prevent Child Maltreatment,” and order the book, The Handbook of Injury and Violence Prevention, go to: http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1442.

New Downloadable Book Shows Millions of American Children at Risk

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the U.S. does not do well by millions of its children. In comparison to other rich democracies, we have the poorest standing on: infant mortality; teen birth rates; health insurance coverage; child abuse deaths; and child poverty. Drawing from mostly official federal data, “Homeland Insecurity” argues that the extreme conservative ideology that has dominated official Washington for two decades has failed to address the needs of millions of children. The book dispels the two principal myths upon which conservative ideology is based-that government itself is the enemy, and that taxes are evil. It compares state data on children and shows that the states which most strongly embrace anti-tax/anti-government ideology produce the worst outcomes for children. “The states with the best outcomes generally tax themselves at higher level,” said Michael R. Petit, “and therefore are able to make greater investments in children.” “Our children deserve better than this,” says Petit, president of Every Child Matters and author of Homeland Insecurity…American Children at Risk, a newly published book that can be downloaded free at http://www.everychildmatters.org/.

Child Neglect: A Guide for Prevention Assessment, and Intervention

Part of the Children’s Bureau’s Child Abuse and Neglect User Manual Series, the Child Neglect manual describes the root causes, symptoms, and consequences of neglect, as well as interdisciplinary ways to prevent both its occurrence and recurrence. For more information, go to: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/neglect/neglect.pdf.

Leadership Spokane Recruitment

Since 1982 Leadership Spokane has provided excellence in community leadership development. Leadership Spokane ensures that the region has a corps of professionally trained leaders committed to making Spokane County a good and just place for all its citizens to work and make a home. Annually, they select 45 to 50 individuals for this intensive 10-month training program. Leadership Spokane is a great tool for educating new leaders about what is going on in Spokane and why. Participants strengthen existing leadership skills and bring back valuable and immediately applicable skills to their work and community outreach. They study the community’s infrastructure and meet and work with the region’s most knowledgeable and civic-minded individuals. The networks they form and the relationships that stem from the Leadership Spokane experience benefit them lifelong, both professionally and personally. Applications are due on March 30^th. For more information, go to: http://www.leadershipspokane.org/. Scholarships are available.

Help Child Caregivers Claim Tax Benefits!

February 21^st, 6:30 pm until 8:30 pm

Learn more about the earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC) from the National Foster Parent Association, Foster Parent Association of Washington State & Washington Federation of State Employees. Families raising children may qualify for as much as $4,536 in EITC. There are also added bonuses available through the CTC, and foster families are also eligible. In addition, relative caregivers can claim the credits. Don’t let anyone miss out on these benefits. At this meeting, learn how to promote the credits. For more information or to RSVP, go to: http://www.nfpainc.org/ or contact Vergie Burks at (206) 709-2140.

Reading Rainbow Contest

Attention young authors and illustrators! KCTS is looking for original stories from children in kindergarten through third grades for the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. Their goal is to promote reading and encourage self expression in children. And, to reward this effort, each child that enters receives a certificate of achievement signed by LeVar Burton. Eight local winners will receive special prize packages and will be invited to KCTS to record their store for broadcast. For local classrooms that participate, teachers will also receive Reading Rainbow books and videos as a token of appreciation. KCTS accepts entries from children in Washington State and British Columbia. Entries should be postmarked to KCTS by Friday, March 16. To obtain an entry form or download our contest guide visit: http://www.kctskids.org/.