Canadian Social Research Links

Children, Families and Youth  
International Links

[kids]

Updated August 20, 2011
Page révisée le 20 août 2011

Sites de recherche sociale au Canada

Les enfants, les familles et les jeunes  
Ressources internationales


[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

Related Canadian Social Research Links pages:
- Early Learning and Child Care in Canada - Canadian NGO Links
- Early Learning and Child Care in Canada - Canadian Govt. Links
- Children, Families and Youth - Canadian Government Links
-
Children, Families and Youth - Canadian NGO Links
- Children's Rights Links page - incl. Canada’s National Plan of Action for Children, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (Special Session on the Rights of the Child), and related sites
- Unofficial Social Union Links Page (national)
- Unofficial Provincial/Territorial Social Union Links Page
See these related outside sites also...
- The (official) Social Union website
- The National Child Benefit website

 

POVERTY DISPATCH - U.S.
(this link takes you to the current issue of the Dispatch)
- from the Institute for Research on Poverty - U. of Wisconsin
- dozens of
links to full-text articles in the U.S. media (mostly daily newspapers) on poverty, health, welfare reform, education, hunger, etc.
- includes a link to older issues back to 2006 of the Dispatch and a search feature.


Links are added to this page in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top...

Recession Increases Number of Children Living in Low-Income Families by 7% to 31 Million
7.8 Million Children Lived With at Least One Unemployed Parent in 2010
(PDF - 258K, 3 pages)
News Release
August 17, 2011
Baltimore, Md., Aug. 17, 2011 – According to data released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its annual KIDS COUNT® Data Book, over the last decade there has been a significant decline in economic well-being for low income children and families. The official child poverty rate, which is a conservative measure of economic hardship, increased 18 percent between 2000 and 2009, essentially returning to the same level as the early 1990s.

2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book - main page
- scroll down the page for links to:
* Full report (PDF, 9MB, 88 pages)
* Data Book national and state profiles
* Summary of findings
(PDF - 1.4MB, 28 pages)
* Definitions and sources for 10 key indicators
* National and State News Releases
* National Fact Sheet
(PDF - 271K, 4 pages)
* View Media Webinar
* [Essay] America’s Children, America’s Challenge:
Promoting Opportunity for the Next Generation
(PDF - 2.7MB, 24 pages) --- this essay "... explores how kids and families are faring in the wake of the recession and why it’s important to help children reach their full potential and become part of a robust economy and society."

NOTE : At the bottom of the 2011 data book home page, you can create custom data reports on the following:
*
Overall Rank * Data for Your State * Compare Data Across States * Indicator Briefs * Campaign Partners * Auxiliary Tables

[ Earlier editions of the data book ]

Source:
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. It was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of UPS, and his siblings, who named the Foundation in honor of their mother. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.

Recent report from
The Children's Defense Fund (CDF):

The State of America's Children® 2011 Report
CDF’s new report The State of America's Children 2011 finds children have fallen further behind in many of the leading indicators over the past year as the country slowly climbs out of the recession. This is a comprehensive compilation and analysis of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on population, poverty, family structure, family income, health, nutrition, early childhood development, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and gun violence.

Click the link above and then scroll down the next page
to a collection of links organized under the following headings:

* Child Population * Child Poverty * Family Structure * Family Income * Child Health * Child Hunger and Nutrition * Early Childhood * Education * Child Welfare * Juvenile Justice * Gun Violence

Download the complete report (PDF - 3.5MB, 206 pages)

How much do you know about the state of America's children?
Take this short quiz.

U.S. State Data on Children

--------------------

Related article
in the Huffington Post:

The State of America's Children 2011
By Marian Wright Edelman (President, Children's Defense Fund)
Posted July 15, 2011
The Children’s Defense Fund has just released a new report, The State of America’s Children® 2011, which paints a disturbing portrait of child needs across our country. With rampant unemployment, housing foreclosures, homelessness, hunger, and massive looming federal and state budget cuts, children’s well-being is in great jeopardy. One in five children is poor and children are our nation’s poorest age group. Child poverty increased almost 10 percent between 2008 and 2009, the largest single year increase since data were first collected. Fifteen and a half million children are adrift in a sea of poverty, and every 32 seconds another child is born poor. As our country struggles to climb out of the recession millions of our children are falling further behind
Source of this article:
Huffington Post

Children's Defense Fund
The Children's Defense Fund is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for over 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation.

[U.S.]
Kids’ Share 2011: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2010

July 25, 2011
By Julia B. Isaacs et al.
This fifth annual Kids’ Share report marks a milestone in the analysis of federal expenditures on children because available data now span 50 years, from 1960 to 2010. During the past half-century, the size and composition of expenditures on children has changed considerably. Back in 1960, the largest federal contributions to families due to the presence of children came from the dependent exemption, Social Security, and education. Fifty years later, the dependent exemption has much less relative value, and Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and the child tax credit have become the three largest federal expenditures on children.

Complete report (PDF - 2MB, 44 pages)
(...) Only once in the past 50 years has spending on children declined as much as it is projected to decline in the next five years. Unless priorities shift, children are not expected to benefit from any of the projected growth in outlaysover the next decade. The future for children’s spending is particularly difficult to predict this year, given
current policy debates about federal spending and revenues .
[Excerpt from the conclusion, p. 30]

Data Appendix (PDF - 1.2MB, 73 pages)
- includes an overview of the three-step methodology for estimating federal expenditures in each year. First, we define spending on children and identify programs with children’s spending. Second, we describe the process of collecting expenditure data for the more than 100 programs and tax provisions included in our report, as well as the sources for these data. Third, we explain how we calculate the share of these expenditures that go to children. In addition, we explain the data and assumptions used to generate projections, briefly describe the sources for our state and local estimates, and specify the ways in which our methodology has changed from previous Kids’ Share reports. In the second section of this document, we present a summary table of expenditures in 2010 detailing the programs included in our analysis, estimated expenditures, and the share of the expenditure going to children.

Source:
Brookings Institution
and
Urban Institute

July 8, 2011
America's Children : Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011
- main page of the report, includes the following table of contents:
* Introduction
* Demographic Background
* Family and Social Environment
* Economic Circumstances
* Health Care
* Physical Environment and Safety
* Behavior
* Education
* Health
* Special Feature: Adoption
* America's Children at a Glance
* Forum Agencies
* List of Tables
* List of Figures
* Data Source Descriptions
* Printer-friendly PDF version of 2011

Federal report shows drop in adolescent birth rate
Annual statistics compilation notes increases in 8th grade drug use, child poverty
Press Release
July 8, 2011
The adolescent birth rate declined for the second consecutive year, preterm births declined for the third consecutive year, adolescent injury deaths declined, and fewer 12th graders binge drank, according to the federal government's annual statistical report on the well-being of the nation's children and youth. However, a higher proportion of 8th graders used illicit drugs, more children were likely to live in poverty, and fewer children were likely to live with at least one parent working year round, full time, according to the report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2011. The report was compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a working group of 22 federal agencies that collect, analyze, and convey data on issues related to children and families. The report uses the most recently available major federal statistics on children and youth to measure family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

Source:
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
The Forum is a working group of Federal agencies that collect, analyze, and report data on issues related to children and families. The Forum has partners from 22 Federal agencies as well as partners in private research organizations. America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being is the Forum's signature annual report.


Key Resource for U.S. State Information on Low-Income Benefit Programs!

Key Low-Income Benefit Programs - by state
Updated June 29, 2011
HTML version
PDF version (329K, 42 pages)
[TIP: PDF files are better in some respects, but in this case, the content of the HTML link is periodically updated; the PDF isn't.
If you choose to download the PDF, be sure to save the link to the HTML version and check it from time to time to ensure that you have the latest information.]

- incl. links to information in each U.S. state (total of 400+ links) about the five main state-administered low-income benefit programs:
* SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps)
* Medicaid
* SCHIP
(Children’s Health Insurance Program)
* TANF
(Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)
* child care.

"There is significant variation between what online information is provided across states. Some provide a simple description of each program on their agencies websites. Others offer additional information, such as application forms, eligibility screening tools, and policy and procedure manuals used by state agency caseworkers. A few states allow individuals to apply for certain types of benefits online."

Recommended resource!!
This collection of links offers direct access to information (FOR EACH STATE] about the five programs mentioned above under the following headings:
* Policy Manuals and Materials
* Descriptive Program and Eligibility Information
* Applications for Assistance
* Benefit Screener/Calculator and Online Applications
* Program Data

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

Report Card 9 - The Children Left Behind
Rich countries letting poorest children fall, says new report
(PDF - 280, 3 pages)
News Release
3 December 2010
Florence-Helsinki-Geneva
A landmark report by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre has found that children in many wealthy European nations and the United States suffer greater inequality than children in numerous industrialized nations. Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind ranks, for the first time, 24 OECD countries (including Canada) in terms of equality in health, education and material well-being for their children. The report looks at a particular aspect of disparity – bottom-end inequality – and asks how far behind are rich nations allowing their most disadvantaged children to fall.

Innocenti Report Card 9: The Children Left Behind - main product page
- includes links to the news release and the report itself, along with press materials, an opinion piece, some videos and more. I've copied some of those links here; click the main product page link to see the rest.

The report:

The Children Left Behind:
A league table of inequality in child
well-being in the world’s rich countries
(PDF - 1.5MB, 40 pages)

Key Findings (PDF - 278K, 5 pages)

[ Earlier Innocenti report cards ]

Source:
Innocenti Research Centre
The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy for children worldwide.
[ UNICEF ]

----------------------------------

From UNICEF Canada:

The Children Left Behind : The Canadian perspective
* How does Canada measure up?
Overall, Canada is in the middle of the group of wealthy nations in terms of equality in child well-being, similar to less affluent countries like Poland and Portugal
* A closer look at Canada's children
A large gap leads not only to squandered individual lives but also to poorer average levels of well being for all children. The heaviest costs of falling behind are paid by the child.
* What Canada should do
Among the practical and affordable steps Canada can take now that would make a real and lasting difference for children, UNICEF Canada recommends the establishment of a National Children’s Commissioner to ensure the best interests of children are considered in policy decisions that affect them, and services and policies affecting children are coordinated across government so all Canadian children have equitable access to and benefit from them.

Sign the petition now and say our children matter
- demand a National Children's Commissioner

Source:
UNICEF Canada

Related media link:

Canada's poorest children fall behind
By Norma Greenaway
December 3, 2010
Compared to other rich countries, Canada has a mediocre record of keeping the wellbeing of its poorest children from falling behind their better off counterparts, says a UNICEF report being released today. Canada placed 17th among 24 industrialized countries in terms of the material well-being enjoyed by its poorest children, ninth in terms of their health and third in education, according to the report.
Source:
Ottawa Citizen

World Forum 2010 - International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW)
November 8-11, New York City
International delegates and child welfare experts will gather at the IBM Learning Center in Palisades, New York this November 8 to 11 for WorldForum 2010, the 21st annual summit of the International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW). This year’s theme, A World Fit for Children: Advancing the Global Movement, sets the stage for 500 delegates from 40 nations to take stock of current successes and obstacles; to share cutting edge research, innovative solutions, and best practices; and to plan for future action.

* Agenda

* Speaker Biographies
---
Estela Barnes de Carlotto - President of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Argentina
--- Lilliam Barrios-Paoli - Commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging
--- Dr. Susan Lynn Bissell, PhD - Associate Director, Chief, Child Protection, Programmes UNICEF
--- Gladys Carrión, Esq., Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children & Family Services
--- Djibril Diallo, PhD - Senior Advisor to the Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
--- Priscilla Star Diaz - one of the stars of the hit series The Electric Company on PBS Kids Go
--- Gord Mackintosh - Minister of Family Services and Consumer Affairs, Manitoba
--- Stephen W. Nicholas, MD, Founder and Director, Columbia University International Family AIDS Program, professor of pediatrics and public health
--- Cheryl Perera - Founder and President of OneChild
--- Victoria Rowell - New York Times Bestselling Author, Actress and Humanitarian
--- Bryan Samuels - US Dept. of Health and Human Services-Commissioner, Administration on Children, Youth and Families
---
Marta Santos Pais - Special Representative of the UN, Secretary-General on Violence against Children

Registration Details

YouthForum - A parallel forum for young people will focus on the participation of youth in the welfare process.

Examining Food Insecurity
Among Children in the United States

August 2010

Excerpt
from the full report:

Fourteen million children live in poor families (that is, families with income below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four in 2009). There is a wide body of research documenting the importance of family income for children’s health and well-being. Yet, research suggests that families with income twice the poverty threshold experience as many material hardships as poor families, such as food insecurity, inadequate housing, and insufficient health care. These findings are alarming and underscore the degree to which income-based measures of impoverishment mask experiences with material deprivation that are widespread and transcend the standard thresholds that define poverty.
- includes an 18-point food insecurity checklist
[e.g., In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)]

Complete report:

Who Are America’s Poor Children?
Examining Food Insecurity Among Children in the United States
(PDF - 859K. 16 pages)
By Vanessa R. Wight, Kalyani Thampi, and Jodie Briggs

Publication Date: August 2010
The focus of this report is on one type of material hardship – food insecurity – highlighting an important, but sometimes overlooked, dimension of impoverishment.

Also by the same
authors, same release date:

Basic Facts About Food Insecurity
Among Children in the United States, 2008
(PDF - 1.1MB, 8 pages)
Authors: Vanessa R. Wight and Kalyani Thampi
Publication Date: August 2010
This report is part of the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Who Are America’s Poor Children series. Estimates, unless otherwise noted, were prepared by Vanessa R. Wight and are based on the U.S. Current Population Survey, Food Security Supplement, December 2008. The food security supplement measures food security status at the household level.

Source:
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income families and children.

Related NCCP links:

Low-income Children in the United States
National and State Trend Data, 1998-2008
(PDF - 930K, 60 pages)
By Michelle Chau
November 2009
After nearly a decade of decline, the number of children living in low-income families has increased significantly since 2000. This data book provides national and 50-state trend data on the characteristics of low-income children over the past decade: parental education, parental employment, marital status, family structure, race and ethnicity, age distribution, parental nativity, home ownership, residential mobility, type of residential area, and region of residence.

The most current year of data can also be accessed at www.nccp.org—see NCCP’s 50-State Demographic Profiles or build custom tables using NCCP’s 50-State Demographics Wizard. For a discussion of these data and selected policy implications, see NCCP’s fact sheets on low-income children, which are updated annually.

More NCCP resources on the topic of poverty

Ten Important Questions About Child Poverty and Family Economic Hardship

NCCP Fact Sheets

2010 Kids Count Data Book <==================links to 16 related articles (child poverty, child welfare, etc.)

Source:
July 29 Poverty Dispatch
[
Poverty Dispatch (U.S.) ]
- the content of this link changes several times a week
- scan of U.S. web-based news items dealing with topics such as poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.

Marriage and Family Resources
Links to 50 online resources - mostly American, but definitely relevant for Canadian social researchers - on marriage and family life.
The list covers a wide range of topics and philosophies from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to Marriage Equality USA (same-sex marriage).

Sample resources:
* Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership: Offers training, education, and research on abstinence for teenagers and parents to lead to healthy marriages.
* ChildCare.gov: Comprehensive resource covering: health, nutrition, safety, and development of children.
* Children's Defense Fund: Working to prevent poverty, neglect, and abuse among children and families.
* Council on Contemporary Families: Examine the cultural, social, and legal aspects of modern families; with fact sheets on same sex marriage, single fathers, and marriages among older adults.
* AdoptUsKids: Connecting families with children needing to be adopted or placed in foster care across the United States.
* Australian Institute of Family Studies: Publications and research dedicated to family wellbeing in Australia.
* Center for Disease Control and Prevention: The National Survey of Family Growth section, offers recent information on family life covering everything from pregnancy, marriage, and contraceptive use.
* Family Research Council: Focuses on the sanctity of the institute of marriage and family from a Christian worldview.
* Grandparenting: Showcases the importance of grandparents to the family structure and guidance for grandparents raising grandchildren.
* Marriage Equality USA: Organization devoted to promoting and advocating the benefits of civil marriage for same sex couples.
* National Domestic Violence Hotline: A resource for families looking to escape or prevent abuse.
* National Fatherhood Initiative: Equipping fathers with the skills needed to be involved in their children's lives.
* National Network for Child Care: This extensive list of research based articles and resources covers information on child development, special needs children, and finding caregivers.
* National Stepfamily Resource Center: Provides education, research, facts, and tips for dealing with blended families.

Growing up in Australia 2008-09
04 December, 2009
The study collects a range of information about children and their families including children’s academic ability, their health and emotional wellbeing, parenting, family functioning, early childhood care, and education and schooling. Since the study began in 2004, around 10,000 children and families have taken part in three main waves of interviews and three mail-out surveys.
[ complete report - PDF ]
Source:
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

A picture of Australia's children 2009
Published 17 June 2009
This report delivers the latest information on how, as a nation, we are faring according to key indicators of child health, development and wellbeing. Death rates among children have fallen dramatically, and most children are physically active and meet minimum standards for reading and numeracy. But it is not all good news. Rates of severe disability and diabetes are on the rise. Too many children are overweight or obese, or are at risk of homelessness, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children fare worse on most key indicators.
Source:
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)

Early childhood education and care : Key lessons from research for policy makers, (PDF - 549K, 72 pages)
June 2009
This report is a review of the international evidence about the social benefits of early childhood education and care (ECEC). It provides an analytic overview of the various rationales that drive the development of ECEC services. It summarizes existing knowledge from research and highlights policy lessons and measures that are shown to contribute to successful ECEC policy development and implementation.
- incl. references to Canada & U.S.
Source:
Nesse network (Network of Experts in Social Sciences of Education and Training)
[ European Commission - Brussels ]

"Child poverty rates in Canada in 2005 were at the higher end of the OECD,
with 15% of children living in poor households versus an OECD average of 12.4%.
"

New from the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD):

Spend early on children, says OECD
News Release
1 September 2009
Governments should invest more money on children in the first six years of their lives to reduce social inequality and help all children, especially the most vulnerable, have happier lives, according to the OECD’s first-ever report on child well-being in its 30 member countries. Doing Better for Children shows that average public spending by OECD countries up to age six accounts for only a quarter of all child spending. But a better balance of spending between the “Dora the Explorer” years of early childhood and the teenage “Facebook” years would help improve the health, education and well-being of all children in the long term, according to the report.

Doing Better for Children
This link takes you to the main page of this OECD report.
I don't generally promote books for sale, but this report is worth spotlighting because it contains a lot of free resources, such as the complete content of two chapters and links to complementary info and sources, along with highlights for 12 countries (including Canada). Check it out - you may find that it's worth the $29 (E-book) or $42 (paper copy).

Table of Contents (PDF - 104K, 4 pages)

Comparative Child Well-being across the OECD (PDF - 1.1MB, 43 pages)
Chapter Two presents a child well-being framework and compares outcome indicators for children in OECD countries across six dimensions: material well-being; housing and environment; education; health; risk behaviours; and quality of school life.

Doing Better for Children: The Way Forward (PDF - 206K, 29 pages)
Chapter 7 offers a range of policy recommendations for improving child well-being.

Doing Better for Children
Country Highlights : Canada
(PDF - 117K, 1 page)
2009
"Canada receives solid marks in “Doing Better for Children”, the OECD’s first report on the well-being of children. But there are areas which may need policy attention to improve the lives of Canadian children, including reducing child poverty and youth risk-taking, and ensuring timely immunisations. (...) Child poverty rates in Canada in 2005 were at the higher end of the OECD, with 15% of children living in poor households versus an OECD average of 12.4%." [Bolding added]

OECD links to child well-being research related websites
- incl. dozens of links to : International Organisations - European Organisations - NGOs and International Research Projects - Government & Ministries - Statistical Offices - Universities

Related link:

High spending fails to improve child welfare, says OECD report
UK's levels of teenage pregnancy, drunkenness and unemployment are among highest out of 30 countries
1 September 2009
Source:
The Guardian (U.K)

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009 continues a series of annual reports to the Nation on conditions affecting children in the United States. Three demographic background measures and 40 selected indicators describe the population of children and depict child well-being in the areas of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. This year's report has a special feature on children with special health care needs.
[ Highlights ]
Source:
America's Children Reports
[ Childstats.gov - the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (working group of Federal agencies that collect, analyze, and report data on issues related to children and families. The Forum has partners from 22 Federal agencies as well as partners in private research organizations) ]

Related link:

Child Poverty Rising, Report Says
July 11, 2009
A growing number of American children are living in poverty and with unemployed parents, and are facing the threat of hunger, according to a federal report released yesterday.
According to the report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 18 percent of all children 17 and younger were living in poverty in 2007, up from 17 percent in 2006. The percentage of children with at least one parent working full time was 77 percent in 2007, down from 78 percent in 2006. Those living in households where parents described children as being hungry, having skipped a meal or having gone without eating for an entire day increased from 0.6 percent in 2006 to 0.9 percent in 2007, the report said.
Source:
Washington Post

UNICEF Canada Report on Aboriginal Children’s Health Shows Disparities
Between Aboriginal Children and National Averages a Major Children’s Right Challenge

Health of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children Well Below National Averages
News Release
June 24, 2009
Toronto - UNICEF Canada is marking the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child with the release today of a report called Aboriginal Children’s Health: Leaving No Child Behind- the Canadian Supplement to State of the World’s Children 2009. UNICEF Canada partnered with the National Collaborating Centre on Aboriginal Health to produce the report, which examines the health of Aboriginal children in Canada through the perspectives of national experts and analysis of existing data. The report concludes that health disparities between First Nations, Inuit and Métis children relative to national averages is one of the most significant children’s rights challenges facing our nation.

Aboriginal Children’s Health: Leaving No Child Behind:
The Canadian Supplement to State of the World’s Children 2009
* Complete report (PDF - 6.6MB, 61 pages)
* Summary (PDF - 379K, 4 pages)
* Highlights (HTML)

[ Other UNICEF Canada Publications ]

Source:
UNICEF Canada
Since 1955, UNICEF Canada has grown into a recognized national symbol for the world’s children and the most visible United Nations presence across the country. UNICEF Canada’s mandate is to raise funds in support of UNICEF’s work for children in more than 150 countries and territories and build awareness among Canadians about the issues facing the world’s children.

---

Related link from UNICEF:

The State of the World’s Children, 2009:
Maternal and Newborn Health

January 2009
"The State of the World's Children 2009 examines critical issues in maternal and newborn health, underscoring the need to establish a comprehensive continuum of care for mothers, newborns and children. The report outlines the latest paradigms in health programming and policies for mothers and newborns, and explores policies, programmes and partnerships aimed at improving maternal and neonatal health. Africa and Asia are a key focus for this report, which complements the previous year's issue on child survival."

[ Previous editions of The State of the World's Children reports - back to 1996]

Source:
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Related link:

Aboriginal children's health below national averages: UNICEF
By Amy Minsky, Canwest News Service
The infant mortality rate across Canadian First Nations reserves is up to seven times higher than among the general population, according to a report released Wednesday from UNICEF Canada. And between 2002 and 2006, the tuberculosis rate among the Inuit was 90 times higher than in the non-Aboriginal population in Canada, the study said. The report's authors said this disparity is a symptom of a larger problem — not all Canadian children are treated equally when it comes to health care.
Source:
Canada.com

International Day of Families, 15 May 2009
Theme: "Mothers and Families: Challenges in a Changing World"

Message of the Secretary General (PDF 19K, 1 page)
15 May 2009

Official Documents on the Family
- incl. links to Secretary General Reports and General Assembly Resolutions from 1987 to 2007

Source:
United Nations Programme on the Family
The United Nations Programme on the Family is the focal point within the United Nations system on matters related to family.

Related link:

May 15 - International Day of Families (PDF - 128K, 1 page)
During the past century, countries around the world have seen remarkable changes in family structure and family dynamics. Whether it is fertility rates, trends in marriage and divorce, or new forms of co-habitation and household living arrangements, international comparisons help illuminate our similarities and differences.
Source:
Fascinating Families (fact sheets)
[ Vanier Institute of the Family ]

--------------------------------------------

Just released [11 Dec 08] by the
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
:

The child care transition: A league table of
early childhood education and care in economically advanced countries

[including Canada]
Innocenti Report Card #8
By Peter Adamson drawing on research by John Bennett
Publication date 11 Dec 08

* The child care transition 1(report) - (PDF - 602K, 40 pages)
* The child care transition (summary) - (PDF - this link was not working on Dec. 11)
* Canada's status at a glance
"(...) Canada invests about 0.2 per cent GDP in early child care and education (for 0-6 years) according to the OECD Canada Review (2006). Investing in quality services available to all children who need them would cost about 1 per cent of GDP."

Background information:
* Early childhood services in the OECD countries
* Benchmarks for early childhood services in OECD countries

Related resources:
* Press releases - UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (incl. summary, other press material, background papers, etc.)

--------------------------------------------

Response from UNICEF Canada:

UNICEF Canada calls for measurable standards,
guidelines, appropriate funding for child care, and solutions by 2009

UNICEF Canada press release
Publication date 11 Dec 08

--------------------------------------------

Opposition parties respond to UNICEF report card
*
New Democrat Olivia Chow to send UNICEF card to Harper to highlight report of Canada missing the mark in childcare. 11 Dec 08
* UN report shows Conservatives’ failed childcare strategy: Canada ranks last among OECD countries. Liberal Party of Canada, 11 Dec 08
Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)
CRRU focuses on research and policy resources in the context of a high quality system of early childhood education and child care in Canada
NOTE: the links above are from the CRRU website, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre website and the UNICEF CAnada website

--------------------------------------------

From CTV.ca :

Canada tied for last in UNICEF child care ranking
December 11 2008
Canada is tied for last place in a UNICEF ranking of the early child-care services offered by 25 developed countries. Canada failed to meet nine out of 10 of the proposed benchmarks UNICEF used to rank the countries. The 10 proposed benchmarks included parental leave of one year at 50 per cent or more of salary, a national plan with priority for the disadvantaged, and child poverty rates of less than 10 per cent.

Child Development Index
December 2008
Save the Children UK has just launched a ground-breaking publication - The Child Development Index. This is the first-ever global index comparing countries' performance on child well-being. It uses child-specific indicators in health, education and nutrition to rank countries in every region of the world. It is a vital tool for policy-making and development analysis worldwide.

The Child Development Index:
Holding governments to account for children’s wellbeing
(PDF - 227K, 30 pages)
December 2008
"(...) we are highlighting three areas that warrant much more sustained attention and decisive action on the part of national governments, the international donor community, development
NGOs, and the private sector : child malnutrition, equitable development and women’s education and empowerment."
- Canada is third-best of 137 countries, after Japan and Spain.

Source:
Save the Children UK
We’re the world’s independent children’s rights organisation. We’re outraged that millions of children are still denied proper healthcare, food, education and protection and we’re determined to change this. Save the Children UK is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, transforming children’s lives in more than 100 countries.

What's new from the Canadian Council on Social Development:

New report says NAFTA ignores economic well-being of our kids ( PDF - 74K, 2 pages)
Media Release
September 17, 2008

The Economic Well-being of Children
in Canada, the United States and Mexico
(PDF - 1.2MB, 59 pages)
- examines a range of different measures to determine the economic security of children living in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Source:
Growing Up in North America series

Related links:

Children in North America Project website
The Children in North America Project aims to highlight the conditions and well-being of children and youth in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Through a series of indicator reports, the project hopes to build a better understanding of how our children are faring and the opportunities and challenges they face looking to the future.

Partners in the project:

Canadian Council on Social Development
The Annie E. Casey Foundation (U.S.)
Population Reference Bureau (U.S.)
Red por los Derechos de la Infancia (Mexico)

The Economics of Early Childhood Policy (U.S.)
http://rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP227/
[ News Release - May 12, 2008 ]
What, pray tell, might the so-called "dismal science" of economics have to say about public investment in early childhood programs? Quite a bit, as it turns out. This report from the RAND Corporation takes an economic perspective on such investments, and its intent is to provide policymakers with a primer about "how economic analysis can help set agendas for early childhood policy and identify the economics benefits of targeting certain groups for help." Released in May 2008, the 48-page report draws on concepts including human capital theory and monetary "payoffs" from investments in early childhood programs. The report is divided into four chapters, including "Human Capital Theory" and "Implications for Early Childhood Policy". It's quite a compelling read, and it will be of interest to a broad range of persons working in fields such as early childhood development, economics, and public policy.
Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008.

Related links:

RAND Corporation - home page
* Child Policy - related research and reports

RAND Corporation - from Wikipedia

The State of the World's Children 2008
News Release
[GENEVA, 22 January 2008] – Strategies that can help reduce the number of children who die before their fifth birthday were highlighted today, at the launch of UNICEF’s flagship report - The State of the World’s Children 2008: Child Survival – in Geneva. While recent data show a fall in the rate of under-five mortality, the State of the World’s Children Report 2008 goes beyond the numbers to suggest actions and initiatives that should lead to further progress.

Complete report:

State of the World's Children 2008 (PDF file - 4.3MB, 164 pages)

Source:
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

What's new from CLASP (Center for Law and Policy - U.S.):

January 11, 2008
- this is a link to the CLASP What's New page; click the link if you wish to access any of the content below:
*
Supporting Families, Nurturing Young Children: Early Head Start Programs in 2006
*
Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care: Policy Framework Summary
*
Child Care and Development Block Grant Participation in 2006
*
Improving Access to Child Care and Early Education for Immigrant Families: A State Policy Checklist
*
Selected State and Local Policies to Support Immigrant and Limited English Proficient (LEP) Early Care and Education Providers
*
Campaign for Youth Mobilization Letter
*
CLASP’s Breaking Down Barriers National Summit on Improving Access to Early Care and Education for Immigrant Families

Source:
Center for Law and Social Policy
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) is a national nonprofit that works to improve the lives of low-income people. CLASP’s mission is to improve the economic security, educational and workforce prospects, and family stability of low-income parents, children, and youth and to secure equal justice for all.

New from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development:

Starting Strong Network website launched - January 4, 2008
Starting Strong Network website reports on network initiatives to develop effective and efficient policies for early childhood care and education.

Starting Strong Network
The Network has received a mandate from the OECD Education Policy Committee to assist member countries to develop effective and efficient policies for early childhood care and education.
[ Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD ]
Related links:
OECD Early Childhood Education and Care Home Page

Starting Strong curricula and pedagogies in early childhood education and care: Five curriculum outlines
Report by OECD of four well-known ECEC curricula including Experiential Education by Professor Ferre Laevers.

Improved childcare policies needed to achieve better work/life balance, says OECD
News Release
November 29, 2007
Getting family-friendly policies right will help reduce poverty, promote child development, enhance equity between men and women and stem the fall in birth-rates, according to a new OECD report. Babies and Bosses, Reconciling Work and Family Life compares the different approaches that the 30 OECD countries take to help parents balance their work and family commitments.

Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life:
A Synthesis of Findings for OECD Countries

Babies and Bosses (Vol. 4): Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom
Finding a suitable work/family life balance is a challenge that all parents face. Many parents and children in Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are happy with their existing work and care outcomes. However, many others feel seriously constrained in one way or another, and their personal well-being suffers as a consequence.

Key Outcomes of Canada compared to OECD average

Selected Tables and Charts (Excel format) from Babies and Bosses (Vol. 4): Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom

--------------

This book is part of the Babies and Bosses series, consisting of comparative studies of work and family reconciliation policies.
To get a more comprehensive picture of reconciliation policies, you can consult the first three volumes:
- Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands (volume 1) , which was published in 2002
- Austria, Ireland and Japan (volume 2), which was published in 2003
- New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland (volume 3), which was released in 2004

--------------

Main OECD Social Policy Activities in 2006-2007
- click the link above for info about the activities listed below (incl. links to many key documents), or click a link below
* Family Policies (employment-oriented)
* Making Work Pay (ongoing)
* Policies to support and integrate the disabled of working age
* Pension system monitoring (ongoing)
* Development of social indicators
* Income Distribution and Poverty

Source:
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Most Low-Income Parents Are Employed
By Ayana Douglas-Hall and Michelle Chau
Fact sheet
November 2007
HTML version
PDF version
(132K, 3 pages)
Despite low levels of unemployment,1 average household income has declined since 2000.2 The number of children living in low-income families has continued to rise. Programs that provide supports for low-income, working parents can increase income and child well-being. The majority of children in low-income families have parents who are employed full-time and year-round.

Source:
National Center for Children in Poverty

2007 Child Well-Being Index (CWI) Special Focus Report on International Comparisons
April 2007 (Published July 19, 2007)
This analysis compares the United States to the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These Anglophone countries share a common language, similar cultural heritage, as well as comparable political and economic cultures. The report assembles 19 key international indicators of child well-being within seven domains of social life.

Child Well-Being Index 2007 Report (PDF file - 204K, 21 pages)

Key Indicator Figures by Race/Ethnicity (Powerpoint presentation - 1MB)

Indicator Figure List Presentation (Powerpoint presentation - 4.9MB)

Child Well-Being Index 2007 Presentation (Powerpoint presentation - 803K)

Earlier editions of this report - back to 2004

Source:
Child Well-Being Index
[ Foundation for Child Development ]

Related Web/News/Blog links:

Google Search Results Links - always current results!
Using the following search terms (without the quote marks):
"Child Well-Being Index, Foundation for Child Development"
Web search results page
News search results page
(no results)
Blog Search Results page
Source:
Google.ca

Investing in Our Children: The U.S. Can Learn From the U.K.
By Jane Waldfogel
July 30, 2007
The former and newly installed British prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, are longstanding Labour Party rivals, yet they were able to unite in what history may one day view as their most important domestic achievement—a commitment to end child poverty in the United Kingdom.
(...)
Although most of the focus in the United Kingdom is on relative poverty, the government also tracks its progress using an absolute poverty line, similar to the one the United States uses. On this measure, the United Kingdom has reduced poverty by a stunning 50 percent since the start of its anti-poverty campaign—reducing the numbers of children in absolute poverty before housing costs from 3.4 million in 1999 to 1.6 million in 2006. From a U.S. vantage point, this is a remarkable achievement.
Source:
Center for American Progress

Noteworthy:

A Comparison of Child Benefit Packages in 22 Countries
October 2002
-
tax allowances, cash benefits, exemptions from charges, subsidies and services in kind, which assist parents with the costs of raising children.
- an investigation of variations in the structure and level of this package in 22 countries as at July 2001.
- includes Canada...
-Nine PDF files include the complete report (in two files), plus the table of contents, appendices, references, a list of other reports and a summary of the child benefit package for each of the 22 countries.
Source:
U.K. Department for Work and Pensions

-------------------------------------------

Ditto:

Federal Expenditures on Children: 1960-1997 - U.S.
April 2001
"This paper provides the most comprehensive examination ever made of trends in federal spending, including tax subsidies, on children. (...) Some 66 federal programs are classified within eight major budget categories: tax credits and exemptions (including the Earned Income Tax Credit and the dependent exemption), income security (including Aid to Families with Dependent Children), nutrition (including Food Stamps), health (including Medicaid), education, housing, social services, and training.1 Children are defined as individuals 18 years of age or younger." [Source: Executive Summary]
HTML version - includes the executive summary
PDF version (243K, 25 pages)
Source:
The Urban Institute

 

Costs of children (Australia)
Paul Henman, Richard Percival and Ann Harding, Matthew Gray
Posted July 31, 2007
Commissioned by the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support, this is a collection of three reports on the costs of children in Australian families: 'The estimated costs of children in Australian families in 2005–06'; 'Updated costs of children using Australian budget standards; and 'Costs of children and equivalence scales: a review of methodological issues and Australian estimates'.

Complete report:
HTML
PDF
(753K, 122 pages)

Related link:

Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support

Source:
Occasional Paper Series <=== links to 18 papers
[ Department of Families,
Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
- Australia ]

Find more from Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Find more articles on the topic Families and households
Find more articles on the topic Income, poverty and wealth
Browse the complete departmental publications list

2007 KIDS COUNT Data Book Shows Slipping Economic Conditions for Children,
Focuses on the Critical Importance of Lifelong Family Connections for Youth in Foster Care

News Release
July 25, 2007
BALTIMORE – National trends in child well-being taken together have improved slightly since 2000, according to a report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The 18th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book indicators show:
* Four areas of improvement: child death rate, teen birth rate, high school dropout rate, teens not in school and not working;
* Two areas of slight improvement: infant mortality rate, teen death rate; and
* Four areas have worsened: low-birthweight babies, children living in families where no parent has fulltime year-round employment, children in poverty, and children in single-parent families.

2007 KIDS COUNT main page - includes links to all related reports

Complete report (PDF file - 3.4MB, 196 pages)
Summary and Findings (PDF file - 505K, 28 pages)

State-Level Data Online
This system contains state-level data for over 100 measures of child well-being, including all the measures regularly used in our popular KIDS COUNT Data Book and The Right Start for America's Newborns. This easy-to-use, powerful online database allows you to generate custom reports for a geographic area (Profiles) or to compare geographic areas on a topic (Ranking, Maps, and Line Graphs).

Compare states by topic
- topics include : KIDS COUNT Data Book Indicators - RIGHT START Indicators - Children in Immigrant Families - Education - Employment and Income - Health - Health Insurance - Population and Family Characteristics - Poverty - Youth Risk Factors

Source:
Kids Count
KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the U.S. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.

[ Annie E. Casey Foundation
Founded in 1948, the primary mission of the Annie E. Casey Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. ]

One in Eight U.S. Households with Infants is Food Insecure
New Report Links Food Insecurity to Maternal Depression,
Poor Parenting, and Overweight Toddlers

Press Release
July 12, 2007
Washington, DC – One in eight U.S. households with infants (12.5 percent) reports being “food insecure”, according to a new analysis by Child Trends. “Food insecure” is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods.
- the brief also links food insecurity with maternal depression, poor parenting, and-paradoxically-overweight toddlers.

Related Research Briefing based on the report:

Food Insecurity and Overweight among Infants and
Toddlers: New Insights into a Troubling Linkage
(PDF file - 178K, 6 pages)
By Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Ph.D., Martha Zaslow, Ph.D., Randolph Cappsa , Ph.D., and Allison Horowitz, B.A.
July 2007
"(...) This Research Brief is based on a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Nutrition titled “Food Insecurity Works Through Depression, Parenting and Infant Feeding to Influence Overweight and Health in Toddlers,” co-authored by the same group as the research briefing."

Source:
Child Trends
Founded in 1979, Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center serving those dedicated to creating better lives for children and youth.

Related link from Child Trends:

Child Trends DataBank
"...the one-stop-shop for the latest national trends and research on over 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being, with new indicators added each month."
HINT: the best way to see the content in this databank is by clicking the "You may also search by: (Subgroup / Age / Alphabetically)" links immediately under the photos on the Child Trends home page.

State policies Ignore Research on Healthy Child Development:
Leading National Organization Releases Report on Policies for Young Children
(PDF file - 45K, 2 pages)
News Release
May 16, 2007
NEW YORK– In advance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s summit on early childhood development, the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), has released a new report, State Early Childhood Polices: Improving the Odds. The study finds unevenness and deficiencies across the 50 states in policies that affect the well-being and development of young children.

State Early Childhood Policies
Helene Stebbins and Jane Knitzer
June 2007
Executive Summary - HTML
Complete report (PDF file - 852K, 27 pages)
National Profile (PDF file - 418K, 6 pages)
Full Set of State Profiles (PDF file - 852K, 27 pages)
State Early Childhood Policy Profiles - HTML

Source:
National Center for Children in Poverty

State of the World's Mothers 2007:
Saving the Lives of Children Under 5

A Mothers Day Report Card: The Best And Worst Countries to Be a Mother
Sweden tops list, Niger ranks last, United States ranks 26th, tied with Hungary
May 8, 2007— Save the Children, a U.S.-based independent global humanitarian organization, today released its eighth annual Mothers’ Index that ranks the best — and worst — places to be a mother and a child and compares the well-being of mothers and children in 140 countries, more than in any previous year.

Egypt Makes the Most Progress and Iraq the Least In Reducing Child Deaths, Report Finds
Millions of Children Still Dying Each Year Despite Availability of Proven, Low-Cost Interventions that Could Save Their Lives

Special Features from the Report

Download the complete report (PDF file - 2MB, 70 pages)
[Canada? Number 15.]

State of the World's Mothers Reports
Every year, the State of the World's Mothers report reminds us of the inextricable link between the well-being of mothers and that of their children. Seventy-five years of on-the-ground experience has demonstrated that when mothers have health care, education and economic opportunity, both they and their children have the best chance to survive and thrive. Each year a different issue that impacts mothers and their children is highlighted.
- incl. links to annual reports for 2007 back to 2000

Source:
Save the Children
"Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change in the lives of children in need in the United States and around the world."

What's new from the Child Trends Data Bank:
[Child Trends Data Bank is "the one-stop-shop for the latest [U.S.] national trends and research on over 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being."]

Welfare Receipt Among Children under AFDC and TANF
HTML version
PDF version
(99K, 6 pages)
April 2007
Between 1996, the year in which federal welfare reform was implemented, and 2004, the number of children receiving benefits from welfare declined by more than half. This continued a downward trend that started after 1995. (...) After rising from 6.1 million children in 1970 to 9.5 million children in 19949, the number of children living in families receiving AFDC/TANF payments fell to 3.9 million children in 2004. Similarly, the percentage of children living in families receiving AFDC/TANF has steadily decreased from 13.0 percent in 1995 to 5.3 percent in 2004. Among children in families with incomes below the poverty threshold, the percentage of children in families receiving AFDC/TANF also decreased from 61.5 percent in 1995 to 29.8 percent in 2004.

NOTE: for a good two-page overview of TANF and AFDC, with links to more detailed info, see
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) / Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF)
- from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Related Indicators:

Food Stamp Receipt

Long-term Poverty

Long-Term Welfare Dependence

-------

AFDC/TANF State and Local Estimates (5.3MB, 54 pages)
This is a large download, but well worth the wait for the amount of program information and welfare statistics going back to the 1960s...
Source:
Appendix A, Table TANF13,
Indicators of Welfare Dependence Annual Report to Congress 2006
By the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

From the National Center for Children in Poverty:

Family Child Care in the United States
April 2007
By Taryn W. Morrissey, Patti Banghart
At some point during their first five years, nearly one-quarter of all children spend about 30 hours per week in family child care (FCC). While there is no universally recognized definition, FCC is typically characterized as nonparental, paid care for nonrelative children that generally takes place in the provider’s home and is regulated by the state.

This Child Care & Early Education Research Connections Review of Research package, which includes a Literature Review, a Research Brief, and a Table of Methods and Findings, synthesizes the current research on family child care providers, parental use of family child care, and quality of this type of care.

Research Brief (PDF file - 661K)
Literature Review (PDF file - 756K)
Table of Methods and Findings (PDF file - 878K)

Half of the world's out-of-school population live in conflict affected fragile states
Children in Areas of Conflict Get Little Help for Education, New Report Shows
Only 2 of 22 Rich Countries Have Met 2005 G8 Summit Pledges
News Release
April 12, 2007
The world's richest countries are failing to help millions of children in conflict-affected nations get an education, a new Save the Children report reveals today, ahead of a series of crucial world donor meetings. For example, in the Sudanese region of Darfur, over 50 percent of children are out of school, many forced from their homes due to violence, but almost no funding has been provided specifically to educate these children.

Complete report:

Last in Line, Last in School:
How donors are failing children
in conflict-affected fragile states
(PDF file - 425k, 64 pages)

Source:
International Save the Children Alliance
Save the Children is the world’s largest independent organisation for children, making a difference to children’s lives in over 110 countries. From emergency relief to long-term development, Save the Children helps children to achieve a happy, healthy and secure childhood. Save the Children listens to children, involves children and ensures their views are taken into account. Save the Children secures and protects children’s rights – to food, shelter, health care, education and freedom from violence, abuse and exploitation.
---------
NOTE: On the home page of the international site, you'll find links to all 27 Save the Children Alliance country websites, including:
Australia - Canada ( Publications ) - Denmark - Dominican - Republic - Egypt - Fiji - Finland - Germany - Guatemala - Honduras - Iceland - Italy - Japan - Jordan - Korea - Lithuania - Mexico - Netherlands - New Zealand - Norway - Romania - Spain - Swaziland - Sweden - Switzerland - United Kingdom - United States (see Child Poverty in America)

Federal Resources for Children Challenged
by Automatic Growth in Adult Entitlement Programs

News Release
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 15, 2007 -- Caught between ever-rising expenditures on adult health care and retirement programs and their own programs that often lack automatic growth, children will see their shares of federal domestic spending and the gross national product decline by double digits over the next decade, according to a report released today by the nonpartisan Urban Institute.

Kids’ Share 2007: How Children Fare in the Federal Budget
- trends in federal spending on children from 1960 to 2017, looking across over 100 major federal programs, including tax credits and exemptions.

Source:
The Urban Institute

What's New from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre:

Child Poverty in Perspective :
An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries
(PDF file - 64K, 2 pages)
Press Release
14 February 2007
"The six dimensions taken to measure the well- being of children – material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviours and risks, and young people’s own subjective sense of well-being – offer a picture of the lives of children, and no single dimension can stand as a reliable proxy for child well-being as a whole. The landmark report shows that among all of the 21 OECD countries there are improvements to be made and that no single OECD country leads in all six of the areas."

Complete report:

Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries -
A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents
in the economically advanced nations
(PDF file - 1.5MB, 52 pages)
February 2007
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Report Card 7

Companion document:

Comparing Child Well-Being in OECD Countries: Concepts and Methods (PDF files - 778K, 117 pages)
Jonathan Bradshaw, Petra Hoelscher and Dominic Richardson
Innocenti Working Paper
December 2006

Innocenti Report Card 7
- includes links to the above release and report in French, Italian and Spanish, along with key findings and background papers

Innocenti Report Card no. 6
Child poverty rising in OECD countries
March 2005

Source:
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) works to strengthen the capacity of UNICEF and its cooperating institutions to respond to the evolving needs of children and to develop a new global ethic for children. It promotes the effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in both developing and industrialized countries, thereby reaffirming the universality of children’s rights and of UNICEF’s mandate. [ About IRC ]

Another recent release from IRC:

Canada ranked 12th out of 21 rich nations for child welfare
February 14, 2007
A new United Nations study suggests Canada lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to child welfare.
Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Development in Rich Countries, the seventh report from UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, ranks Canada 12th overall for child well-being among 21 developed countries.
Source:
CBC.CA

Child Welfare Information Gateway - U.S.
Formerly the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information and the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, Child Welfare Information Gateway provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Child Welfare Information Gateway connects professionals and concerned citizens to timely, essential information and resources targeted to the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families.

Source:
Children's Bureau
[ Administration for Children and Families ]
[ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ]

The State of the World’s Children 2007
December 2006
The State of the World’s Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives – and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls.
- incl. links to all related material --- news release, full report, profiles, statistics, youth centre, Gender and the life cycle (multimedia feature), and more...

Empower Women to Help Children
Gender Equality Produces a ‘Double Dividend’ that Benefits Both Women and Children, UNICEF Reports
Press Release
11 December 2006
NEW YORK/GENEVA, 11 December 2006 – Eliminating gender discrimination and empowering women will have a profound and positive impact on the survival and well-being of children, according to a new UNICEF report issued on UNICEF’s 60th anniversary. Gender equality produces the “double dividend” of benefiting both women and children and is pivotal to the health and development of families, communities and nations, according to The State of the World’s Children 2007.

Executive Summary (PDF file - 697K, 44 pages)
Full report (PDF file - 1.8MB, 160 pages)
Download the report by chapter (HTML table of contents + links to individual PDF files)
Chapters: A call for equality * Equality in the household * Equality in employment * Equality in politics and government * Reaping the double dividend of gender equality
View previous issues of this report - annual, back to 1996
[ Previous (2006) report - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading. ]

Source:
UNICEF

What's New - Selected content from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

5-Jan-07

FROM CRADLE TO CAREER: CONNECTING AMERICAN EDUCATION FROM BIRTH TO ADULTHOOD
11th annual Quality Counts publication from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center (US) “begins to track state efforts to create seamless education systems from early childhood to the world of work.”
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94494

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: PATHWAYS TO QUALITY AND EQUITY FOR ALL CHILDREN
Report from Australian Council for Educational Research finds provision of child care services in Australia to be “insufficient, fragmented, under funded and inconsistent.”
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94493

PREPARING CULTURALLY COMPETENT EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS
Briefing note from FPG Child Development Institute (US) summarizes the study “Diversity competencies within early childhood teacher preparation: Innovative practices and future directions."
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94492

Childcare funding too low – developer [NZ]
The Marlborough Express, 27 Dec 0
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94488

Importance of early childhood education [US]
Paper of Montgomery County, 26 Dec 06
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94491

No guarantee of free childhood education hours [NZ]
Sunday Star Times, 17 Dec 06
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94489

Henry Wilson reports significant progress in early childhood education [JM]
Jamaica Information Service, 12 Dec 06
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94486

Keep scrolling down this page to see more content from CRRU.

National Center for Children in Poverty
December 14, 2006 Update
As 2006 draws to a close, many are predicting that the economy in 2007 will be shaky at best.
Unfortunately, Who Are America's Poor Children? The Official Story reveals that nearly 13 million children already live in families with income below the official poverty measure. Worse, it is widely agreed that the poverty measure understates the true extent of economic hardship.

WHO ARE AMERICA'S POOR CHILDREN? THE OFFICIAL STORY

NCCP's new fact sheet finds that 18% of children live in families that are officially considered poor.
Who Are America's Poor Children? The Official Story
- describes the characteristics of children who are officially poor and identifies public policy strategies for improving the well-being of children and families.

Key findings include:
* Across the states, child poverty rates range from 7% in New Hampshire to 27% in Mississippi.
* Poverty is especially prevalent among black, Latino, and American Indian children.
* Official poverty rates are highest for young children.

Read the fact sheet

Subscribe to NCCP Update
- provides subscribers with periodic mailings (once or twice a month) on our new publications, research activities, and online tools.
To see our past mailings, check out the archive (14 previous issues as at Dec. 17/06).

Source:
National Center for Children in Poverty

What's New from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP):

Child Care and Early Education State-by-State Data - U.S.
November 16, 2006
This set of state-by-state data includes new analysis of 2005 child care spending from Child Care Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds and of 2005 Head Start Program Information Report data, along with data (published in March 2006) on states’ use of community-based child care to provide pre-kindergarten.

Child Care Assistance in 2005: State Cuts Continue (PDF file - 78K, 9 pages)
November 1, 2006
State spending on child care assistance declined in 2005 for the second consecutive year. Twenty-two states made cuts to their child care programs, as the number of children living in low-income families that received help from these programs continued to decline. Many families turn to child care assistance programs to get help paying for the child care they need in order to work and to succeed. This policy brief provides an overview of national expenditure data for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds directed towards child care. 9 pages.

Investing in Children: Public Commitment
in Twenty-one Industrialized Countries, 1980-2001

(PDF file - 635K, 25 pages)(PDF file - 635K, 25 pages)
By Shirley Gatenio Gabel and Sheila B. Kamerman
[includes Canada]
Using time series and survey data, this article explores public commitment to children and their families from 1980 through 2001 in 21 industrialized countries. Despite the shrinking child population in all countries and the slowed growth of the welfare state in most, the authors find that spending on children and families has increased in most countries. The authors conclude that the instruments and goals of the family benefit and service package have changed over time and that future public spending on children is increasingly likely to go toward helping families balance their responsibilities as workers and parents and toward enhancing the development of young children.
Source:
Institute for Child and Family Policy (ICFP) at Columbia University (New York)
[Found in: Social Service Review (June 2006), The University of Chicago.]

What's New - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Strong foundations: Early childhood care and education
27 Oct 06
- UNESCO's 2007 Education for All Global Monitoring Report.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=92590

Spending on childcare ranked low [AU]
25 Oct 06
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=92626

The building blocks of a global empire [AU]
20 Oct 06
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=92625

More from CRRU - keep scrolling down this page for more CRRU anayses and links

Adolescent Birth Rate Falls to Record Low, Kids' Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Drops
Infant Mortality Rate Falls to Former Level, But Birth Rate for Unmarried Women Rises
- U.S.
July 14, 2006
News Release
The federal government's yearly statistical report on the well-being of our Nation's children shows that the adolescent birth rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded. The infant mortality rate also declined to its former, lowest ever, level after having increased in the previous year. The proportion of children exposed to secondhand smoke declined, as did the proportion of high school seniors who reported smoking cigarettes daily in the last 30 days. Compared to the previous year's statistics, the average mathematics score increased for 4th and 8th graders and the average reading score for 4th graders also increased. At the same time, the birth rate for unmarried women and the proportion of infants with low birthweight increased from the previous year. These findings are described in America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2006, the U.S. government's annual monitoring report on the well-being of the Nation's children and youth.

America's Children in Brief:
Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2006
Published: July 2006
The Forum’s signature report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, is an annual indicators report that details the status of children and families in the United States. All data are updated annually on the Forum’s website (http://childstats.gov). A more detailed report alternates every other year with a condensed version that highlights selected indicators. This year, the Forum is publishing the Brief and will return to the detailed report in July 2007.

America's Children 2005

Source:
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
"The Forum, is a working group of Federal agencies that collect, analyze, and report data on issues related to children and families. The Forum has partners from 20 Federal agencies as well as partners in private research organizations."
Forum Agencies - includes a list of links to all 20 agencies that make up the Interagency Forum.

Ending child poverty
"
On 6 July 2006, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) published a report (What will it take to end child poverty? Firing on all cylinders) (PDF file - 1MB, 72 pages) which explores the changes needed for the government to achieve its ambitious target of ending child poverty by 2020. It reviews the character of child poverty in Britain today, and shows that not ending child poverty has high costs for our society, both moral and material. It reviews a wide range of measures for cutting child poverty. Taking into consideration the effect and costs of existing policies, as well as new measures which might be needed to meet targets, a modelling exercise tests the contribution that certain of the measures reviewed can make to reducing child poverty.

This publication draws together the findings of a programme of research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation focusing on child poverty in the UK. The aim of the programme was to produce costed policy options for ending UK child poverty by 2020. A team of researchers from universities and other research organisations examined issues which impact on child poverty - from the tax and benefit system, through to childcare and mental health - as well as the lessons to be learned from other countries.

Working papers and reports on the diverse issues affecting child poverty were published online during June 2006.
Details of the programme are at www.jrf.org.uk/child-poverty

Complete report:

What will it take to end child poverty? Firing on all cylinders) (PDF file - 1MB, 72 pages)

Source:
Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)

Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is selected recent content from the notifier.

16-Jun-06

ABC LEARNING CENTRES: A CASE STUDY OF AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST CHILD CARE CORPORATION
by Rush, Emma & Downie, Christian
Report from The Australia Institute investigates quality issues at ABC Learning Centres, as reported through surveys and interviews with ABC staff.

>> It's the mother of all myths [GB]
by Sarler, Carol / London Times, 15 Jun 06

>> Preschool empire flawed by its carers [AU]
by Horin, Adele / Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Jun 06

>> Wild goose chase turns child care into a game of hide and seek [AU]
by Alexander, Harriet / Sydney Morning Herald, 8 Jun 06

More CRRU content (further down on the page you're now reading)

First-of-its-Kind Report Examines Child Well-Being in Canada, United States and Mexico:
Economic and Social Integration Have Profound Effect On 120 Million Children in North America
(PDF file - 36K, 2 pages)
Press Release - May 2, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report that examines the state of child well-being in North America – Growing Up in North America: Child Well-Being in Canada, the United States & Mexico – reveals that gains in human development across the continent have not kept pace with the last decade’s dramatic advances in technology, trade, and investment. In this first-of-its-kind report issued today, the three project partners – the Canadian Council on Social Development, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México – call for attention to child well-being against a backdrop of economic and social change in North America.

Growing Up in North America:
Child Well-being in Canada, the United States and Mexico
May 2006
- includes links to:
* Complete report (PDF file - 1MB, 50 pages)
* Executive Summary (PDF file - 92K, 2 pages)
* Fact Sheet (PDF file - 35K, 2 pages)
* Press Release: Economic and Social Integration Have Profound Effect On 120 Million Children in North America (see above)
* From canada.com (May 1): Well-being of children may be overlooked as Canada, U.S., Mexico grow closer
* CCSD Op Ed [March 2006]: Message to Harper, Bush and Fox: Shortsighted to ignore 120 million kids
* Grandir en Amérique du Nord [French] (PDF file - 1.2MB., 56 pages)
* Creciendo en América del Norte [Spanish] (PDF)
* Children in North America Project website

Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

Project partners:

Annie E. Casey Foundation
Since 1948, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has worked to build better futures for disadvantaged children and their families in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families.

Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (site available only in Spanish

World Forum 2006 - Future Directions in Child Care
November 19 – 22, 2006 in Vancouver, BC
This international conference will explore and share knowledge, information, data and on promising practices and innovative approaches to prevention and response to child abuse and neglect.

Call For Papers
February 20 to April 15

What's New from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP): (U.S.)

Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems that Spend Smarter: Maximizing Resources to Serve Vulnerable Children
Project THRIVE Issue Briefs
February 2006
States planning early childhood comprehensive care systems will use this first Issue Brief from NCCP's Project THRIVE to identify ways to use federal and state fiscal resources more effectively to promote the social and emotional health and well-being of the most vulnerable young children.
Abstract - HTML
Complete report - PDF (276K, 24 pages)

Low-Income Children in the United States:
National and State Trend Data, 1994-2004

January 2006
After nearly a decade of decline, the number of children living in low-income families has been steadily increasing, a pattern that began in 2000. NCCP's new data book brings together national and 50-state trend data on the characteristics of low-income children over the past decade.
Abstract - HTML
Complete report - PDF (429K, 56 pages)

Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 18
January 2006
Millions of children with low-income parents find themselves without the basics, even though the majority of low-income parents work. Young children continue to be disproportionately low income. NCCP's series, Basic Facts About Low-Income Children, 2006 edition, tracks children in the United States who live in low-income families by age: birth to age 18; birth to age 6; and birth to age 3.
HTML version - includes links to separate reports, one dealing with children birth to age 6 and the other from birth to age 3
PDF version (196K, 4 pages)

What's New in International child care - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is international content from a recent issue of the notifier; you can find Canadian content from CRRU on the Children, Families and Youth Links (NGO) page of this site : http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnngo.htm

Care for every child
Jen Ross/Toronto Star, 27 May 06

"If things are going so well in our country,
we ought to be able to offer our children more opportunities"
(PDF file - 83K, 3 pages)
Government of Chile press release, 19 Apr 06

Early childhood policies in the Bachelet administration (PDF file - 47K, 1 page)
Government of Chile, 30 Mar 06

Breaking the piggy bank: Parents and the high price of child care
Report from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (US) “finds that parents across the United States are struggling to meet the high cost of child care.”

Family-friendly Finland
by Korpela, Salla
Story from Virtual Finland introduces the Tuurala family from Helsinki and illustrates how they benefit from the Finnish government’s full system of support for families with children.

>> Reconstructing teacher education to prepare qualified preschool teachers: Lessons from New Jersey
by Lobman, Carrie; Ryan, Sharon & McLaughlin, Jill
Article from Early Childhood Research and Practice (US) reports on New Jersey’s efforts to improve their system of preschool teacher certification.

>> Germany embraces the family: Calls for free child care and tax breaks for parents [DE]
National Post, 21 Jan 06

>> Chile’s new leader to stay the course [CL]
Globe and Mail, 17 Jan 06

>> New Liberia leader hails children [LR]
BBC News, 18 Jan 06

>> Child care ‘shambles’ under the spotlight [AU]
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 16 Jan 06

Also from CRRU:

What's New? - Links to Canadian, U.S. and international resources from Jan 2000 to the present.
Child Care in the News - media articles from January 2000 to the present
ISSUE files - links to theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info
Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
CRRU Publications - links to briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications

More CRRU content (this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading)

From the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre:

Alternative Tax-benefit strategies to support children in the European Union.
Recent Reforms in Austria, Spain and the United Kingdom
(PDF file - 382K, 43 pages)
August 2005
Series: Innocenti Working Papers, 2005-07
Author: Christine, Lietz ; Holly, Sutherland ; Horacio, Levy
Category: Child poverty
"This paper presents a further analysis of tax and transfer systems in support of child poverty reduction carried out in the context of the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 6 on Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005 [see Related Link, below]. The research reported here was funded in part by the Nuffield Foundation and supported by activities within the MICRESA (Micro-level Analysis of the European Social Agenda) project, financed by the Improving Human Potential programme of the European Commission."

Related Link:

Child Poverty Rising in Richest Countries : Study Urges OECD Governments to Establish
Credible Monitoring Systems and Timeframes for the Progressive Reduction of Child Poverty
(PDF file - 65K, 2 pages)
Media Release
March 1, 2005
"FLORENCE– The proportion of children living in poverty since the early 1990s has risen in 17 out of 24 rich countries, a new report from UNICEF’s research centre said today. Although it is widely assumed that child poverty in rich countries is on a steady downward track, the report finds that in only four countries – Australia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States – has there been a significant decrease since the early 1990s."

Complete report:

Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005 (PDF file - 218K, 40 pages)
March 1, 2005
Summary of the report (PDF file - 114K, 4 pages)
Background papers
- A Portrait of Child Poverty in Germany
- Child Poverty and Changes in Child Poverty in Rich Countries Since 1990
- Principles and practicalities for measuring child poverty in the rich countries
- The Impact of Tax and Transfer Systems on Children in the European Union
Other Press material
Brief guide to best practices in defining and monitoring child poverty
Key findings

Source:
Innocenti Report Card no. 6
(this page includes links to Spanish, French and Italian versions of the all of the files above)

Children out of sight, out of mind, out of reach
Abused and Neglected, Millions of Children Have Become Virtually Invisible
Press release
LONDON, 14 December 2005
"Hundreds of millions of children are suffering from severe exploitation and discrimination and have become virtually invisible to the world, UNICEF said today in a major report that explores the causes of exclusion and the abuses children experience."

The State of the World’s Children 2006: Excluded and Invisible
December 2005
- incl. links to the full report and stats, plus : Executive summary * Customized statistical tables * Audio interviews with UNICEF experts * Additional real life stories * Photo essay: Excluded and Invisible * The State of the World's Children movie * Press Release * Key Arguments * Fast Facts * Video News Package * State of the World's Children for young people * Lucy and the World of Invisible Children * Understanding the Millennium Development Goals

Complete report (PDF file - 3.1MB, 156 pages)

2005 State of the World's Children report (further down on the page you're now reading)

Child Care Assistance in 2004: States Have Fewer Funds for Child Care (PDF file - 39K, 3 pages)
December 1, 2005
by Hannah Matthews and Danielle Ewen
"State spending on child care assistance declined in 2004 for the first time since the passage of welfare reform in 1996. Child care assistance helps low-income families find and retain the jobs they need to support their families. This policy brief, which examines national expenditure data for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), finds that 30 states made cuts to their child care programs and fewer families received the child care help they needed to work and succeed."

Source:
Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
The Center for Law and Social Policy is a national, nonprofit public policy organization founded in 1968 that conducts research, policy analysis, technical assistance, and advocacy on issues related to economic security for low-income families with children.

News From the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) - New York
[periodic updates on the research and activities of the NCCP]

Subscribe to receive NCCP Updates
I subscribe to this service and I recommend it.
What follows below is the most recent update they sent out, copied and pasted from my e-mail Inbox.
If you subscribe to the update service, this is a sample of what you'll receive from time to time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 17, 2005

Welcome to the listserv of the National Center for Children in Poverty. This mailing provides subscribers with periodic updates on the
research and activities of NCCP. We hope you find this information useful in your work to improve the lives of low-income children and families.

If your colleagues would also like to receive this e-mail from NCCP, please pass this along and ask them to subscribe by following the
directions at the end of this message.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's What's New From NCCP...
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1. NCCP RELEASES NEW STATE FAMILY ECONOMIC SECURITY PROFILES

NCCP's 50-state profiles now provide more information! For data about what your state is doing to assist low-wage workers and their families,
see these new Family Economic Security Profiles.

View state profiles:
http://nccp.org/sps/go.cgi?c=kC9mJciVzc9KQiOIe4Cm


2. NEW BRIEF ARGUES STATE POLICYMAKERS NEED TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO LOW-WAGE WORK

These are challenging economic times for American families, especially those headed by low-wage workers. But state policy can play an important
role in helping those who work hard achieve financial security. This brief provides an introduction to NCCP's new State Family Economic Security Profiles.

Read the brief:
http://nccp.org/sps/go.cgi?c=YLwzfBp7WHTIBxUH299S


3. TEXAS FAMILY RESOURCE SIMULATOR NOW AVAILABLE

You can now use NCCP's Family Resource Simulator to see how much parents need to earn to cover basic expenses in 7 major Texas cities, and to
illustrate how well Texas policies reward employment. NCCP thanks the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources and the Center for
Public Policy Priorities for their assistance. Simulators for 9 other states are also available.

Try the Family Resource Simulator:
http://nccp.org/sps/go.cgi?c=UwTmR6FWoXtTFgMMfaJ5


4. NEW FACT SHEET REVEALS CHILDREN IN URBAN AREAS ARE INCREASINGLY LOW INCOME

More than half the children living in urban areas are low income—and the proportion is rising—even though most have at least one parent who is
employed.

Read the fact sheet:
http://nccp.org/pub_cua05.html


5. UPDATED FACT SHEET ON PARENTS' EDUCATION SHOWS LOW EDUCATION LEADS TO LOW INCOME DESPITE EMPLOYMENT

Parents without some college education continue to lose economic ground, despite full-time employment. Nearly two-thirds of children in low-income
families have parents with only a high school degree or less.

Read the fact sheet:
http://nccp.org/sps/go.cgi?c=KBvzO9h5KPSYSr6riMB8


--------------------------------------------------------------------------

To subscribe to this mailing, please visit
http://www.nccp.org/sps/visitor.cgi

Symposium on Early Child Development - A Priority For Sustained Economic Growth & Equity
September 27-30, 2005
World Bank – Washington, DC
"The Symposium brought together 150 participants from about 30 countries from the Latin and Central America and the Caribbean, East Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern and Central Asia, and Sub Saharan Africa, with the largest representation coming from LAC. (...) The symposium objectives were to: (i) Continue to build awareness of ECD as an important investment that nations can make to inform policymakers about the returns on ECD; (2) Highlight progress in the implementation of policy and program responses; (3) Identify and explore alternative mechanisms to finance effective early child development interventions that reach the beneficiaries, and (4) Learn from existing evaluations so that in the future, better-designed evaluations will respond to questions posed by policy makers and project managers to continue funding ECD."
- includes a detailed agenda and links to other symposium materials (audio/video presentations, speeches, etc.)

The three links below are to Canadian presentations made at the symposium.
Clicking a link downloads a video file and a Powerpoint presentation in each case.
If the video doesn't work, it's likely because you're trying to access the file from behind an office or university network that has a high level of security, or else the network admin just doesn't like people watching videos on company time. Try watching the video from home if that's the case...

Science of ECD: Biological Embeddings of ECD
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 46 min.
by Fraser Mustard (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research)

Measuring ECD Longitudinal Research in Canada
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 19 min
by Jane Bertrand (Council for Early Child Development and Parenting, Canada)
- incl. info about the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth

Investment in Early Childhood Development : The Economic Argument
Video and Powerpoint presentation, approx. 19 min
by Charles Coffey (Executive VP, Royal Bank of Canada)
[
Text version of this presentation - from the RBC Financial Group website]

Source:
Early Child Development (ECD)
"This site is a knowledge source designed to assist policy makers, program managers, and practitioners in their efforts to promote the healthy growth and integral development of young children."
[ The World Bank ]

Child Care and Early Education Research Connections
"A new database Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (http://www.childcareresearch.org/ ) has been launched. It is is a web-based, interactive database of research documents and public use data sets for conducting secondary analyses on topics related to early care and education. Research Connections highlights current research; develops and disseminates materials designed to improve child care policy research; provides technical assistance to researchers and policy makers; synthesizes findings into policy research briefs; and facilitates collaboration in the field."

"Child Care and Early Education Research Connections promotes high quality research in child care and early education and the use of that research in policy making. Our vision is that children are well cared for and have rich learning experiences, and their families are supported and able to work. Through this Web site, we offer research and data resources for researchers, policy makers, practitioners, and others. Research Connections is a partnership among the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan; and the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."
Source:
About this Site

Related Links:

National Center for Children in Poverty - NCCP (Washington)
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the Institute for Social Research (University of Michigan)
The Child Care Bureau (U.S. Administration for Children and Families)

Recent reports from the National Center for Children in Poverty - NCCP (Washington):

Federal Policies Restrict Immigrant Children's Access to Key Public Benefits
October 2005
Despite high levels of employment, immigrant families are more likely to be low income and experience other hardships than families with native-born parents. Federal policies that limit immigrant families’ ability to participate in food stamps, public health insurance, and other key income and work support programs threaten the economic security of millions of America’s children.
Abstract - HTML
Complete report (PDF - 221.11K)

State Policies Can Promote Immigrant Children's Economic Security
October 2005
While federal policies exclude many legal immigrants from key public benefits, some states have stepped in to fill the gap. States can offer critical assistance to children in low-income immigrant families by using their own funds to provide them with the supports available to native-born families.
Abstract - HTML
Complete report (PDF - 692.42K)

Efforts to Promote Children’s Economic Security Must Address Needs of Hard-Working Immigrant Families
October 2005
Virtually all immigrant families are headed by working parents, but low wages and a lack of employer benefits mean that their children are disproportionately likely to be low income and experience other hardships. Efforts to promote the economic security of America’s children must include the children of immigrants—most of whom are U.S. citizens who will remain here for life.
Complete report - HTML
Complete report (PDF - 269.59K)

Marriage Not Enough to Guarantee Economic Security
September 2005
"More than one in four children with married parents is low income. The majority of low-income children in rural and suburban areas live with parents who are married, and most single parents were formerly married as well. The majority of married low-income parents are employed, and 41 percent of their children have two employed parents. Illness and disability are common reasons for unemployment. Low wages, lack of employee benefits, frequent moves, and low levels of education are common among these parents, and their need for public health insurance and food stamps is rising."
Abstract - HTML
Complete report (PDF - 310K)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 18
July 2005
"After a decade of decline, the proportion of low-income families is rising again and millions of children of low-income parents find themselves without the basics, despite a majority of them living in households with working parents. More than one-third of children in the United States live in low-income families and 17 percent live in poor families. Young children are disproportionally affected."
Abstract
Complete report
(PDF file - 140K, 4 pages)

Source:
NCCP Economic Security Papers - links to 10 papers (see also Policies and Publication Series down the right-hand side of the page)

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Children's Well-Being 2005
July 2005
"...America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, is an annual indicators report that details the status of children and families in the United States. The report presents the latest available data on 25 indicators related to economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education and on 9 background measures related to population and family characteristics. These indicators represent important aspects of children's lives. In addition, each year the report includes special features that present measures that are either not regularly available, merit special attention, or provide additional detail regarding a specific topic."

Highlights of the report

America's Children Reports - incl. links to this year's report

Source:
Childstats.gov
"This web site offers easy access to statistics and reports on children and families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education."

What's New in International child care - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is international content from recent issues of the notifier.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEW POSTINGS AVAILABLE ON THE
CHILDCARE RESOURCE AND RESEARCH UNIT’S WEBSITE
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

19-Aug-05

>> In our own backyards: Local and state strategies to improve the quality of family child care
by Katie Hamm, Barbara Gault & Avis Jones-De Weever
Report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (US) proposes policy changes to combat low earnings and lack of training opportunities among family child care providers.

>> In focus: Work-life balance
by various authors
Current issue of the Ivey Business Journal (U.S.) features nine articles dedicated to work and family issues, including an article on the changing role of fathers.

29-July-05

>> Research debunks myth of self-reliant nuclear family [US]
EurekAlert! 28 Jul 05
Despite the long-cherished belief that the nuclear family is independent and self-sustaining, most families with working parents depend on a network of care to manage work and family demands, according to research by Brandeis University sociologist Karen Hansen.

>> U.S. steers its own course on family leave [US]
Associated Press, 27 Jul 05
With little public debate, the United States has chosen a radically different approach to maternity leave than the rest of the developed world. The United States is one of the only industrialized countries that doesn’t provide paid leave for new mothers nationally.

22-July-05

>> Take back the language: Appreciating the culture of early childhood education
by McKinlay, Linda; Leone, Linday & MacDonald, Margaret
Position paper endorsed by more than 35 training programs in early childhood education in British Columbia discusses how to bridge the divide between education and care.

>> The social economy: Finding a way between the market and the state
by Neamtam, Nancy
Article by Nancy Neamtam for Policy Options describes the social economy as “a manifestation of positive and active citizenship that governments need to recognize and support”.

>> Head Start impact study: First year findings
by Puma, Michael; Bell, Stephen; Cook, Ronna; Heid, Camilla & Lopez, Michael
Study by the U.S government tracks the influence of Head Start on 3- and 4-year old children across cognitive, social-emotional, and health domains.

>> Mothers encouraged to stay out of work [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, 21 Jul 05
Australian mothers have one of the lowest employment rates in the developed world, encouraged to stay at home through welfare payments and community expectations, says an international expert.

>> Fathers to have child care leave [KR]
Korea Times, 22 Jun 05
Working fathers in Korea will soon be allowed to have paid leave to care their young one as part of government efforts to help turn around the declining birthrate.

Also from CRRU:

What's New? - Links to Canadian, U.S. and international resources from Jan 2000 to the present.
Child Care in the News - media articles from January 2000 to the present
ISSUE files - links to theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info
Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
CRRU Publications - links to briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications

Earlier Issues of CRRU's notifier - this link takes you further down on the page you're now reading

From the Children's Defense Fund:

New CDF Report: More Than 13 Million Children Face Food Insecurity -- U.S.
Press Release
June 2, 2005
"According to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 13.3 million American children were food insecure in 2003; of these, 420,000 lived in households where someone had to go hungry.
Overall, 36.3 million Americans experienced food insecurity in 2003, 1.4 million more than in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

Complete report:

Food Insecurity 2005 (PDF file - 122K, 6 pages)

Also from CDF:

New CDF Report: Millions of Children Would Benefit From an Increase in the Minimum Wage - U.S.
Press Release
May 18, 2005
"In the report, titled Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being , the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) shows that, in 2004, 9.7 million children lived in a household with at least one worker earning between $5.15 and $7.25 per hour. A parent supporting two children and w orking full time at the current minimum wage of $5.15 would end up with an annual salary $4,500 below the poverty line . The pernicious sting of poverty puts these children at greater risk of poor health due to lack of affordable health care, increases their likelihood of falling behind in school and leaves families unable to pay for adequate housing, nutritious food or quality child care."

Complete report:

Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being (PDF file - 124K, 5 pages)

New CDF Report: Millions of Children Would Benefit From an Increase in the Minimum Wage
Press Release
May 18 2005
"In the report, titled Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being , the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) shows that, in 2004, 9.7 million children lived in a household with at least one worker earning between $5.15 and $7.25 per hour. A parent supporting two children and w orking full time at the current minimum wage of $5.15 would end up with an annual salary $4,500 below the poverty line . The pernicious sting of poverty puts these children at greater risk of poor health due to lack of affordable health care, increases their likelihood of falling behind in school and leaves families unable to pay for adequate housing, nutritious food or quality child care."

Complete report:

Increasing the Minimum Wage: An Issue of Children's Well-Being (PDF file - 124K, 5 pages)

Source:
Children's Defense Fund

Launch of World Development Indicators 2005 Report
World Bank Report Urges Faster Progress In Reducing Child Deaths, Primary School Enrollments – Particularly Among Girls
Press Release
April 17, 2005
"WASHINGTON—Five years after the Millennium Declaration, many countries have made progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but many more lag behind. Faster progress is needed in reducing maternal and child deaths, boosting primary school enrolments, and removing obstacles to greater numbers of girls going to school, according to the World Bank’s latest World Development Indicators (WDI) 2005."

World Development Indicators 2005
"The 2005 WDI includes more than 800 indicators in 83 tables organized in 6 sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. Data are shown for 152 economies with populations of more than 1 million and 14 country groups, plus selected indicators for 56 other smaller economies. Indicators are shown for the most recent year or period for which data are available and, in most tables, for an earlier year or period (usually 1990 in this edition)."
- incl. links to the full text online, the press release, time series database access, and more

WDI 2005 full text

Source:
The World Bank Group

 

2005 Index of Child Well-Being shows mixed picture for America's children:
huge declines in crime, violence and risky behavior amid increasing poverty and worsening health
New Index Report Finds Virtually No Improvement In Reading
And Math Test Scores Since 1975; Obesity Epidemic Continues To Worsen
Press Release
March 30, 2005
"Washington, D.C. – Dramatic declines in rates of violence and risky behaviors such as teen births, smoking, and alcohol and illegal drug use during the past 10 years have contributed substantially to modest and slow progress in the overall well-being of America’s children, according to the 2005 Index of Child Well-Being (CWI), released today by the Foundation for Child Development (FCD)."

Complete report:

2005 Report
Index of Child Well-Being (CWI), 1975- 2003 with Projections for 2004
(PDF file - 79K, 17 pages)
"The 2005 CWI report presents a mixed picture of child well-being. Substantial and dramatic improvements in safety and risky behavior among young people, especially since 1993, contrast with declines in health and economic well-being and a 30-year flat line in education.

Source:
Foundation for Child Development
"Connecting Research with Policy to Promote Social Change since 1900"
- incl. links to:
Press Release * Fact Sheet * Policy Brief * Fast Facts

Google.ca News Search Results : "2005 Index of Child Well-Being"


Earlier Earlier Issues of CRRU's notifier

15-July-05

>> Assessing the quality of early years learning environments - U.S.
by Walsh, Glenda & Gardner, John
Article from Early Childhood Research and Practice describes a means of evaluating early years classrooms from the perspective of the child's experience.

>> Effects of welfare and employment policies on young children: New findings on policy experiments conducted in the early 1990s - U.S.
by Morris, Pamela A.; Gennetian, Lisa A. & Duncan, Greg J.
Paper from Society for Research in Child Development (U.S.) analyses findings on the effects of welfare policies on children, including the increased use of centre-based child care arrangements.

>> Timing of poverty in childhood critical to later outcomes [US]
Society for Research in Child Development, 14 Jul 05
It is well known that children who live in poverty have more trouble in school and more problems socially than other children. Now investigators funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development (US) find that while children who live in chronic poverty from birth through age 9 score lowest on tests of school readiness and social competence, poverty at any time during early childhood is detrimental.

>> Dig deep to make Sure Start just as brilliant as it can be [GB]
Guardian, 13 Jul 05
The British government has tried to create a universal child care network without providing anything like the money needed. Its decision to fund this network through credits instead of biting the bullet and subsidising nurseries needs an urgent review.

8-July 2005

>> Women’s empowerment: Measuring the global gender gap
By Lopez-Claros, Augusto & Zahidi, Saadia
Study from the World Economic Forum measures the extent to which women have achieved equality; includes information on child care availability and cost and the impact of maternity laws.

>> Family values, Santorum-style [US]
World Net Daily, 8 Jul 05
What do Republicans mean when they appropriate the term "family values"? Well, now we know. It's all spelled out by Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. In his scary new book, "It Takes A Family: Conservatism and the Common Good" – due in book stores July 24 – Santorum speaks out against diversity, public schools, college education and working women.

>> Loan scheme on offer for child care [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Jul 05
Australia's biggest chain of private child care centres, ABC Learning, is offering finance to help parents meet rising fees. While the first 14 months are interest-free, child care industry representatives are worried parents may run up debts.

30-June-05

>> Government of Australia 2004 census of child care services
by Government of Australia. Department of Family and Community Services
Report from Australia’s Department of Family and Community Services finds child care fees increasing and growth in for-profit care outstripping growth in not-for-profit care.

>> All together now: State experiences in using community-based child care to provide pre-kindergarten
by Rachel Schumacher, Danielle Ewen, Katherine Hart & Joan Lomardi
Report from the Center for Law and Social Policy (US) proposes that some states’ plans to provide pre-K in both centres and schools may help break barriers between education and care.

>> Child care fees soar - if you can find it [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, 30 Jun 05
The cost of child care in Australia is increasing at five times the rate of inflation. While the number of places is growing, demand still outstrips supply, particularly in inner-city areas where parents routinely wait for two or three years before finding a place.

>> Dressed to oppress [AU]
Daily Telegraph (Australia), 30 Jun 05
Child care giant ABC Learning is making staff buy their own uniforms while pocketing a cool $40 million in profit. Carers, some of whom earn as little as $420-a-week after tax, are having to shell out more than half that for pants and shirts featuring the ABC logo.

Quality time thrills Nordic dads [DK]
BBC News, 28 Jun 05
Paternity leave schemes in Denmark and Iceland are among the most generous in the world - and are proving to benefit society, experts say.

24-June-05

>> Presentations from Plan-It Quality: Environments in early learning and child care linking research to policy and practice
Presentations by Bengt-Erik Andersson, Thelma Harms, Margaret Tresch Owen and Gillian Doherty “address the issue of quality in all aspects of a child's environment”.

>> How Swede it is: Learning from Sweden's perspective on children [SE]
Today’s Parent, 15 Jun 05
"In Sweden, child care (preschool, they call it) seems more about providing a good experience for kids rather than a good future outcome. I think we could learn and borrow much more from Sweden."

>> Building blocks of an empire [AU]
Courier-Mail, 20 Jun 05
Australia’s biggest corporate child care group ABC Learning Centres has had sand kicked in its face in recent weeks. In contrast to its advertisements of smiling children it has faced images of angry parents and unionists. But the
Brisbane-based company has stuck by its guns and analysts are seeing profitable times ahead.

>> Schools call on more men to be child carers [GB]
Guardian, 19 Jun 05
The British government plans a fivefold increase in the number of male child care workers. National advertising campaigns tailored to men and male-only training courses will be used to recruit the extra staff.

20-May-05

>> Prekindergarteners left behind: Expulsion rates in State prekindergarten systems
by Gilliam, Walter S.
Study from the Foundation for Child Development (US) finds that expulsion rates are 3.2 times higher in pre-K than K-12. Rates are highest in faith-affiliated and for-profit centres.

>> Growing up in Australia: The longitudinal study of Australian children - 2004 annual report
by Government of Australia. Australian Institute of Family Studies
Report from the Australian Institute of Family Studies aims to further understanding of early childhood development and inform social policy debate.

>> OECD Thematic Review of ECEC: Austrian background report
by Kromer, Ingrid; Phoser, Alena & Zuba, Rheinhard
Background report from the Austrian government provides comprehensive and critical descriptions of ECEC policies and organization, as part of the OECD’s Thematic Review.

>> Grandparents take over as mums go back to work [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, 16 May 05
More than 20 per cent of Australian mothers rejoin the workforce by the time their child is six months old, a new national survey of childhood in Australia shows.

>>‘Bébé boom’ will put France ahead of UK and Germany [FR]
Independent, 13 May 05
According to demographic calculations by the French government, a booming birth rate will push the population of France to 75 million by the year 2050. Two children or more are the norm for French couples. France spends more than any other EU country - 4.5 per cent of GDP - on policies that promote child care and assist families.

13-May-05

>> Pre-school in transition: A national evaluation of the Swedish pre-school
Report from the Swedish National Agency for Education is the first evaluation of Swedish preschool since the 1998 reforms and introduction of a national preschool curriculum.

>> Who’s teaching our youngest students? Teacher education and training, experience, compensation and benefits, and assistant teachers
Report from the National Institute for Early Education’s National Prekindergarten Study (US) finds seven out of ten teachers in state-funded prekindergartens earn salaries in the low-income category.

>> Gender-based analysis: Building blocks for success
Report of the Standing Committee on Status of Women discusses GBA as a tool to ensure that "federal government programs and policies do not maintain or exacerbate any equality gap".

>> Caring more for children in child care [AU]
The Age, 13 May 05
The Australian government's policy of paying child care subsidies to parents rather than direct subsidies to community child care centres has seen a huge rise in privately run facilities and concerns that the quality of care is being sacrificed in those centres that exist to make a profit.

>> Rewards in child care [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, 7 May 05
Sydney's investors are learning to diversify and seek out the best properties offering solid investment yields, often in emerging sectors such as child care.

06-May-05\

>> Minister meets parents over child care [AU]
The Age, 12 Apr 05
Federal Community Services Minister Kay Patterson has told a Melbourne mother not to be "so emotional" about Australia's shortage of child care places.

22-April-05

>> OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care: France reports
Background report and country note from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development discuss ECEC policy in France.

>> Care Architecture project
Ongoing research project by the Danish National Institute for Social Research is a cross-national comparison of care packages in eight European countries.

SEIU to represent daycare workers [US-IL]
Associated Press, 20 Apr 05
The Service Employees International Union declared victory Thursday in an election to decide if it would represent 49,000 Illinois state-subsidized child care workers.

Child care industry proves big business [US]
Boston Globe, 19 Apr 05
Early childhood education in the U.S is big business. That's one of the conclusions in a report released yesterday by the MIT Workplace Center and the Family Initiative of Legal Momentum, a nonprofit child care advocacy group.

Filipino MPs demand inquiry in Canada on 'modern-day slaves' [PH]
Asian Pacific Post, 7 Apr 05
Six MPs from the Philippines House of Representatives are seeking an inquiry into alleged abuses committed against Filipina caregivers in Canada.

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)


New from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre:

Child Poverty Rising in Richest Countries : Study Urges OECD Governments to Establish
Credible Monitoring Systems and Timeframes for the Progressive Reduction of Child Poverty
(PDF file - 65K, 2 pages)
Media Release
March 1, 2005
"FLORENCE– The proportion of children living in poverty since the early 1990s has risen in 17 out of 24 rich countries, a new report from UNICEF’s research centre said today. Although it is widely assumed that child poverty in rich countries is on a steady downward track, the report finds that in only four countries – Australia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States – has there been a significant decrease since the early 1990s."

Complete report:

Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005 (PDF file - 218K, 40 pages)
March 1, 2005
Summary of the report (PDF file - 114K, 4 pages)
Background papers
-
A Portrait of Child Poverty in Germany
- Child Poverty and Changes in Child Poverty in Rich Countries Since 1990
- Principles and practicalities for measuring child poverty in the rich countries
- The Impact of Tax and Transfer Systems on Children in the European Union
Other Press material
Brief guide to best practices in defining and monitoring child poverty
Key findings

Source:
Innocenti Report Card no. 6
(this page includes links to Spanish, French and Italian versions of the all of the files above.)


Child Protection - Publications and Tools

January 21, 2005
"In September 2000, Maria Minna, Canada's Minister for International Cooperation, launched CIDA's Social Development Priorities: A Framework for Action. The framework refocuses the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on its poverty-reduction mandate by increasing investments over five years in health and nutrition, basic education, HIV/AIDS, and child protection, with gender equality as an integral part of all these priorities"
- incl. links to two dozen reports (from 1997 to 2004) on child protection, child participation, war-affected children, child laboour and sexually-exploited children.

Related Link:

CIDA's Action Plan on Child Protection: Promoting the Rights of Children who Need Special Protection Measures (2001)

Source:
Canadian International Development Agency


What's New
- from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Early childhood education and care policy in the Federal Republic of Germany
by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
OECD Thematic Review of ECEC country note discusses key policy issues in Germany.

Parents in care concern [AU]
Herald Sun, 21 Jan 05
Thirteen thousand babies in Victoria, Australia will miss out on a child care place as desperate parents try signing-up before conceiving. Victoria's child care shortage has reached crisis proportions, with the majority of children on waiting lists never likely to get a place.

Child Friendly Cities Website
"The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) in Florence, Italy focuses part of its activities on research to promote the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the sub-national level. This work includes the development of a global knowledge base on Child Friendly Cities (CFC) - an approach that is demonstrating a potential for promoting the rights of the child at municipal level in both developing and industrialised countries. A Child Friendly City is a local system of good governance committed to fulfilling children's rights."
- incl. links to
Child Friendly Cities around the world

Related Link:

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

New Report Commemorates Child Trends' 25th Anniversary - U.S.
"Child Trends recently published a special report to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the organization's founding. 25 Years of Research in the Service of America's Children takes a broad view of Child Trends' work over the years and described how this work has expanded knowledge about child well-being. The report also features representative comments from a cross-section of people about the value of Child Trends' research and research products."

25 Years of Research in the Service of America's Children (PDF file - 409K, 28 pages)
December 2004
"A Special 25th Anniversary Report"
- incl. links to : Introduction - In the Beginning - Today at a Glance - Surveys and Indicators - Research Areas - Communications - Looking Ahead - Afterword - Child Trend Publications

Source:
December 15/04 Child Trends Newsletter
Child Trends

What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)
Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is the international content from the most recent issue of the notifier.

>>Women’s work supports, job retention, and job mobility:
Child care and employer-provided health insurance help women stay on jobs
December 2004
by Sunhwa Lee
Report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (US) examines the career paths of low-income mothers; finds that mothers with stable child care arrangements stay on the job longer.

>>The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project through age 40
December 2004
by Lawrence J. Schweinhart
Latest report from the Perry Preschool project shows that the children who attended the program four decades ago continue to be more law-abiding, earn higher incomes, and have more stable home lives than children who were not enrolled in the program.

>> Corporatised child care to face scrutiny [AU]
The Age, 5 Dec 04
Child care centres could face spot checks and have their performance graded as part of a tougher approach to regulating Australia's increasingly corporate child care industry.

The State of the World's Children 2005: Childhood Under Threat
Childhood Is A Brutal Experience For Half of World's Children, UNICEF Says –Crucial Years Destroyed by Poverty, Conflict and AIDS
Press Release
December 9, 2004
London
"Despite the near universal embrace of standards for protecting childhood, a new UNICEF report shows that more than half the world's children are suffering extreme deprivations from poverty, war and HIV/AIDS, conditions that are effectively denying children a childhood and holding back the development of nations. Launching her 10th annual report on The State of the World's Children, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said more than 1 billion children are denied the healthy and protected upbringing promised by 1989's Convention on the Rights of the Child – the world's most widely adopted human rights treaty. The report stresses that the failure by governments to live up to the Convention's standards causes permanent damage to children and in turn blocks progress toward human rights and economic advancement. 'Too many governments are making informed, deliberate choices that actually hurt childhood', Bellamy said in launching the report at the London School of Economics. 'Poverty doesn't come from nowhere; war doesn't emerge from nothing; AIDS doesn't spread by choice of its own. These are our choices.'"

Complete report - download the entire report in one PDF file, or download the chapters, maps and tables separately
Chapter titles:
Chapter 1. Childhood under threat
Chapter 2. Children living in poverty
Chapter 3. Children caught up in conflict
Chapter 4. Children orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS
Chapter 5. Advancing childhood, advancing humanity

Source:
UNICEF

The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE)project:Final report - U.K.
Final report of a longitudinal study from the University of London finds that "pre-school experience enhances all-round development in children".

>> No need for new child care centre, court told [AU]
Advertiser 1 Dec 04
Child care giant ABC Learning Centres is trying to disprove the economic theory that market competition improved services, a court has heard.

>> Study backs Labour childcare strategy [GB]
Guardian, 26 Nov 04
The largest ever survey of pre-school education in Britain comes just ahead of children’s minister Margaret Hodge’s release of a national childcare strategy which is expected to become a centrepiece of Labour's election strategy. It will call for a national network of children's centres providing education and health services for the under-fives.

>> Child care firm is part of merger worth $1 billion [US]
Statesman Journal, 10 Nov 04
Privately held Knowledge Learning Corp. said that it will acquire Portland-based KinderCare in a deal worth $1 billion. The deal would combine two of the largest child-care-center operators in the U.S.

To view all of CRRU’s links visit: http://www.childcarecanada.org/links/

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU

The Child Indicator - Fall 2004 (PDF file - 170K, 8 pages) - U.S.
November 2004
"Child Trends has just released the latest issue of The Child Indicator, the organization's child, youth, and family indicators newsletter, which is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This most recent issue contains articles on getting performance-results data for school, school districts, and states; new NRC/IOM report focuses on nation's children's health data needs; new national reports; youth risk behavior surveillance data online in easily accessible form; Census Public Use Microdata Series (PLUMS) and beyond 20/20 software enhance public access and analysis of 2000 Census data; new online data tool provides easy access to state data on children with special healthcare needs; and recently released reports."

Source:
Child Trends
"improving the lives of children and their families"

Recent Trends in Food Stamp Participation among Poor Families with Children - U.S.
Discussion Paper
June 2004
"Food stamp caseloads increased dramatically between October 2002 and October 2003. Our results show that families recently on welfare were substantially more likely to participate in the Food Stamp program in 2002 than in 1997 or 1999. In contrast, participation rates for families with no cash welfare experience, the largest share of poor families with children, remained quite low throughout the period. The new program rules and procedures did not affect their participation. The low current incomes and economic hardship of nonparticipating families indicate the food stamps would benefit these families substantially. States could encourage more families to take advantage of food stamps by strengthening public outreach and simplifying their programs."

Complete report (PDF file - 100K, 38 pages)

Source:
Assessing the New Federalism
[ The Urban Institute ]


International Report on Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada
News Release
October 25, 2004
"OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Together with the governments of British Columbia , Saskatchewan , Manitoba , and Prince Edward Island , the Government of Canada welcomes the release of an important report on early childhood education and care in Canada . The Early Childhood Education and Care Policy: Canada Country Note was prepared by an international review team of early childhood education experts appointed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as part of the second round of the OECD’s Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy. The report presents observations and recommendations on a range of programs and services including kindergarten, pre-kindergarten, child care, and family services."
Source:
Social Development Canada

Complete Report:

Early Childhood Education and Care Policy
Canada Country Note

October 2004
PDF version (965K, 97 pages)
Source:
OECD Directorate for Education

OECD Early Childhood Education and Care Home Page
- OECD reviews of national early childhood policies and organisation in 18 countries: Australia, Belgium (two communities), Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. Two countries remain to be reviewed in 2004: Austria and Germany.
- incl. links to : Update and Coming Events - History and Context of the Reviews - Documents from the OECD Thematic Review - Thematic Workshops and Documents - Background Reports - Country Notes - Country Profiles - Contacts -
Useful Links

Source:
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Related Links:

OECD Thematic Review of ECEC: Canada Reports
October 2004
"This policy analysis within an international framework is perhaps the most important that Canada has had in early learning and child care. The OECD Country Note and the Background Report on Canada were released today by Social Development Canada. The content and sprit of this work is likely to inform and shape how the federal election commitment to early learning and child care is actualized. For the release of this report, CRRU has prepared an ISSUE file that provides resources related to this landmark study.
The ISSUE file consists of:
- an overview of the OECD Thematic Review of ECEC
- links to the Country Note and Canada’s Background Report
- highlights from the Country Note recommendations
- other important reports from the Thematic Review of ECEC and related readings
- relevant news articles
- responses to the Canada reports"
Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

Canada's child care is failing, OECD says
October 25, 2004
By Margaret Philp
"(...) The review of Canada, one of 20 nations whose early-learning policies have come under OECD scrutiny, paints a picture of a child-care system adrift, with no overarching vision. It is underfunded, with pitiful staff salaries and subsidies inequitably doled out to a small number of the poorest families. The premises of child-care centres are often shabby, workers are poorly trained and frequently quit. Many centres catering to aboriginal families are low-quality with "tokenistic concessions to indigenous language." And waiting lists are long, with more than half of Canadian children stuck in unregulated care."
Source:
Globe and Mail

Canada's child-care system languishing: OECD
25 Oct 2004
"OTTAWA - A new OECD reports calls Canada's child-care system a patchwork of dismal programs that offers basic babysitting but not much more. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reviewed 20 countries. It said Canada's system was chronically under-funded and found subsidies inequitably distributed to a small number of the poorest families. As part of the report, four European investigators toured dozens of programs in Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, the only four provinces that agreed to be in the review. The report is to be released Monday."
Source:
CBC.ca

Report finds tightening child care crunch for low-income families - U.S.
Associated Press
September 14, 2004
"WASHINGTON – States are charging low-income parents more for child care, putting more kids on waiting lists and paying providers less, tightening a national child care crunch, a study released Tuesday concludes. The study, by the National Women's Law Center, blames tight state budgets and stagnant federal funding. The group and many independent experts say child care is essential for poor and low-income parents, particularly single mothers, to find and keep work."
Source:
San Diego Union-Tribune

Child Care Assistance Policies 2001-2004: Families Struggling
to Move Forward, States Going Backward
(227K, 17 pages)
September 2004
By Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Fellow, and
Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy
Source:
National Women's Law Center

Down Under is on top in early childhood programs
New Zealand's investment in its young children puts Canada to shame, says HILLEL GOELMAN
By HILLEL GOELMAN
September 6, 2004
"The new federal government has promised to introduce legislation to launch an early child care and development system in Canada. This is good news. Research consistently shows that early child care and development programs for young children result in higher levels of school readiness and better academic performance. The government's promise is also long overdue: Every jurisdiction in Canada except Quebec lags far behind most other developed countries in this area."
Source:
The Globe and Mail

World Forum 2004
Fifteenth Annual Summit of Child Welfare Leaders

Buenos Aires, Argentina
27 - 30 September 2004
Theme:
National Plans of Action for Children

NOTE: for links to more information concerning the National Plan of Action for Canada's Children and those of other countries, go to the Children's Rights Links page of this site: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.htm

Study Takes Updated Look at Comparative Risks of Children in Families Receiving and Leaving Welfare
August 20, 2004
"The Urban Institute has just published "Do Child Characteristics Affect How Children Fare in Families Receiving and Leaving Welfare?", a discussion paper by Sharon Vandivere, Martha Zaslow, Zakia Redd, and Jennifer Brooks. The paper, which was produced as part of The Urban Institute's Assessing the New Federalism project, is based on Child Trends' new analyses of 1999 data from the National Survey of America's Families. Among the findings from these analyses is that that male - but not female - adolescents in families that have left welfare may be faring worse than their counterparts in the families that are still receiving welfare."
Source:
Child Trends E-Newsletter

Complete report:

Do Child Characteristics Affect How Children Fare in Families Receiving and Leaving Welfare? (PDF file - 124K, 46 pages)
August 2004
Source:
The Urban Institute

The State of America's Children 2004:
A continuing portrait of inequality 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education

Press release
July 13, 2004
"WASHINGTON -- This week the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) released The State of America's Children 2004, which provides a comprehensive examination of how children are faring in our country. The book paints a troubling picture -- based on the most recent statistical data and analyses -- of an unacceptably high number of children who are still being left behind. One in six children in the United States continues to live in poverty. One in eight-9.3 million-children have no health insurance. Three out of five children under six are cared for by someone other than their parents on a regular basis. Only 31 percent of fourth graders read at or above grade level. An estimated three million children were reported as suspected victims of child abuse and neglect. Almost one in ten teens ages 16 to 19 is a school dropout. Eight children and teens die from gunfire in the U.S. each day -- one child every three hours.

NOTE: The CDF website wasn't accessible when I went to find the report link on July 17.
Here's the CDF home page link - you might be luckier than I was...
Children's Defense Fund

Effects of Recent Fiscal Policies on Today's Children and Future Generations - U.S.
July 1, 2004
Author(s): William G. Gale, Laurence J. Kotlikoff
"This paper examines the direct and indirect effects of one set of policies—the tax cuts and the Medicare spending increases that have been proposed and enacted since January 2001—on the long-term economic prospects of today's and tomorrow's youth. These proposals were not typically discussed in terms of their impact on children, other than a few vague claims to being 'pro-family.' Nevertheless, these recent fiscal policies will significantly and adversely affect both future generations as a whole and a substantial majority of children in the current and each subsequent generation."
NOTE: the above link is to the front section (the first two pages) of this 16-page report; you have to click the PDF file to read the whole report.

Complete report (PDF file - 568K, 16 pages)

Source:
The Urban Institute

America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2004
July 2004
"Since 1997, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has published America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, a report that includes detailed information on a set of key indicators of child well-being. To make better use of its resources, the Forum has decided to alternate publishing the more detailed report with a new condensed version—America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being—that highlights selected indicators. Thus, this July, the Forum is publishing the Brief; in July 2005 the Forum will publish the more detailed report, returning to the Brief in July 2006. Detailed data tables for all background measures and indicators are available, as well as a press release."
- incl. Population and Family Characteristics - Economic Security - Health - Behavior and Social Environment - Education
Source:
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

Related Link:

U.S. children doing better but poverty rate increases
July 16, 2004
The Associated Press
"WASHINGTON - The family life, education and health of America''s children are generally improving, though child poverty has risen for the first time in a decade, according to the government''s broadest measure of children''s well-being. Today''s report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics finds that children are doing better. The teenage birth rate is down, young people are less likely to be involved in violent crimes and the death rate for this group has declined. Still, children are more likely to be overweight than they were before and child poverty has inched up after several years of decline, according to the report, which draws together findings from many federal agencies."
Source:
Salt Lake Tribune

A fair share of welfare : Public spending on children in England (PDF file - 1.3MB, 83 pages)
May 2004
Source:
Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) - London
NOTE: if you scroll 45-50 lines down on the page you're reading now, you'll find links to "Child poverty in the UK"

Found in:
CERC Bulletin N°52 (June 07, 2004)
[ Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion ]- France (English Home Page)

Child Poverty in France (PDF file - 1.8MB, 149 pages)
English Report Summary (PDF file - 59K, 6 pages)
NOTE: this report was released in French only in mid-February; the English version has now been uploaded to the CERC website.
Below, you'll find the English version of the original news release and the links to the French version of the report and summary.
-------------------------------------------
Child Poverty in France
February 17, 2004
"PARIS, 17 February 2004] - A new report carried out by the Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion (CERC) on child poverty and its causes, has found that in France, one million children are living in poverty (reaching two million if the standard European measurements are used). Based on this analysis, the Council proposes the implementation of a nation-wide programme to combat child poverty.
This analysis highlights three main issues. First of all, that child poverty stems mainly from the under-employment of parents. (...) Secondly, financial aid for childcare is not enough to facilitate this reconciliation: this aid is not sufficient for a large majority of low-income families to pay for childcare. (...) Thirdly, child poverty is particularly pronounced among immigrant families (one out of four poor children comes from a non-EU citizen family) and points in particular, to the problems of integration of these families in French society."

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Version française :

Les enfants pauvres en France (fichier PDF - 850Ko., 151 pages)
La documentation française, 2004
Résumé (fichier PDF - 63Ko., 6 pages)

Source:
CERC Bulletin N°43 - February 02, 2004
[ Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion ]- France (English Home Page)

A Canada Fit for Children : Canada’s plan of action in response to the
May 2002 United Nations Special Session on Children
Released May 10, 2004
See the Canadian Social Research Links Children's Rights page for links to this report and other information about Canada’s National Plan of Action for Children, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (Special Session on the Rights of the Child).

Child poverty in the UK
Second Report of Session 2003-04, Volume I
April 2004
Selected report highlights:
"... Child poverty is still a major problem: 3.6 million children live in poverty.
... The Government’s target of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004 is likely to be met.
... Meeting subsequent targets (reduction of child poverty to a half by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020) will be much more challenging since the achievement of those targets will involve helping those who are most disadvantaged.
... Accessible and affordable childcare available to all by 2010 should be the government’s goal."
Complete report:
PDF version - 1.1MB, 144 pages
HTML version

Related Links:

Work and Pensions - First Report
January 2004
HTML version
PDF version - 137K, 17 pages)

Work and Pensions Committee: Reports and Publications - links to dozens of Work and Pensions Committee reports from 1997 to date

Source:
Work and Pensions Committee
"The Work and Pensions Select Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to 'examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Work and Pensions and its associated public bodies.'"
[ House of Commons ]
London

Low-Income Children in the United States (2004)
May 2004
"37% of America's children - more than 26 million - live in low-income families. After a decade of decline, the rate of children living in low-income families is rising again. Our latest fact sheet is updated from 2003 and includes trends and new statistics."
PDF version (77K, 2 pages)
Source:
Economic Security
[ National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) ]
(Columbia University, New York)

Also from NCCP:

Child Care and Early Education - "A Comprehensive Resource for Researchers and Policy Makers" - U.S.
National Center for Children in Poverty Launches NEW Child Care and Early Education Web Site
April 2004
"Designed for researchers and policymakers. Built on a relational database:
* searchable research collection
* data sets for secondary analysis
* specially designed syntheses
* 50-state policy data tool."

Financing ECEC services in OECD countries
January 2003
Posted to the CRRU website March 25, 2004
Paper prepared for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Thematic workshop in Rotterdam (01/03) makes the case for public investment in Early Childhood Education CEC.
- incl. an excerpt from website description and the link to the complete report

Complete report (PDF file - 500K, 96 pages)

Source:
Child Care Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)
[part of the Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto]

Related Links:

Early Childhood Education and Care Home Page
[ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ]

Poverty: Measures and Targets (PDF file - 355K, 81 pages) - United Kingdom
March 4, 2004
Research Paper 04/23
"There are many difficulties inherent in defining and measuring poverty. This paper looks at these, and the Government’s approach to monitoring poverty, together with a range of ‘low income’ poverty statistics. The Government has set itself a target of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004. This paper follows progress towards the target, and considers whether it is likely to be met. This target is a first step towards the ‘eradication’ of child poverty by 2020. A consultation process has recently led to a new measurement of child poverty that will be used to monitor progress towards future targets."
- Part I discusses poverty, social exclusion and some alternative approaches to poverty measurement
- Part II explains Households Below Average Income (HBAI) methodology and terms
- Part III presents selected HBAI statistics (including trends over time)
- Part IV presents international comparisons of low income poverty [incl. Canada], based on EU and OECD sources.
- Part V looks at the Government's progress in reaching its 2004/05 child poverty target
- Part VI summarises the consultation exercise started in April 2002 [ by the Department for Work and Pensions ] on a new child poverty measure to be used to judge whether the Government’s future targets for halving child poverty by 2010, and eradicating it by 2020, are met.

Source:
The United Kingdom Parliament

Related Links

Measuring child poverty consultation, Final report (PDF file - 166K, 27 pages) - United Kingdom
December 2003
Related Documents (background info)

Opportunity for All - series of annual reports (starting in 1999) with detailed information about the U.K. Government strategy against poverty and social exclusion
The first report set out "evidence-based strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion. The report also established indicators of progress to audit the effectiveness of this strategy."
Here's a link to the current report:
Opportunity for All: Fifth Annual Report 2003

Work and Pensions - Written Evidence

Written Evidence ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 14 January 2004.
- incl. links to over 35 submissions providing comprehensive, detailed information on child poverty and poverty measurement in the United kingdom from over 35 individuals and organizations. Presenters include the Association of London Government, the Citizen's Income Trust, Save the Children, the End Child Poverty Campaign, the Northern Ireland Anti Poverty Network, CARE, the Disability Alliance, the Institute of Fiscal Studies, the Child Poverty Action Group, the Department for Work and Pensions, Daycare Trust and many more.
Recommended reading!

Related Links:
- Go to the Canadian Social Research Links Poverty Measures page

Promoting Resilient Development in Children Receiving Care :
6th International Looking After Children Conference
and 5th National Child Welfare Symposium

August 16–19, 2004
Ottawa, Canada
[ version française : Promouvoir le développement et la résilience chez les enfants recevant des services d'aide à l'enfance ]
Bilingual conference, includes both the 6th International Conference of the Looking After Children initiative and the 5th National Child Welfare Symposium

"The Promoting Resilient Development in Children Receiving Care conference will provide an opportunity to take stock of the accomplishments of the Looking After Children initiative and to explore how its multiple links with the burgeoning areas of resilience theory and research may be strengthened through assessment, intervention and outcome monitoring. (...) The Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare and the Child Welfare League of Canada have developed a series of National Child Welfare Symposia to contribute to the development of research and practice with children and families and to the transfer of knowledge among Canadian stakeholders. (...) It will bring together researchers, practitioners, out-of-home care providers, youth in care and policy makers to explore strategies for promoting resilience among children and youth involved in child welfare."

Introduction - includes a description of the International Looking After Children Initiative and the Canadian National Child Welfare Symposia
Registration - includes downloadable registration forms (as well as online registration) for the conference, and information about accommodations, incl. downloadable reservation forms
Program - incl. schedule and speakers (more info will be added to this section in April)

Source:
Child Welfare League of Canada

[ Ligue pour le bien-être de l’enfance du Canada ]

Reversing Direction on Welfare Reform:
President's Budget Cuts Child Care for More Than 300,000 Children
[between 2003 and 2009]- (PDF file 144K, 3 pages)
February 10, 2004
Source:
Center for Law and Social Policy

Ressource pour recherchistes francophones!
(février 2004)

Sites européens recommandés : Enfants, jeunes, jeunes adultes et familles (fichier Word, 345Ko., 43 pages)
- pays européens
Sites internationaux recommandés : Enfants, jeunes, jeunes adultes et familles (fichier Word, 312Ko., 38 pages)
- Canada, Etats-Unis, Australie

What do the child poverty targets mean for the child tax credit ? An update (PDF file - 173K, 15 pages) - U.K.
December 2003
Briefing notes
Source:
The Institute for Fiscal Studies

Attending kindergarten and already behind : A statistical portrait of vulnerable young children (PDF file - 191K, 8 pages) - U.S.
December 2003 Research Brief
Source: Child Trends (Washington)

Child Poverty in English-Speaking Countries (PDF file - 235K, 38 pages)
June 2003
Micklewright, John
Innocenti Working Paper No. 94
[ Word version in .zip file - 82K ] - requires both a zip utility (e.g., WinZip) and Microsoft Word
"The paper considers child poverty in rich English-speaking countries - U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and Ireland. It is sometimes assumed that these countries stand out from other OECD countries for their levels of child poverty. The paper looks at the policies they have adopted to address the problem. 'Poverty' is interpreted broadly and hence the available cross-national evidence on edicational disadvantage and teenage births is considered alongside that on low household income. Discussion of policy initiatives ranges across a number of areas of government activity."
Source:
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre
- Florence

Child, Family, & Community Indicators Book
[Dated August 2002, posted to the Child Trends website Dec. 12, 2003]
"The California Children & Families Commission contracted for evaluation activities to support their outcome-based accountability system (called results-based accountability or RBA) to track progress in the areas of maternal and child health, child development, family functioning, and systems change. Child Trends helped produce the 550-page Child, Family, & Community Indicators Book to inform decisions about outcomes, performance measures, and other factors to include in the statewide evaluation."
Source:
Child Trends

Complete book online:
Child, Family, & Community Indicators Book (PDF file - 3.7MB, 550 pages)

Related Links:
California Children & Families Commission
- First 5 California Programs

For more links to poverty measures and indicators, go to the Canadian Social Research Links Poverty Measures page.

Child Poverty: A Review (PDF file - 503K, 81 pages) - Australia
Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services
November 2003
This review of child poverty measurement in Australia is written from an economist's perspective, and it contains some valuable information about how Australia
defines child poverty,
the policy concerns, the measurement of child poverty, the causes of child poverty and policy strategies that can be used to combat it.
- includes some international comparisons of child poverty measures and actual numbers (including Canada).
Source:
Social Policy Research Centre
The SPRC conducts research and fosters discussion on all aspects of social policy in Australia
[ University of New South Wales ]
Sydney, Australia

SPRC Newsletter - October 2003 (PDF file - 340K, 16 pages)
Feature articles:
- Role reversal: Child poverty in Australia and Britain
- Child Protection in China
- Australian Social Policy Conference
[also includes book reviews, "From the Projects", new publications and "From the Research Scholars"]

"Older" links from the University of New South Wales:

Australian Social Policy Conference
9-11 July 2003

Conference Papers Available for Download ===>72 full-text papers available! (mostly from Australia, but some from England and a few from Europe)
Here are just a few samples:

How does the Australian child benefit package compare internationally? (PDF file - 185K, 32 pages)
Jonathan Bradshaw, Naomi Finch and Tony Eardley
- July 2001data from 22 countries, including Canada

Why Reform Welfare? (PDF file - 136K, 23 pages)
Peter Saunders
The Centre for Independent Studies
- interesting presentation on Australian welfare reform, covers a lot of issues of relevance to social policymakers here in Canada:
Welfare and Australian values - How welfare undermines self-reliance - Do taxpayers want to fund higher welfare spending? - Reforming welfare - Reforming Parenting Payment: Encouraging return to work when children start school - Reforming the Disability Pension: Tightening eligibility - Reforming Unemployment Benefits: Time limits - Are there enough jobs for people coming off welfare to do? - Looking longer-term: A possible move to Individual Accounts? - Conclusion: reducing welfare dependency.

 

State of the World’s Children 2004
"The State of the World’s Children 2004 focuses on girls’ education and its relationship to all other development goals and to the promise of Education For All. It presents a multi-layered case for investing in girls’ education as a strategic way to ensure the rights of both boys and girls and to advance a country’s development agenda. The web summary touches on general points of the main text and presents panel abstracts highlighting successful programmes."
Table of Contents - links to individual chapters, appendices, tables, maps and figures
Complete report (PDF file - 3.35MB, 156 pages)

UNICEF says getting more girls into school is first step to reaching Global Development Goals
Millions of girls are left out every year, with major consequences for nations

Press release
December 11, 2003

Source:
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Related Links:

State of the World's Children 2004 : Spotlight on Girls' Education
- what Canada (through CIDA) is doing about girls' education in the world
CIDA's Action Plan on Basic Education
Source:
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

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From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Recent Report from UNICEF Details Importance of Education

65 Million Girls Denied Education
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=88343898&p=883446x4

UN: Girls’ Education a Global Emergency
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D02D47D7-7369-4D15-97CD-86ECD8B37C59.htm

Education of Girls Key to Development in Poor Countries, says UNICEF [RealOnePlayer]
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=FED68F94-017F-4F03-BD13B8F066A92C41

UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children [pdf]
http://www.unicef.org/sowc04/index.html

United Nations Millennium Development Goals
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

African Virtual University
http://www.avu.org

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A Study of TANF Non-Entrants (PDF file - 634K, 131 pages)
Robert A. Moffitt et al.
Working Paper 03-03
November 2003
Current American welfare reform research efforts tend to focus on families who have left welfare (“leavers”) and those who have remained on the rolls (“stayers”).
This study looks at non-entrants, a group that includes "...families who have never thought about applying for TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] and are self-sufficient without welfare, but also families who have thought about applying but have not for some reason, and families who have applied and have not come onto the welfare rolls either because they were rejected, diverted, or withdrew from the application process."

Source:

Welfare, Children and Families : A Three City Study
"This research project is an intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio to better understand the effects of welfare reform on the well-being of children and families and to follow these families as welfare reform evolves. We will investigate the strategies used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. We will also examine the effects of these strategies on children's lives, with an emphasis on their health and development as well as their need for, and use of, social services."
- incl. longitudinal surveys, embedded development studies, and contextual, comparative ethnographic studies.

Three City Study Publications - links to over two dozen related working papers and studies back to June 1998

Universal Children's Day
20 November 2003
"The General Assembly recommended in 1954 that all countries institute a Universal Children's Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children and of activity promoting the welfare of the world's children. It suggested to governments that the Day be observed on the date which each considers appropriate. The date of 20 November marks the day in which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989.

50+ links to UN and related resource for children, including :Unicef programs, Children's Rights, the State of the World's Children, 2003, Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women), Unicef & the Global Movement for Children, United Nations Special Session on Children, Children and the UN, A World Fit for Children, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - Unesco - World Bank - international children's resources - much more...
Source:
Dag Hammarskjöld Library(United Nations)

MDRC(formerly Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation)

Welfare Reform, Work, and Child Care
The Role of Informal Care in the Lives of Low-Income Women and Children

October 2003
"Analyzing rich data from in-depth ethnographic interviews conducted in Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia, Next Generation researchers documented the challenges that low-income families face as they patch together a variety of arrangements to meet their child care needs. Unregulated or minimally regulated informal care typically plays a central role in these families’ patchworks of care, meeting some families’ needs very well but representing inadequate or unsafe arrangements of last resort for many others."
Related Link:
Next Generation- "...draws data and perspectives from 10 rigorous studies conducted by MDRC, including (...) Canada’s Self-Sufficiency Project."

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre(U.K.)
"The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre is a collaborative venture between Save the Children and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) with partners in China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and the UK. It aims to: * Deepen understanding of the main causes of childhood poverty and poverty cycles, and increase knowledge of effective strategies to tackle it in different contexts * Inform effective policy to end childhood poverty, ensuring that research findings are widely communicated to policy makers, practitioners and advocates * Raise the profile of childhood poverty issues and increase the urgency of tackling them through anti-poverty policy and action. * Work globally to tackle chronic and childhood poverty in transition and other countries."

Children and Poverty: some questions answered(PDF file - 127K, 4 pages)
April 2003
"This short paper explores the meaning of childhood poverty through examining its causes and identifying groups vulnerable to extreme poverty. This accessible paper demystifies terms and definitions and also highlights the importance of specific policy measures to adequately address the devastating effects of poverty suffered by children and young people."

Related Links:

International Save the Children Alliance
-Save the Children UK
-Save the Children Canada

Beat Poverty(Save the Children's on-going campaign to tackle the causes of poverty)

Child Poverty Action Group(U.K.) - fighting the injustice of poverty

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2003
Press Release
Complete Report
(links to the HTML and PDF versions of the 2003 report and to earlier years)
July 18, 2003
"Teen Birth Rate Down, Exposure To Secondhand Smoke Drops, Kids More Likely To Be Overweight."
Source:Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics


States cutting welfare reform programs;
Upcoming Federal Welfare Law Could Force Additional Cuts

June 4, 2003
"Many states are making significant cuts in their welfare and child care programs, a new Center study finds, including programs to help families move from welfare to work. Even deeper cuts could be in store if the legislation Congress is crafting to renew the 1996 welfare law imposes new requirements on states but does not provide the new money needed to help meet these requirements."
- Highlights page, incl. links to the press release and the complete report
Source :Center on Budget and Policy Priorities(U.S.)

States are cutting TANF and child care programs: Supports for low-income working families and welfare-to-work programs are particularly hard hit
by by Sharon Parrott and Nina Wu
June 3, 2003
"More than 35 states have made cuts in programs funded with TANF and child care block grant funds, and most of these cuts are in programs that promote the goals of welfare reform."
- Highlights page, incl. links to the press release and the complete report
Source :Center on Budget and Policy Priorities(U.S.)


Kids Count 2003

High Cost of Being Poor Threatens Gains Made in Child Well-Being
New KIDS COUNT report shows state-by-state progress; highlights hidden obstacles to financial security
Press Release
June 11, 2003
"WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new report shows nationwide improvement on eight of 10 indicators of child well-being, corresponding with a period that saw a higher participation of parents in the workforce. The report cautions, however, that many of these working parents face unrecognized obstacles that jeopardize the financial progress of their families and the continued improvement of outcomes for their kids. The 14th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book released today reports that while national trends in child well-being have been positive, there is still wide variation among states along several critical indicators."

This is a HUGE annual collection of statistics about child well-being in the U.S.An online database allows you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles or download the entire data set as delimited text files. Use the pull-down menus (called "Data Bank Shortcuts") on each page to make navigation easier.

Summary and Findings
- incl. links to summary pages for each of the indicators used in this annual study: Percent Low-Birthweight Babies - Infant Mortality Rate - Child Death Rate - Rate of Teen Deaths by Accident, Homicide, and Suicide - Teen Birth Rate - Percent of Teens Who Are High School Dropouts - Percent of Teens Not Attending School and Not Working - Percent of Children Living in Families Where No Parent Has Full-Time, Year-Round Employment - Percent of Children in Poverty - Percent of Families With Children Headed by a Single Parent

The High Cost of Being Poor: Another Perspective on Helping Low-Income Families Get By and Get Ahead(PDF file - 582K, 24 pages)
May 2003
"This 2003 Kids Count Data Book essay analyzes the growing problem of predatory pricing and wealth-stripping faced by low-income working families, draining resources that are needed by their children. The Casey Foundation offers a number of solutions to the largely-ignored issue of the high costs of being poor in America."

Source:

Kids Count(project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation), is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.
Casey Family Program(U.S.)
The Casey Family Program provides an array of services for children and youth, with foster care as its core. Casey services include adoption, kinship care (being cared for by extended family), guardianship and family reunification (reuniting children with birth families). 
Site Map

CHILD CARE (U.S.)
Recent State Policy Changes Affecting the Availability of Assistance for Low-Income Families
(PDF file - 364K, 47 pages)
Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives
May 2003
"Since January 2001, two-thirds of the states made key changes that affect the availability of child care assistance while the other one-third maintained their policies. Of the 35 states that made key changes:
• 23 made changes tending to decrease the availability of assistance,
• 9 made changes tending to increase the availability of assistance, and
• 3 made a mix of changes."
Source :General Accounting Office

Do Public Expenditures Improve Child Outcomes in the US?: A Comparison Across Fifty States(PDF file - 542K, 39 pages)
March 2003
"Written by Kristen Harknett and her colleagues at Princeton University's Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, this working paper examines the effects of public expenditures on child outcomes across the United States. The outcomes analyzed in the paper include child health and mortality, standardized test scores, child poverty, and adolescent behavior. Building on recent scholarship, the researchers estimate public expenditures on children across more than thirty social programs and tax credits in 1996. The second section of the paper reviews prior research in the field, while the third section describes their data and methods. The authors conclude that "the returns on investments in children are both broad and impressive." The tables referenced within the paper are attached to the conclusion of the document for those interested in taking a look at their definitions and data."
Source :Princeton Center for Research on Child Wellbeing
Reviewed by:
The Scout Report- Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001
April 25, 2003


“More time for family : It’s Everybody’s Business!”
North American Conference on the Family
May 23 to 27, 2003
Longueuil, Québec
"...deliberations about the impact of globalization and neoliberalism on family policies "
This conference is organized jointly by:
Carrefour action municipale et famille[website in French only], an organization grouping municipalities involved in family policies and active throughout the Province of Québec, and
theWorld Family Organization(WFO), North American Chapter. The World Family Organization is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) bringing together governments, research institutes and community organizations which purport to help families. The organization has a Category “A” consultative status with the United Nations


« Du temps pour la famille : c’est l’affaire de tous ! »
Conférence nord-américaine sur la famille

23-27 mai 2003
Longueuil, Québec



U.K. Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP)
"The Department is responsible for delivering support and advice through a modern network of services to people of working age, employers, pensioners, families and children and disabled people. Our key aims are to help our customers become financially independent and help reduce child poverty."


Measuring child poverty: a consultation document(PDF file - 146K, 36 pages) (DWP)
April 2002
"In March 1999, the Prime Minister announced the Government’s commitment to eradicate child poverty within a generation. As we move towards this goal we want to be sure that we are measuring poverty in a way that helps to target effective policies and enables the Government to be held to account for progress."



Two links found in the February 2003 issue of the monthlyDisability Research Digest(Society for Manitobans with Disabilities):

National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth
"NCWD/Youth is your source for information about employment and youth with disabilities. Our partners - experts in disability, education, employment, and workforce development - strive to ensure you will be provided with the highest quality, most relevant information available."

National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
"NICHCY is the national information center that provides information on disabilities and disability-related issues. Anyone can use our services - families, educators, administrators, journalists, students. Our special focus is children and youth (birth to age 22)."


ChildStats.gov
-"The official Web site of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics"
"This web site offers easy access to federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families, including: population and family characteristics, economic security, health, behavior and social environment,and education. Reports of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics include America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, the annual Federal monitoring report on the status of the Nation's children, and Nurturing Fatherhood."

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Child Well-Being, 2002
July 2002
"America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002, developed by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, is the sixth annual synthesis of information on the status of the Nation's most valuable resource, our children. This report presents 24 key indicators of the well-being of children. These indicators are monitored through official Federal statistics covering children's economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education."
[For previous editions (back to 1997), scroll to the bottom of the 2002 repor

International Forum for Child Welfare(IFCW)
"The International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW) is an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) established (1989) in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Its members are national organizations and professional associates that provide direct or indirect service to children worldwide. The IFCW is in consultative status to the United Nations."


The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
(U.S.)
April 2002

"The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, also called "The Survey of New Parents," follows a birth cohort of (mostly) unwed parents and their children over a four-year period. The study is designed to provide new information on the capabilities and relationships of unwed parents, as well as the effects of policies on family formation and child wellbeing. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study is a joint effort by Princeton University's Center for Research on Child Wellbeing and Columbia University's Social Indicators Survey Center."
Public Use Data- (Click on "Data" at the top of the Fragile Families home page)
(Free registration)
"Currently, registered users can download Fragile Families baseline data for both mothers and fathers in the 20-city sample. We expect to release 12-month follow-up data in the spring of 2003 and 30-month data in the fall of 2004. Baseline interviews for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study were conducted in 75 hospitals in 20 cities across the United States."
Related Links:
Princeton University Center for Research on Child Wellbeing(CRCW)
"CRCW conducts research on children's health, education, income, and family structure. (...) Our goal is to promote basic research on children's wellbeing and to link research to public policy."

Columbia University Social Indicators Survey Center(SIS Center)
The SIS Center conducts research on inequality and survey methodology. Our mission is to provide unique data sources for the analysis of social problems, to provide teaching resources for Columbia University students, and to provide useful knowledge to social service administrators, planners, and policy makers in New York City and elsewhere.

Child Trends-"dedicated to improving the lives of children and families by providing research and data to inform decision-making that affects children"
Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that studies children, youth, and families through research, data collection, and data analysis.

Publications- some are free PDF files, others you must order. Organized under the following headings: Welfare & Poverty - Adolescent Sexual Behavior - Indicators and Statistical Profiles - Fatherhood - Childrens Health - Early Childhood - Public Policy - Education - Youth Development - Family Strengths - Marriage/Family - Urban Issues

Child TrendsResearch Briefs
NOTE: Click on the above link for research briefs under the following headings :
- Adolescent Sexual Behavior
- Child Abuse, Neglect, and Family Violence
- Children's Health
- Early Childhood Education
- Family Strengths
- Fatherhood
- Indicators and Statistical Profiles
-
Marriage/Family
- Research Methodologies and Measurements
- Public Policy
- Urban Issues
- Welfare and Poverty
- Youth Development

The Use (and Misuses) of Social Indicators: Implications for Public Policy(PDF file - 76K, 6pages)
Research Brief
February 2003
"...suggests five purposes that social indicators can serve: description, monitoring, setting goals, increasing accountability, and “reflective practice. (...) Generally speaking, social indicators make poor tools for formal, scientific evaluations of programs, policies, and persons. Traditionally, the role of social indicators in evaluations has been rather limited, functioning as “miners’ canaries” to identify policies or programs that may be particularly promising (or unpromising) and deserving of formal evaluation using more rigorous techniques. At the same time, social indicators can often complement information derived from other types of research, together providing a stronger composite picture of the effects of a program or policy."

Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences and Policy Options(PDF file - 158K, 8 pages) - U.S.
November 14, 2002

"This research brief brings together 2001 Census data to present a statistical portrait of children in poverty in the United States, updating a similar brief Child Trends produced in 1999. It highlights some of the consequences of poverty for children and considers promising program and policy approaches."

Child Trends Databank
"
Tired of seaching multiple web sites for data and information on children, youth and families? Visit Child Trends' one-stop shop for the latest trends in child and
youth well-being."

- over 70 key indicators of child and youth well-being, with new indicators added each month

Welfare and Poverty Research Briefs fromChild Trends
Children of Current and Former Welfare Recipients: Similarly at Risk(March 2002) - (PDF file - 191K, 8 pages)
Symptoms of Depression Among Welfare Recipients: A Concern for Two Generations(December 2001) - (PDF file - 76K, 6 pages)
Teen, Jobs, and Welfare: Implications for Social Policy(August 2001) - (PDF file - 436K, 6 pages)
Welfare Reform's Impact on Adolescents: Early Warning Signs(July 2001) - (PDF file - 80K, 8 pages)
Working Poor Families with Children: Leaving Welfare Doesn't Necessarily Mean Leaving Poverty(May 2001) - 466K, 6 pages
Are Children Whose Parents Left Welfare Better Off?March 2002 - (PDF file - 190K, 8 pages)

Connect for Kids- "Guidance for Grownups"(U.S.)
"An alternative news source on the Web, Connect for Kids provides solutions-oriented coverage of critical issues for children and families.

2002: What's Ahead for Families?
May 30, 2002
"Several of the key pieces of federal legislation that weave the safety net for low-wage families—the welfare-to-work Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grants, Food Stamps, the Child Care Development Block Grant and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act —will be up for reauthorization in 2002. At the same time, the federal government will be facing severe budget constraints and most states will be making hard decisions affecting their education and social services budgets that serve vulnerable families.Add to this a hot election year..."

Global Movement for Children
"The Global Movement for Children (GMC) is a world-wide movement of organisations, individuals and children. It unites efforts to build a world fit for children."
- incl. links to : Home | Register | Take action | Publications | Information | Past Campaigns | About Us | Contact Us

The Condition of Education, 2002(U.S.)
June 2002
"The 2002 edition of the Condition of Education report has recently been released by the US Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Produced annually, the report highlights significant educational developments and progress made within the past year. This year’s report is available in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) and contains 44 indicators in six main areas: enrollment trends and student characteristics; student achievement and the longer term, enduring effects of education; student effort and rates of progress among different population groups; the quality of elementary and secondary education; the context of post-secondary education; and societal support for learning. Additionally, this report also provides analysis on the environment, climate, student outcomes at private schools, and the enrollment and persistence of nontraditional undergraduates. For anyone interested in education and its future, the report can be viewed in its entirety or by individual sections."
Reviewed byThe Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001
Related Links:
National Center for Education Statistics
U.S. Department of Education

No Child Left Behind(U.S. federal law to improve student achievement)
"On Jan. 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This new law represents his education reform plan and contains the most sweeping changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) since it was enacted in 1965. "

January Is Poverty in America Awareness Month: New Media Campaign Spotlights 12 Million Poor Children in U.S.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Press Release
January 2, 2002
"The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) today launched a new national awareness campaign emphasizing the tragic reality that one out of every six children in the United States lives in poverty, according to the most recent U.S. census figures. (...) Although poverty rates declined slightly from 1999 to 2000, more than 31 million people in the United States are poor and youth under 18 years of age still experience the highest incidence of poverty. The child poverty rate is actually higher than it was in 1979 and the U.S. ranks higher in this category than most industrialized nations."

PovertyUSA(CCHD) - America's Forgotten State
"For more than 31 million Americans, every day is a bitter struggle to survive with the least. They are America's poor, left behind on the road to prosperity. The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has created this site to raise awareness about poverty and help close the borders of this forgotten state."
- Go to theCatholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD)website

Source :United States Conference of Catholic Bishops


"A Decade of Transition" - Launch of the MONEE REPORT no. 8
(PDF file - 25K)
Press Release - November 29, 2001
"Child poverty is widespread in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Central and Eastern Europe, despite growing economies throughout the region. Rising numbers of children are ending up in institutions or being put up for adoption as families strain to cope, according to a UNICEF report, the first comprehensive review of the social side of a decade of transition."
This Report focuses on the410 million people who live in the 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It looks at trends in their well-being between 1989 and 1999: a decade of transition that closed their countries’ prolonged experiment with communism and that opened new perspectives to development. Examines household incomes, health, education and children in public care, in each case analysing the changes in outcomes during the 1990s and the policies affecting these outcomes.
Executive Summary(PDF file - 57K)
Report Index- incl. links to PDF files for all five chapters, statistical annex and glossary
Source :UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

Related Link:

The UNICEF Regional Monitoring Project (MONEE)(PDF file - 19K)
MONEE is"a UNICEF project to monitor the impact on children of the tremendous social and economic transition taking place in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. (...) The MONEE Project provides a unique source of information on the social impact of the transition years. It has made a major contribution to the international debate on the directions of public policy, drawing attention to emerging issues for children, women and families across the region and keeping the interests of children on the agenda."

Harnessing Globalisation for Children : A Report to UNICEF
July 2002
Fifteen PDF files, including overviews of changes in child well-being from 1980 to 2000 and proposals for a number of policy and program options to harness globalisation for children over the next two decades.
Introduction
(PDF file - 15K, 3 pages)
- covers a wide range of topics, including :
Changes in child wellbeing in the era of globalisation: main global trends - Child Mortality Differentials by Income Group - Source of Child Poverty Changes during the Globalisation Era - Financial Globalisation and Child Wellbeing - Globalisation and Child Labour -Liberalisation, Poverty-led Growth and Child Rights: Ecuador over 1980-2000 -Liberalisation of Utilities and Children’s Right to Basic Services: Some Evidence from Latin America - New Approaches to Harnessing Technological Progress for Children - In the best Interest of the Child: International Regulation of Transnational Corporations Widening Women’s Choices: The Case for Childcare in the Era of Globalisation - more...

Child Poverty Across Industrialized Nations(1999) - (PDF File, 468K - 90 pages)
UNICEF International Child Development Centre
- Estimates of patterns of child income poverty in 25 nations -including Canada -using data from theLuxembourg Income Study
Released in 1999, but most statistical tables and charts date back to 1995 and 1996.
Incl. The Measurement of Child Poverty - Income, Consumption and Saving - The Poverty Threshold and Counting Methods - Child Income Poverty Across Nations - Three Measures of Child Poverty - and much more.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
The NICHD is a component of theNational Institutes of Health(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).
NICHD research on fertility, pregnancy, growth, development, and medical rehabilitation strives to ensure that every child is born healthy and wanted and grows up free from disease and disability.

2002 Kids Count Data Book
"Crafted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Kids Count Data Book is a yearly publication that illuminates the status of America’s children by providing data on the "educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children" all across the U.S. By updating the book annually, viewers can assess the changes that have or have not been made by individual states and the nation at large. The report is divided into sections including graphs and color coded maps; profiles, which provides data on individual states or the nation as a whole; rankings, which contains data on all 50 states ranked according to an indicator; raw data, which allows downloading of the entire data book as "delimited files"; and PDF files, which allows downloading and printing of the data book using Adobe Acrobat. Those wanting a hard copy of the book can order a free copy from the home page."

Reviewed by:
The Scout Report- Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2001

Related Links:

Kids Count(project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation), is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.

Casey Family Program
The Casey Family Program provides an array of services for children and youth, with foster care as its core. Casey services include adoption, kinship care (being cared for by extended family), guardianship and family reunification (reuniting children with birth families). 

KIDS COUNT - Census Data Online(U.S.)
Updated: October 2001
KIDS COUNT has compiled indicators of child well-being released by the 2000 U.S. Census into an interactive online database offering easily readable summary profiles of data on Age and Sex, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Living Arrangements for the U.S., States, Counties, Congressional Districts, Cities, Metropolitan Areas, and New England Towns.

The Right Start 2001 Online
February 2001
Data drawn from birth certificates track eight key indicators of well-being in the 50 states as well as the top 50 cities. Use our interactive online database to view profiles, graphs, maps, rankings, and more.


Children's Defense Fund
"For over 30 years, CDF has struggled to make sure no child in the United States gets left behind. (...) Since 1973,CDF has worked toward, and made great progress in, reducing the numbers of neglected, sick, uneducated, and poor children in the United States. CDF's research, public education campaigns, budget and policy advocacy, and coalition building have contributed to millions of children gaining immunizations; health care; child care; Head Start; a right to education; adoptions; a chance to escape poverty; and protections in our child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. More than 400 CDF publications have educated millions about child conditions and what can be done individually and collectively to change things."

On the home page, you'll find links to content under the following headings:
Meeting Children's Needs - Preventing Poverty - Advocating for Children - Engaging Faith Communities
(the home page also includes links to : About CDF - Events - Press Releases - Data - Webstore - Donations

Tax and Benefits Outreach (under Preventing Poverty)
"The CDF Benefits Outreach project is a national initiative to ensure that children and poor working families receive tax insurance, income, health insurance, and other benefits for which they are eligible. The goal is to use a range of existing federal and state programs to lift children and their families out of poverty."
-----------------------
- An estimated three million families with children — about 15 percent of the total eligible families — did not receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in 2001
- Nearly 612,000 — about 25 percent of — low-income taxpayers with children did not claim the new refundable Child Tax Credit in 2001
- Almost six million children in America lack health insurance, despite living in families eligible in most states for Medicaid or the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- More than 3.4 million children did not receive food stamps in 2000, despite living in families with incomes low enough to qualify
-----------------------
A Sampling of Tax and Benefits Outreach Resources - Recommended reading!
November 2003
Model Outreach Projects: Benefits Access (PDF file - 154K, 4 pages)
April 2003
Top 10 Reasons to do Benefits Outreach (PDF file - 131K, 1 page)
November 2003

The ABC's of ECD
Early Childhood Development website of theWorld Bank
This site is a knowledge source designed to assist policy makers, program managers and practitioners in their efforts to promote the healthy growth and integral development of young children.
Links to excellent and extensive collection of resources to ECD information from around the world

America's Promise-The Alliance for Youth
That's what America's Promise is all about - pulling together the might of America's companies, public service groups and children's service providers; their talents and their resources, to strengthen kids. Not just their minds and bodies, but their character as well. And it's working. It will work even better if you and your group join in. It's time to get involved. Join us. "- General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret)

Publications - incl. * The Promise Letter * State of Our Nation's Youth * Report to the Nation * President’s Summit Declaration * Strategy Series Library * Annual Report * Connecting Communities with Colleges & Universities * Becoming a College or University of Promise * Faith in the Five Guide * Schools of Promise brochure * Creating Communities of Promise * The Power of Five

Mystifying Data: Can America's Promise Get Away with It?
July 1999
FromEnergize, Inc.- "especially for leaders of volunteers" 



World Bank Early Child Development website
"This site is a knowledge source designed to assist policy makers, program managers, and practitioners in their efforts to promote the healthy growth and integral development of young children. This website expands on the content of the previous version of the ECD website. You will find that the content has been restructured, consolidated, and updated to include new information. The chapter on selected publications provides a list of the Bank's ECD publications and toolkits. The chapter on news & events features the World Bank sponsored events as well as external conferences and workshops."

United Kingdom:
The benefits of parenting: government financial support for families with children since 1975(PDF file - 548K, 74 pages)
November 2002
"The introduction of the child tax credit in April 2003 will be the largest reform to the way the government supports families with children since child benefit replaced family allowance in the 1970s. But how have successive governments used the tax and benefit system to support families with children? This Commentary quantifies the changes in the level and distribution of financial support for children (called child-contingent support™ in this publication) between 1975 and 2003."
Source:Institute for Fiscal Studies(London)

Also from the Institute for Fiscal Studies:

A survey of the UK tax system(PDF file; 485K, 31 pages)
Updated November 2001
"This paper describes the main components of the current UK tax system, the revenue raised from different taxes, and discusses how the tax system has changed over the last twenty years."

A survey of the UK benefit system(PDF file - 1250K, 57 pages)
Updated October 2002
"This paper describes all the main benefits in the UK system, giving details of rates and allowances, as well as numbers and types of claimants and levels of expenditure."

Pueblito is a registered Canadian charity committed to the well being of children in Latin America. For over 25 years we have struggled to confront the effects of poverty and to promote the care and healthy development of children. By working hand in hand with partner organizations in Latin America, we are able to share know-how, training and resources with communities in a way that is cost effective and efficient.

Canadian Action Plan Sets New Course in Child Protection in the Developing World
News Release
June 18, 2001
International Cooperation Minister Maria Minna today released Canada's Child Protection Action Plan, a document that sets the course for Canadian aid programming for the most marginalized children in developing countries. The document, prepared by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) after extensive consultation with civil society partners, places special emphasis on war-affected children and child labour.

Canada's Child Protection Action Plan- CIDA's Action Plan on Child Protection
Promoting the rights of children who need special protection measures
June 2001
PDF version(285 Kb - 52 pages)
Incl. links to :
- The challenges facing children (poverty, exploitation, abuse, and discrimination, examples of child-protection challenges in different regions
-The response of the international community (Canada - CIDA)
- The rights-based approach
- A new direction for CIDA in child protection
- Implementing the new direction
- Conclusion
- Go to the Children's Rights Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.htm


Bullying Resources
(U.K. website)



UKChildcare

The information contained within this site is geared primarily towards a Canadian audience with an interest in improving the quality of child care in our country. British models of policy, practice, and training are outlined in an attempt to help you with your research endeavors. If we may further assist you in any way, please feel free to contact us. Funds for the development of the website were provided by Child Care Visions, Social Development Partnership Program, Human Resources Development Canada to Dr. M. Kaye Kerr, Psychology, University of Winnipeg. The site is hosted and resides at the University of Winnipeg.
- Excellent resource --- incl. Policy and Legislation - Education and Training - Resources - Recommended Reading - Practices - Current Research - Organizations - Glossary


YahooNews World Full Coverage - Poverty
U.S. and international online news, magazine articles, opinions and editorials, related websites and much more.
 


The World's Youth 2000
The Population Reference Bureau
This report from thePopulation Reference Bureauprovides data and analysis on the world's youth. The report includes data on "population, education, and health, with a special focus on sexual and reproductive health." The topics covered in this report include "education, sexual and reproductive lives of young people, use of contraception, sexual violence against young women, HIV/AIDS, and policy and program approaches." The text of the report is presented in .pdf format, and the data tables may be viewed in either HTML or .pdf format. Individual topics are also accessible using a sidebar menu.
- Reviewed by theScout Report for Social Sciences

 

International Reform Monitor(from the Bertelsmann Foundation - Europe) 
This Bertelsmann Foundation website gives a wide range of well-selected information on social policy (health care, pensions provision, family policy, state welfare), labour market policy and industrial relations in15 OECD countries: Australia, Austria,Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America. 

International Reform Monitor Brochures
The three links below are PDF files with some excellent information on recent developments and trends ininternational social policy- labour market policy - industrial relations 
Issue 3 - October 2000(66 pages - 446K, Canadian content: the CPP Pension Fund, Parental Leave, the Canada Child Tax Benefit increase)  
Issue 1 - 1999(43 pages, 492K, Canadian content: New child benefit) 

The Bertelsmann Foundation(Europe) 
Working on more than 180 projects (as of December 2000) in the fields of Economics, State and Public Administration, Media, Politics, Public Libraries, Medicine and Health Service, Philanthropy and Foundations, Culture and Universities, the Bertelsmann Foundation wants to help solve current social problems. 
- See the Bertelsmann Foundationsitemapfor an overview of what you'll find on this large site. 

The Kindergarten Year: Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99-- [PDF file, 61 pages, 227K]
Released on the first of this month by the National Center for Education Statistics, "this report attempts to answer two basic sets of questions about children's knowledge and skill acquisition during the kindergarten year." The report presents and analyzes data on improvements in math and reading skills for children pre- and post-kindergarten in specific cognitive skills such as letter recognition, understanding the letter-sound relationship, and sight-word recognition (in reading) and "counting beyond 10, recognizing the sequence in basic patterns, and comparing the relative size (dimensional relationship) of objects" (in mathematics). The report is presented in .pdf format and features a hypertext table of contents.
 [Reviewed by theScout Report for Social Sciences]U.S.
Census Bureau Children's Page
Census Bureau Child Care Statistics
Child Care Bureau
Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC)
Head Start Bureau
National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education

 


National Child Care Information Center

The National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), a project of the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a national resource that links information and people to complement, enhance, and promote the child care delivery system, working to ensure that all children and families have access to high-quality comprehensive services.

Methodology for Determining Whether an Increase in a State or Territory's Child Poverty Rate Is the Result of the TANF Program; Final Rule(U.S.)
June 23, 2000
"This final rule establishes the methodology the Administration for Children and Families will use to determine the child poverty rate in each State and Territory.If any jurisdiction experiences an increase in its child poverty rate of five percent or more as a result of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the State or Territory must submit and implement a corrective action plan[highlighting added]. This requirement is a part of the TANF program, the welfare reform block grant enacted in 1996.
This rule is effective August 22, 2000."
Source :Administration for Children and Families[U.S Dept. of Health and Human Services]
NOTE: this is two-year-old information, but I wasn't aware of this feature of the American block grant for welfare; I thought others might find this interesting...
TIP: Go to theACF Programs Pagefor over 100 links to federal government programs for families and children and contacts throught the country

The Child Abuse Prevention Network
The Child Abuse Prevention Network is the InternetNerve Center for professionals in the field of child abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse and neglect are our key areas of concern. We provide unique and powerful tools for all workers to support the identification, investigation, treatment, adjudication, and prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Children's House in Cyberspace(from the Child Abuse Prevention Network)
"Children's House is a cooperative initiative by AIFS, CIDEF, Children's Rights Centre, Childwatch, Consultative Group, CRIN, Family Life Development Center, IIN, NOSEB, Radda Barnen, ISCA, UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank and WHO."
Children's House is an international meeting place for the exchange of information that serves the well being of children. The site is designed as floors of a house - including the Early Childhood Floor, the Child Health Floor, the Child Research Floor, the  NGO Floor, the Children's Rights Floor, the Education Floor, the Information Resources Floor, the News Floor, the Conferences Floor and the Training Floor. Each floor is dedicated to a childhood domain and maintained by a different international children's organization.
On theChildren's House Committeepage, you'll find a list of moderators for each floor including e-mail addresses and the website addresses of their organizations (11 in all).
Excellent resources - for example, theInformation Floorincludes links to information in the following areas : Advocacy and Policy - Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention - Child Health and Child Poverty - Children and Cities - Children and War - Children's Rights - Early Childhood - Homeless Children and Street Kids - Youth and Adolescents - Journals with Relevance to Children - Internet Resources for Children. And don't forget to check out theChild Rights Floorfor a series of links to web sites containing substantive information on child rights issues.

 


America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Child Well-Being 2000

This is the fourth report in an annual series prepared by the Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. A collaborative effort by 20 Federal agencies, the report presents a wealth of information on a number of indicators of well-being, including population and familiy characteristics, economic security, health, behaviors and social environment characteristics, education, and more.
From the above link, you can either download the report in PDF format (as one large file or two smaller ones), read thehighlights of the reportor go to theHTML Table of Contentswith links to well over100 tables, texts, source data and related information.America's ChildrenPress Release"Nation's Children Gain In Many Areas : Childhood Mortality, Teen Birth Rates Drop
July 13, 2000
Source:U.S. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics

Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children
" ...for the promotion and protection of children's rights in Canada and abroad"
Formed in 1989 after the unanimous adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the United Nations General Assembly, the Coalition has grown to include over 60 national and provincial non-government organizations (NGOs) committed to promoting and protecting the rights of children in Canada and abroad. The mandate of the Coalition is to ensure a collective voice for Canadian organizations and youth concerned with the rights of children as described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the World Summit for Children Declaration.

International Bureau for Children's Rights
The International Bureau for Children's Rights was founded in Paris on 20 November, 1994, at the initiative of Judge Andrée Ruffo of the Quebec Juvenile Court (Canada). The Bureau's mission is to protect, defend and promote the rights and the welfare of all children in every corner of the globe.

Links to Human Rights sites and United Nations sites
(including the Human Development Index)

Child Support Home Page(U.S.)

Early Childhood Intervention Programs: What Do We Know?(U.S.)
(PDF file, 236K, 53pp)
Janet Currie
Joint Center for Poverty Research
April 2000
Source :Joint Center for Poverty Research
Also from JCPR :JCPR Conferences and Events  - incl. upcoming conferences, Congressional research briefings and events
- seePreviously Held Conferencesfor extensive conference coverage back to 1997, e.g.The Earned Income Tax Credit: Early Findings(October 7-8, 1999, Evanston, Illinois), where you'll find plenty of EITC information, including links to almost a dozen recent and relevant papers.[==>e.g.,David Ellwood]
 

CHILDREN'S ROUNDTABLE REPORT
The Plight of the Working Poor, by David Ellwood
*
The Brookings Institution
November 1999
*David Ellwood -- now Professor of Political Economy at Harvard, was academic dean there, and before that, assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services, during which time he co-chaired Clinton's working group on welfare reform.


National Center for Children in Poverty(Columbia University Health Sciences, New York)
"The mission of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is to identify and promote strategies that reduce the number of young children living in poverty in the United States, and that improve the life chances of the millions of children under age six who are growing up poor."
Check out this comprehensive, current and HUGE collection of information on child poverty in the U.S.
- includes: Media Resources - Newsletters - Child Poverty Facts - State & Local Info - Child Care & Early Ed. - Family Support - Welfare Reform - Research Forum -  Publications - Feedback and more...

Improving Children's Economic Security
Research Findings About Increasing Family Income Through Employment
Series Overview
"This important policy brief series focuses on state policy options that have the potential to improve children's economic security by increasing family income. More specifically, the series examines policies that seek to increase family income by encouraging, supporting, and rewarding work, including: Earned income tax credits - Financial work incentive programs - Minimum wage standards - Unemployment insurance - Child care subsidies - Housing assistance - Public health insurance - Food stamps"
Brief 1: Policies That Improve Family Income Matter for Children(May 2002) :
(PDF file - 462K, 8 pages)
"... sets the stage for the research syntheses on each of the eight policy options mentioned in the Series Overview"
Brief 2: Earned Income Tax Credits(July 2002) (PDF file - 478K, 9 pages)
"...the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, the nation's largest cash or near-cash program directed at low-income families, is also the nation's most effective government program for lifting children out of poverty."


 Facts for Families- American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
 - The AACAP developed Facts for Families to provide concise and up-to-date information on issues that affect children, teenagers, and their families. Includes 46 information sheets on issues ranging from child sexual abuse and adopted children to unwed parenthood and youth suicide.


Benton Foundation
-"... working to realize the social benefits made possible by the public interest use of communications"
Washington, D.C.


American Public Human Services Association
(formerly the American Public Welfare Association)


Social Work and Social Services Web Sites
(George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University)- hundreds of links organized by topic, e.g., .....Housing Human Diversity Human Rights Human Services Hypnotherapy International Social Work Internet Directories Journals Learning Difficulties/Disabilities Magazines Marriage, Family and Couples Measurement and Assessment Scales Medicaid Medically Related Medicare.....


Research Forum on Children, Families and the New Federalism
(U.S. site hosted by the National Center for Children in Poverty)
- the Research Forum database includes 41 reviewed and 28 unreviewed research
projects dealing with issues of welfare reform in the U.S. and its effects.
- includes theCanadian Self-Sufficiency Projectpage (a welfare research and demonstration project in New Brunswick and British Columbia)
- plenty of information and links to studies -

Urban Institute- (U.S. site) - incl. reports on children's well-being

Assessing the New Federalism- Multi-year research project to analyze the devolution of responsibility for social programs from the federal government to the states, focusing primarily on health care, income security, job training, and social services

 

Miscellaneous

Center for the Child Care Workforce
Child Care Parent Provider Information Network
Child Care Resource Center, Inc
Early Head Start National Resource Center
ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Families and Work Institute
Journal of Extension
National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Head Start Association
National Institute on Out-of-School Time
National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care
Svenska Institutet (The Swedish Institute)
Directory of Children's Issues on the World Wide Web- 370 links (from ChildrenNow, a U.S. site)

Educational Resources Information Center - ERIC(Early Childhood Education Resources)
Children's Rights Council Home Page
insideOUT Magazine
National Child Rights Alliance
Save the Children Fund
Stand for Children
Children Now
-Directory of Children's Issues on the World Wide Web- 319 links as of December 2000
Youth Action Online
Youth Indicators 1993 : Health
Center for the(U.S.)

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
-Government Benefit Programs cut Poverty in Half, Analysis Finds: Social Security Reduces Elderly Poverty Sharply, But Study Shows Safety Net For Children Weakened In 1996(March 9, 1998)

Australian Institute of Family Studies



Related Canadian Social Research Links pages:
- Early Learning and Child Care in Canada - Canadian NGO Links
- Early Learning and Child Care in Canada - Canadian Govt. Links
- Children, Families and Youth - Canadian Government Links
-
Children, Families and Youth - Canadian NGO Links
- Children's Rights Links page - incl. Canada’s National Plan of Action for Children, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the work of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (Special Session on the Rights of the Child), and related sites
- Unofficial Social Union Links Page (national)
- Unofficial Provincial/Territorial Social Union Links Page
See these related outside sites also...
- The (official) Social Union website
- The National Child Benefit website


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