 Children,
Families and Youth |
Updated August 20, 2011 |
 Les
enfants, les familles et les jeunes |
Children,
Families and Youth |
Updated August 20, 2011 |
Les
enfants, les familles et les jeunes |
Related
Canadian Social Research Links pages: |
POVERTY
DISPATCH - U.S. |
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.
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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.
--------------------
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.
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[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
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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.
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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
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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
YouthForum - A parallel forum for young people will focus on the participation of youth in the welfare process.
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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
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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 ------------------------------------------- Ditto: Federal
Expenditures on Children: 1960-1997 - U.S.
|
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:
-------
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.
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.
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...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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."
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
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. >>
Effects of welfare and employment policies on young children: New findings on
policy experiments conducted in the early 1990s - U.S. >>
Timing of poverty in childhood critical to later outcomes [US] >>
Dig deep to make Sure Start just as brilliant as it can be [GB] 8-July 2005 >>
Women’s empowerment: Measuring the global gender gap >>
Family values, Santorum-style [US] >>
Loan scheme on offer for child care [AU] 30-June-05 >>
Government of Australia 2004 census of child care services >>
All together now: State experiences in using community-based child care to provide
pre-kindergarten >>
Child care fees soar - if you can find it [AU] >>
Dressed to oppress [AU] Quality
time thrills Nordic dads [DK] 24-June-05
>>
Presentations from Plan-It Quality: Environments in early learning and child care
linking research to policy and practice >>
How Swede it is: Learning from Sweden's perspective on children [SE]
>>
Building blocks of an empire [AU]
>>
Schools call on more men to be child carers [GB] 20-May-05 >>
Prekindergarteners left behind: Expulsion rates in State prekindergarten systems >>
Growing up in Australia: The longitudinal study of Australian children - 2004
annual report >>
OECD Thematic Review of ECEC: Austrian background report >>
Grandparents take over as mums go back to work [AU] >>‘Bébé
boom’ will put France ahead of UK and Germany [FR] 13-May-05 >>
Pre-school in transition: A national evaluation of the Swedish pre-school >>
Who’s teaching our youngest students? Teacher education and training, experience,
compensation and benefits, and assistant teachers >>
Gender-based analysis: Building blocks for success >>
Caring more for children in child care [AU] >>
Rewards in child care [AU] 06-May-05\ >>
Minister meets parents over child care [AU] 22-April-05 >>
OECD Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care: France reports >>
Care Architecture project SEIU
to represent daycare workers [US-IL] Child
care industry proves big business [US] Filipino
MPs demand inquiry in Canada on 'modern-day slaves' [PH] |
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:
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."
.............................................
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! Sites
européens recommandés : Enfants, jeunes, jeunes adultes et familles
(fichier Word, 345Ko., 43 pages) |
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)
.......................................................................................................................................................................
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
.......................................................................................................................................................................
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.)
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, andtheWorld 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
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)."
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
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."
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? |
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.
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
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 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.)
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.
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.....
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
| TIP:
How to Search for a Word or Expression on a Single Web Page Open any web page in your browser, then hold down the Control ("Ctrl") key on your keyboard and type the letter F to open a "Find" window. Type or paste in a key word or expression and hit Enter - your browser will go directly to the first occurrence of that word (or those exact words, as the case may be). To continue searching using the same keyword(s) throughout the rest of the page, keep clicking on the FIND NEXT button. Try it. It's a great time-saver! |
E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com ![[kids]](images/kids.jpg)