The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 5/24/2011: Why all women need a financial plan.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    Emma Sapong writes in the Buffalo News that it is critical for women to have a financial plan that is separate from their husband’s; the death of a spouse or a divorce can leave women with children in dire circumstances that can often lead to poverty.

•    The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports that contrary to the claim of some Indiana House Republicans that other clinics in surrounding areas will be able to cover women’s healthcare, reproductive education, and family planning services currently provided by Planned Parenthood, these clinics do not actually offer these services.

•   The Pennsylvania State House approved a controversial bill that would impose strict inspection and operating regulations on abortion clinics, a move that Representative Dan Frankel said could make it more difficult for low-income women to afford the procedure, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

•   The News Journal publishes an overview of the 2011 Kids Count Fact Book, which found that an increasing number of Delaware’s children are living in poverty and that more than one third of children lives in single-parent families.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

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The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 5/6/2011: Why one columnist says Congress needs to allow states to decide how to enhance maternal and child health.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    The Roanoke Times reports that after nearly a century of serving homeless women and their children, the YWCA of Roanoke Valley will be closing at the end of June 2011 and merging its programs with DePaul Community Resources.

•    Ana Veciana-Suarez writes in a Miami Herald editorial that “the separation of marriage from parenting” has led to an increase in single-parent families—living in which means children are five times more likely to live below the poverty line and more likely to engage in substance abuse.

•   Michael Fraser argues in the Des Moines Register that Congress should continue to provide Title V grants to states based on the number of children living in poverty and allow the states to decide the best way to enhance maternal and child health.

•   This week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels pledged to sign a bill barring federal funds from the Medicaid Act, which pays for health services for low-income women, from the flowing through the state government to health clinics that provide abortions, according to the Chicago Tribune.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 4/29/2011: The U.S. has the highest percentage in the developed world of children being raised by a single person, typically a woman.  A woman is charged with stealing $16,000 worth of education for her son after enrolling him in the wrong school district.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    The New York Times reports that Tanya McDowell, who is homeless, pled “not guilty” to stealing $16,000 worth of education for her son by enrolling him in her babysitter’s school district in a court case that has enraged many public advocates and stands as a reminder of educational inequalities in the U.S.

•    A recently released OECD survey finds that the United States has the highest percentage of children in the developed world who are raised by a single parent, usually a single mom, increasing the likelihood that these children will grow up in poverty, according to the Boston Globe.

•    In an op-ed piece in the Indianapolis Star, Dan Carpenter rebukes the state legislature for cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood-provided “medical services to poor women in the service of religious ideology,” stating that taxpayer money does not go toward abortions.

•   Gov. Haley Barbour signed House Bill 999 into law, which requires local school boards to implement abstinence-only education into its local school district’s curriculum; a move that Mississippi hopes will lower its high teen pregnancy and STD rates, attributed by the CDC to poverty and lack of access to health education, as reported in the Clarion-Ledger.

•   The Associated Press announces state health officials’ findings that maternal mortality is on the rise in California, with African-American, low-income, and less educated women being the most likely to experience deadly complications from childbirth.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 4/22/2011: How women’s opportunities to escape from poverty are stifled.  Why budget cuts will compound the effects of the recession.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    New York Times op-ed contributor Jill Lepore, a Harvard history professor, laments that state and federal cuts in public education and family planning services will stifle women’s opportunities to escape from poverty.

•    A Politico op-ed piece argues that the budget cuts in education, social programs, and women’s health funding proposed by Congress will only compound the devastating effects of the Great Recession on the American middle class.

•    The Indianapolis Star reports that the Indiana State Senate voted to cut off support to Planned Parenthood as part of an anti-abortion bill; about $3 million in taxpayer money goes to Planned Parenthood of Indiana annually to pay for services such as birth control, cancer screenings, and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

•   Betty Cockrum, president of Planned Parenthood of Indiana, tells the Indianapolis Star that the end of state funding could seriously jeopardize eight health centers that serve low-income Hoosiers across the state and would also keep Medicaid clients from visiting any of Planned Parenthood’s 28 Indiana locations.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 4/8/2011: The demand for Planned Parenthood may be on the rise.  Virginia becomes the latest state to ban abortion coverage for private plans that will take part in health insurance exchanges.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    The Los Angeles Times reports that demand for Planned Parenthood services in Los Angeles is up 10% to 15% despite the proposal to cut the agency’s federal funding.

•    Last week, Virginia became the eighth state to pass a ban on abortion coverage for any private plan that would take part in the health insurance exchanges that will be created under recently passed health care reform legislation; low-income earners, who are usually not covered by an employer’s plan, will be among the first groups offered access to these new exchanges, according to the New York Times.

•    Two Texas state senators are concerned that a decrease in family planning funding for the poor may have the unintended consequence of a rise in unwanted pregnancies, which the CEO of Health and Family Planning Association of Texas tells the Houston Chronicle is the number one factor for low-income women becoming welfare dependent.

•    The Associated Press gives an overview of the ongoing debate in New York City over recently enacted legislation that requires abortion alternatives centers — which usually operate in low-income areas — to disclose the services they offer.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 4/1/2011: Women, unions and “the husband issue.”

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    A New York Times op-ed entitled “An Extraordinary Intrusion on Women’s Rights” says that several new state laws limiting women’s access to providers of abortions will especially limit access for low-income women.

•    Despite massive state-wide cuts to programs that help illegal immigrants, Washington state is federally mandated to allocate $300 million in funds to services for illegal immigrants, primarily child welfare and health services for seriously ill and pregnant women, according to the Seattle Times.

•    In an editorial piece for the New York Times, Natasha Vargas-Cooper discusses how she worked as a union organizer and had to overcome “the husband issue” when convincing low-wage female workers to join the unions; the women always sought approval from their husbands before joining the union, an act that Vargas-Cooper argues would not occur if the same question was posed to men.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 3/11/2011: A new report about women in America.  Plus, the difficulty homeless veterans have accessing services.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports that the county Public Health Department recently released statistics showing a drop in late-teen birth rates; the agency also said that “teenage mothers are less likely to graduate from high school [and] their children are at risk for poorer health and developmental disabilities.”

•    A recent White House report, “Women in America,” stated that women still lag behind men in pay, health, and employment opportunities, adding that women are more likely than men to live in poverty, and the poverty rate of female-headed households is more than three times as high as that of married couples, as discussed in the Asheville Citizen-Times. 

•  In his weekly radio address, President Obama pledged last week to maintain a focus on women’s equality, saying that as a father he wants “his girls [to] grow up in a world where there are no limits to what they can achieve,” according to the Associated Press.

•    Fort Worth Star-Telegram interviews homeless female veterans who often have a hard time accessing services like housing programs that are specifically tailored to serve them.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 2/18/2011: Moms and Jobs.  Family Planning.  A new health care debate.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    The Boston Globe profiles MoJo, short for Moms and Jobs, a for-profit apparel company that employs low-income single mothers, and pays them good wages and benefits and covers the entire cost of child care.

•    An op-ed in the Asbury Park Press speaks out against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s decision to veto the State Legislature’s recent proposal to extend more funding for family planning services to the state’s neediest women and families.

•  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution publishes an editorial opposing the Georgia Legislature’s proposed $80,000 cut to funding for free legal representation to victims of domestic violence, most of whom are disenfranchised women and children.

•    State lawmakers, poised to drop health-care coverage for thousands, say poor people who still qualify for the state’s Medicaid program, including pregnant women, should take greater responsibility for their health care, as discussed in The Arizona Republic.

•   In an effort to battle obesity, the City of Baltimore and Weight Watchers are teaming up to use $100,000 in federal stimulus money to launch a program offering 93 women in three low-income city neighborhoods free Weight Watchers meetings and passes to the YMCA for nine weeks, according to the Baltimore Sun.

•    The New York Times reports that the National Domestic Violence Hotline released research findings demonstrating that men who abuse women physically and emotionally may also sabotage their .

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 1/29/2011: A look at a job training program for immigrant women.  Plus, an online network that helps families in need.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•    In an interview with the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle spotlighting the Women’s Foundation of Genesee Valley, director Susan Latoski says that the organization’s goal is “to make lasting social change, to change the course of generational poverty.”

•    The Tennessean highlights the successes of the Christian Women’s Job Corps program that offers underprivileged, primarily Spanish-speaking women free counseling, job training, educational classes, and child care in an effort to help them find better jobs.

•    The Sentinel & Enterprise reports that researchers have identified the rise in single-parent families, especially mother-child families, as a major factor driving the long-term increase in child poverty in the United States.

•    Love Drop, a new online network of people that chooses one person or family a month to help, selected Jill Markussen, a single mother with three children who became a client of the Glen Ellyn-based Bridge Communities transitional program for the homeless after a fire destroyed her home, according to the Chicago Daily Herald.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team

The latest news, analysis and opinion on the state of low-income women and their families from Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity. For the week ending 1/14/2011: A look at a how the economy may effect domestic violence.  Plus, a look at a new shelter for women and children in Washington, D.C.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with the Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

•   The New York Times reports that a study from the Guttmacher Institute indicated that the abortion rate leveled off between 2005 and 2008 and that unintended pregnancy was mainly concentrated among poor and low-income women, a demographic that has increased during the recession.

•  In an interview with the Star Press, Teresa Clemmons, an executive director for a “Better Way” domestic violence shelter, theorizes that their organization has been at capacity for the past 18 months because job loss and the resulting financial strain due to the poor economy can lead to substance abuse and physical conflicts.

•    The Washington Post profiles women who are receiving services, support, and temporary housing from the “House of Help at Kingdom Village,” a shelter for women and children that recently opened in December 2010.

•    The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has announced a national expansion that could double the number of abortion clinics it operates and could provide a wider array of health care for the tens of thousands of low-income women in New Jersey, according to the Gloucester County Times.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity team