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 1/7/2011: A look at a counseling and support program for women.  Plus, research shows  the impact a mother’s employment has on a child’s academics.

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:

•    An analysis of 50 years of research found that the children of low-income, single-mother-led families did better on achievement tests and had fewer behavioral problems when their moms were employed, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.

•   The Knoxville News Sentinel profiles several women once struggling with drug abuse, homelessness, or poverty who gained counseling and support from “A Hand Up,” a program whose classes teach women ranging from pregnant teens to widows how to become self sufficient.

•    Paul LePage, Maine’s recently elected governor, asked Jennifer Cloukey, a single mother who has multiple jobs and is attending college, to be an honored guest at his inauguration and answer questions from the media in hopes of disproving the misconception that people on welfare do not have a work ethic, as reported in the Bangor Daily News.

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 12/17/2010: A look at a job-readiness program for homeless women.  And Jane Fonda pushes for teen pregnancy programs to address poverty and education .

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:

•    Hundreds of low-income women will no longer receive pre-natal care in northern New Jersey and thousands more patients across the state will be turned away for family planning, gynecological care, and sexually transmitted disease testing in 2011, according to The Record.

•   The Sacramento Bee interviews graduates from Women’s Empowerment, a nonprofit Sacramento program that offers an eight-week job-readiness program for homeless women, many of whom are victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse and struggle with substance abuse.

•    In an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jane Fonda argues that teen pregnancy programs must address the poverty and education issues that young teenagers face.

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 12/3/2010: A profile of a program that helps low-income single mothers with scholarships, health care and other services.  Plus, a health program that will benefit 300,000 low-income women.

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 Sacramento Bee reports that as many as 300,000 low-income women are expected to benefit in 2011 when the California Department of Public Health reopens a health program that was shut down earlier this year due to a shortfall in state funding.

•   The Arizona Republic highlights the work of Helping Hands for Single Moms, a program that has provided scholarships, computer and auto repair, health care, and other services to low-income single mothers since 2001 .

•    Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence announced that it was awarded a $250,000, three-year grant by the federal Office on Violence Against Women to pay for additional transitional housing for homeless domestic violence survivors in Boulder County, according to the Daily Camera.

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 11/19/2010: The Census Bureau is planning to incorporate broader definitions of family when measuring poverty, a shift caused partly by recent jumps in unmarried couples living together.

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:

•    Carolina Rescue Ministries tells the Asheville Citizen-Times that Kmart employees painted and redecorated its women’s shelter with a truckload of donated home furnishings.

•   New Jersey Democrats are fighting to restore the roughly $7.5 million that Governor Christie cut from family planning—money that mostly goes to health care services for low-income women, according to the Daily Record.

•    The Daily Times reports that Salisbury-based Hope and Life Outreach, known as HALO, has started early, opening a women and mothers with children’s shelter in mid-November, more than a month-and-a-half before its normal January start.

•   The Associated Press writes that the Census Bureau is planning to incorporate broader definitions of family when measuring poverty, a shift caused partly by recent jumps in unmarried couples living together as well as in response to a recent study by the Pew Research Center indicating that four in ten Americans believe that marriage is becoming obsolete.

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 11/5/2010: Helping teen moms achieve economic stability.  Plus, nearly 1/4 of women giving birth in the U.S. lived in poverty in 2008.

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 a recent study, Utah had the third-lowest rate of mothers living in poverty at 15.2 percent. Across the country, nearly a quarter of the women giving birth were living in poverty, according to the Associated Press.

•   The Associated Press profiles the work of Dr. Natalie Carroll, an OB-GYN who has dedicated her 40-year career to helping black women and spends a lot of time encouraging her patients to get married; seventy-two percent of black babies are born to unmarried mothers today, according to government statistics.

•    The Orlando Sentinel celebrates the BETA Center, whose counseling, outreach, and therapy services help young teen mothers move on from lives of poverty and substance or physical abuse to obtain degrees and launch careers.

•    The New York Times article about 2008 U.S. Census data showing that an increasing number of single mothers have a live-in partner concluded by saying that this same data also demonstrates that nationally one in four mothers who recently gave birth lived in poverty.

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 10/22/2010: Removing the stigma surrounding food stamps.  Plus, Chicago-area hospitals find a racial gap in the breast cancer mortality rate.

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:

•    Hoping to remove the stigma surrounding food stamps, California unveiled the program’s new name, “CalFresh,” at an event in Long Beach that provided free medical, financial, and educational services to low-income women and encouraged them to sign up for the benefit, according to the Los Angeles Times.

•   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent findings that that national male unemployment rate has dipped significantly while the female jobless rate has barely shifted.

•    Penny Martin, a Staten Island woman who was living in a homeless shelter, tells the Daily News that a recently discovered decades-old check for $10,000 owed to her from a life insurance policy will help her turn her life around.

•    The Chicago Sun Times writes that new figures from the Sinai Urban Health Institute provide evidence that Chicago’s racial gap in breast cancer mortality has grown steadily over the last two decades, outpacing similar disparities between black and white women in New York City and the nation as a whole.

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 10/01/2010: How stress can impact a child before she or he is even born. Plus, how the Paycheck Fairness Act can help families avoid the path to poverty.

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 op-ed for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof discusses recent research suggesting that a stressful uterine environment for the child of a low-income mother may promote the continuation of poverty from one generation to the next.

•    Cathedral Center, a Milwaukee homeless shelter for women and families, has helped women like Arlena Herring transition to a life off of the streets, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

•    The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that recent Census data reveals that nearly half of Rochester’s children are living below the poverty line, with 51.2 percent of families led by single mothers living in poverty, a sharp contrast to the 6.9 percent of children who are poor and have married parents.

•    Michelle Gillett of the Berkshire Eagle writes favorably about the Paycheck Fairness Act, a piece of legislation currently being debated in the Senate that Gillett believes will help women recover lost wages and contribute extra income toward college and retirement, helping many families avoid the path to poverty.

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