Economic Security

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending April 15, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with Washington Area 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.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• An editorial appearing in the Chicago Sun Times argues that more support for single moms will benefit the next generation.

• The Washington Times profiles a Washington, D.C. resident who is known for her charity work with low-income mothers.

• In an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, a contributor in favor of Notre Dame’s controversial invitation to President Obama argues that he disapproves of bishops’ support of pro-life candidates, which he believes has led to a widening of the gap between rich and poor.

• As reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, several clinics for low-income patients, including a women and children’s center, are slated to close in Georgia.

• The Detroit News reports that Michigan’s cuts of certain programs may hurt its chances of receiving federal matching funds allocated to low-income mothers and pregnant women.

• A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel commentary on a low-income clinic struggling to stay open notes that most of its clientele is single mothers and their children.

• A USA Today piece on stimulus funds going to Indian tribes notes the benefits it will provide to people like Naomi Sitting Bear, a mother living with her family in dilapidated housing, as well its support for domestic violence programs.

• A Chicago Tribune piece on new housing for homeless and low-income residents interviews a woman, recently released from jail, who believes that the housing will provide her with new stability and opportunities.

• The Miami Herald reports on a disabled woman who was given housing from Habitat for Humanity on Mother’s Day.

• The Governor of Rhode Island has proposed a plan that would cut state aid to low-income pregnant women, as noted by the Associated Press.

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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Stepping Stones Research Briefing sneak peek: Why aren't child care subsidies reaching those who need them?

Posted on by Gina Adams

Low-income families can face numerous challenges as they work toward stable and gainful employment. Child care subsidies are designed to help them overcome one major barrier they face—affording child care for their children—as they seek to become or remain employed.

Research suggests that subsidies can play an important role in this effort, as subsidy use is associated with higher rates of employment and better employment outcomes.

As such, child care subsidies—mostly funded through the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) with related state funds, and funds that states allocate from their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs—are a key public investment in a safety net for America’s working families, and for families moving from welfare to work.

As highlighted in previous Urban Institute studies, however, despite the importance of subsidies for low-income families, only some families that are eligible for services receive assistance.  This disparity results from a number of factors, including insufficient funding in some states to serve all families that want services, as well as some families not wanting or needing assistance.

Yet, it appears that even when funds are available, some eligible families that want subsidies do not receive them, families that do receive them often stay on subsidies for relatively short periods, and some families that do not stay in the program appear to remain eligible even after they leave.

While, again, multiple factors likely contribute to these patterns, research suggests that subsidy policies and practices can contribute to whether some eligible families receive subsidies in the first place, as well as whether eligible families that receive subsidies are able to retain them over time. These include policies and practices in areas such as what families must do to apply for subsidies, to recertify their eligibility, and to report changes in circumstances that may alter their eligibility, as well as how often families must take these steps; how easy or difficult their interactions are with the subsidy agency; and, how agencies define eligibility when families experience changes in their circumstances. 

The growing understanding of the importance of these issues has led states and localities to focus more on identifying ways to improve their services and design their programs to make it both easier for eligible families to receive services in the first place and to keep them once they receive them.

My presentation at the researching briefing on May 20 will focus on highlighting a number of these strategies. 

In addition to making processes easier for parents, several strategies appear to help administrators meet other critical program goals, such as reducing staff workload, keeping program costs down, and reducing improper payments. 

Some strategies that better support parents—for example, decreasing paperwork, simplifying interactions with parents, reducing inadvertent terminations or needless churning of clients—can also minimize unnecessary procedures that result in administrative costs.

Finally, strategies that help subsidized families retain subsidies also seem likely to affect CCDF program goals to support child development.  While low-income families on subsidies may change providers while in the system, inadvertent terminations of subsidies can mean at least some children experience disruptions in their care arrangements that would not have otherwise occurred. Given the central role that having a stable relationship with a loving caregiver has on a child’s well-being, minimizing those disruptions is clearly important for child development goals as well.

Join me when I present and discuss more on this issue at The Women’s Foundation’s 2009 Stepping Stones Research Briefing on Wednesday, May 20 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Katharine Graham Conference Center of the Urban Institute at 2100 M Street, NW on the 5th Floor.   A light breakfast will be provided.

Please RSVP here.

Then help us spread the word. We have an Event, "2009 Stepping Stones Research Briefing," on Facebook.  We’re also on Twitter @TheWomensFndtn.

Gina Adams is a researcher with The Urban Insitute, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation and co-sponsor of the Stepping Stones Research Briefing.

Stepping Stones Research Briefing sneak peek: Want to know more about how unions help women workers?

Posted on by John Schmitt

Over the last three decades, women have substantially increased their importance in the unionized workforce. Women currently make up about 45 percent of all unionized workers. If recent trends continue, women will be the majority of organized labor by 2020.

These increases have not only been good for unions – they have also been good for women workers.

In a recent report, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) documents that unions substantially raise the pay and benefits of women workers. According to the report, all else being equal, unions boost the wages of the average woman by about 11 percent (about $2.00 per hour).

The effects of unionization are even bigger on health insurance and pension benefits. Women in unions are 19 percentage points more likely than their non-union counterparts to have health insurance and about 25 percentage points more likely to have a pension.

Want to learn more?

Then join me when I present and discuss the findings of this report at The Women’s Foundation’s 2009 Stepping Stones Research Briefing on Wednesday, May 20 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Katharine Graham Conference Center of the Urban Institute at 2100 M Street, NW on the 5th Floor.

Please RSVP here.  

Then help us spread the word.  We have an Event, "2009 Stepping Stones Research Briefing," on Facebook.  We’re also on Twitter @TheWomensFndtn. 

John Schmitt is a senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending May 8, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

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.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.”  It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• In an op-ed in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof brings attention to the plight of poor, minority teen girls who become trapped in prostitution.

• According to a study reported by the Miami Herald, black women are more likely to die of breast cancer, in part because of poverty.

• As noted by the Kansas City Star, the recession has increased reports of domestic violence, with a local shelter reporting that most victims are low-income.

• The Los Angeles Times highlights a rise in the increase in child support modifications, as parents losing income during the recession often find themselves unable to provide money owed to their children and former spouses, now often single mothers.

• The St. Louis Post Dispatch covers a Habitat for Humanity project that brought together 650 women to build houses for people with low incomes.

• A New York Times piece on the expanding role of community colleges notes that three-quarters of students at a school profiled in the article are women.

• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on a local organization that provides a variety of education and support services to low-income mothers.

• In a report appearing in the Charlotte Observer, a free program brings nurses to low-income mothers.

• The New Jersey Home News Tribune reports on a local community action program offering job training to women who have lost income from a spouse.

• A Kansas City Star article focuses on a local woman who, herself having grown up in poverty, has founded and operates a community services organization.

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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Join us for the 2009 Stepping Stones Research Briefing on women and the recession.

Posted on by Gwen Rubinstein

Sunday is Mother’s Day – and the media are already filled with stories about mothers and motherhood and the recession.  For example, here and here.

You probably won’t hear much about the mothers who are too often invisible, even in good times: low-income women raising children alone.

Well – you can have a whole morning of that – for free! – at our upcoming Stepping Stones Research Briefing, which is co-sponsored by The Urban Institute.

Stepping Stones is The Women’s Foundation’s multi-year initiative focused on increasing economic security and financial independence for low-income, women-headed families in the Washington metropolitan area.

This year, the briefing will feature two panels highlighting strategies for increasing and preserving the income and asset gains of low-income, women-headed families in our region through the current recession.

We have speakers from the Center for American Progress, Greater Washington Research (of the Brookings Institution), Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington DC LISC, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, Vehicles for Change, Opportunity Cars and The Urban Institute.

Please join us on Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at the Katharine Graham Conference Center of the Urban Institute at 2100 M Street, NW, 5th Floor.

To RSVP, follow this link.

Please also spread the word by sharing this blog, responding that you’ll attend to our Event on Facebook or Tweeting about it (We’re on Twitter @TheWomensFndtn.).

Gwen Rubinstein is a program officer at The Women’s Foundation.

DCAF: Recession nearly doubles requests for abortion assistance as resources dwindle.

Posted on by Elisabeth Sowecke

Less than four years ago, I considered myself pro-choice, but I couldn’t tell you where to obtain an abortion in my northwestern-Ohio, college town.  In fact, the Planned Parenthood in Toledo (the nearest city to offer abortion services) could not offer abortion-care in order to receive state funding.  I naively assumed a woman seeking an abortion could have one at her doctor’s office or community clinic because she had the right to choose.  Period.

Today, I live in Washington, D.C. I am a communications associate at a reproductive health nonprofit, an abortion counselor at a women’s health clinic in Maryland and a case-manager for a local, grassroots abortion fund.

I can discuss the real-life avenues, barriers, freeways and alleyways to abortion-care access throughout this country.  If you have hours, perhaps days, I can lament and exalt in-depth stories of women who have abortions to preserve their health, dignity and the goodness in this world.

Everything I do in the reproductive justice movement is equally a basic human service and an act of privilege.  The women and families I serve deserve more than I, or this movement, can provide. 

Currently, there is no time for condolences and ritualized mourning, for discussing or attempting to prove what I know because women are homeless and jobless and still have children to feed. 

Meanwhile, they are assaulted, abandoned, ignored, denied and judged.

The DC Abortion Fund (DCAF) dedicates explanation, education, emotional support and vital financial assistance to women in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.  A dozen case-managers volunteer their time to field about 60 telephone calls per week, tailoring resources to each individual caller.  While every woman’s situation is unique, the recurring trends among our neighbors are undeniable.

Overwhelmingly, a woman seeking financial assistance for her surgery has less than $0 to her name, at least one child, no employment or a part-time job, and an apathetic man involved.  If her family does support her decision, they are often equally destitute, but contribute about $100 collectively.  She has nothing to sell or already sold it all to buy diapers or baby food a few months ago.  She will need to acquire anywhere from $250 to $7000 to have an abortion in her region.  She may opt to travel to Pennsylvania, New York or Atlanta, Georgia, where significantly lower surgery fees may off-set travel expenses.

In the past year, the need of those who reach out to the abortion fund has nearly doubled, and a modest, dedicated donor-circle replenishes the dwindling bank. 

As a case manager, I have told a crying 17-year-old with no parental support that DCAF will pay for the majority of her $3600 surgery, but I have also told a crying 17-year-old with no parental support that she will have to adjust to having her baby because our funds have been stretched and we have asked our supportive donors too often.

I foresee the situations of our neighbors getting worse in this financial climate before they get better. 

I fear one day she will have $0 and DCAF will have $0 to give her, and her life will grow even more disproportionately complicated.

I believe that when you give to your local abortion fund regularly, you profoundly simplify a potential mother’s life, giving her even the slightest bit more room to breathe, to recognize her potential in this life. 

In recognizing complexity, ambiguity and downright basic rights, you honor life by making reproductive justice a reality for every woman regardless of what’s in her wallet.

Elisabeth Sowecke is the lead case manager at the DC Abortion Fund, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending May 1, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with Washington Area 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.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit Washington Area Women’s Foundation for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• In an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Christine Grumm, CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, and Barbara Mosacchio, CEO of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, call attention to the disproportionate poverty faced by women and call for action to address it

• A Boston Globe piece on local efforts to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone, an antipoverty program touted by President Obama, notes that the Children’s Zone performs outreach to pregnant young women to offer parenting education.

• In an op-ed for the Deseret Morning News, George Mason professor Walter Williams criticizes what he calls permissive attitudes toward unwed pregnancy and young women who behave sexually in public, which he blames in part for the poverty and other problems faced by many African-American communities.

• The Louisville Courier Journal reports on an effort to encourage women participating in the Women, Infants, and Children program to breastfeed their children.

• Among the students interviewed in a Chicago Tribune piece on a local culinary school, which provides new opportunities to high school dropouts, is a young woman who left high school after becoming pregnant her junior year.

• The Greensboro News and Record focuses on the antipoverty efforts of several local young women.

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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending April 24, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

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.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• The Chicago Sun Times reports on a charity that provides gowns to help low-income girls attend prom.

• A Miami Herald story on local African-American leaders highlights a minister who, herself having once been a homeless mother, has started an organization helping struggling women.

• The Boston Globe tells the story of a breast cancer survivor who received early detection because of a state insurance program for the poor.

• In a story on the troubled lives of Hispanic teenagers in a low-income suburb, the New York Times focuses on a young woman who has tried to reform herself after being a member of a local gang.

• The Pittsburgh Post Gazette profiles a young woman with an Ivy League education who will devote her first year out of college to serving the poor with AmeriCorps.

• Among the questions surrounding a law that could limit health care for illegal immigrants are its effects on screenings for breast and cervical cancer for low-income women, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

• The St. Petersburg Times runs a story on a clinic that has provided free cancer screening for hundreds of low-income women.

• The Associated Press reports that federal stimulus funds will allow New Mexico’s Women, Infants, and Children supplemental food program to serve 1,600 additional low-income women and their children.

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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Weekly Round-Up: News and Analysis on Women and Poverty (Week ending April 17, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

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.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.”  It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• The nation’s First Lady, Michelle Obama, uses an op-ed in USA Today to call for youth service.

• A Knoxville News Sentinel columnist criticizes the “free love” revolution and calls unwed motherhood a “moral crisis” that produces poverty and suffering for mothers and their kids.

• In a column for the Chicago Sun Times, Mary Mitchell calls attention to the danger of breast cancer, including its disproportionate effect on low-income women.

• The New York Times profiles a 16-year-old girl with musical talent, but with difficult circumstances in a low-income Ohio community.

• In a Washington Post op-ed, education columnist Jay Mathews focuses on a young girl and her mother who have questioned whether accelerated classes, a popular solution to educating low-income students, are always the best option.

• In a piece on the danger of AIDS in the American South, the Chicago Tribune tells the story of a woman struggling with the disease in rural North Carolina.

• In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Annette John-Hall supports a local program that helps homeless teen girls enjoy a day of free shopping.

• The Kansas City Star reports on a woman who once gave to charity while employed in the corporate world, but who has lost her savings in the recession and is now relying on United Way to make ends meet.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

News Round-Up: Women and Poverty (Week ending April 10, 2009)

Posted on by The Spotlight and Opportunity Team

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.

Starting next week, check out “Women and Poverty,” a new section of our site that will feature a comprehensive daily collection of all the news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit Washington Area Women’s Foundation for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• In an op-ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution arguing against new, harsher penalties for speeders, the author cites the example of a single mother losing her license after getting pulled over on the way to work and to drop her kids off at day care.

• As noted in a McClatchy report carried in the Miami Herald, 50 advocacy organizations have come together to ask President Obama to support the hiring and training of women, minorities, and the poor to work on new federal construction projects.

• The Arizona Republic reports that a college scholarship fund for single moms has seen its applications jump from 40 to almost 300 within the past year.

• A South Florida Sun Sentinel article on a new program helping low- and moderate-income residents move into foreclosed housing focuses on a single mother excited to own her first home.

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

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.