Economy

Stepping Stones Research Update: August 2007

Posted on by Lisa Kays

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Kerstin Gentsch of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

District of Columbia Housing Monitor: Spring 2007
By Peter A. Tatian
Urban Institute
June 28, 2007

Looks at the Washington, D.C., housing market, tracking home prices, real estate listings, new construction, and affordable housing; examines mortgage lending trends through 2005; and highlights the declining share of low income home buyers in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Key findings:

  • Housing demand continues to slow; median third quarter sales prices for single-family homes and condominiums are down from one year earlier.
  • Real estate listings of single-family homes and condominiums decreased between the third and fourth quarters of 2006, but the time houses spend on the market continued to increase.
  • Prices show definite signs of declining or flattening in all wards except Wards 7 and 8.
  • Home building slowed in the fourth quarter of 2006, and housing permits for the entire year were down for the first time since 2003.
  • Denial rates for home purchase loan applications rose again in 2005; almost one quarter of all loan applications in Wards 7 and 8 were denied.
  • Home buyers in Wards 5, 7, and 8 were more than 12 times more likely to take out a high interest rate loan than were buyers in Ward 3.
  • The share of home purchase loans for second home and investment properties continues to increase.
  • As housing prices have increased, the share of home purchasers who are very low income has dropped dramatically.

Abstract, introduction and key findings. 
Full issue.
 
How Have Asset Policies for Cash Welfare and Food Stamps Changed since the 1990s?
By Signe-Mary McKernan and William Margrabe
Urban Institute
July 2007

Examines allowance changes for restricted and unrestricted accounts at the federal and state level and tracks the different allowances for IDAs, food stamps, and welfare programs from 1992 to 2003.

Cash welfare and food stamps are means tested: assets and income must fall below set limits for families to qualify. While this ensures that benefits go to the neediest families, asset limits may also discourage asset building. States can exempt all assets (unrestricted assets), or they can exempt assets held for a specific purpose, such as education, a home, or a business (restricted assets); a car; or an individual development account (IDA).

Since 1992, states have increasingly supported IDAs and have allowed specific classes of assets. States allowing IDAs went from none in 1992 to 26 in 2003. Similarly, states exempting restricted assets in their welfare programs went from none in 1992 to 30 in 2003.

Prior to 2002, the Food Stamp Program provided no exemptions for restricted accounts. But the 2002 Farm Bill provides states the option of exempting restricted assets, if doing so aligns their food stamp policy with their welfare or Medicaid policies.

In 1992, federal policy for cash welfare allowed families to exempt $1,500 in vehicle value from the asset limit. By 2003, 29 states allowed exemption for at least one vehicle. Only 3 states exempted the entire value of a vehicle from Food Stamp eligibility during the late 1990s, but by 2003, 34 did.

The growth in allowances for restricted assets contrasts with the erosion in limits on assets not set aside for a particular purpose. Average TANF unrestricted asset limits rose in real terms from $1,138 in 1993 to $2,779 in 1998 but have since been eroded by inflation, falling to $2,592 in 2003. The Food Stamp asset limit has eroded in real terms from $2,398 in 1991 to $1,895 in 2003.

It remains unclear how much disregarding certain assets from eligibility determinations will affect decisions to save.

Text-only version.
Full paper.

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?
By John Morton and Isabel Sawhill
The Brookings Institution
May 2007

Intends to provoke rigorous discussion about the role and strength of economic mobility in American society.

For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and the prospect of upward mobility have formed the bedrock upon which the American story has been anchored — inspiring people in distant lands to seek our shores and sustaining the unwavering optimism of Americans at home. From the hopes of the earliest settlers to the aspirations of today’s diverse population, the American Dream unites us in a common quest for individual and national success. But new data suggest that this once solid ground may well be shifting. This raises provocative questions about the continuing ability of all Americans to move up the economic ladder and calls into question whether the American economic meritocracy is still alive and well.

Summary.
Full report. 

Child Care and Early Education News

Early Care and Education for Children in Low-Income Families: Patterns of Use, Quality, and Potential Policy Implications
By Gina Adams, Kathryn Tout, and Martha Zaslow
Urban Institute
May 2007

Assesses the patterns of early care and education (ECE) utilization by low-income families, the implications for children’s development of the extent and quality of ECE participation, the evidence on the quality of ECE that low-income children receive, and the policy context that shapes ECE.

Key findings include:

  • Patterns of early care and education differ for families with higher and lower incomes. Participation in early care and education settings is common for children from low income families.
  • The use of particular early care and education arrangements reflects access to different arrangements as well as family preferences and constraints. 
  • There is consistent evidence of a link between the quality of early care and education and children’s development. Recent studies find that the type of care and extent of care also are important for children’s development even after controlling for quality. 
  • While we lack nationally representative data on child care quality, large-scale studies in differing geographical regions suggest that overall (setting aside the issue of family income), much of the care in the United States falls below a rating of “good” on widely used observational measures.
  • We also lack a national picture of the quality of the market-based child care that children from low-income families receive.
  • Studies indicate that the quality of program-based early care and education settings such as Head Start and state pre kindergarten differs by program type.
  • Children from low-income families may be more likely to experience changes in early care and education arrangements.
  • Public policies that affect the quality of early care and education tend to focus primarily on one of three goals—supporting parental work, supporting children’s development through access to early care and education programs with specific quality standards, or supporting the quality or supply of market-based settings.

Abstract, summary, and key findings.
For full report. 

Health and Safety News

Food Insecurity and Overweight among Infants and Toddlers: New Insights into a Troubling Linkage
By Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Martha Zaslow, Randolph Capps, and Allison Horowitz
Child Trends
July 2007

Examines data on food insecurity, defined as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and links food insecurity with maternal depression, poor parenting, and—paradoxically—overweight toddlers.

  • One in eight U.S. households with infants (12.5 percent) reports being “food insecure”.
  • Among households with low-birthweight infants—infants born weighing less than 5.5 pounds—about one in seven (14.4 percent) is food insecure.
  • Among poor households with infants, nearly three in 10 (28.9 percent) report food insecurity.
  • Young children living in households with very low food security are 61 percent more likely to be overweight than are young children living in food-secure households.
  • Mothers living in food-insecure households are significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression than are mothers living in food-secure households.
  • Parents in food-insecure households have less positive interactions with their infant children, such as less responsiveness to infant distress and less behavior directed at fostering their babies’ social and emotional growth.

Press release.
Full brief. 

Survey Spotlight on Uninsured Parents: How a Lack of Coverage Affects Parents and Their Families
By Karyn Schwartz
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
June 2007

Spotlights how being uninsured affects not just a parent’s health, but also the well-being of the entire family.

Health insurance for low-income parents influences both their own health and access to care, as well as the well-being of their families. Without health insurance for parents, families are more likely to incur debt and cut back on other basic needs to pay for care. Uninsured parents face real health consequences when they delay care, and the entire family is affected when those delays cause a parent to remain ill or be unable to participate in daily activities.

Medicaid coverage for parents is limited, and many low-income parents are not eligible. Uninsured low-income parents who are working have very limited access to employer coverage, with about half working for firms with less than 25 employees and over 40% working in industries with the lowest rates of employer coverage. About 60% of uninsured low-income parents say that they are very concerned that they do not have enough savings to cover financial obligations. Without savings, they are unlikely to be able to pay for medical treatments out-of-pocket.

As documented earlier, when parents have insurance, children are more likely to be covered and have access to health care. Some states have taken steps to improve access to public coverage for parents recognizing the importance of making coverage available for the whole family.11 Children in homes where everyone has coverage also gain financial stability and other positive benefits when their parents are able to access care. As policy makers look to decrease the number of uninsured children, children’s health coverage may be more broadly and effectively addressed if their parents’ access to coverage and care is also improved.

Full brief.  

Other News and Research

Nonprofit Governance in the United States: Findings on Performance and Accountability from the First National Representative Study
By Francie Ostrower
June 25, 2007
Urban Institute

Presents survey findings from the first ever national representative survey of nonprofit governance.

  • Discusses relationships between public policy and governance, factors that promote or impede boards’ performance of basic stewardship responsibilities, board composition and factors associated with board diversity, and recruitment processes, including the difficulty experienced by many nonprofits in finding members.
  • Includes some data on the representation of women on nonprofit boards.
  • Our representative sample of organizations results in a radically different picture of representation by women.
  • Almost all nonprofit boards include women (94 percent) and as a whole they are almost equally balanced with respect to gender. On average, boards are composed of 46 percent women (the median is a close 44 percent).
  • The percentage of women on boards, however, is inversely related to organizational size. The average percentage of women is 50 percent among nonprofits with expenses under $100,000, but drops to a low of 29 percent among the largest nonprofits (over $40 million in expenses).
  • Conclusions about gender composition based on larger nonprofits will be quite different than those that include smaller ones. These findings are consistent with the contention that women are less likely to serve on boards of large and prestigious nonprofits.

Abstract and introduction. 
Full paper. 

In Marshall Heights, "biggest losers" shave debt, not fat.

Posted on by Coach Tate

The coaches on The Biggest Loser might help people burn fat and shed pounds.  I do something similar, only I help them shave off unnecessary, unhealthy debt.

This year, I’ve coached 234 women through the rough work of shaving off a total of $115,050 in debt through my work at the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, Inc. (MHCDO), which is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation’s Stepping Stones initiative. 

Stepping Stones brings together nonprofits–like MHCDO–with other organizations throughout our region to work collaboratively to build the economic security and financial independence of low-income, single mothers.

While providing job training is a huge part of this work, this has to be coupled with financial literacy to really be effective, so that women can learn how to manage the basics of bank accounts, budgeting, saving and all the pitfalls and benefits of credit.

A big part of that journey is often getting rid of debt and the limits it places on your life, opportunities and goals. 

This isn’t easy work.  Just like losing weight, it requires sacrifice, changing habits and a lot of hard work.  I help by providing the tools our clients need.   I provide the playbook and call the plays, but in the end, our clients are truly awesome, and they’re the ones who get the job done.

One client who did an amazing job with this work is Tracey Turner.  Her story of going from falling behind in rent to becoming a workforce development specialist working out of MCHDO’s office is on page 13 of The Women’s Foundation’s annual report.  As she tells her clients now, "I know what it’s like to be in the other chair.  I know about the sleepless nights. I know about the emotional breakdowns. I know what it’s like to go without a meal so your children have something to eat.”

She knows about the burden of carrying around excess debt. 

Now a coach in her own right, she works with me at MHCDO and knows the struggles, challenges and the power of transformation that emerge when women like her do the hard work of changing the game in their own lives! 

One client who embodies this change is a single parent divorcee that had accumulated excessive debt with her was-band (my slang term for former husband).  They had agreed as part of the divorce settlement that he would be responsible for a car repossession repayment of $8,250.

Needless to say, that repayment never occurred.

Through the credit and financial education offered by MHCDO through Stepping Stones, she found this debt showing up on her credit report.  She couldn’t locate the copy of the courthouse document confirming the agreement so I advised her to obtain another copy.

That certified copy was then forwarded to the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit bureaus to update her credit report to show that the ex was totally responsible for the debt. Their responses in writing permanently removed the $8,250 delinquency from her credit file, thus allowing her to continue with her mortgage pre-qualification.  I asked her to keep me informed with the process so we can celebrate.

Another example is a Stepping Stones participant–a single parent divorcee–whose credit report showed a $6,800 car repossession because she had co-signed a loan for her brother who didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.  This debt just recently appeared. Had her brother been honest with her, she would have known sooner and she could have made a more conscious decision that would not have become a detriment to her credit. 

She lives at Mayfair Mansions, a joint partnership with MHCDO and other investors to help preserve affordable housing east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8 by converting targeted apartment buildings in this historic development into affordable condos and giving first rights of refusal to current qualified residents.

She felt it was hard enough having to juggle bills before becoming a Stepping Stones participant, and now she had to deal with this new burden of debt.  Under our advice, she got her brother to sign a notarized statement that he was solely responsible for the car payment, forwarded a payoff letter from the collection agency showing this and sent copies of it to all three credit bureaus.  This cleared the debt from her credit, and enabled her to successfully secure a credit union loan for the full amount to buy into her condo–a tremendous leap in financial security! 

These were just samplings of the 234 Stepping Stones participants that have been able to successfully reduce debt and improve their financial situation.  Most of them are still working on reducing their household debt and continuing to effectively manage their budgets to be able to make intelligent financial decisions in the future, thus developing self-sufficiency and goals towards wealth-building.

To become part of the power of giving together and to support the hard work of nonprofits like MHCDO and low-income, single mothers working to gain financial literacy, shed debt and become homeowners, join us!  We’re changing women’s lives, and our community, together.

Coach Geoffrey Tate is a certified credit counselor with Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, Inc., a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Welding a new world for girls.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Check this out.  In Vermont, girls are being trained in welding as part of a three week camp, Rosie’s Girls, and are talking about how much it’s raising their self-esteem and confidence.

"If I can do this, I can do that, too," one girl says in this video.

Looks like these girls, along with the women of the YWCA National Capital Area’s WAWIT program–and others placing women in nontraditional careers–are truly welding a new world for women in more ways than one.

To learn more about similar programs The Women’s Foundation is supporting in our region, check out our posts on Goodwill of Greater Washington’s female construction and environmental services programs.

Then, join us in welding a new world for women by investing in and expanding strategies and programs like these here in the Washington metropolitan region. 

 Come on, you know you want to.  All the cool girls are doing it. 

Stop sex trafficking across a border near you.

Posted on by Sherell

As program assistant here at The Women’s Foundation, I get the opportunity to take in grant and award applications such as those for Leadership Awards, where I get a glimpse of what different issues nonprofits are tackling these days.

A good sprinkling address sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking, bringing home for me how this problem is impacting our community. 

Law enforcement officials in Maryland report that one of the state’s fastest growing crimes is labor and sex trafficking.  WTOP reports about the extent of trafficking in Montgomery County, Maryland   In 2006, police uncovered a possible human trafficking ring in Loudon County, Virginia.  And in Washington, D.C., officials are working with local nonprofits to reduce the amount of sex trafficking.

Human trafficking, defined by Ayuda, a Grantee Partner, is "the recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, of any person for forced labor, slavery, peonage or servitude in any industry or site such as agriculture, construction, prostitution, manufacturing, begging, domestic service or marriage."

As defined by a number of nonprofit groups, human trafficking is modern day slavery. 

And a form of slavery we often think of as occurring outside of our country–let alone our region. 

Ms. Magazine just ran an article on this issue, and it is documented at the Tunnel of Oppression exhibit at the University of Maryland. 

It was at this exhibit that I became aware of the issue of trafficking, even though it has been going on for such a long time.

Polaris Project, another Grantee Partner, provides an estimate of more than 100,000 trafficking victims enslaved in the U.S.

It is sex trafficking specifically that interests me, largely because of its implications for women and girls.

The California nonprofit Captive Daughters offers a daunting estimated figure of two million women and children held in sex trafficking worldwide.

The sex trafficking industry, and I use the word industry because of its pervasiveness, seems to permeate in some way, shape or form all parts of the world. Daunting and astonishing are the only words I can use to describe my reaction to the research I find on this.

Captive Daughters talks about the Philippine’s tour packages. They are all inclusive, including one’s option to purchase sex from a female prostitute working as an entertainer.

PBS’s Frontline has a story on how five women, from Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, and Hungary, were tricked (in some cases by their friends) into this abusive industry (in exchange for money), and finally managed to escape. The interviews with the women, available online, are saddening and disturbing.

What makes me really angry about all this, besides the pervasiveness and inhumane feeling the process must induce in its victims, is why it’s so prevalent.

It speaks to the priority of the almighty dollar, and the level of sexism, and devaluation of women and children that people still hold worldwide. Not that having more male or female victims makes sex trafficking better or worse, but the industry is disproportionately made up of women and children.

And isn’t this a theme?  Don’t women and children still disproportionately suffer from issues that help make them more vulnerable to trafficking such as poverty, hunger, and physical abuse locally as well as abroad?

Many of the women who get tricked into the sex trade are lied to and promised a new job in the new area they are being taken to. Deborah Finding, team leader of The POPPY Project, talks about what her project does to help female victims of sex trafficking, and steps we can take to reduce in the number of women trafficked.

For one thing, she says there should be greater public awareness. 

I agree, and find a perfect example of how U.S. media has a role to do this but doesn’t.  This week, I learned from CNN and MSNBC more about Lindsay Lohan’s arrest than anything else.

What about the grave issues that are eating away at the life and quality of life of women worldwide?  Why can’t we talk about these more? Why can’t the stories of those five women from the Frontline special be the hot topic of the news for two days in a row?

So, until the media does a better job of raising the voices and issues of women and girls, we can all start by learning more about how we can prevent and report human trafficking in the U.S.

There are individuals, groups, and great nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad educating on and working with victims of sex trafficking, but they need more support and recognition–and I’m left wondering how this will come about when there is so little information circulating about these realities.

My sense is that if this isn’t going to be a regular national media story, it falls upon us to continue to learn what we can, to act individually and support the local nonprofits tackling this issue, and to continue to support–together–the local organizations working to prevent and combat this phenomenon.

In our region, The Women’s Foundation is supporting Grantee Partners that are tackling human trafficking occurring right in our backyard.  They include:  Ayuda, Polaris Project (through their Greater DC Trafficking Intervention Program), CASA of Maryland and Tahirih Justice Center.

Help enhance security officers' economic security!

Posted on by Sarah David Heydemann

Security officers in the District of Columbia are predominantly African American women.

They are often paid as little as $8 per hour and lack paid sick days and other benefits that so many of us–working in the same buildings they do, under their protection–take for granted.

Recently the officers have formed a union and are preparing for their first chance to bargain for better pay and benefits.

In May, The Women’s Foundation hosted an exciting tenant meeting where two security officers told participants about struggling with lack of benefits, low wages and the instability that plagues their jobs.

These same officers now have the chance to improve working conditions by negotiating their first union contract, and it’s crucial that we support them during these negotiations.

Now is our chance. 

The Building Benefits project, a network of tenants in downtown Washington, D.C. offices who support the low-wage workers in their buildings, is providing an opportunity to show solidarity–or a Sticker Day of Action–with these security officers on Wednesday, July 25.  

Please join The Women’s Foundation, who will continue their support by recruiting tenants at 1411 K. Street to wear stickers that will send the message to the security guards in our buildings, “We support you in your efforts to gain better working conditions!”

The Sticker Day of Action is being coordinated by the Building Benefits network, a project of DC Jobs with Justice, Center for Law and Social Policy and the DC Employment Justice Center, and involves tenants in more than 24 office buildings downtown who have committed to supporting workers in their buildings.

We’d love to add you, and your building, to our growing list of participants in this action network!

DC Jobs with Justice– a local coalition of labor unions, faith communities and community organizations – first began organizing office-building tenants during the summer of 2006 to support efforts by security officers to form a union.

In addition to organizing tenant meetings, the Building Benefits network has also been supporting paid sick and safe days for workers in DC.  This issue profoundly affects the lives of women, since working mothers must take care not only of themselves but of their children as well.  If they cannot take paid sick leave they are often forced to make the impossible choice between taking care of a sick child or losing a day’s pay.

Do you work in an office downtown?  Then get involved!

We would love to help you host a brown bag lunch in your building, where your co-workers and other tenants can learn more about these issues and discuss taking action to support workers in the building.

To learn more, please contact Mackenzie Baris by email or at 202-974-8224.

Sarah David Heydemann is a Solidarity Intern with D.C. Jobs With Justice.

The DC Employment Justice Center is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

DCWA: Achieving balance difficult if you can't weigh your options.

Posted on by Natasha Pendleton

The following is the fifth post in a series covering aspects and angles on the DC Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007.  The DC Women’s Agenda promotes the advancement, equality and well-being of women in D.C. This series of blogs is an extension of a very important proposal of recommendations to city leaders to truly make tangible changes in the Washington metropolitan area.

There has always been a conversation around working mothers and the balance between protecting their career growth and being able to spend time with loved ones.

Most of us would prefer more flexibility at work, so that we could go to every one of our daughter’s ballet recitals or our son’s little league games, or heck, even a PTA meeting every once in while.

But when our hands our tied, putting food on the table and a roof over our heads tends to be a higher priority.

If everyone could have it all, I’m sure they would.  For most though–and particularly for low income families–they can’t.   

It is because of this that the Washington Post article, “Part-Time Looks Fine to Working Mothers: 60% Prefer it to Full Time or No Job” falls short in accounting for the true realities of women–and particularly low-income women–to say the least.

The article reviews a recent study that claims that the proportion of working mothers who prefer to work part-time has jumped by 12 percentage points since 1997.  More importantly, despite the fact that 60 percent of working moms find working part-time as the ideal, only 24 percent of them have part-time hours.

The article attributes the cause for these numbers as being due to a differing value system that Generation X possesses over the Baby Boomers.  As Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, claims, “We found that the younger people are more family-centric than Boomers are.  Most young people have seen someone lose their job, and they have lived through 9/11. It’s not that they don’t want to work. They just want to work more flexibly.”

But what the article nonchalantly sweeps under the rug is that taking part-time hours “has meant some financial cutbacks and compromises,” which most low-income (or even moderate income) mothers can’t afford. The article explains, “Jackie Wyche, a married mother of four in Stafford who took part in the research, said part-time work is best — even though it is simply not possible in her life. ‘I have to pay the bills,’ she said. She wishes it were different.”

So, let’s make a difference and provide job training to mobilize women so that one day they may have the ability to weigh their options–which many cannot do as they work for low, hourly wages, do not have paid sick or vacation time and often, have little to no health insurance. 

Much of today’s workforce–a large proportion of this working mothers–cannot afford to take a day off work sick, much less cut back to part-time. 

Currently, according to the Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s Portrait Project, 65 percent of women in the D.C. area are employed.  Yet, a third of women-headed families who work (which tends to be the trend of low-income mothers) are impoverished and 11 percent of women in D.C. are unemployed.

Many of these working women have dead end jobs that pay low wages and offer no benefits. 

These women are therefore stuck in a vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.  As the DCWA white paper explains, these jobs “keep working poor persons well below the poverty line and just one small step ahead of homelessness.  In fact, 31.6 percent of homeless DC adult residents are employed.” 

They’re holding on by a thread and we need to do something about it.

Funding for job training, particularly for low-income women, would:

  • Provide women, especially mothers, with the skills that they’ll need to advance in a career that provides self-sufficiency and mobility in the company–not just a job;
  • Improve literacy and basic education levels;
  • Help women overcome barriers to living wage employment, such as child care, mental and physical health problems, a lack of a driver’s license, and housing;
  • Assist trainees in developing soft skills such as better communication, team building, self-esteem and better confidence to help them progress and advance in higher paying, more stable careers;
  • Provide job development support to ensure that trainees can search for and obtain a position within their chosen career path in the future; and,  
  • Create networks to link trainees with jobs in high-demand sectors and which pay at least $11.75 per hour ( D.C.’s new living wage) and offer benefits.

Contact your D.C. councilmember and tell them that we value our families and a healthy work-family balance for all of the working mothers in the District of Columbia.  Tell them that one of the best ways of accomplishing that is through job training to mobilize working mothers so that they can afford to scale their options and remain self-sufficient.

For more information on how job training programs funded with support from The Women’s Foundation are making a difference in the lives of women throughout our community: 
Constructing futures, one woman at a time.
Street Sense vendor finds a stepping stone in Goodwill course.
WAWIT: Welding a new world for women.
Women hammering their way to social change, not just another job.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation. 

About the blogger:
Natasha Pendleton is a summer intern with Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a convenor of the DC Women’s Agenda.  She is currently a senior attaining a bachelor of arts degree in sociology with concentrations in law and society and urban and regional planning at Cornell University.  She serves as theatrical director of an anti-oppression theatre troop, which performs for more than 5,000 people nationwide (annually) to promote diversity and racial harmony on college campuses.  A native of Chicago, Natasha was motivated to come to Washington, D.C. this summer to work with WOW by issues of social and economic justice that have pressed upon her heart for some time.  Natasha truly believes that not only is the government accountable, but it is our responsibility to be informed citizens to challenge the state of local policy.  And furthermore, as those informed citizens, it is our responsibility to raise voices and awareness so that all people, especially women and girls, can live in safe, fair, and thriving communities.

Legal Momentum: Marching women's history into the future.

Posted on by Kathy Rodgers

As president of Legal Momentum, the country’s oldest legal advocacy organization for women, I’ve been talking toLegal Momentum book women around the country about the issues that matter to them.  Hands down, they boil down to four areas: violence, health, work and families. 

What I also hear, again and again, is our pride in all we’ve accomplished – tempered with the knowledge of how far we still have to go.

Legal Momentum’s new book, Women: A Celebration of Strength, vividly captures the sense of history and purpose of the women’s movement from the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848 to the election of the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007.

One of the great things about our book is that it makes women’s history literally jump off the page – with three-dimensional, hand-assembled pop-ups and replicas of key historical documents – it’s a fun and informative way to tell our story.  It also has a serious, forward-looking agenda, taking a candid look at the issues that affect women and their families today – and laying the groundwork for a renewed national conversation.

We share Washington Area Women’s Foundation’s commitment to issues of economic security.  Even as we celebrate the women who broke new ground in corporate boardrooms, government halls, sports fields, hospitals and courtrooms, we are keenly aware that millions of American women are struggling to build financial stability for themselves and their families.

That’s why one of Legal Momentum’s top priorities is helping women gain access to fields – such as the skilled trades and firefighting – that offer high wages and good benefits, training and career growth, even for women without a college degree.

Consider, for example, that fewer than three percent of all construction jobs are held by women. Working with all the stakeholders in the sector – government, developers, construction firms, unions, education and training programs and, most importantly, tradeswomen themselves – our Equality Works program – much like the female construction programs The Women’s Foundation supports – is promoting the trades as an attractive career to girls, removing barriers that prevent tradeswomen from finding work and, when necessary, filing lawsuits that challenge discrimination on the job.

During World War II, Rosie the Riveter was the icon used by the federal government to recruit more than two million women into the labor force to work in heavy industry jobs. Women responded to the call and their strength supported our nation’s victory.

Yet today – five decades later – women who want to support their families in similar kinds of work are blatantly being turned away or pushed out.

By showing how far women have come and how far we must still go, Women: A Celebration of Strength, is the perfect way to celebrate our history and agitate for our future.

For more information on this book, which includes essays by bestselling author Anna Quindlen and inspiring Oprah Book Club author Edwidge Danticat, please visit LegalMomentum.org.

DCWA: White picket fence eludes many, especially women.

Posted on by Jessica Goshow

The following is the fourth post in a series covering aspects and angles on the DC Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007.  The DC Women’s Agenda promotes the advancement, equality and well-being of women in D.C. This series of blogs is an extension of a very important proposal of recommendations to city leaders to truly make tangible changes in the D.C. metropolitan area.

One of the main tenants of the American Dream is the little house with the white picket fence.

But the reality is that for most families in the United States, this dream will probably never become reality.  Nationwide, 15.6 million households are paying more than half their incomes for housing. 

This is an astounding number, which hits close to home because of the housing crisis here in D.C., where thousands of people cannot afford the staggering prices of apartments.

Finding quality, affordable housing in D.C. is hard even for those who have good jobs. Finding the same type of housing for someone making minimum wage is virtually impossible.  According to Housing and Urban Development, in fiscal year 2007, a worker earning $7.00 per hour in D.C.  would have to work at least 141 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rate. 

This is outrageous, and a testament to how we desperately need to raise the minimum wage in this country.  (That is another story, however.)

Obviously, there are some people in the district who can afford $1300 for a one bedroom apartment, but many cannot.

Currently, those who need public housing are in an even worse predicament. As the white paper points out, there are more than 52,000 households on the D.C. Housing Authority’s waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers and/or public housing.  Twenty thousand of those have registered with the housing authority that they are homeless and therefore eligible for a Homelessness Preference for the vouchers.

Most of the households in public housing are headed by women.

This is an issue that hits women especially hard.  Many women have the challenge of providing for multiple children and themselves with no help.

How do they do it?

Most often, they hold down two or even three jobs. In addition, most of these jobs do not provide paid sick days or benefits.

The DCWA white paper makes quite a few recommendations, one of which is a request that the city implement an effort to develop a minimum of 19,000 affordable units, and 6,000 new units which are available to people who are at (or below) 30 percent of the area median income.

If the suggestions in the white paper are acted upon, it would mean that a large number of the District’s families, including many women-headed households, would be able to find housing that they can afford.  This would allow them to spend their money in other ways, such as buying healthy food, finding adequate health care and providing their children with necessary school supplies. 

Not to mention the peace of mind of knowing they are not spending half of their income on housing.

All across the city there are new luxury condos popping up where affordable, or reasonably affordable, apartments once stood.  D.C. prides itself on being a very diverse “state;” however, if people continue to be pushed out because rent is so outrageous, there will only be one type of person who will be able to afford to live here.

What do we want our city to portray?  A place that is only open to wealthy people?

Or a place that has culture, diversity, and welcomes all who want to live here.

For previous posts on the white paper, please visit:
DCWA: Calling all city leaders! (Intro post)
DCWA: Economic security is key to the city’s health
DCWA: Safety for women anything but small talk

Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate.  Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation. 

Stepping Stones Research Update: July 2007

Posted on by Kerstin Gentsch

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Kerstin Gentsch of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation

Some Thoughts About New and Old Asset-Promotion Policies
By Robert I. Lerman
Urban Institute
June 2007

Provides methodological guidance about how to best view and evaluate policies on helping people build assets.

Despite a plethora of proposals for helping people build assets, policy researchers have provided little methodological guidance about how best to view and evaluate these policies. This paper is an initial attempt to move in this direction, drawing on methods for assessing income-tested and social insurance programs and on analyses of public policies dealing with savings, investments, and risks. It examines whether and in what ways the traditional criteria of incentives, progressivity, and equity apply to an assessment of asset-building policies. Further, it discusses how to design an asset policy to deal with the potential social dislocations arising from gentrification.

For abstract and introduction.  
For full report. 

Eligibility for Child Tax Credit by Age of Child
By Leonard E. Burman and Laura Wheaton
Urban Institute
May 22, 2007

Examines child tax credit eligibility by age of child.

The child tax credit (CTC) is a $1,000 partially refundable federal income tax credit for each qualifying child under age 17. In 2007, tax filers may claim a refundable credit (over and above any tax liability) equal to 15 percent of the excess of earnings over $11,750, up to the $1,000 maximum per child. The earnings threshold means that families with very low incomes get no benefit from the credit, and others will receive only a partial credit. This brief analysis shows that many families with young children tend have lower incomes and are thus left out. In 2007, 30 percent of qualifying children under age 2 in working families had family incomes too low to benefit from the full credit, compared with 27 percent of children overall and 24 percent of children 10 and older.

For abstract and excerpt.  
For full report.   

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Reducing Poverty in Washington, D.C. and Rebuilding the Middle Class from Within
By Martha Ross and Brooke DeRenzis
The Brookings Institution
March 2007

Makes a set of recommendations for a workforce development strategy that will increase the skills, earnings, and employment of at least 10,500 low-income, low-skilled residents over the next seven years.

Washington D.C. has experienced job growth, increases in city revenues, and a development boom over the past several years, but too many residents are excluded from local and regional prosperity. Ensuring the District’s future as a vibrant, inclusive city depends on a commitment to increase the middle class from within. This paper from Brookings Greater Washington makes a set of focused recommendations for a workforce development strategy that will increase the skills, earnings, and employment of at least 10,500 low-income, low-skilled residents over the next seven years.

Workforce development, however, should be seen as part of a broader strategy to move the working poor into the middle class. Even with enhanced education and job placement services, many residents will continue to work in low-wage jobs. Polices and programs that support employment and create financial incentives to work can help residents in low-wage jobs make ends meet.

Additionally, an unstable housing situation can make it difficult to find and keep a job or participate in workforce programs. This paper proposes increasing assistance to alleviate the severe housing shortage experienced by the lowest-wage workers. To help working households stay in the city as their incomes increase, this paper also recommends developing workforce rental housing for middle-income families.

By helping more residents enter and advance in the workforce, the city can begin to steady its fiscal base while blurring economic, racial, and geographic divides.

For summary.  
For full report.  

An Economy that puts families first: Expanding the social contract to include family care
By Heidi Hartmann, Aariane Hegewisch, and Vicky Llovell
Economic Policy Institute
May 24, 2007

Focuses on the policy gaps that must be filled to make U.S. workplaces more family friendly.

A comprehensive family policy program is needed to make the U.S. economy more family friendly and to enable workers to combine work and family responsibilities more easily. Such a program is part of a new social contract that should spread the costs of family care beyond the immediate family and help redistribute the burden of care more equitably between men and women within the family. The comprehensive program laid out throughout this briefing paper is ambitious and complex. Here we offer our priorities for policy making in the United States during the next five to 10 years. We present these priorities using our framework of three types of policies: those that subsidize the cost of care; those that provide income replacement while workers are providing care; and those that lead employers to change their behavior and make the jobs they offer more family friendly. We select these priorities based on need and practicality. In virtually all cases workable models exist. Most are not especially expensive, costing less, for example, than the deductibility of mortgage interest costs on owner-occupied housing in the federal personal income tax system.

For full report.

Framework for a New Safety Net for Low-Income Working Families
By Olivia Golden, Pamela Winston, Gregory Acs, Ajay Chaudry
Urban Institute
June 2007

Conceptualizes a framework for a new safety net for low-income working families that is rooted in their most essential needs.

The report is organized around five key goals:

1. Enabling parents to meet their family’s needs while working in lower-wage jobs.
2. Helping families weather gaps in parental employment.
3. Supporting parents’ job advancement.
4. Helping parents combine work and child-rearing.
5. Improving children’s well-being and development.

The paper describes these families’ circumstances, discusses gaps in current safety-net programs, and explores possible alternative approaches to meeting families’ most pressing needs.

For abstract and introduction.  
For full report. 

Child Care and Early Education News

Making Pre-kindergarten Work for Low-income Working Families
By Rachel Schumacher, Katie Hamm, and Danielle Ewen
Center for Law and Social Policy
June 2007

Based on a review of the first in-depth national research on the 29 states that, as of 2004, allowed mixed delivery in their pre- kindergarten programs. The review focused on promising practices and ideas for improvement.

  • Provides evidence that policymakers need to review their pre-kindergarten initiatives to ensure maximum access for children in working families, especially low income children.
  • Describes some models states and localities are using to be responsive to low-income working families’ needs by delivering pre-kindergarten in community-based settings.
  • Highlights key strategies to address the needs of low income working families and examines the extent to which state pre-kindergarten policies currently do so.

For full report.

Reforming the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
By Jeff Rohaly
Urban Institute
June 11, 2007

Examines the revenue and distributional implications of making the CDCTC fully refundable.

The child and dependent care tax credit (CDCTC) is a nonrefundable tax credit designed to help offset the expenses of providing care for children under the age of 13 or disabled dependents as long as a parent or caretaker is working or searching for work. In theory, a low-income family can qualify for a maximum $2,100 credit. The credit is not refundable, however, and families with low incomes generally owe little or no income tax. Thus, the theoretical maximum rarely applies in practice. This paper examines the revenue and distributional implications of making the CDCTC fully refundable.

For abstract and introduction. 
For full report.   

Early Head Start and Teen Parent Families: Partnerships for Success
Center for Law and Social Policy
June 2007

Examines the special needs of eligible low-income pregnant women and mothers with infants and toddlers, many of whom are teen parent families, and highlights promising Early Head Start programs.

Teen parent families may face increased risks for child abuse and neglect and for disabilities and developmental delays in children. Studies have shown that teen parent participation in EHS programs helps improve child development and parenting behavior and increases economic self-sufficiency and the family’s ability to access support services.

The report highlights the importance of increased collaboration between EHS programs and other systems serving teen parent families, especially child protective services and early intervention programs. EHS can collaborate with the child welfare system to prevent child abuse and neglect by teaching teenage parents appropriate parenting techniques, improving their knowledge of child development, and connecting them to support services. EHS programs can also identify children who may have disabilities and facilitate access to appropriate services.

The full report is based on discussion and findings from a 2-day meeting of EHS providers

For Department of Health & Human Services summary.
For full report.   

Men’s Pregnancy Intentions and Prenatal Behaviors: What They Mean for Fathers’ Involvement With Their Children
By Jacinta Bronte-Tinkew, Allison Horowitz, Elena Kennedy, and Kate Perper
Child Trends
June 2007

Presents information on what men report about their pregnancy intentions and their prenatal involvement, and examines the effects of these intentions and behaviors on men’s involvement with very young children following birth.

We found that although most resident fathers report that they wanted the pregnancy at the time or sooner, one in four reported that he did not want the pregnancy at all.

We also found that both fathers’ pregnancy intentions and their prenatal involvement differ by age and race/ethnicity. For example, teen fathers were the least likely to report that the pregnancy occurred at the right time and were the most likely to report that they had not wanted the pregnancy. Non-Hispanic black fathers and fathers of other ethnicities were more likely to report not wanting the pregnancy than were Hispanic or non-Hispanic white fathers. In addition, teen fathers and Hispanic fathers were less likely to demonstrate specific prenatal behaviors, compared with other fathers.

We also found that an unwanted pregnancy was associated with less warmth towards the infant but that a pregnancy that occurred later than the father wanted it to occur was associated with more nurturing behaviors.

Another important finding was that fathers who were more involved during pregnancy were also more likely to be involved in helping to rear the child in the first year of life. These fathers engaged in a higher level of cognitively stimulating activities with their very young children, showed more warmth and nurturing in their interactions with them, and provided more hands-on physical care.

For full report. 

Other News and Research

What is Evidence-Based Practice?
By Allison J. R. Metz, Rachele Espiritu, and Kristin A. Moore
Child Trends
June 2007

Part 1 in a Series on Fostering the Adoption of Evidence-Based Practices in
Out-Of-School Time Programs.

The lag between discovering effective practices and using them “on the ground” can be unnecessarily long, sometimes taking 15 to 20 years! The purpose of this brief is to provide practitioners with a better understanding of evidence-based practice, and to share resources that can help bridge the research-to practice gap and reduce the lag time between the identification and application of evidence-based practice. Forthcoming briefs in this series will provide additional information on key aspects of adopting evidence-based practices including replication, program fidelity, and specific implementation strategies.

For full brief.    

News and Views: Week of June 25, 2007

Posted on by Lisa Kays

See below for a round-up of what was news this week in the world of philanthropy, social change and women and girls in the Washington metropolitan region and beyond:

In the spirit of our previous conversations on the wage-gap, AlterNet asks in a book review, "Why do we pay our plumbers more than our caregivers?"  Excellent question. 

And on a similar note, Andrea Learned asks, "Philanthropy: Administered by Men, Driven by Women?", where she considers that, "Steeped in established protocols and tradition, philanthropy may well be the final frontier for proving the women’s market worth (literally and figuratively)," which she notes, is ironic given that "charity really begins with women."

Tactical Philanthropy reminds us that we don’t necessarily have to choose in the debate between "Nonprofits vs. For Profits."

Which brings us to Trent Stamp’s review of the debate between whether high school students should be required to work without profit–and volunteer–in his post, "Would mandatory service breed resentment, or more volunteers?"

Lucy Bernholz confesses to being a geek and asks, "Why is philanthropic analysis so different?, proposing a means of thinking and doing for philanthropy that could "revolutionize the work of typical foundation program officers."  Nisha and Carolee, are you ready?

On a nonprofit relational note, Trent Stamp calls The Urban Institute’s new study on what’s going on between charities and their boards "wildly interesting" and recommends a cool article from Money magazine on how donors and volunteers can make the most of their time and money.  Sounds like a great addition to Philanthropy 101 to me!   

And speaking of money, the Native Financial Education Coalition hosted a briefing in Washington, D.C. regarding the low financial literacy of Native American youth and offered key recommendations to address the problem. 

On the heels of previous discussion around the influence (or over-influence?) of wealth and philanthropy on decision-making, as well as a reminder about the tension in Pittsburgh that followed a decision by the Heinz Foundation, a story emerges from New York about how "Patrons’ Sway Leads to Friction in Charter School."  Frederick Hess, an expert on philanthropy and education, predicts that this could be an on-going trend.  "There would be more disputes like the one in Brooklyn as high-profile donors invest their reputations in schools and face ‘the enormous kind of name-brand question.’”

Feministing adds a new perspective to the immigration bill, noting that it would potentially put women immigrants in the precarious situation of having to decide between domestic violence and deportation. 

Google sets out to help non-profits with maps, by offering a program that would allow causes to demonstrate visually for donors and supports that, for instance, there is fire and war ravaging specific villages or to see the devastation of a natural disaster.  We all know how much I love Google, but my questions is this: how do you show the effects of poverty–and its disproportionate impact on women–on a map?  Seems it’s already easier to get funding for disaster and relief efforts than for sustained development and anti-poverty ones–as noted by how the "Absense of a Major Disaster in ’06 Affected Giving."  The article reports, "Since 2002, the percentage of overall giving to human services charities has been declining. The exception was 2005, when gifts increased, perhaps as a result of the overall increase driven by disaster giving."  So, Google, get on that poverty visual, okay?  (See also "Americans set record for charity in 2006" for more on that breakdown.)

And that’s it for your weekly round-up.  Have a great pre-Independence Day weekend and don’t forget to start things off by celebrating your freedom of speech with a few comments and notes on the blog!