Recently in Human Services Category

Source: Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, and Elizabeth Rigby, Health Affairs, Vol. 29 no. 3, 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Amid growing concern about childhood obesity, the United States spends billions of dollars on food assistance: providing meals and subsidizing food purchases. We examine the relationship between food assistance and body mass index (BMI) for young, low-income children, who are a primary target population for federal food programs and for efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Our findings indicate that food assistance may unintentionally contribute to the childhood obesity problem in cities with high food prices. We also find that subsidized meals at school or day care are beneficial for children's weight status, and we argue that expanding access to subsidized meals may be the most effective tool to use in combating obesity in poor children.

Source: Child Trends, February 24, 2010

From the press release:
Child Trends, with support from Casey Family Programs, launches the State Child Welfare Policy Database to provide information on child welfare laws, procedures, and agency guidance for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Database can help elected officials, administrators, advocates, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders keep up to date with the policies that protect our nation's most vulnerable children.

The site can be navigated by state or by topic. You can learn about your state's expenditures on child welfare services, policies for relatives and "kin" caring for children involved in the child welfare system, benefits and services provided to foster youth after age 18, and much more. In addition to the traditional web version, the site is designed to be compatible with your mobile device, allowing for easily accessible information on the go.

Source: Zoë Neuberger and Tina Fritz Namian, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, January 29, 2010

From the summary:
In anticipation of Congressional reauthorization of the federal child nutrition programs, some have called for increased federal reimbursement rates for school meals to improve their nutritional quality. Under current rules, however, federal payments for free and reduced price meals are not used solely to underwrite the cost of producing those meals.

Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, January 21, 2010

Below are links to fact sheets for each of the 50 states on child welfare financing. In addition to data on child welfare expenditures and the sources of this funding, the fact sheets include contextual data such as the number (and percent) of children living in poverty, the number and types of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, and the number of children in foster care.

Each fact sheet contains sections that:

1. Describe the context for child welfare spending by providing data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care, and children living with kin;

2. Identify how much child welfare funding comes from federal, state, and local sources;

3. Identify the major federal funding streams that are used to support child welfare and the amount of child welfare funding that comes from each; and

4. Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs, including expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments, administrative and child placement costs, and training.

Source: Family Caregiver Alliance, National Center on Caregiving, December 2009

From the summary:
States are currently struggling with one of the deepest recessions on record. As a result, funding for essential services, including family caregiver support programs, has been reduced or, in the worst cases, eliminated.

This paper is intended to help advocates, program administrators, service providers and caregivers fight for their state and local caregiver support programs. It includes background information, statistics, talking points and a list of additional resources to help make the case for maintaining public funding for crucial caregiver support services.

Source: United States Conference of Mayors, December 2009

From the press release:
In the last year, U.S. cities have seen the sharpest increase in the demand for hunger assistance since 1991, an increase in family homelessness and a decrease or leveling in individual homelessness, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 27 cities in America (listed below) that was released today at a press conference at the USCM headquarters in Washington, D.C..
See also:
- Press conference video
- ARRA helps municipalities expand homeless services
Source: American City & County, January 26, 2010

Source: Deepak Bhargava, Timothy Casey, John Cavanagh, Karen Dolan, Peter Edelman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sarita Gupta, Dedrick Muhammad, Diana Pearce, Steve Savner, Kevin Shih, Institute for Policy Studies, the Center for Community Change, Jobs with Justice, and Legal Momentum, December 2009

From the summary:
The economic crisis is still on the rise for millions of Americans, while at the same time the social safety net is failing to support many of them.

The national study, Battered by the Storm: How the Safety Net Is Failing Americans and How to Fix It, concludes that the economic crisis is still on the rise for millions of Americans, while at the same time the social safety net is failing to support many of them. It offers one of the boldest, most comprehensive plans to combat poverty and unemployment -- beginning now.

Among the study's key findings:

* Levels of long-term unemployment, underemployment and discouraged workers are reaching historic levels;
* The percentage of poor children receiving temporary assistance under TANF (the main federal "welfare" program) has fallen from 62% in 1995 to 22% in 2008;
* TANF benefits are far from sufficient to support the families that depend on them: 2008 assistance payments averaged only 29% of the money needed to bring families up to the official poverty line;
* Even while labor force participation of mothers has increased, the supply of affordable child care has lagged behind, creating a significant barrier to employment for many, especially single mothers; and
* Roughly 57% of unemployed people are receiving unemployment compensation; for those receiving benefits, amounts are less than half of wages, and many are losing work-related health benefits.

The social safety net has eroded over the past 30 years, failing millions of Americans. Short-term fixes such as the Recovery Act are rescuing only a small percentage of those who need help.
Related:
Podcast: The Impact of the Recession and the Recovery Act on Social Safety Net Programs
Source: Dr. LaDonna Pavetti, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, December 9, 2009

Source: Hannah Matthews, Center for Law and Social Policy, December 1, 2009

Based on preliminary data from the Child Care Bureau, this fact sheet provides a snapshot of participation in the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program in 2008. CCDBG served a monthly average of 1.6 million children. While 19 states increased the number of children served, 29 states served fewer children in 2008 than in the previous year. This fact sheet reviews data, including the ages of children receiving assistance, the types of child care settings used, and the reasons families receive assistance.

Source: Carolyn J. Heinrich, Peter R. Mueser, Kenneth R. Troske, Kyung-Seong Jeon, Daver C. Kahvecioglu, IZA Discussion Paper No. 4569, November 2009

This paper presents nonexperimental net impact estimates for the Adult and Dislocated Worker programs under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the primary federal job training program in the U.S, based on administrative data from 12 states, covering approximately 160,000 WIA participants and nearly 3 million comparison group members. The key measure of interest is the difference in average quarterly earnings or employment attributable to WIA program participation for those who participate, estimated for up to four years following entry into the program using propensity score matching methods. The results for the average participant in the WIA Adult program show that participating is associated with a several-hundred-dollar increase in quarterly earnings. Adult program participants who obtain training have lower earnings in the months during training and the year after exit than those who don't receive training, but they catch up within 10 quarters, ultimately registering large total gains. The marginal benefits of training exceed, on average, $400 in earnings each quarter three years after program entry. Dislocated Workers experience several quarters for which earnings are depressed relative to comparison group workers after entering WIA, and although their earnings ultimately match or overtake the comparison group, the benefits they obtain are smaller than for those in the Adult program.

Source: Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, November 2009

Trends in state and local government finance, social welfare spending, and gambling revenues to states are among the topics Rockefeller Institute researchers have explored in recent conference papers and presentations.

- T. Gais, L. Dadayan and S. Bae on social welfare spending
- Donald Boyd on state budgets and health reform
- Donald Boyd on fiscal sustainabillity
- Lucy Dadayan on gambling revenues to the states
- Robert Ward on state budget gaps