Over 350 people gathered in Santa Clara County on March 23rd to learn about the status of women and girls in the county. Data from the new report showed that women were still lagging behind men in many crucial areas, especially in employment and earnings. George Shirakawa, President of the County Board of Supervisors said, "Women and girls are half of the population of Santa Clara County and ignoring their most pressing needs to thrive is a mistake we cannot afford to make." He was joined by other local and national elected leaders who contributed to the report launch including Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Cogressman Mike Honda, County Supervisors Liz Kniss (honorary co-chair of the report) and former supervisors--Blanca Alvarado, Suzanne Wilson, Diane McKenna, and former State Senator Becky Morgan.

The report, commissioned by the Santa Clara County Office of Women's Policy and conducted by ASR and Creative Mundo Consulting, found that girls' 3rd grade reading scores were better than boys, girls were more likely to graduate high school than boys, and women earned more bachelor's degrees than men. However, one of the most striking discoveries was the discrepancy in wages between men and women, even when they had the same educational levels. Men still earn 28% more than women and the pay gap increases to more than $40,000 a year at the advanced degree level.

Median Annual Earnings of Workers, by Gender and Education Attainment, 2010 

In comparing the recent outcomes for women and girls to the previous study conducted 10 years ago, there are mixed results in the area of health. The good news is that the teen birth rate is down and preventive screening is up. But there has been a dramatic decline in women with health insurance, which typically threatens overall health outcomes. Further, many indicators of violence against women are decreasing, but deaths from domestic violence were up in 2011. 

• To see a video of the event, please click here.  
• To view coverage by CBS Television, please click here.
• To read an article about the report launch in the San Jose Mercury News, please click here.

Silicon Valley has some of the wealthiest families living in the Bay Area region, and some of the poorest. The Mayfair neighborhood in east San Jose has more than 20,000 residents, the majority of whom are very low-income. SOMOS Mayfair, a neighborhood organization, commissioned ASR to conduct a school readiness assessment of entering kindergarten students at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. Cesar Chavez, the labor organizer who cofounded the United Farm Workers, had lived and worked in the neighborhood.

ASR conducted an assessment of children's readiness on 24 different skills. Only 14% of the children had the readiness skills that are predictive of 3rd grade success on standardized tests in English and Math. About one-third of children had low proficiency in the four major building blocks of Self-Care and Motor Skills (using small manipulatives, general coordination), Self-Regulation Skills (comforting themselves, paying attention, following directions), Social Expression Skills (expressing needs, empathy and curiosity), and Kindergarten Academic Skills (engaging with books, counting 10 objects, recognizing letters, rhymes, and shapes).

Some of the children who were less ready for school appeared to come to school hungry, and some had parents who said they struggled with the child's behavior. Children who had higher scores tended to have parents who read to them more often, their parents received more support from local programs and services, and their parents had received specific information about the child's development.

Somos Mayfair is helping to improve school readiness outcomes for 1,000 families of children ages 0-8 in the region, and they are encouraging family wellness strategies (nutrition, physical activity, emotional wellness). SOMOS is expanding their partnerships with community promotores to improve family wellness and school readiness outcomes.  SOMOS has successfully used the promotores model as a way to increase access to culturally-grounded resources in the areas of nutrition, community gardens, exercise, health screenings, school readiness, literacy, and emotional self-care.

For more information, please contact Lisa Colvig-Amir at 408-247-8319 and lisa@appliedsurveyresearch.org.

ASR, the United Way of Santa Cruz County, and dozens of other partners will hold the 3rd Annual Project Homeless Connect in Santa Cruz County on Tuesday April 17th from 10 am to 4 pm at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Project Connect is a day-long event where dozens of services are offered to homeless individuals and families. A wide range of housing supports are offered along with medical care, dental care, mental health referrals, employment services, eyeglasses, wheelchair repair, legal services, the ability to get a California identification card from the DMV so that individuals can apply for jobs and other services, even a haircut.

Project Homeless Connect started in San Francisco when Mayor Gavin Newsom wanted to find a better way to support the homeless. Now, over 220 cities in 3 different countries have implemented the model. This is the 3rd year for Project Homeless Connect in Santa Cruz County and last year, more than 400 volunteers and 80 service providers showed up to help nearly 1,000 homeless individuals. For this year, we have nearly 400 volunteers signed up so far, and are looking for 100 more. During every Project Homeless Connect, people get hired for jobs, connect to social services, receive medical and dental screenings and treatment, and learn about additional resources. This year, a new project called the GIIP (Global Info Internship Program) from the University of California Santa Cruz is going to lead computer classes at the nearby library to help people set up e-mail accounts, write resumes, and do web searching for jobs and supportive services.

If you would like to volunteer for the project, or for more information, please visit the Project Connect Website, created by ASR staff, at: www.phc-santacruz.org.

One year after the start of Marin County's Pre K-3 intiative, incoming kindergartners are showing significant gains in key school readiness areas.  Previous research has demonstrated that children who are ready for school at kindergarten have a much higher chance of school success in 3rd grade and beyond.   

The PreK-3 Initiative strives to "Increase the number of low-income children and children of color who are prepared for academic success in school through an investment in early learning experiences, parent involvement, and extended time spent learning."  The initiative has funded nine schools to engage in targeted efforts to align educational practices from preschool through third grade to close the achievement gap.  To monitor the impacts of this multi-year initiative, Marin Community Foundation and First 5 Marin have partnered with ASR to coordinate annual school readiness assessments of incoming kindergarteners each fall.  In fall 2010, baseline data were collected regarding students' readiness on 24 key readiness skills across four domains-Self-Care & Motor Skills, Self-Regulation, Social Expression, and Kindergarten Academics. In fall 2011, after one year of the initiative, these assessments were repeated with new kindergarteners in 17 schools.

After the first year of the initiative, incoming kindergarteners showed small but significant gains in their Self-Care & Motor Skills (e.g., self-help skills, use of small manipulatives, general coordination) and abilities in Kindergarten Academics (e.g., counting, engaging with books, color/shape/rhyme recognition). However, challenges remained in students' Self-Regulation Skills (e.g., comforting self, paying attention, following directions). Research has shown that one of the best predictors of third grade outcomes is the combined strength of having high levels of proficiency in Kindergarten Academics and Self-Regulation.  Forty-four percent (44%) of the students were at the levels of readiness in Kindergarten Academics and Self-Regulation that have been associated with third grade achievement longitudinally.

Children who were more ready for school tended to have greater health/well-being, higher family use of local community resources (e.g., libraries, parks), higher family engagement, and higher preschool attendance.  When students attended Summer Bridge (First 5 Marin's five-week summer PreK program) in addition to preschool, they entered kindergarten with greater levels of readiness in the area of Self-Regulation. 

For more information, please contact Kate Branscomb at (408) 247-8319 or kate@appliedsurveyresearch.org.

There is a national trend of increases in homeless children and youth across the country. Some new data suggests that approximately one-fifth of the homeless population is under the age of 25. This growing number of youth has been attributed to a new generation who cannot find jobs, don't complete their educations, as well as failures with the foster care system where youth are emancipated at the age of 18 but have nowhere to go. So far, there have been very few in-depth studies about this growing population, but ASR has designed a unique methodology which has been recognized by the National Alliance to End Homelessness in their best-practice guide about youth homelessness. The advances of ASR in youth homeless research are especially important now as the federal government is requiring that the 2013 homeless counts include data about youth.

In 2009, ASR piloted methods to count the number of youth who were homeless in several California counties. We conducted special counts of homeless youth, led by youth and volunteers who have expertise in youth homelessness and we trained young people to conduct surveys of homeless youth to learn more about their history and experience with homelessness. In 2011, we expanded that youth research to several more counties in California and Nevada.

ASR was invited to present its work about homeless youth at the annual conference of the National Alliance to End Homelessness which took place in Los Angeles in February 2012. For the first time, the Alliance focused on youth rather than families or individuals. Peter Connery, Vice President of ASR, described our peer to peer youth methodology, the increases we saw in youth homelessness, and some particular challenges that youth faced including trouble accessing services. For more information about ASR's participation at the conference, please click here.

For more information on conducting youth counts in your region, please contact Samantha Green at 831-728-1356, or at Samantha@appliedsurveyresearch.org.

ASR is again partnering with regions throughout Arizona to conduct needs and asset reports for their First Things First organizations which provide support to families with children from birth to 5. In this cycle, ASR is working with nine regions including Coconino, North Phoenix, Northeast Maricopa, Navajo/Apache, South Phoenix, Yuma, Cocopah tribe, San Carlos Apache tribe, and Gila.

Research shows that a child's brain develops most dramatically in the first five years of life. To that end, Arizona passed legislation to fund early childhood health and development using a tax on tobacco products.

ASR conducted face-to-face surveys with families of children birth through five in several First Things First regions. The goal is to collect primary data about issues such as child care, early education, health, and family support. The data from the surveys, together with extensive secondary data from local, state and federal sources, will be published in September 2012.

ASR is especially excited about helping our partners move from data to action through retreats with our stakeholders, once all the data are collected. Data to action retreats will take place in many of the First Things First regions as we seek to align needs, assets and data to ongoing or new investments on behalf of young children and their families. 

For more information, please contact Abbie Stevens at 831-728-1356 or abbie@appliedsurveyresearch.org.

ASR has partnered with members of the Coconino community to create a Community Education Report for the region. Community members come from Coconino County which is in the far north of Arizona and is the second largest county by land mass in the 48 contiguous states. Flagstaff is one of the major cities in the region and the Grand Canyon is also located there. The region has a large percentage of American Indians, including individuals and families from the Havasupai, Navajo, Hualapai, and Hopi nations.

The Community Education Report will provide a comprehensive profile of the educational system, the quality of education, and the educational needs of the students. ASR will collect and analyze a wide range of data to be used to develop an action plan for creating community change based on the findings of the study. The report will be presented to the community in May 2012, and the action plans will be created in June 2012.

For more information, please contact Susan Brutschy, President of ASR at susan@appliedsurveyresearch.org.

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