JCCF NEWS SUMMARYFebruary 28, 2012
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KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot
Graphic Courtesy of the Annie E. Casey Foundation A new KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicates that nearly 8 million children in the U.S. live in high-poverty areas. These are communities in which at least 30 percent of residents live below the federal poverty threshold - about $22,000 per year for a family of four. Research shows that growing up in a high-poverty neighborhood can affect a child's ability to succeed in school and undermine a child's chances of adult economic security. Read More. Create rankings, maps and graphs of the data at the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
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Series Spotlight: American Graduate
Every year, more than 1 million students drop out of high school. Their prospects in this economy are not promising.
American Graduate is a national effort to address the high school dropout crisis. It is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in partnership with America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Go Deeper:
Register for the Building a Grad Nation Summit, sponsored by America's Promise Alliance. This free event will be held March 18 - 21 in Washington, DC.
Look around your community and ask:
- What is the role of teachers, parents, siblings and community organizations in keeping students on target to graduate?
- Which efforts are succeeding and why?
- How are youth responding to American Graduate engagement projects?
- What do young people think of President Obama's call for all states to raise the dropout age to 18?
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APPOINTMENT TV
At 10 years old, Chico Colvard accidentally shot his older sister in the leg. The seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed his sisters' sexual abuse and shattered his family. Colvard revisits his troubled past in this award-winning documentary.
PBS | Feb. 27 - March 30
Each Monday for five weeks, the first-ever PBS Online Film Festival will feature short films from public media. The March 5 installment, Growing Pains, will tell coming-of-age stories, including a youth-produced POV documentary, This Gay and Age.
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 CHILDREN AND FAMILIES HEADLINES
Chardon High School Shooting: Grief Counselors on Hand, Schools Closed
WKYC-TV 3 (Cleveland) | Feb. 28, 2012
Grief counselors are on hand today as students in Chardon, Ohio cope with the high school shootings. The alleged teen gunman will face a juvenile detention hearing later Tuesday afternoon.
- Money Seems to Matter for Teen Girls, Condoms
- ABC News, Mikaela Conley | Feb. 28, 2012
- Teen girls whose primary source of spending money comes from their boyfriends are less likely to use condoms, according to a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. In a way, these teens are trading unsafe sex for money, the lead author wrote.
- Straight Out Of Flint: Girl Boxer Aims For Olympics
- NPR/Radio Diaries | Feb. 27, 2012
- This year, for the first time in history, female boxers will compete at the Summer Olympics. Sixteen-year-old Claressa details her fight to become the youngest competitor to earn a place on the U.S. women's boxing team.
Sex Abuse Signs Aren't Always Clear
The Daily Breeze (Los Angeles)/Associated Press, Christina Hoag | Feb. 26, 2012
Teachers across the nation are trained to recognize signs of child abuse and neglect, but experts say better training is needed to prepare educators and administrators to spot classroom pedophiles.
Facebook Posts Can Offer Clues of Depression
The New York Times, Jan Hoffman | Feb. 23, 2012 Specialists in adolescent medicine say teens' dark status updates can serve as signs of depression. Whether therapists should engage with patients over Facebook, however, remains a matter of debate. Corner Stores to Become Oases in Food Deserts? WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, Natalie Moore | Feb. 23, 2012 In neighborhoods where there are no supermarkets, corner stores are plentiful. These convenience stores often stock more junk food than fresh produce. Several new public health programs underway in Chicago aim to transform these shops into healthy assets. Graduation Rates Increase Around The Globe As U.S. Plateaus WAMU-FM (Washington, D.C.), Kavitha Cardoza | Feb. 21, 2012 Educational inequality in U.S. called "shocking." Some students who come from other countries say school in U.S. is easy. Visit JCCF on the Web for more of the latest headlines on children & families |
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EVENTS
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, 4 p.m The Born This Way Foundation is committed to promoting self-acceptance and creating a safe community for youth. Founder Lady Gaga will be joined by Oprah, Deepak Chopra and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Building a Grad Nation Summit March 18 - 21 America's Promise Alliance Washington, DC The Grad Nation campaign is a 10-year effort to end the high school dropout crisis. The summit brings together educators, local and state leaders, national nonprofit organizations, businesses, youth and others to share progress and catalyze action. --------------------------------------------------------------- |
The Journalism Center on Children & Families, a program of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, is a national nonprofit organization committed to supporting media coverage of children, youth and families, particularly the disadvantaged. The JCCF News Summary helps journalists and others keep in touch with the latest news, policy analysis and research reports on critical social issues that impact families and communities. We encourage redistribution of this material with credit given to the Journalism Center on Children & Families. To unsubscribe, please reply to this e-mail with your subscription request. Reach JCCF by telephone at 301.405.8808. Journalists are encouraged to submit their stories for consideration for publication in the JCCF News Summary and on our website. Please send story links to: info@journalismcenter.org. Stories should be archived and free of access charges for at least seven days. JCCF thanks The Annie E. Casey Foundation for its generous support of our work.
www.journalismcenter.org
Journalism Center on Children & Families
1100, Knight Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, Md. 20742
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