Using music to raise money for Haiti

Raising money and sending it to organizations already in poor countries is the best way to help. One girl in Connecticut is doing just that. She has been collecting pop bottles to return for cash to give to Haiti. Now, 15 year old Julie Morrison will host a concert to raise more money.

From the Hartford Courant, writer Peter Marteka profiles the teen who is trying to help heal Haiti in her own way.

According to Julie Morrison, if every American — that's over 309 million — donated one 5-cent returnable container, that would generate more than $15 million to support worthy causes.

"It is something so simple, but it can mean something so big," said the 15-year-old Glastonbury High School sophomore, who has been collecting cans and bottles from residents along Sunrise Drive since February. Julie's "Hope For Haiti" Can Drive has brought in more than 4,000 cans so far to help the earthquake-ravaged country.

But the teen isn't stopping at the can drive. Using her musical talents — she sings and plays the violin and piano — Julie will put on a benefit concert May 22 at the BackBeat City Performing Arts Center in town to raise additional money for the island nation.

"I don't want people to forget about them," she said, especially now, as the poverty-stricken country enters its rainy season. "We watched parents wandering around looking for their children and children looking for their parents. It was hard not to be touched by that and inspired to do something to help."

Julie comes from a musical family and has been playing the violin since she was in first grade.

She credits BackBeat's Greg Colossale for inspiring not only her, but other musicians to "make the world a better place through music," she said.

Report: Bridgeport, Connecticut children hit hard by poverty

from the Connecticut Post

By LINDA CONNER LAMBECK

BRIDGEPORT -- In just a year, encouraging signs on the status of Bridgeport's children have tanked, plummeting in several categories from a grade of A-plus to F in the annual report issued Monday by the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition.

The infant mortality rate has increased 50 percent from the agency's 2007 report. The city's dropout rate has risen 18 percent. Cases of abused or neglected children spiked 12 percent. And there is a 20 percent boost in the number of teenagers having babies.

"In today's uncertain times, Bridgeport children are barely keeping their heads above water," said Barbara Edinberg, the BCAC assistant director, in releasing its 2008 "State of the Child in Bridgeport."

Edith Cassidy, the BCAC board chairwoman, said she is deeply concerned about the negative impact of growing unemployment, rising energy and food costs, and the lack of affordable health coverage on Bridgeport's children.

"How will parents manage to get their medical care and prescriptions? Will parents be forced to cut back on food purchases? Will more families fall behind on their rent and lose their housing? Bridgeport's children already lag far behind on so many measures," Cassidy said.

Edinberg blames poverty for reversing the direction of positive trends noted in the 2007 report.

Using the most current data available, the coalition grades 21 indicators of child well-being for its annual assessment. The agency stacks those indicators up against statewide data. In almost all measures, Bridgeport children fare poorly compared to those elsewhere in the state.

The report finds that more than 10,200 Bridgeport children, nearly one-third of all city children, lived in poverty in 2006, an increase of 575 over 2005. Bridgeport's child poverty rate is more than twice the statewide figure and 50 percent higher than the national rate.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

NY official: education best cure for poverty

from the Connecticut Post

JOHN BURGESON

BRIDGEPORT — The city was urged to examine the long-term effectiveness of the many programs designed to help inner-city youth at the annual breakfast conference of the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition.

Linda Gibbs, New York City's deputy mayor for health and human services, told the gathering of about 375 at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn that, in the long term, the most important thing that government can do to erase poverty is to educate its children.

"One out of three high school dropouts will live in poverty for the rest of their life, but if you have a bachelor's degree, you will have a less than 10 percent chance of living in poverty," she said.

"Poverty is related very strongly to other social conditions — infant mortality rates, low birthrate children and high rates of diabetes and obesity."

Gibbs, who formerly served as commissioner of New York's homeless services and with the city's child welfare agency, urged the social-service advocates in the audience to "look holistically" at a family in a crisis situation, rather than focusing only on the emergency at hand. She said that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted the various social agencies in New York to stop thinking about making the so-called safety net stronger, but rather find ways to reduce poverty — because too many people were spending too much time in the safety net.

"The working households in poverty have doubled since 1990 as a percent of our total poverty population," she said. "This is a huge and growing problem in this country as a whole."

She went on to describe that the 16- to 24-year-olds as the "lost population," which have many members who are poor, out of school and out of work, with few strategies designed to meet their needs. "Don't just rest on good intentions," she said. "We believe that because we're doing good, that the goodness of our acts is what makes us deserve the money," Gibbs said. "Are these interventions actually having an impact? When we're asking taxpayers to put up money, we should do more to show them that we're spending their money with integrity and with accountability." Gibbs highlighted two innovative programs, both of which seem to have had good results in New York.

The first is a nurse-family partnership program, in which a nurse is assigned to help poor first-time mothers deal with their newborns. "The benefits went way beyond the original intervention in terms of reduced child abuse in the household, increased employment, increased income and reduced juvenile delinquency 10 or 15 years later."

A second successful program targeted community college students. "Nationally, only 16 percent of the students entering community colleges get their two-year degree — not just in two years, but ever."

What she found was that most students drop out of community college because of conflicts with their work hours. "When the schedule of the second semester schedule isn't the same as the first semester, you're going to give up the classes before you give up the job." Gibbs said that allowing students to take their classes in the same time frame from one semester to the next can result in a dramatically improved graduation rate, which, in turn, leads to less poverty later on.

Program Boosts Diaper Supplies At Hartford Agencies

from WTXX

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE, Courant Staff Writer

Two weeks ago, a truckload of free diapers was delivered to the city of Hartford's Maternal & Child Health Division.

In the eyes of Evelyn Guzman, whose clients sometimes struggle to pay for basic needs, it was a gift that couldn't be over-appreciated.

"That's like major help here," said Guzman, a project supervisor for the division, which oversees the Maternal Infant Outreach Program. Usually, mothers in the program may need to contemplate, " 'Do I buy food with my money, or diapers?' So you go with food, and you have a child sitting in a diaper longer than he should be sitting in."

Since April 8, six social service providers in Hartford, including the city's Maternal Infant Outreach Program, have been receiving diapers paid for by the state Department of Children and Families. The purpose, said DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt, is to prevent child neglect before it is reported to the agency.

Over the next two years, DCF will give a total of $300,000 to diaper banks in the Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven areas, Kleeblatt said. State Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven, pushed for the funds in a bill last year designed to subsidize the cost of disposable diapers for children living in poverty.

Hartford's Maternal Infant Outreach Program requested and received roughly 1,200 diapers in the first delivery — enough for a month's supply for the 120 children that the program serves, Guzman said.

The monthly cost of a baby's diapers can reach about $100, and neither food stamps nor vouchers from the Women, Infants, and Children Program can be used to buy diapers. In the worst cases, that means a baby can be forced to sit in a single diaper for a day or longer, leading to rashes, sores and sometimes serious medical complications.

The Diaper Bank, a nonprofit group that has been operating out of New Haven since 2004, will be in charge of distributing the diapers among a network of 57 social service providers in the state, including the six agencies in Hartford. In all, about 100,000 free diapers will be doled out each month, said Janet Alfano, the group's operations manager.

People in Hartford who are interested in getting diapers need to fill out an application at one of these providers:

•Family Life Education Inc., 39 Grace St., 860-233-9700

•Maternal Infant Outreach Program, 131 Coventry St., 860-543-8834

•Southside Family Center/Catholic Charities, 15 Newfield Ave., 860-953-0113

•Trust House Family Learning Center, 155 Wyllys St., 860-278-8387

•Urban League of Greater Hartford Inc., 140 Woodland St., 860-527-0147

•VNA Healthcare Inc., 103 Woodland St., 860-493-7359

Other nonprofit groups interested in joining the diaper distribution network should call The Diaper Bank at 203-934-7009, or visit www.thediaperbank.org to download an application. For an agency to qualify, at least 60 percent of the people it serves need to live in poverty.

Report Lauds Connecticut's Role In Reducing Child Poverty

from the Hartford Courant

By ANN MARIE SOMMA

Courant Staff Writer

April 18, 2008
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A national report released Thursday praises Connecticut as one of a growing number of states that have taken a leadership role in reducing child poverty.

The report, prepared by the Washington-based nonprofit Center for Law and Social Policy, lauds Connecticut for passing a 2004 initiative to cut child poverty in half by 2014. The report also cites the creation of the state's Child Poverty and Prevention Council made up of legislators, state department heads, advocates and poverty experts.

But state child advocates said the report is mere window dressing. Despite the state's leadership role, child poverty has actually increased in the state since 2004, said Shelley Geballe, president of CT Voices For Children.

In 2004, 10.1 percent of state children were living in poverty. The most recent U.S. Census bureau data shows an increase to 10.7 percent, Geballe said.

The census also found that the number of poor children living in families earning less than the federal poverty level of $20,516 for a family of four increased in Hartford, Bridgeport, Stamford and Waterbury.

"The trend is heading in the wrong direction," Geballe said.

Geballe said the state has not acted on recommendations or put enough resources into initiatives outlined by the child poverty council.

Among the council's recommendations is for the state to establish an earned income tax credit for low-wage earners. Since 1998, 28 bills to enact an earned income tax credit have died at the state Capitol, Geballe said.

The report, titled "Seizing the Moment: State Governments and the New Commitment to Reduce Poverty in America," identifies states that are addressing poverty through measures ranging from creating economic opportunity to state-sponsored poverty summits.

States highlighted in the report include Delaware, Vermont, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota.

Jodie Levin-Epstein, deputy director of the Center for Law and Social Policy and lead author of the report, said the report shows that governments can no longer ignore poverty.

Reports on schools launch discussion on poverty, teaching

from the Journal Inquirer

By: Matt Engelhardt , Journal Inquirer

EAST HARTFORD - A consultant's reports on the quality of individual schools set the course Monday for a Board of Education discussion on issues that included student poverty, teaching effectiveness, and resources.

The school board reviewed the Cambridge Education report on three elementary schools and the high school during its regular meeting, held at the Connecticut International Baccalaureate Academy.

The state-commissioned reports analyzed the quality of education for the entire public school system as well as each individual school.

On Monday, the board reviewed the reports for Silver Lane, John A. Langford, and Robert J. O'Brien Elementary schools before concluding with the report for East Hartford High School.

The reports are designed as a third-party review of the public school system. School Superintendent Marion Martinez said the full report cost $32,000 and an analysis of each individual school cost $7,000. The reviews took place last October.

The state Department of Education commissioned the review because East Hartford was one of 12 low-performing school systems in Connecticut. The state's goal is to find ways to improve standardized test scores.

Martinez said the reports represented a "snapshot in time" of what visiting reviewers learned of the schools during their short visits, but did fully reflect the positives and negatives of the education system.

School board Chairwoman Mary Alice Dwyer Hughes said she welcomed an outsider's perspective on the schools and was not afraid of what the Cambridge reports revealed.

"I think they're actually very beneficial," Dwyer Hughes said.

The reports listed strengths and weaknesses for each school, and there was plenty in each category.

Among the positives: the schools' leadership, involvement of the community, behavior of the students, and much of the faculty.

The board focused most of its discussion on areas that need improvement, particularly achievements and goals, some teaching practices, and resources.

The reports also led to a discussion of the correlation between students coming from impoverished backgrounds and achievement levels.

Silver Lane, Langford, and O'Brien each have large populations of students receiving free or reduced lunch; at Silver Lane, 90 percent of the students are eligible.

Board member Dorese Roberts said she had a problem with the idea that poverty prevents learning.

"I think we keep using" poverty "as an excuse about why our kids cannot learn," Roberts said.

Martinez responded that during her time as superintendent she has never used poverty as an excuse.

However, Martinez said, students coming from impoverished backgrounds often lack basic vocabulary and communication skills, leaving it up to the public schools to try to bring those students up to a level at which they can perform.

"For many children, it takes them longer," Martinez said. "That is my only point."

The reports also were occasionally critical of teacher performance, notably in relation to the achievement level expected of students.

Dwyer Hughes said teachers must push kids as hard as possible and that East Hartford cannot afford to have educators not teaching to the best of their abilities.

She added that a goal for each student should be higher education and that the members shouldn't settle for criticisms that kids aren't being pushed.

"I think I speak for the entire board when I say we expect more than that," Dwyer Hughes said.

Martinez said most of the teachers are teaching to their fullest and that the criticisms reflected only a fraction of the faculty or staff. Additionally, schools have a commitment to professional development and teachers are consistently applying new techniques to their classrooms.

Regarding resources, members noted that books are significantly lacking, especially the kind that students can take home from libraries and read on their own, leading to a discussion about lack of funding.

Martinez said the schools already have improved since the reports were compiled, and that if Cambridge Education were to visit now they would see that instruction is much different than in October.

There's Still Time To Sign Up To Be Hungry — And Poor

from the Hartford Courant

Susan Campbell

A funny thing happened last year when Rabbi Donna Berman cast about for a way to bring hunger home.

Berman, executive director of Hartford's Charter Oak Cultural Center, thought if regular people would try to live on a food budget of $3 a day — the average amount a food stamp recipient gets — they might be moved to act and think differently when it comes to issues of poverty.

Participants in her Food Stamp Project would agree to go for a day, a week or a month. They would be forced to eat the food that poor people eat: lots of carbs, scant fresh fruit and vegetables — mostly filling, not terribly nutritious food. They would not accept hand-outs from friends or family, but they would be free to visit local food pantries or soup kitchens to supplement their diet.

Berman shared the idea of intentionally living on limited means with a friend who runs a kosher food pantry in Michigan, but "because I have to better everyone, I said we were going to do it as a community," she said.

About 80 people — some elected officials, some just plain folks — signed up, though Berman estimated far more participated unofficially. It was, by every measure, a local success.

And then word got out.

The nonprofit Food Research and Action Center put Hartford's story on its website, and other organizations and cities quickly followed suit. Whole cities participated, as did several members of Congress and even the governor of Oregon.

Berman went to a food conference last year, and people knew Hartford because of her Food Stamp Project.

If you weren't at Charter Oak Cultural Center on Tuesday for the kick-off of the city's second annual Food Stamp Project, it's not too late.

This year, Berman has partnered with End Hunger CT, Foodshare, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the project's target charity, Hands On Hartford. Berman hopes people will donate food and money to Hands On Hartford's MANNA food pantry, which helps 250 households each month.

Again, project participants pledge to keep their food budget to $21 a week, though Tom Bright of Hands On Hartford says participants can add $1 to their daily budget if they fill out the complicated seven-page application for the real food-stamp program.

Nationwide, the food-stamp program helps 26 million people. Most participate in for just nine months. More than half of the recipients are children.

Those of us who are doing this a second time do so with some trepidation.

Last year, I said goodbye to fresh fruits and vegetables and drank my weight in water. I was dog-tired and could hardly contain my famous temper over the least provocation. That was after just one week. Others fared worse.

Beyond relearning that I really need some patience, I learned how complicated life can be when you have to devote so much attention to getting adequate food on the table on a minuscule budget.

And I wasn't feeding a family. That was just me.

This year, longtime Hartford councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson is participating, as are Lorraine Reardon, registered dietitian with the Charter Oak Health Center, and her husband, Victor Arduini.

Both Airey-Wilson and Reardon say they want to better understand the lives of the people with whom they work. Berman calls that kind of learning a "body experience."

But this is not just for public officials or warm-hearted do-gooders.

Even we sinners might be surprised at what they learn.

Berman says that last year's project moved her in ways she hadn't expected.

"There's a way I live with more consciousness, more gratitude, a greater consciousness," she said. "It really is life-changing. I can't believe it's a year already. It still feels urgent. It didn't wear off."

For more information on the Food Stamp Project, visit www.charteroakcenter.org, or call 860-249-1207

Legislators urged to boost efforts to fight poverty

from The Stamford Advocate

By Natasha Lee
Staff Writer

STAMFORD - CTE President Phillip McKain yesterday urged state legislators to fight for funding for social programs to help beat poverty in Stamford and neighboring towns.

Lower Fairfield County's wealthy demographics make it difficult for agencies such as CTE to get state and federal money, McKain said. Eligibility is difficult for low-income residents, particularly those working two or three jobs to make ends meet, because their income can be counted against them, he said.

"People almost have to be on the streets to qualify," he said.

CTE Inc. is federally designated to reduce poverty in Stamford, Greenwich and Darien, and serves about 5,000 low-income people each year through educational, social and employment programs.

According to federal poverty guidelines, about 8.7 percent of Stamford's population, or 10,316 people, live in poverty. The U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimate puts the city population at about 120,000 residents.

The 2000 census reported about 2,400 Greenwich residents lived in poverty, and 391 in Darien.

"People don't think of Greenwich or even Darien as places where people exist in poverty, but they do," McKain said.

CTE struggles to maintain funding for its $350,000 Community Service Block Grant, which pays for education and youth programs, and its $380,000 Human Services Infrastructure funding, which supports employee training and family services programs, he said.

The formula used by the state Department of Social Services and Department of Labor to allocate money fails to account for the cost of living, which limits or denies the amount of funding CTE receives.

"That's the sort of battles we have to fight all the time," he told state officials and CTE employees yesterday. "I'm appealing to you to pay close attention to this so that the low-income community on this end aren't hurt."

State Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, and Moira Lyons of Stamford, former speaker of the state House of Representatives, were joined by state Reps. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford; Carlo Leone, D-Stamford; and Christel Truglia, D-Stamford, at yesterday's legislative breakfast, held at CTE in the South End.

Cassandra Arcano, a graduate of CTE's Individual Development Accounts program, stressed why such programs are needed to help low-income families become self-sufficient.

Arcano, a single mother of four boys, signed up for the program in 1999, after the birth of her last son. Arcano was living in public housing in Darien and juggling to provide for her family while working and taking classes at Norwalk Community College.

Arcano joined the program so she could learn how to save money for a house, but later changed her goal to operating her own business after an opportunity came to take over a fledgling pizza place.

Today, Arcano owns Four Brothers Pizza in Darien and two other businesses, including a catering company. She owns her home in Westport.

"I kind of achieved all my goals, so I'm making new ones," she said.

Arcano catered yesterday's breakfast.

Fox, also a CTE board member, said the agency must keep legislators informed about gaps in funding. The legislative session begins Feb. 6.

"It's one of the most important issues that we as public servants can address. We're committed and hope to develop more stories similar to Cassandra's," Fox said.

A Crisis Of Poverty

from The Hartford Couriant

By RACHEL GOTTLIEB FRANK

Courant Staff Writer

Connecticut's Child Poverty and Prevention Council met with a panel of national experts Friday to study recommendations to reduce persistent poverty in the state.

The bipartisan group of university professors and directors of institutes, task forces and think tanks throughout the nation winnowed a list of 67 recommendations assembled by the poverty council down to a more manageable 13. But statistics distributed at the same gathering by the state Commission on Children show that the scope of poverty in the state is far-reaching and persistent.

In 2006, one in 10 children under 18 lived in a family with income below the federal poverty level of $20,516 for a family of four, and there has been no progress in reducing that number since 1990, despite an aggressive effort to move welfare recipients into jobs.

The highest concentrations of poverty are in the cities. Last year, for example, with 43.4 percent of its children living in poverty, Hartford had the sixth-highest child poverty rate in the nation among cities with populations over 100,000. At the same time, it was estimated that 41 percent of the adults in Greater Hartford were functioning below the literacy level needed to earn a living wage, according to the Greater Hartford Literacy Council.

The panel set a goal of cutting the state's child poverty rate in half by 2014. It also recommended a multifaceted approach to improving education for poor children and stabilizing their families, by making child care, housing and health care more affordable through subsidies and more accessible through campaigns to ensure families know what's available to them.

To improve education and prospects for working parents, the experts suggested making preschool full-day and full-year and making grades K-3 full-year programs. They said that will improve the children's academic achievement and make it easier for their parents to work without having to pay for day care.

The panel also suggested the state establish an earned income tax credit for low-wage earners and advertise the existence of the federal earned-income tax credit.

To improve children's prospects of growing up in two-parent households, the group urged legislators to scrutinize the tax code to ensure there are no tax penalties associated with marriage and to concentrate on policies that will reduce teen pregnancy and the dropout rates of young men.

"There is increasing evidence that young, especially minority, males are dropping out of school and failing to enter the workforce and that these problems are contributing to low rates of marriage, the rise of lone parenting, high child poverty and a disturbing share of children whose fathers are imprisoned," the panel said.

In Hartford, a city with 36,000 children, as many as 6,000 — one in every six — have at least one parent in prison, according to Hartford-based Families in Crisis, an organization that helps families of prisoners. The agency's estimated range is 4,500 to 6,000, though experts say those numbers, based on the proportion of Hartford residents in prison, are conservative.

Hunger Banquet Raises Awareness

from The Daily Campus

By: John Bailey

Even before the food came out, the metaphor was clear: "Right now the upper class is being served. The middle class will get served next and the poor people ... you'll get your food eventually."

We feel small and the world feels enormous. Sometimes, activists bother people; they seem to be taking a moral high ground, or to be idealistic, starry-eyed dreamers. For many, it's easy to be pessimistic or even downright scornful about activism.

For anyone who was at Idealists United's hunger banquet Thursday night, it just got a lot harder.

The room filled quickly. The ring of chairs, which had been empty, became occupied with bodies, hands clutching their "middle class" tickets. The long table, adorned with pumpkins and festive tablecloths in a touch of dark irony, became dotted with the "high class" ticket-holders. And the floor, which strangely enough seemed to hold the jolliest and most gregarious, became the site of a mass social circle of the "impoverished."

If you aren't aware of the specifics, a "hunger banquet" is a regular meal with a sobering twist: everyone, upon entering, is given a ticket. Written on the ticket is an economic status level, from richest to poorest. Ticket proportions are divided based on the levels of real-life poverty around the globe. When the food is distributed, the richest get full meals, salad courses, all the food groups, cider - the whole shebang. The middle class get meals that will fill them up, to a point. The lower class has to duke it out over a bowl of rice and pitchers of water.

Or hug it out, as the case may be. The poorest, who were the most numerous, were also the most convivial. Stories were told and jokes were cracked.

"I just want to know if there are bugs in it for protein," said one of the unfortunate impoverished of the rice.

The middle class sat in an intimidating ring of chairs, surrounding the poorer folk, but they didn't seem to have quite the same spirit of friendship. The upper class, amusingly and perhaps tellingly, was completely isolated, separated as they were by a long table.

After the dinner, the speaker of the night, Gina Brassaw of Community Outreach, took her place in front of the circle. After some mock surprise that the poverty-level guests had been given forks and plates, Brassaw gave what could be called a lecture, but in the context, it was more of an informal chat. She talked about her experience with activism as a community organizer, and in particular the enormity of the task before activists of today.

"Our society - locally, nationally, globally - has a lot of huge problems," said Brassaw. From climate change to hunger to HIV/AIDS, the situation is looking rather bleak. "The fact is, this is a pervasive problem throughout our globe," said Brassaw of hunger in particular.

So what's a young activist to do? Give up in the face of such colossal odds? By no means, argued Brassaw. She identified three important tools to help: stay informed, don't underestimate the power of small actions and, most importantly, stay engaged. If you don't know about a problem, she said, you can't really do anything about it. Even a brief glance through news Web sites online gives you a giant edge, she said, which brought her to her next point: take small actions. Little things add up. Recycling your waste, buying things with less packaging, helping out at homeless shelters or soup kitchens - anything, because it's the small goals that keep you moving towards your large ones.

Finally, and this is the reason for the small actions, stay engaged. Activism, she said, is draining. You don't necessarily want to be "on" all the time. Let yourself feel rewarded when you accomplish the tiny victories and you'll be energized to keep moving.

After Brassaw finished her talk, the floor was opened for discussion by Allyssa Milan, a 5th-semester sociology major. From here out, the night really began to shine. Far from being starry-eyed, confused idealists, everyone from every "income level" was bursting with insight and enthusiasm.

Discussion topics ranged from waste reduction to feeding the homeless. Parker Gleason, a 7th-semester English major, had plenty to say, and single-handedly kick-started some of the debates.

"I'll go to a grocery story and buy my stuff and I get plain paper bags. You can reuse those. If you minimize your waste, even in the smallest ways, it helps a ton," he said. Later, Gleeson brought up stories of homeless people he invited into his car to get a meal.

"You can actually see an emotion that comes over them, you - two minutes of your life, two minutes of their life, it can change your whole outlook," Gleason said, talking about the importance of face-to-face communication.

The importance of that personal connection was emphasized by Milan as well. "One of the greatest things we can do is just have conversations. You never know when you're going to be able to plant seeds. I'm big on that," said Milan, a 5th-semester sociology major.

Some of the problems and difficulties inherent in activism were discussed too, with nuance and eloquence.

Ashley Saab, a 7th-semester molecular and cellular biology major, brought up a common fear: that it's too late to really get involved.

"I'm graduating in four weeks. And in the back of my mind, I've always wanted to help in some way. Now, I sit here, regretting that I didn't do anything, and then I realize that I can just start now. I can just start tomorrow. I don't have to wait to graduate," Saab said.

Bureaucracy and bundles of red tape are another common issue, as brought up by Anna Aluko, a UNESCO student ambassador for human rights. She mentioned the thick paperwork surrounding the dining program at UConn and the difficulties involved in trying to donate food that would otherwise be thrown away.

"Why should I have to go through such cutthroat paperwork to do what is right?" she asked.

It's easy, again, to dismiss this kind of stuff - to say that someone else will take care of it, and that we don't really need to bother. After all, how does it harm us if someone in Africa is starving? But everything comes around, and not in some spiritual karma-riffic way.

"It's just a law of physics," said one guest. "We can't keep consuming 40 percent of the world's resources forever."

This is something that needs to change, and change will come about only through awareness. There are groups of people like UConn's Idealists United working to spread that awareness, and these groups are growing every day. Get out there and find them, because it's easy to do, and next time, you can be involved in something big.

Rate Of Child Poverty Rises In Hartford

from The Hartford Courant

By ANN MARIE SOMMA

Hartford no longer holds the dubious distinction of having the second-highest child poverty rate among the nation's larger cities, but the number of poor children in the city hasn't decreased, recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

Hartford's ranking dropped from second to sixth in the nation, but the number of poor children increased to 43.4 percent in 2006, from 41.3 percent in 2000, according to the U.S. Census.

Bridgeport and Stamford and Waterbury all saw increases in child poverty rates in the past six years. New Haven was the only city that saw a decrease in child poverty.

Waterbury now ranks among the nation's top 50 cities with the greatest percentage of children living in poverty.

Child advocates in the state said Hartford's ranking improved because Springfield, Mass.; Detroit and Jackson, Tenn., increased their rates of child poverty faster.

"Hartford didn't do better. It's just that other states had gotten worse," said Shelley Geballe, president of Connecticut Voices for Children, an advocacy group for children and families.

Waterbury's child poverty rate increased to 33.5 percent in 2006 from 23.9 percent in 2000. Bridgeport's rate rose to 29.5 percent, from 25.1 percent. Stamford rose to 9.2 percent, from 8.9 percent.

New Haven's poverty rate decreased - 27.6 percent in 2006, down from 32.6 percent in 2000.

Geballe said the increase in child poverty rates in the cities is due to the fact that the state's low-wage workers have not shared in the state's economic growth.

Earlier this month, the group issued its 2007 State of Working Connecticut Report. The group found that, since 2001, the state's low-wage workers - those earning about $8 to $10 an hour - had the largest real wage decrease in the nation.

Last year, nearly 17 percent of the state's workers earned $9.91 an hour or less. Working full time, year-round for that amount would leave a family of four at the federal poverty level - about $20,615 a year for a family of four in 2006, the group's report states.

"There is a real wage erosion, strongly felt by people at the very bottom. We don't have jobs that support families, " Geballe said.

Connecticut Voices is urging state lawmakers to implement a state earned-income tax credit, increase job training for low-wage families and invest in high education to combat child poverty.

The census bureau's data on poverty rates were collected by the American Community Survey, a large-scale sampling of households distinct from the census population.

Contact Ann Marie Somma at asomma@courant.com.

Photographer gets message out by documenting living conditions in India and Africa

from The News Times Live

By Susan Tuz
THE NEWS-TIMES

DANBURY -- When Georgette DeWan was a little girl she knew someday she would travel to India and Africa to see firsthand the poverty and devastation there.

What DeWan didn't know at that time was how she would help the people she met in those countries or when she would go.

Today, DeWan, 43, of Danbury, has found a vocation that allows her to spread the message that there are people in Third World countries who need the help of the wealthier countries of the world. She is using her photography to get that message out.

"I was watching Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute of Columbia University, on the Charlie Rose show one night. He was talking about his book, 'The End of Poverty,'" DeWan said. "That interview changed my life."

DeWan, an executive assistant to private investment bankers at the time, began to search for a way to get the message out that Sachs was spreading.

Through a friend, she contacted Thomas Gallagher, then special assistant for administrative affairs for the Mother Teresa Center in Riverside, Conn., and arranged to go to Calcutta and work with the poor.

"I learned I could go to India and work with severely handicapped children," DeWan said. She took her camera and left for Calcutta at the end of February last year. She spent three weeks there, traveling into the tea fields of Darjeeling and the mountain villages.

What she saw and documented "changed my life," she said.

DeWan saw young children breaking stones in quarries to repair roads and 60-year-old women carrying heavy baskets of stones on their backs. There were other women working in the tea estates doing backbreaking physical labor, then going home to live in shacks. She said her heart was "wrenched."

"I thought, this is the place I'm meant to go to, this and other places in the world where wrenching poverty exists," DeWan said. "I lived on bananas, eggs and toast while there. I washed my eyes out with bottled water to avoid getting infections."

DeWan went to India with seven pairs of pants and seven tops. She had some spending money. She gave it all away while there, coming home with just the clothes on her back and her camera equipment.

"There's a population that's so poor it's horrific," she said. "In some ways, I felt guilty coming back home to all we have here in this country."

DeWan returned to Connecticut and began going to different venues where she could show the photographs she took in India and tell of the poverty she saw. Her cousin painted 10 paintings from the images DeWan brought back from India and they have been included in a gallery show in Braselton, Ga. DeWan's images of India are also displayed on the NYC Emerald Society Web site. Her hope is that it will move people to take action.

She talks of Sachs' and rock star Bono's involvement in the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of bringing an end to poverty in the world by 2015.

"I would love to play a small part in this by educating people to the horrors of poverty in countries like India," DeWan said.

DeWan, the photographer for St. Anthony's Maronite Rite Catholic Church in Danbury, is a temporary worker at the VNA Hospice in Stamford. She feels a deep need to help others in all phases of her life. She is looking for a way to go to Africa and document poverty conditions there.

"I would like nothing better than to just give back through my photography," DeWan said. "I want to find permanent work with an organization that gives back on a humanitarian level."

Gallagher, who helped form the Mother Teresa Center in Riverside, one of four such centers around the world, left his position there last spring. But not before he helped DeWan go to India.

"I gave Georgette an overview of what to expect and how to embrace what Calcutta is," Gallagher said. "I had been there in 2004 and 2005."

Gallagher said DeWan "authentically focuses on the plight of the poor. She brings a joy to them and gets joy from them. She loves the poor and wants to help the poor."

Gallagher noted that with her talent in photography, DeWan is already an advocate for the poor.

"For those of us who can't regularly get to impoverished communities, Georgette's photography is a link," Gallagher said. "She makes these people real and immediate for all who see her photographs."

On Job For Working Poor

from The Hartford Courant

Advocates Strive Again For Earned Income Tax Credit In State

By JANICE PODSADA, Courant Staff Writer

For years, Christine Leatherwood, a single mother of three children ages 14, 10 and 4, took the bus from her home in Hartford to work. The employment agency she worked for tried to place her in jobs downtown, but that wasn't always possible.

Some days, Leatherwood, 34, had to ride two or three buses to get to work.

Three years ago, Leatherwood, who was earning $23,000 a year, learned she qualified for the federal earned income tax credit.

With the $3,500 she received that year thanks to the credit, she bought a 7-year-old Honda Accord for $3,200.

The car eased her commute and her anxiety, making the prospect of a family emergency less worrisome. Now, Leatherwood, a working mother since she was 21, is saving her earned income tax credit refunds to buy a home.

Success stories such as Leatherwood's have inspired supporters of a state earned income tax credit to try again.

A coalition of backers, including the Connecticut Association for Human Services and the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, gathered at the Capitol Thursday to announce their support for a state earned income tax credit, which would piggyback on the federal earned income tax credit.

The movement to establish a state tax credit isn't new.

For years, legislators, including state Sen. Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and others have been pushing for it. This year, supporters say, they're optimistic about passage. This year, like last, the state has a budget surplus.

The federal tax credit lifts more children out of poverty than any other federal program and provides greater purchasing power for low-wage earners, said James Horan, executive director of the Connecticut Association for Human Services.

In 2003, the federal tax credit program helped lift 4.4 million people out of poverty, including 2.4 million children. "Families use it to pay bills, rent, utilities and food," Horan said. "They're not using it to buy a year's worth of Cablevision."

Under the proposal, Leatherwood and thousands of other Connecticut families would receive a state refund equal to 20 percent of their federal earned income tax credit.

If a state tax credit had been in place three years ago, for example, Leatherwood would have received a state refund check for about $700, in addition to the $3,500 federal refund credit she received.

For Leatherwood, the additional money represents a safety net.

"It means that when an emergency arises, I don't have to use the weekly paycheck," she said.

In 2004, the federal tax credit returned $268 million to 165,000 low-wage-earning Connecticut families.

Under the federal program, enacted in 1975, families with two or more children with earnings up to $38,348 are eligible for a tax credit on a sliding scale, up to $4,536.

Families with no children or one child are also eligible, depending on their income.

In Connecticut, the average federal tax credit refund is $1,610. Under the proposed state tax credit, families receiving that amount would receive an additional $322 state refund (20 percent of $1,610), with the maximum state credit capped at $900, Horan said.

A state tax credit would refund about $51 million annually to Connecticut families eligible for the federal tax credit. All of the New England states, except Connecticut and New Hampshire, which does not have a state income tax, have a state tax credit. And nationwide, 20 states and Washington D.C., have adopted it.

Opponents, however, question how families will spend the money and its value. Among their questions: Why should the state income tax system refund money to people who don't pay taxes? If you qualify for the federal tax credit, you're unlikely to pay Connecticut's state income tax, Horan said.

Its supporters, on the other hand, say low-wage-earning families do, indeed, pay state taxes.

"While most low-income people don't pay state taxes, they do pay a disproportionate portion of their income for state sales tax, property and excise taxes," said Jodonna Powell, a territory manager for the Internal Revenue Service department that promotes the tax credit.

Opponents also question how the state would fund the program.

"With a surplus, that money would come out of the budget - though in future years, it might come out of the state's general fund," Horan said. "That's not a budget breaker for a state with a $14 billion budget."

Others are concerned that funding a state tax credit would violate the state's budget cap. According to the state Office of Fiscal Analysis, the tax credit is a credit; as such, it is considered a tax expenditure and not a spending appropriation.

Supporters of the proposal said they're also trying to reach the 15 to 20 percent of Connecticut families who are eligible for the federal credit, but have not claimed it when they file their tax return.

Some families don't realize they're eligible; others fear that in claiming the credit, they'll lose food stamps or other benefits, which is not true, Powell said.

To help them find out whether they are eligible for the federal credit, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which is overseen by the IRS, is offering tax preparation assistance at 80 sites in Connecticut. The service is free to taxpayers earning $39,000 or less a year.

Contact Janice Podsada at jpodsada@courant.com.

Bakery event helps fight world poverty

from The Connecticut Post

MEG BARONE, Correspondent

Socially conscious owners of a bakery are employing an army of gingerbread men and the public to combat poverty worldwide.

Adults and children are invited to decorate gingerbread cookies at the Rogue Baking Co. during its Gingerbread for Bread event Saturday.

Decorators are asked to pay $2 for each cookie they decorate with royal icing and an assortment of candies donated by Rexies Sweets in Norwalk. Royal icing is a special icing used in the making of gingerbread houses and other fancy culinary fabrications. It serves as the glue.

Proceeds from the gingerbread cookie sale will go to CARE, a humanitarian organization that fights poverty throughout the world, especially in war-torn nations and places damaged by natural disasters.

"They view women as the center of the community and teach them business skills to help them help themselves," said Rion Haber, owner of the Rogue Baking Co.

"The world has become such a small place it's impossible to ignore people starving in Africa," said Haber, who also raises money for National Public Radio selling his own coffee blend called Radio Roast, one of several in Rogue's line of coffees.

Haber's business partner and pastry chef, Amie Soltis, did a trial run on the gingerbread cookies Thursday.

"I've never made gingerbread ornaments, just houses," said Soltis, who anticipates it will take 200 pounds of flour, almost 100 pounds of sugar and close to 100 pounds of corn syrup and butter to make enough dough for 5,000 gingerbread men.

While the cookies are edible, they're not intended for that purpose, Soltis said. "It's basically an industrial strength cookie. You can pretty much drop them on the floor and they won't break," she said.

Best to nibble instead on the other treats the Rogue Baking Co. bakes up in its new Stonybrook Road headquarters, including chipotle chocolate cake, flourless chocolate cabernet cake and bacon-apple-cheddar scones.

"We do products no one else makes. We wanted to recreate the traditional American bakery," Haber said.

The gingerbread men cookies will have ribbons attached, allowing them to be displayed on Christmas trees. Soltis warns they should only be used for this holiday season.

Gingerbread for Bread will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Rogue Baking Co., 35 Stonybrook Road. For details, call 292-3973 or visit www.roguebakingcompany.com.

Expert Espouses Marriage To Reduce Poverty

from The Hartford Couriant

By COLIN POITRAS, Courant Staff Writer

Is promoting marriage a key to lifting Connecticut's low-income children out of poverty?

A national expert on welfare reform believes it is.

Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, and a special adviser to President Bush on welfare policy, pushed marriage - including same-sex marriage - as a tool for reducing poverty during an appearance this week in Hartford.

Haskins, a Republican and former staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee who helped write the country's 1996 welfare reform legislation, said his research shows marriage as the second most influential factor in reducing poverty rates, according to a computer simulation he created based on census data for 2001.

The single most effective factor was an obvious one, full-time work. But marriage ranked second, Haskins said, more effective, in fact, than increasing education, reducing family size and doubling cash payouts for welfare recipients.

Haskins was a guest speaker at the Connecticut Association for Human Services' annual release of its Kids Count report Monday at the Legislative Office Building. This year's report focused on helping children of low-income working families. The association recommended creating a state earned income tax credit, expanding worker training and education and restoring budget cuts to state-funded child care as ways to address the issue.

The report mentioned nothing about the advantages of promoting marriage, which has become a hot-button issue among some conservative Republicans in Congress.

"If you are concerned about children, then children will have a better chance in a married-couple family," Haskins said. "There are advantages to children living in a married-couple family," Haskins said. "And government cannot make up that difference."

Haskins told his audience that the "bully pulpit" - politicians, policy-makers and other opinion-formers must stress the case that marriage is one of the surest means of furthering the interests of poor children. He did not press for any specific governmental policies.

Notably, Haskins said that his theory on the benefits of marriage includes gay couples, an admitted break from the position held by many conservative Republicans. Creating jobs, providing support for low-income parents entering the workforce and expanding quality preschool programs are also crucial in helping improve the lives of impoverished families and children over the long term, Haskins said.

The human services association had invited Haskins to spark a dialogue about addressing poverty in Connecticut, a major social issue here yet one that often gets overlooked because of the state's stature and wealth.

In 2006, 215,770 children - one in four - in Connecticut live in low-income families, defined as those families with income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level or $40,000 for a family of four, according to the association for human services report.

And while the Constitution State continues to enjoy its stature as one of the wealthiest states in the country, it has the third largest income gap in the nation. Over half of urban Connecticut children live in low-income families, according to the Kids Count report. Only 15 percent of children in Connecticut suburbs live in low-income families, the report said.

Hartford continues to have the second-highest child poverty level for a city its size in the country - 41 percent, second only to Brownsville, Texas.

Jodie Levin-Epstein, deputy director and senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy, conceded that Haskins' position on marriage has some merit. Research has shown that children reap significant benefits when they are in stable, supportive married couple households, she said.

But Levin-Epstein, who was also an invited speaker Monday, said that some of that benefit is a direct result of having two working parents and two incomes in the average family.

Levin-Epstein said putting money into the hands of low-income parents through an earned income tax credit also helps. She said existing research in the United Kingdom, where officials are trying to eradicate poverty by 2020, shows that low-income families do not use the additional money for alcohol or tobacco as some might believe, but for work-related costs such as improving their transportation, buying a phone or getting better food for their kids.

Levin-Epstein, a Democrat, said her main concern about advocating marriage is when it becomes a matter of government policy. She said there are also studies that show children of couples who divorce are sometimes worse off than those in single-parent households because of the resulting emotional turmoil and other issues. Stability and support in a two parent home is key, she said.

Haskins, who also serves as co-director of the Center on Children and Families at Brookings and is a senior consultant to the prominent Annie E. Case Foundation helping disadvantaged children in Baltimore, countered that government is already in the marriage business. He listed state regulations regarding marriage licenses and the federal tax code for married families as two instances where government directly intervenes.

Connecticut's requirements for issuing a marriage license - that there must be a man and a woman - are being challenged in a lawsuit now before the state Supreme Court. The suit, filed by eight same-sex couples, says the state law authorizing civil unions did not go far enough and that gay marriages should not be denied.

Levin-Epstein said that Connecticut, with its Republican governor and Democratic legislature and with its commitment to reduce poverty by half by 2014, stands to be a national model for other states to follow.

The gap between Connecticut's most wealthy and most needy is growing, she said. Research shows that the greatest competition for new jobs in Connecticut through 2012 will be for either highly paid, highly skilled jobs or low paid, low-skilled jobs.

Unless currently low-paid workers get training, education and support for advancement, the despair and disparity that now exists will only grow at taxpayer expense.

"Hope fosters creativity and risk and it is that creativity that brings advancement," Levin-Epstein said. "With increased disparity, we increase despair and with increased despair it is hard to move forward as a community."

Contact Colin Poitras at cpoitras@courant.com.

The full Kids Count report can be found at www.cahs.org.