Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.  And every Friday, look for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

• In an op-ed appearing in the New York Times, William Saletan argues for a practical, moral approach to the family planning debate.

• In an article on the Earned Income Tax Credit, the St. Louis Post Dispatch interviews several single mothers who say that their benefit goes to basic bills, debt, and childcare.

• The Miami Herald profiles a Girl Scouts program that offers scouts from low-income families activities encouraging healthy lifestyles.

• In a report on a controversial community center closing, the Kansas City Star reports on a neighborhood where single mothers account for 55 percent of residents.

• In an op-ed in the Deming Headlight, Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman argues that impoverished parents need help raising children and mentions several programs that provide assistance to low-income mothers.

• The Associated Press highlights a think tank report urging more public funds for family planning, which the report said dramatically lowers abortion rates among low-income women.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Admittedly, these are not the best of times.  But that doesn’t mean that we can’t add a bit of levity and see our circumstances through an artistic or humorous perspective every once in a while.

I recently had that opportunity when I went to see Avenue Q at the Warner Theater. 

Not familiar with the musical?  Think Sesame Street, only the Muppets have grown up and become angsty 20 and 30-somethings and are teaching each other the lessons of growing up in the real world, instead of about looking both ways before crossing the street and when to make the Letter E silent.

But there are some lessons that transcend from Sesame Street to Avenue Q.  The art of friendship, for instance, and the need for resilience amid challenging circumstances, and the importance of giving and helping others in need.

I was struck by a particular song that I’ve been listening to for years on my iPod, which sounded a bit different when I saw it acted out on stage because it struck a chord, I thought, with what we’re all facing now: the seeming shrinking pool of resources amid an increasing need for help mixed with a climate of uncertainty, and our natural tendency as a result to hold on to what we have more and more tightly.

In the musical, two characters act out this dilemma perfectly, one a recently unemployed, homeless character, Nicky, begs for a quarter and some assistance from the better off Princeton.  Yes, Princeton.

Anyway, the "ask," as we say in development and fundraising, requires a lot of negotiation and persuasion, but eventually, when Princeton does come around, he learns that giving makes him feel far better than he had anticipated. 

And then finds he likes it so much that he’s inspired to turn the tables and fundraise for another cause…from Nicky.

Here’s a snippet of the song:

Nicky:
Give me a quarter! Here in my hat! Come on, Princeton! It’s as easy as that!…

Princeton:
I don’t have any change.

Nicky:
Hmmm….okay. Give me a dollar.

Princeton:
That’s not what I meant.

Nicky:
Give me a five.

Princeton:
Are you kidding?…

Nicky:
The more you give. The more you get. That’s being alive!…

Princeton:
All right, all right, here you go.

Nicky:
Ahh, thanks!

Princeton:
Take care. Whoa!…I feel generous! I feel compassionate!…I feel like a new person – a good person!  Helping other people out makes you feel fantastic!…All this time I’ve been running around thinking about me, me, me – and where has it gotten me! I’m gonna do something for someone else!…Give me your money!

Nicky:
What?…I need it to eat!

Princeton:
Come on, Nicky!…It’ll make you feel great!

Nicky:
So would a burger!…I’d like to, but I can’t…I’d like to, but I need it! I’d like to, but I’m homeless! I can’t! I need it! I’m homeless! Okay, here you go.

Princeton:
Thank you!

Nicky:
Suddenly, I am feeling closer to God. It’s time to stop begging. It’s time to start giving! What can I give to Rod?

Both:
When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself! When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself!…

All:
So give us your money!  Give us your money!  Give us your money! When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself!  When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself! Every time you do good deeds, you’re also serving your own needs. When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself! When you give to a worthy cause, you’ll feel as jolly as Santa Clause. When you help others, you can’t help helping yourself!

So much of this resonated with things I’ve heard at The Women’s Foundation or observed during this tough time: the potential for giving or of being the beneficiary of a gift to inspire greater giving back to the community; the fact that supporting our community is actually a means of improving our own lives; and, the idea that no matter who we are, we all have something to give.

A slightly more light-hearted look at where we are and what we do.  Because sometimes there is wisdom in finding humor in tough topics.

And who better to lend some perspective than a 20-something Muppet or two?

Lisa Kays is the director of communications at The Women’s Foundation. 

I have a few story ideas to pitch to the Washington Post, which has devoted scarce front-page inches in the last week to articles about how the recession is affecting the dating lives of men in their 20s and 30s who are active in the local bar scene and extreme text messaging among teenagers.

I think The Post needs help in understanding the true dimensions of what is happening in our region, particularly how the economy is affecting women and families who never had the resources to afford $15 specialty drinks and expensive cell phone plans.

Here is what keeps me up at night:

Our Grantee Partners are experiencing significant increases in demand for social and health services.
One of our Northern Virginia Grantee Partners reports that nonprofits there are seeing a 30 percent increase in requests for housing assistance and a 50 percent increase in requests for health assistance.  Of the overall increase in demand, about 25 percent of it is from people who have never asked for help before.

Another one of our Northern Virginia Grantee Partners notes that participants in its shelter program are needing to stay longer (up to two to four months longer) because of reductions in other local programs providing for next-step housing and basic needs.

Our Grantee Partners are facing increasing challenges in placing their graduates in good jobs.
One of our District of Columbia Grantee Partners preparing women for jobs in medical and office administration and building maintenance reports that graduates have lower job placement rates this year because, as a result of the economy, they are competing with higher-skilled individuals for the same entry-level positions.

Our Grantee Partners involved in preparing women for jobs in construction report that fewer jobs are available for their graduates because of layoffs and attrition. One program has told us that it is paying increasing attention to helping participants develop a “Plan B” for alternative employment until hiring picks up again.

Many of our Grantee Partners face serious challenges to raising the funds they need to provide their current levels of services – let alone expand them to meet growing need.
State and local government budget shortfalls are part of the problem. Fairfax County, for example, has a $650 million deficit this year.

Local (and national) foundations supporting these nonprofits have seen their endowments decline 30-50 percent.  Because many base their giving decisions on three-year-rolling averages, 2009 grant-making is down, but 2010 (and now also probably 2011) will be even worse because more bad years will be included in the averaging.

Local foundations, including The Women’s Foundation, have begun doing staff lay-offs. This is to do everything they can to maintain or increase their current level of grantmaking in a difficult environment.  But it may be a sign of more to come, if the economy does not turn around.

The unanswered question of what will happen to Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac’s charitable giving is an additional threat in our community.

There are many, many more stories – and many, many women, children and families who are part of these stories.

Washington Post: If you need any help learning more about these issues so you can cover them, please call The Women’s Foundation. We know these issues all too well and would love to connect you to them to increase their visibility in our community.

Gwen Rubinstein is a program officer at The Women’s Foundation.

There is nothing funny about this recession; however, I can’t help but find a bit of irony in what an understatement my words were about the economy back in June, when I was talking to the Washington Business Journal about wanting to pull the covers over our heads because of high gas prices and foreclosures.

Would that those were our worries today.

We didn’t know then that the entire financial industry was about to collapse with foreclosures being the first real human face of the crisis. Or that there would be record setting unemployment throughout the country with little end in sight.

But today, we know. We’ve emerged from under the covers to find that our worries now require action—often in the form of tough choices, including staff cutbacks.

As a leader, it is never easy to lay off staff, but as I had to make that difficult decision two weeks ago, it was particularly difficult given that I know that The Women’s Foundation is well-positioned and relatively stable compared to many other nonprofits.

Still, we are not immune from the impact of this down economy. And if we are not, then I know that our sector as a whole is in a very troubling spot.

I was reminded by Diana Aviv’s Washington Post op-ed, “Where Stimulus Funds Can Make a Difference,” that I am not alone in my concern.

“Buried in last month’s staggering unemployment numbers,” she wrote, “are the thousands of nonprofit workers now without jobs. These losses do more than damage the lives of the employees—they also undermine services that the unemployed and other vulnerable groups desperately need in these troubled times.”

And this sector is not an insignificant one. As Aviv says, nonprofits employ 13 million people—more than the finance, insurance and real estate sectors combined.

As Isabel V. Sawhill at Brookings writes, “But there is one big sector that got left off the [stimulus] list: human infrastructure—in the form of investments in the nonprofit sector…By including this sector we can take advantage of a huge network of institutions that work hard every day to improve the welfare of communities and individuals, that will spend the money quickly, that have the capacity to spread the dollars widely, and that in the absence of such help will need to shrink and thus become another drag on the economy.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out another striking trend in this sobering reality, which is that layoffs affecting the nonprofit sector will not only be a drain on the economy generally, but will disproportionately impact women, who make up the majority of employees of the nonprofit sector—70 percent in fact.

It begs the question, that we asked on this blog more than a year ago, of if the nonprofit sector isn’t seen as bailout material because it employs a majority of women and that inherently, we as a society continue to devalue "women’s work"—despite the reality of its magnitude and impact as outlined by Aviv and Sawhill.

It’s also important to note that many of the services provided by nonprofits serve the needs of women and their children—from domestic violence shelters to job training programs that move families out of poverty to advocacy groups that help ensure pay equity.

And through our work, we know that that investments these organizations make in women and girls pay high dividends for our communities and country as a whole. For instance, in our work, over three years, investments of $5 million in our region’s low-income women, have yielded a return of almost $20 million in increased assets and income for them.

Pretty much exactly what you want at a time when you’re trying to spur economic spending and growth.

It seems unfortunate then that as the country takes on talk of bailouts and finalizes the new stimulus package, that nonprofits haven’t gotten as much attention as the auto industry or the finance sector.

As my colleague, Gwen Rubinstein, noted earlier this month, the stimulus is in many ways a potential win for women.

But neglecting the nonprofit sector leaves vulnerable one that not only employs a significant number of women, but serves our families, communities and country as a whole at a time when the social and financial safety net is more important than ever.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.  And every Friday, look for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty.

Here’s this week’s news:

• In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Kay Hymowitz argues that fathers are indispensable and that because children of single mothers more frequently grow up in poverty and face other problems, mothers who choose to raise kids alone are adopting an “untenable” position.

• Columnist Jim Wooten, in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, proposes that cases like the California octuplets demonstrate that there should be set limits for the number of children women can bear and for which they can expect to receive public assistance.

• A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article highlighting a high mortality rate for black infants in Wisconsin cites teen pregnancy, poverty, and lack of prenatal care as concerns.

• Writing an op-ed in response to Bristol Palin’s recent interview, Tina Griego, columnist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News, argues that opportunity and education are needed to avoid teen pregnancy.

• Volunteers in Dunlap, Tennessee, are raising funds to establish a prenatal care center to offer alternatives to abortion, as reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

• The Bradenton Herald writes that child care advocates in Florida are advocating an increase in cigarette taxes to avoid cutbacks to Healthy Start, a program supporting at-risk pregnant women and their children.

• According to the Associated Press, women in New Mexico suffer from a high rate of postpartum depression.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Pat Summit reached 1,000 wins last week – the first coach, male or female, in history to reach this milestone.

She has coached 12 Olympians and 18 All-Americans and has a 100 percent graduation rate of student athletes – an amazing summary of success.

What would comparative success look like in the business and nonprofit sectors?

There doesn’t seem to be numerical data that demonstrates such a level of excellence so succinctly.  Perhaps it would be stock performance or scale of outcome of work in changing lives or industry benchmark awards.

For the non-basketball or sports fans who did not get a chance to hear about Pat Summit’s remarkable achievement, feel free to review her bio for its impressive storyline. 

What I enjoy talking about as a former player, coach, and social change activist is her leadership style.  I had the opportunity to be in a meeting with Pat Summit in the mid 1990’s when we were working on the then formation of women’s professional basketball leagues.  There was much conversation in the room around the league format, potential coaches and general managers, and sponsors.

Pat was very clear that the image of the league leadership should reflect success, strength and confidence from day one.

We can learn a lot from Pat Summit’s leadership style.  While her intense and formidable presence on the sideline may deter some from modeling this type of behavior, know that her heart and mind is ultimately focused on her players: How can I make them better?  What resources or training do they need to be stronger, smarter or quicker?  What combination of people and strategies are needed right now for success in this situation?

Imagine if every leader had this type of focus every day in their work. 

Today, I bring these messages to the nonprofit clients and philanthropists I get to work with at Imagine Philanthropy.  Feel free to read these, share with your work teammates and ask one another the questions around your work together.

1. Play to people’s strengths.  Take the time to listen, observe and provide feedback on your teammate’s efforts.  Think about bringing out the potential in every person.  Provide a vision of the highest standards and success with measurable objectives and hold everyone accountable to that level.  Related question: What does winning look like?

2. Focus on fundamentals.  With all of the distraction in the work environment, it is more important than ever to bring people back in line with their job priorities. The more time we focus on a priority measurable objective, the better results we produce.  Clearly, people understand that practice produces results.  Related question: What is the quality of your practice?

3. Detail equals confidence.  Being prepared allows you to demonstrate confidence and understanding of a situation.  When you have given sequential attention to detail to a project – going through a series of steps to insure that every angle was explored and completed– your project will have a higher chance of success.  When you present your work, 70 percent of what people hear is the tone of your voice.  If you have done your homework, calm confidence will be revealed in your voice.  Related question: What is the tone of your leadership?

Tuti Scott is a point guard who still plays in a weekly basketball game to remind herself of the leadership skills learned from sport.  Her company, Imagine Philanthropy, helps strengthen the brand and capacity of organizations and provides leadership coaching for nonprofit executives and philanthropists.

A new study, "Predicting Poverty in the Commonwealth,” released by The Commonwealth Institute and Voices for Virginia’s Children forecasts that children will be hardest hit by the current economic recession and rising unemployment rates.

As unemployment worsens in the state, there will be a significant increase in the number of children living in poverty.  Unemployment could push an additional 122,000 to 218,000 Virginians into poverty this year, with children accounting for between 44,000 and 73,000 of this increase. 

This would represent up to a 30 percent increase in the child poverty rate in the state. The poverty threshold for a family of four in Virginia is a yearly income of just over $21,000.

Though the effects of the current economic downturn and rising poverty will be felt more deeply in regions already troubled by chronically high unemployment and poverty, additional families pushed into poverty will further strain local economies in our current safety net system across the state.

Northern Virginia hasn’t experienced the high unemployment rates that other regions have.  January 2009 unemployment in the region is a relatively low 3.9 percent. 

However, of the 250,000 children already living in poverty statewide, nearly 28,000 (or 13 percent) of them live in Northern Virginia.  As unemployment rates rise, another 6,000 to 9,000 children in the region will join their ranks. (Northern Virginia is composed of Alexandria City and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties).

Living in poverty exposes children to multiple risks to healthy adjustment. 

Evidence indicates that children pushed into poverty by a recession are likely to remain poor for at least several years after the recovery starts.  The cumulative impact across time often has harmful impacts on child development, reducing the prospect the child will reach full potential and causing higher rates of many social, behavioral, educational and occupational problems.

Studies have shown that the long-term impacts of child poverty show up most strikingly in three areas: lower educational attainment, occupational status and earnings; poorer health status; and, higher rates of criminal behavior.

In addition to the human toll exacted by childhood poverty, the economic toll is substantial: diminished human capital and higher rates of costly social problems limit economic growth and future prosperity.

The report notes that increases in food stamp caseloads, food bank demands, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Medicaid enrollment are early indicators of economic vulnerability.

During 2008, the first year of the recession, food stamp caseloads in Virginia increased sharply.  In Northern Virginia, caseloads rose by 12 percent over the previous year.

This is important to note because food stamps are a reliable early indicator of increasing economic distress and poverty. The impact on Virginia’s children is substantial, as 57 percent of Virginia households receiving food stamps include children.

During the same period, TANF caseloads in Virginia increased by 8 percent.  The increase in Northern Virginia was 5 percent. 

Based on this early rise in caseloads, and on the percentage increase in TANF cases during the relatively mild 2001 recession (10 percent), we can expect TANF cases in this recession to increase by more than 10 percent, and for that increase to persist for several years beyond the start of the recovery.

Enrollment in Medicaid and Virginia’s children’s health program, Family Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS), has increased by 4.8 percent from December 2007 to December 2008.

Kathy May is director of Voices for Virginia’s Children Nothern Virginia office.  Voices for Virginia’s Children is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Young Sisters tells the stories of several young ladies from different backgrounds through their own words.  Author Anna Leung grew up in a traditional Chinese household.  She was very active as a child piano and karate lessons, Chinese school, church, and community service.  She soon found a natural love in the field of photography.  Working in the field of photography she repeatedly saw how women were being portrayed in the media as sexual objects and didn’t agree. 

This inspired her to put together the book Young Sisters to express the true feelings of real young women.

I was introduced to this book when Anna met my colleague, Lisa, at an event for Fair Fund about sex trafficking and told her about the book.  Lisa asked me for my thoughts on the book from the perspective of a young woman, and then I met with her and Anna to talk about her hopes for how the book could help young women in the D.C. area.

The contents of the book are very informative and interesting.  It includes several stories speaking of young females overcoming eating disorders, having positive influences from family members, dealing with misleading images of women in the media, relationships, losing love ones, being different, and following your dreams.

The book can be very helpful to other young ladies going through the same situations to see how others deal with them in their own way.

Tia Felton is a senior at McKinley Tech High School and an intern at The Women’s Foundation through Urban Alliance. When she graduates from high school this year, she will go to college to study political science and hopes to eventually to become a lawyer.

To learn more about the Urban Alliance internship program, click here.

President Obama signed the economic stimulus package into law yesterday afternoon.  Many people in the nation’s capital and state capitals around the country will be combing through it in the days and weeks ahead to understand the scope and breadth of what it does – and doesn’t – do.

At The Women’s Foundation, we wondered: What does this historic legislation do to help women and girls in our region preserve and even increase their economic security?

Nationally, according to the White House, the bill will create or save about 3.5 million jobs in the next year.  The President’s economic advisors estimated (before he was inaugurated) that that about half of those jobs would go to women.

More locally, also according to the White House, the bill will create or save at least 12,000 jobs in the District of Columbia, 16,000 jobs in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties (Maryland), and 8,300 in Arlington and Fairfax Counties and the City of Alexandria (Northern Virginia). 

If half of these jobs are held or filled by women, that means about 18,000 jobs saved or created for women in our region.

A quick look at some of the investments in economic security-related programs in the bill also gives us much to be hopeful about, including:

Investments in skills training. The new law adds nearly $3 billion to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which supports job training and other services, which, in our region, go primarily to women. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates that $9.7 million of the funds will flow to the District of Columbia, $29 million to Maryland, and $32 million to Virginia.

Of the $3 billion, $500 million is for the WIA adult program, and the law requires states to give recipients of public assistance and other low-income individuals priority access to training. Many of those helped by this provision especially are likely to be women, particularly single women with children.

Increases for child care assistance.  The new law adds $2 billion to the Child Care and Development Block Grant.  The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) estimates that the District of Columbia will receive nearly $2.7 million of these funds, Maryland will receive $24 million, and Virginia will receive $37.9 million.

Improvements in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program.  Changes in the UI program are likely to increase significantly the number of women workers (as well as part-time and low-wage workers) eligible for benefits.  The law also includes a $25 per week increase in UI benefits, which the National Employment Law Project (NELP) estimates will help more than 35,000 people in the District, 241,000 in Maryland and 247,000 in Virginia.

Expansion of programs to help trade-affected workers.  The stimulus expands eligibility for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program to service sector and public sector workers who lose their jobs as a result of trade and doubles the program’s funding for training. This could significantly increase the number of women who receive income support, training and other benefits through the program.

Funding for training and other services for women in highway construction.  The law includes $20 million for training and related services to help women and minorities pursue careers in highway construction (through the US Department of Transportation).

Increase in funding for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (formerly Food Stamps).  The law adds $20 billion to increase benefits through 2013. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that this will help about 99,000 in the District, 412,000 in Maryland, and 594,000 in Virginia.

Taken together, these investments in the stimulus package are a sign of hope. Not only will they channel much-needed dollars into our region, but also they are an acknowledgement that our nation’s leaders recognize what we have known all along: Investments in women and girls are the best, fastest, surest way to ensure the economic stability of a family, a community and a nation.

Gwen Rubinstein is a program officer at The Women’s Foundation.

Picture this:  A 14-year-old girl with a camera and a burning desire to touch the lives of others.  She conducts five years of interviews and a journey of discovery into the hearts and minds of teenage girls from all over the globe. 

The result: Young Sisters, a collection of handwritten testimonies, photographs, and transcripts of recorded interviews of young women.

That young woman was me.  And today I’ve published these stories in book form and had them performed on stage at Talent Unlimited High School in New York City.

Young Sisters strips away the mass media facade that promotes looks, materialism and sexual promiscuity as all that young women are, and instead presents real life.

This one-of-a-kind documentary book takes a genuine look at teenage girls’ thoughts, trials, and accomplishments.  It is both a celebration of budding womanhood and a lament of the loss of innocence. 

Readers connect with these girls as they share their testimonies and relive the greatest struggles of their lives—in their own words and their own handwriting.

The media overwhelms our senses with images of sex and beauty that devours our culture.  Ultimately, the victims are females.

The social pressure to match impossible standards of physical beauty often destroys their ability to look at themselves realistically and appreciate their attractive features and inner beauty. 

I wanted to help young women recognize this influence and to celebrate being themselves. The dynamic of Young Sisters therefore entertains, inspires, and empowers young adult audiences with this timely and explosive subject.

Anna Leung is the author of Young Sisters.  Her goal for the book is to uplift at least 200,000 teenage girls by 2010 and donate a portion of the proceeds from the book to programs that elevate young women’s lives.

For more information on how to preview or purchase Young Sisters, visit www.AnnaLeung.org/store.  Or, to be part of Young Sister’s vision of uplifting 200,000 teenage girls, host a Young Sisters’ performance or gallery show.  For more information or to invite Anna Leung to speak at your school, event, workshop or conference, email AnnaLeung1@gmail.com.