As I listened to the speech, I thought about the work that we do at The Women’s Foundation and the intersection between the federal policies discussed and the reality that women and girls in our region face, and I was once again struck by the huge disconnect that we continue to see.

The theme of the speech—economic fairness—sounds quite simple and logical.  The President spoke about how his grandparents contributed to a post-World War II “story of success that every American had a chance to share – the basic American promise that if you worked hard, you could do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, and put a little away for retirement.”  He called this “the defining issue of our time,” saying, “No challenge is more urgent.  No debate is more important.  We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by.  Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.”  Who can argue with that?  Hard to disagree with the logic, so why can’t we get there?

Ask anyone who is out in the community, working in the trenches, and they will tell you that it’s not easy. The issues facing our nation and our local community are incredibly complex and they didn’t just pop up overnight, which means that the solutions are not simple, one-dimensional responses, and the problems won’t be solved with a blink of the eye.

Take the President’s commitment to train people with skills that will lead directly to jobs and his call to cut through “the maze of confusing training programs.”  Sounds like a no-brainer — of course we should train people with skills that lead to jobs; but just this past week we were once again reminded why something that may seem intuitive isn’t.  WAMU aired a report investigating D.C.’s job training programs and detailed the disconnect between some of the programs that are receiving funding, the skill sets required for the jobs people were being trained for, and ultimately, the availability of these jobs.  The example cited was the 4,000 people trained to earn a Commercial Drivers License and the 90 people who were ultimately hired by metro, the region’s largest CDL employer. How can there be such a disconnect?

Additionally, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation, released a resource map offering a snapshot of the city’s investment in workforce development over the course of one fiscal year.  The map details more than 30 programs and services across a dozen city agencies. It’s hard to imagine how someone could possibly navigate the system in the best of times, say nothing about the worst of times.

As we think about the worst of times and the state of our economy, the President rightly devoted a great deal of his speech to jobs.  And while he called for equal pay for women, the majority of the jobs-related portions of the speech focused on nontraditional jobs where women continue to be underrepresented and face numerous barriers to obtaining and retaining these jobs.  Isn’t it time that we give equal weight and value to ensuring women are paid equal wages for equal work?  Doesn’t that fundamentally fall into the economic fairness category?  Are we ok with telling our girls to work hard and get a good education only to be paid 77 cents on the dollar?

Calling on every state to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18 is a commendable goal set forth by the President.  There is no doubt about the importance of graduating high school and pursuing post-secondary education and training.  Our research demonstrates the drastic earnings differential based on educational attainment. Women in this region who do not have a high school diploma earn just over $18,000 per year compared to women with a graduate or professional degree who earn over $70,000.

But it’s not quite as cut and dry as simply saying that we’ll require everyone to graduate. Are we prepared to tackle the myriad of issues that cause youth, particularly girls, to drop out of school?  Generational poverty, family unemployment, violence, and teen pregnancy are just a few of the laundry list of issues that are at the crux of drop-out rates.

So how do we get there? Last night, the President reminded us that “no one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we worked as a team. This nation is great because we get each other’s backs.”  Well, there is no better time than now for our community to pull together to ensure that the Washington region is a model community where economically vulnerable women and girls have the resources to thrive.  Now is the time to work together toward innovative, multi-dimensional solutions that put women and girls on a path to prosperity.  Let’s break the disconnect.  Where would you start?

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is vice president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Photo credit: WhiteHouse.gov

Tags: obama, sotu, state of the union, economy, equal pay, women, girls, resources, poverty, education, work, jobs

– Ahead of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Women’s Foundation President Nicky Goren visits the MLK Memorial and reflects on what Dr. King would think about more than 200,000 women and girls living in poverty in the DC region.

– The Women’s Foundation is inviting supporters to join us and volunteer at A Wider Circle on MLK Day.  Click here for details.

– The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) — a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner — has posted a list of their top five findings of 2011. Topics on the list include how women have fared during the economic recovery, the unmet child care needs of student parents and how much paid sick days would save taxpayers.

– East of the River Magazine explores the innovative work of AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School.  The article also takes a look at the impact a quality Pre-K education can have on the achievement gap.  AppleTree is a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.

– “In the fight against poverty, it’s time for a revolution,” David Bornstein writes in a commentary on The New York Times website. Bornstein calls for re-defining poverty, restructuring how social services are handled, and focusing on collaborative, long-term solutions.

– Here’s your feel great story of the week: a 17-year-old Long Island high school student whose family had to move into a homeless shelter a year ago is a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search competition.  Samantha Garvey says she doesn’t have the best home life, but she hopes that she made her parents proud by being one of just 300 students nationwide to participate in the semifinals of the competition.  You can watch her story here:

Tags: women, girls, dc, poverty, homeless, education, intel, science, career, early care, children

The report found that our region is one of the most highly educated in the country – yet there’s a stark divide between those with high and low levels of education and that divide becomes even wider when race is taken into consideration.

Portrait Project 2010 looked into fourth graders’ proficiency in reading and math.  The report found that the District is far behind the rest of the region and the U.S. overall in both reading and math.  Girls are performing slightly better in reading and about the same as boys in math.  But taking race into account once again showed a greater divide, with fourth graders of color lagging far behind their white counterparts.

Portrait Project 2010 also found that 10 percent of the girls in our region don’t complete high school.  “Among girls of color, high school completion rates are especially low: African American and Asian girls are twice as likely (12 and 14 percent, respectively) as white girls (6 percent) to lack a high school diploma.  And almost four in ten (37 percent) Latinas in our region do not graduate from high school (US Department of Commerce 2008).”

The lack of a high school diploma or other degree greatly impacts future earnings.  Women with graduate or professional degrees have median annual earnings ($70,787) that are more than three times the earnings of those who do not graduate from high school ($18,283).

In spite of the obvious struggles that some students in our community face, women in the region have much higher-than-average educational levels; half have a bachelor’s or graduate degree, compared to a little more than a quarter of women in the U.S. overall.

So how do we bridge the gaps and ensure that all girls in our region are on a path to prosperity?  Portrait Project 2010 highlights the importance of starting early, pointing out that quality early care and education can prepare children for later grades and increase their chances of finishing high school.

Portrait Project 2010 also shows that 26 percent of girls who drop out of high school say pregnancy or parenting was behind their decision to leave school without a diploma.  Providing young parents with innovative opportunities to finish school while receiving child care supports may ensure that young mothers have better opportunities to provide for their families.

The report also points to community college and job training as additional ways to  help women earn the skills and credentials they need to improve their career and earnings prospects.

Portrait Project 2010 has some valuable lessons about ways we can use educational attainment to improve the lives of girls, women, their families and our entire community.  Here’s my back-to-school wish list for our region:

Do you have a back-to-school wish list for the girls in our community?  Tell us what’s on your list in the comments below.  And for more details you can read the full Portrait Project 2010 online by clicking here.

Tags: education, girls, washington, dc, maryland, schools, teens, high school, dropout, community college

Wendy-Nia Griffin is the S.I.S.T.E.R.S program director at Family Support Center, a Maryland nonprofit that offers social and mental health services to families and schools in the metro area.  FSC has received grants from The Women’s Foundation for the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. (Self, Image, Strength, Tenacity, Empathy, Responsibility, Success) after-school empowerment program.

From one S.I.S.T.E.R.S. to another sister — this program is making a difference in the lives of tween girls by  imbuing concrete coping and decision-making skills.  The S.I.S.T.E.R.S. groups go straight to the crux of what impacts young girls like bullying and self image, healthy relationships, peer pressure and healthy bodies. The girls set the agenda and thus the group is socially and culturally relevant.

Part of being relevant means taking a look at areas that need improvement, so we recognized that the U.S. lags behind in leadership in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.  That prompted us to start an initiative within S.I.S.T.E.R.S called S.I.S.T.E.R.S in Science.  Our agenda remains ambitious and has included a trip to the National Science and Engineering Festival and visits from traditional scientists as well as kitchen scientists (who showed us that scientists can really cook!).

Our culminating event will take us to visit the National Institutes of Health, to expose the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. to world renowned scientists.  There, they will get to use NIH’s top notch facilities in hands on experiments.  Next year the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. program will send the winner of the S.I.S.T.E.R. in Science of the Year Award to the University of Maryland’s Women in Engineering Program.  All we ask is that when she wins the Nobel Prize for Science and Engineering, she remembers to give a shout out to the S.I.S.T.E.R.S.!

Photo: A member of the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. program investigates the wonders of the human brain.  Photo courtesy of Wendy-Nia Griffin.

The DC EITC Campaign is accepting volunteers for the tax season.  This campaign to raise awareness for the Earned Income Tax Credit provides free tax preparation services and financial support to low-income DC residents.  Click here for details and to sign up.

A “posse” of local high school students has received full-tuition college scholarships.  The Posse Foundation gave 62 students more than $8 million in scholarships.  Groups of 10 students (a posse) will go to top colleges together.  NBC Washington has the details.

The Fairfax County Human Rights Commission is now accepting nominations for its 33rd Annual Human Rights Awards. The awards recognize businesses, nonprofits and individuals who advanced human rights in Fairfax County last year.  Submissions are due by February 28th. (via WAMU)

Tags: tax, preparation, help, college, scholarship, posse foundation, fairfax, county, human, rights, dc

– In the Washington Examiner, Jonetta Rose Barras takes a look at why some D.C. residents don’t have an adequate education and the impact it’s having on their employment.  The Women’s Foundation’s new report, Portrait Project 2010, found that women in our region with degrees earn three times more than women without a high school diploma ($70,000 vs. $18,000).

– Some members of the D.C. Council are proposing legislation that would give subsidies to markets that carry fruits and vegetables.  The recipients of the subsidies would be in “food deserts,” areas of the city where it’s easier to buy junk food.  Currently, there are only three grocery stores available to the 140,000 residents who live in Wards 7 and 8.

– Is a “jump start” measure needed to ensure that more women serve in Congress?  About.com’s Women’s Issues blog takes a look at addressing the under-representation of women in U.S. politics.

Photo Credit: Spirit-Fire via Creative Commons

Tags: women, washington, dc, food, desert, diet, city, council, politics, education, income

– A new Century Foundation report finds that sending students from low-income families to schools in wealthier neighborhoods may be better for student performance. The report, “Housing Policy is School Policy,” looks at Montgomery County’s inclusionary zoning rule, which says that housing developers have to set aside units for public housing.

– Early voting begins today in D.C.  For details on how District resident can cast their ballots before November 2nd, please click here.

– A new Early Childhood Center in Alexandria will give preschoolers a chance to go to class in the same building where they’ll be in Kindergarten and first grade.  The center is being offered by the public school system in Alexandria and is supposed to eliminate the achievement gap that some students face when they enter Kindergarten.  Click here for details.

– The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that there was an 11 percent drop last year in donations to the country’s biggest charities.  It was the worst decline the Chronicle has reported since it began ranking the 400 organizations that raise the most from private sources.

– What role does “culture” play in poverty?  According to The New York Times, some “scholars are… conceding that culture and persistent poverty are enmeshed.”  It’s an idea that has provoked emotional debate in the past.

Tags: women, girls, low, income, education, preschool, school, montgomery, county, alexandria, d.c., early, voting, charity, donatin, philanthropy, poverty

– Before the racial achievement gap in D.C. Public Schools is eliminated, the city needs to address family poverty, according to Walter Smith, the executive director of D.C. Appleseed, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.  In a commentary on WAMU, Smith joins Defeat Poverty DC in calling on local candidates for office to explain what they’ll do to address poverty in the District.

– A new report on the gender pay gap from The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis finds that the higher the income, the wider the gap. The report finds that Virginia has a persistently larger gender pay gap than the region or country as a whole.  The gap widens as incomes and education levels increase.  Click here for more details.

Tags: d.c., public, schools, dc, appleseed, defeat, poverty, dc, gender, pay, gap

– More than half of babies in poverty are being raised by mothers who show symptoms of mild to severe depression, according to a new study from the Urban Institute, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.  The study found that just 30 percent of depressed low-income mothers of infants spoke to a professional about a mental health problem during the year before the survey was conducted.  Click here for more.

–”After two years of progress, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s effort to narrow the vast achievement gap separating white and African American students in D.C. public schools has stalled,” reports The Washington Post after analyzing 2010 test score data.

– Coolidge Senior High School’s football team is preparing for their first game under new coach Natalie Randolph.  Randolph is believed to be just the second woman in history to lead a high school varsity football team.  Coolidge opens the season tonight at home against Carroll.  Click here for details.

Tags: women, mothers, depression, poverty, education, schools, natalie randolph, coolidge, high

– Maryland and D.C. schools have won a combined $325 million in Race to the Top federal funds.  Over $4 billion in Race to the Top dollars was awarded to 11 jurisdictions nationwide for efforts to enact educational reforms pushed by the Obama administration.

– Now that school is back in session registration is open for this year’s DC Public Education Learning Tours. Each tour will culminate with a “deep dive” panel discussion around the tour theme.  Click here for more details and to register.

– Craigslist should remove its adult services section because the website is not adequately blocking ads promoting prostitution and child trafficking, attorneys general in 17 states — including Maryland and Virginia — wrote in a joint letter issued this week. Representatives of the online classified site say they’re working to improve measures to block illegal ads.

Tags: washington, dc, public, schools, maryland, education, race to the top, learning, tours, craigslist