Weekly Insider 18.03.2009

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools Weekly Insider is a web-enhanced newsletter that offers news alerts, grant announcements and general web site updates delivered directly to your email box on a weekly basis. The Center is located at the School of Public Health and Health Services at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.


Earlier today, March 24th, the Center hosted a webinar on Language Issues when Working with Refugees and Immigrants in the Health/Mental Health Field.   An archive of both the presentation and audio will be able on our website soon after the session.   For details on how to access the archive, check back in next week’s Insider or email us at chhcs@gwu.edu. 

New Resources
 
The Safe Routes to School 2009 Policy Report:  Moving to the Future and Building on Early Achievements  has been released by the Safe Routes to School National Partnership to explore the challenges and opportunities raised during implementation of the federal Safe Routes to School program.

The California Adolescent Health Collaborative has released a new educational brief,  Teen Dating Violence: Keeping California Adolescents Safe in Their Relationships. Myths on teen dating violence are addressed and action steps to support healthy teen relationships and reduce teen dating violence are provided.

The Alliance for Excellent Education’s report on Understanding High School Graduation Rates provides the latest national and state graduation rate statistics, demonstrates graduation gaps between demographic groups, illustrates the discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources, and examines the economic costs of dropouts to individuals and society.

The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage with their Schools is the first issue brief in the Public/Private Venture’s GroundWork series. This brief reviews the current literature about the potential benefits of simultaneously providing three services in school - healthcare, out-of-school-time learning and family supports - to boost students' educational outcomes.

New from the Center

A new issue brief, Supporting the Mental Health of Immigrant and Refugee Students Through Family Engagement by Ms. Eileen Kugler will soon be released by The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools as part of the Robert Wood Johnson funded Caring Across Communities program. This issue brief explores the many cultural challenges and barriers to meeting the mental health needs of immigrant and refugee students. In addition, this brief identifies successful strategies and highlights innovative national models that have overcome challenges such as cultural stigma, language differences, lack of parent involvement and provision of mental health care within the school/educational environment. 
Check back here in the coming weeks for info on how to access this exciting new brief!

Caring Across Communities, a multi-site initiative to address the mental health needs of children of immigrants and refugees, is managed by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 15 sites across the U.S. are developing model mental health programs that engage schools, families, students, mental health agencies and other community organizations to build effective, culturally competent services for children and youth. To check out the tools and lessons learned from each site, please click here.

Important Topic

Encourage the Development of Family Emergency Plans

  • Your Family Disaster Plan: American Red Cross
  • Make A Plan: Ready America/U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Emergency Preparedness: The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools

    • Upcoming Meetings

    • Greenville, SC: Family Symposium - Building Safe, Humane, and Responsible Communities for Children and Families. March 30- April 1, 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.familysymposium.com/

    Previously Posted Meetings
    Job opportunities

  • Mental Health Center Serving Boulder & Broomfield Counties – Program Supervisors (Boulder, CO)
  • Autism Speaks – Chief Community Officer (New York, NY)
  • Planned Parenthood – Bilingual Case Manager, Pregnant and Parenting Teen Case Management Programs (Fairfield, CA)
  • KHEIR Center – Program Coordinator  (Los Angeles, CA)
  • Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program - Registered Nurse: Outreach Team (Boston, MA)
  • Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, Inc.  – Site Coordinator (Washington, DC)


    • Grant Alerts

    McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation – Academic Enrichment Grants (Deadline: 5/1/09)
    The McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation offers Academic Enrichment Grants designed to develop in-class and extra-curricular programs that improve student learning. The Foundation considers proposals that foster understanding, deepen student’s knowledge, and provide opportunities that expand awareness to the world around them.

    U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) – Developing Integrated Child Health Information Systems: Promoting the use of Health Information Technology
    (Deadline: 4/15/09)
    HRSA’s Developing Integrated Child Health Information Systems: Promoting the use of Health Information Technology grant program aims to: 1) make comprehensive, public and private state-level health information more available to children, their families, and their health care providers; 2) ensure that children have access to primary care services and receive coordinated, comprehensive care; and 3) enable health care providers to develop behavioral/social/health profiles that will identify children who are at risk for developing disabling conditions.

    iMentor – Grants for Mentoring to Improve Graduation Rates     (Deadline: 4/30/09)
    iMentor is offering grants to provide financial support to organizations that may not otherwise be able to afford iMentor Interactive member organization user fees. The purpose of the grant is to help improve graduation rates through mentoring by providing technical assistance to small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations serving high-school students.

    Southern Poverty Law Center - Mix It Up Grants Program     (Deadline: Rolling)
    The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mix It Up Grants Program funds small-scale, youth-directed activist projects that focus on identifying, crossing and challenging social boundaries in schools and communities. Projects must promote collaboration across social boundaries.

    The Regence Foundation – Grants to Build Healthier Communities (ID, OR, WA, UT) (Deadline: Rolling)
    The Regence Foundation’s grant program for Building Healthier Communities is divided into two sections: (1) access to health care and (2) health care connections. Access to health care is defined as support for the health care safety-net and insurance access programs.  Health care connections is defined as support for general health programs that are innovative and solve community-identified problems.

    DoSomething.org and Subcity Records – Take Action Grants (Deadline: 4/1/09)    
    Do Something has teamed up with Subcity Records to offer Take Action grants.  Two Take Action general grants are available for recently created sustainable community action projects, programs, or organizations.  One Take Action music grant is available for individuals who use music to make a difference in their community.


    New Resources

    As reported in the Safe Routes to School 2009 Policy Report:  Moving to the Future and Building on Early Achievements, half of all students walked or bicycled to school in 1969.  In 2001, just 15 percent of children did.  The Safe Routes to School program is working to reverse this trend and get students physically active once again. This report identifies ways in which the program could be strengthened to create communities that help even more children be physically active by walking and bicycling to school.

    Teen dating violence is a major adolescent health concern. According to the California Adolescent Health Collaborative’s brief on Teen Dating Violence: Keeping California Adolescents Safe in Their Relationships, youth ages 16 to 24 experience the highest per capita rate of intimate partner violence of any age group, a rate nearly triple the national average. Younger adolescents are also at risk. Although the brief is written on California adolescents, much of the information is transferable to other teen populations across the country.

    According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation’s public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Yet nationally, one-third of students—about 1.2 million each year—leave high school without a diploma, at a high cost to themselves and society at large. The Alliance’s recent report, Understanding High School Graduation Rates, examines the unacceptably low graduation rates, particularly among poor and minority students, which have been obscured by inaccurate data, calculations, and reporting, and inadequate accountability systems at the state and federal levels.

    Public/Private Venture’s new brief, The Case for School-Based Integration of Services: Changing the Ways Students, Families and Communities Engage with their Schools summarizes the potential benefits of offering healthcare, out-of-school-time learning and family supports through a highly integrated, school-based model. For disadvantaged, low-income youth, research indicates that access to these supports can play a key role in helping them surmount common obstacles to educational attainment.

    Job opportunities

    Mental Health Center Serving Boulder & Broomfield Counties – Program Supervisors (Boulder, CO)
    The Mental Health Center Serving Boulder & Broomfield Counties is seeking two Program Supervisors to coordinate the daily operation of the residential programs. Responsibilities include overseeing facility management and house operations, maintaining the therapeutic community, monitoring client's mental status and medications, and coordinating with other MHC staff and outside agencies.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit http://philanthropy.com/jobs/id.php?id=0000595230-01

    Autism Speaks – Chief Community Officer (New York, NY)
    Autism Speaks currently has an opening for a Chief Community Officer. The Officer directs, establishes, plans and implements the policies and goals for Autism Speaks' marketing and e-commerce strategy on the web. This individual also builds awareness by sharing information about autism and Autism Speaks, primarily through the identification of social technologies and web communities.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit http://philanthropy.com/jobs/id.php?id=0000594950-01

    Planned Parenthood: Shasta Diablo – Bilingual Case Manager, Pregnant and Parenting Teen Case Management Programs (Fairfield, CA)
    Planned Parenthood: Shasta Diablo is seeking a Bilingual Case Manager for their Pregnant and Parenting Teen Case Management Programs. Responsibilities include conducting individual intake interviews and psychosocial assessments with adolescent clients and making quarterly home visits and, at least monthly, face-to-face contacts with teens at community service and school sites when appropriate.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit
    http://www.opportunityknocks.org/JobseekerX/ViewJob.asp?JobID=qelHUCxVsOnHMimyK%2FV7GFVSCLPj

    KHEIR Center – Program Coordinator  (Los Angeles, CA)
    The KHEIR Center Program Coordinator will provide key leadership and management of day-to-day operations of health education and outreach staff.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit
    http://www.opportunityknocks.org/JobseekerX/ViewJob.asp?JobID=FEIrr3t1Q3nsKC0EquAYWWBOtc7U

     Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program - Registered Nurse: Outreach Team (Boston, MA)
    Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program seeks a Registered Nurse to work with the Family Team. The Registered Nurse works in collaboration with other members of the Family Team to assure access to high quality healthcare for homeless family members and pregnant women in various sites in the Greater Boston Area. The Family Team is part of an integrated health care program for the homeless people.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Job/331287-10

     Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, Inc.  – Site Coordinator (Washington, DC)
    The Site Coordinator at Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, Inc. is responsible for directly coordinating the site’s administrative services, which may include office clerical and support services, printing, mail distribution and messenger services, telecommunications, maintenance, purchasing, site security, and patient flow. Spanish highly desired.
    For more information and to apply to this position, please visit http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Job/330898-314