Economic Opportunity News
"The stimulus money is paid to beauty schools in the form of Pell Grants, which are awarded to low-income students and do not have to be repaid. Cosmetology schools, like other accredited trade schools, have always been eligible for Pell Grants."
"'If a young woman is not financially self-sufficient and does not have some good career plans and ends up getting pregnant and dropping out of high school, they are 90 percent likely to stay that way... That cycle of poverty will continue.”"
"Until recently, underfunded nonprofit agencies have scrambled to find decent homes and meet other basic needs with a one-time federal grant of $425 per adult -- a sum that puts many refugees directly into poverty, according to several reports."
"The Bullitt Fiscal Court is considering reducing the nonprofit's rent ... from $200 per month to $1 per year ... The nonprofit community action agency helps low-income and elderly residents by providing meals, activities, training and transportation."
"There will be money to fix sidewalks and streets in U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s so-called “Green Impact Zone,” a 150-block area in Kansas City’s urban core that’s been marked by high rates of violence and poverty."
"The racial differences are an example of the academic achievement gap that also has white students scoring better on state standardized tests and graduating at higher rates than minority students..."
"Nonprofit groups that work with the poor said getting the chronically homeless into stable housing would make it easier to link them to services that can help them find jobs and obtain benefits."
"Standing in the freezing rain two hours before sunrise last Friday, Missy Wallace joined nearly three dozen other homeless Chattanoogans waiting for the Chattanooga Community Kitchen to open for breakfast."
"With a careful sequence of courses, including ninth-grade algebra, and attention to skills like note-taking, the early-college high schools accelerate students so that they arrive in college needing less of the remedial work that stalls so many low-income and first-generation students."
"But this winter, when New York's homeless population is above 37,000 and shelters are working to increase capacity, the gym now sits empty at night because city officials have ordered the program to close."
"...[M]embers of the Los Angeles City Council set aside a slew of budget proposals designed to prevent the city from going bankrupt. But they did approve a reduction to one subsidy program that covers the trash fees of at least 58,395 low-income senior citizens and disabled residents..."
"Campbell and Chapman were matched through Capital Partners for Education, a nonprofit organization in Northwest Washington that provides students from low-income families with mentoring and academic and enrichment support."
"Sweetwater leaders have secured $89,775 in funding from the Miami-Dade County Office of Grants Coordination to provide assistance to their elderly and low-income residents."
"I had been complicit in taking something from her -- her voices -- and at this stage in her recovery I had little to offer in return. Jane was between two worlds. Without medication and an identity, she would soon slide back to homeless waif."
"Many risk factors can contribute to a child having trouble in school. Some of them, such as living in a low-income family or having a mother with less than a high school education, can be mitigated through quality early education."
"Proposed budget cuts would gut a program that provided 52,000 summer jobs to low-income city teens - putting even more pressure on households that are barely making ends meet."
A New Focus for Nonprofits and Government. Posted February 1st, 2010
"'This is just flat-out discrimination, and it flies in the face of the idea of school choice and equal access to education,' said Thena Robinson, an attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center"
"House of Hope, a Lowell nonprofit, received $557,324 in state funds to support its initiative to provide five units of affordable rental housing in Lowell for families transitioning from homelessness."
"A $500,000 donation from the charitable arm of the Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors will help build 32 homes on the Near Eastside for families and individuals who are homeless."
"President Barack's budget blueprint would expand the Pell Grant program to nearly $35 billion in aid next year, a 92 percent increase in the college funding program for low- and moderate-income families."
"Boston charter schools tend to do a good job of enrolling other student groups that tend to struggle academically... Most schools also serve a significant number of low-income students."
"Time will tell how effective the pilot Starting Strong program has been. The program enrolls low-income 3- and 4-year-olds into Head Start who otherwise would've missed the opportunity."
"Beginning in March, some low-income expectant mothers may help in knocking down the county's crime rate. The county received a $2.7 million grant in December to start Early Head Start programs in South Dos Palos, Atwater, Merced and Delhi."
"The program, funded by the United Way, focuses on working families with dependent children whose incomes are at or below 200 percent of the poverty level and residing in and around San Antonio's Southwest Side."
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