The status of women viewed against the background of the United Nations Decade for Women is examined with emphasis on the world context, the Latin American context, and the context of rural women in the region. It describes attempts at categorization of rural women in Latin America based on the main types of agricultural economy in the region and…

Noting that education is viewed as the route to success in American society, the paper argues that education has not lived up to this promise. Emphasis on conformity and regimentation, fostering of competition and exclusion behaviors, classism, racism, and a microfocal perspecitive of social problems serve as barriers to full realization of the…

This Congressional report contains testimony concerning reauthorization of the Domestic Volunteer Service Act, which authorizes and provides funding for the various national volunteer antipoverty programs, including Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the Service Learning Programs, and Special Volunteer Programs. Included among those persons…

Poverty prevalent in rural areas is associated with unequal representation in gifted programs. Some impediments to equal access include cultural prejudice, family distrust of schools, the stigma of academic success, inappropriate identification practices, and poor funding for rural programs. Five rural states have adopted measures to promote…

This issue of the Family Resource Coalition Report focuses on Hispanic families. The articles and authors are the following: (1) Voices and Issues: A Celebration of Hispanic Diversity, M. Aranda; (2) Some Facts in Understanding Latino Families, J. Hernandez; (3) Invisibility in the Data, Invisibility in the Policy: The Latino Family and Public…

This testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs focuses on the need for decent, affordable housing. It reviews the loss of monies for federally assisted housing units and projects the consequences in the deterioration of the quality of life for many Americans. Because of budget cuts enacted during the Reagan…

At the 1987 Winter Meeting of the National Governors' Association, the Governors adopted a policy program calling for a major reorientation and reform of the nation's welfare system. This document addresses how the welfare system can be reformed to better encourage the self-sufficiency of recipients and reduce their dependency, and how to use…

Research findings are reported which depict characteristics and conditions of young adolescents in the 1980s. Discussion begins with an overview of what is known about the physical, socioemotional, and cognitive growth of young adolescents. It is argued that: (1) adults perpetuate many myths about teenagers; (2) adolescence is no more pathological…

Testimony concerned: (1) problems a high-risk, low-income mother had in receiving prenatal care; (2) dimensions of the infant mortality problem in Chicago, Illinois; (3) programs of the Illinois Department of Public Aid (IDPA) that address the problem; (3) the need for the IDPA to design a plan to implement SOBRA (the 1986 Sixth Omnibus Budget…

This report recommends that the Social Security Act Title XIX be amended to include a 24-month extension of Medicaid to families who become ineligible for cash assistance under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. This amendment accompanies the Family Welfare Reform Act of 1987 (H.R. 1720), which is proposed to replace the…

Catholic charities and church groups have been actively engaged in providing basic shelter needs for homeless people long before the issue of homelessness came to the national attention. The purpose of this hearing was to allow the U.S. Catholic Conference and its Domestic Policy Committee to present its report, "Homelessness and Housing: A…

Increasingly, poverty has become concentrated among the urban underclass in the United States. The dramatic economic changes underlying this situation have taken place within the context of larger changes in global, national, and regional political economies, including such factors as industrial restructuring and migration flows. In addition, the…

Housing has become an increasingly unaffordable commodity for most low income Black and Hispanic households. A comprehensive set of data on housing conditions nationwide was collected by the Bureau of the Census and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the American Housing Survey for 1985. The following key…

Census data on poverty in 1987 indicate that the economic recovery has been uneven, with the poor sharing less fully in the gains than in prior recoveries. Despite a drop in the national unemployment rate from 7 percent in 1986 to 6.2 percent in 1987, the poverty rate of 13.5 percent has remained essentially unchanged. Although 1987 represented…

The Hispanic American elderly represent an ever growing share of America's older population. This report provides statistical information about the older Hispanic American population in the following areas: (1) demography; (2) composition; (3) geographical distribution; (4) population projections; (5) income; (6) poverty, including poverty among…