| | | | Please forward this e-card and tell others to sign up for updates. | | Exclusive to Spotlight | About Spotlight | | - Commentary for Spotlight—Losing Now, Losing More Later?: Tapping the Long-Term Economic Potential of Opportunity Youth
 In the latest commentary for Spotlight, Clive Belfield, co-director of the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education at Columbia University's Teachers College and associate professor of economics at Queens College-City University of New York, argues that policy decisions should have a long-term focus to improve outcomes for young people disconnected from jobs and education. Belfield notes the long-term economic costs of this lost youth opportunity—both to taxpayers and to society—are more than ten times as high as the immediate costs. The author explores research that focuses on the repercussions in adulthood or "scarring" that comes with having less work experience and education. For instance, these youth often tend to stay on welfare, become involved in the criminal justice system and experience chronic illnesses over time. Belfield suggests that investments should begin with efforts to ensure these youth don't become disconnected from the educational system in the first place. This includes reducing the number of high school dropouts  through programs such as Talent Search that motivate and prepare students for college.
| Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: The Source for News, Ideas and Action is a non-partisan initiative that brings together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to find genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans. This weekly update highlights the latest news, research, events and exclusive commentary on poverty and opportunity. The items highlighted in this newsletter and much more can be found in their entirety on our website www.spotlightonpoverty.org | | | | Events | | | | April 5 Panel Discussion--The New (Suburban) Homeless: How Foreclosures and the Great Recession Have Impacted American Families The New America Foundation will host a forum to discuss a recent article in The American Prospect that chronicles the lives and experiences of a group of once stable families in the Denver suburbs who are now homeless and currently living in budget hotels where they pay for their rooms by the week. The panel will include Janis Bowdler, director of the Wealth-Building Policy Project at the National Council of La Raza, and Monica Potts, author of the article and senior writer at The American Prospect. The discussion will be held from 12:15-1:30 p.m. EDT at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and will be live streamed. Click here to register. April 17 Audio Conference—Insights from the Ideas for Action Awards: Career Pathways Out of Poverty Spotlight, the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, the Northwest Area Foundation and the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs will host the final audio conference in their series highlighting the Ideas for Action Award winners. The upcoming call will explore programs focused on breaking the cycle of poverty through training, education and support programs. Speakers include Elisabeth D. Babcock, president and CEO of the Crittenton Women's Union, and Karon Rosa, program director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative. The call will be held from 2-3 p.m. EDT. Click here for more information. | | Reports, Briefs & Articles | | | - Report Examines Perspectives among Employers and Low-Wage Workers in America
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, with funding from The Joyce Foundation and The Hitachi Foundation, released a report that surveys low-wage workers (earning $35,000 per year or less) and their employers on their respective views on working conditions, opportunities for advancement and experience with education and training. Among the major takeaways of America's Lower-Wage Workforce: Employer and Worker Perspectives is that employers are offering a range of training programs and benefits to lower-wage workers, but few offer benefits that workers can use to advance their careers outside their current company. In addition, low-wage workers are not taking advantage of employer- or government-sponsored benefits and only a small minority of employers are taking advantage of opportunities to encourage training among the lower-wage workforce. - Report Explores Emerging Gender Gap in Workforce and Education
Over the last three decades, the labor market trajectory of American males has turned downward along four areas including skills and educational attainment, employment rates, career advancement and real wages, according to a new report from Third Way. Wayward Sons: The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education argues that these trends pose considerable challenges for social and economic policy. First, less-educated males are likely to face diminished employment and earnings opportunities, poorer health, a greater chance of incarceration and generally lower satisfaction with their lives. Also, due to the lower marriage rates of these males, their children are less likely to live in economically secure households with both parents present and face poorer future educational and earnings outcomes. - Report Ranks Healthiest and Least Healthiest Counties among All U.S. States
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute released a report examining the health and well-being of people across America on multiple factors beyond just their access to medical care. The report, County Health Rankings, takes a look at 25 factors that influence health including child poverty rates, teen birth rates, rates of high school graduation and college attendance and percentages of children living in single-parent households. - Series Looks at Implications of U.S. Immigration Policy on Families and Individuals
Equal Voice News, published by the Marguerite Casey Foundation, released a two-story series looking at different sides of U.S. immigration policy and its impact on the well-being of current immigrants. The True Cost of Food: Immigration and Agriculture Workers explores the guest worker program, which enables farmers to recruit in other countries for their seasonal and temporary workers, but has seen documented cases of abuse, safety problems and wage theft. The second story, Accidental Foreigners: America's Forgotten Citizens, follows several children born in the U.S. who have returned to their parents' birthplace after their mothers and fathers were deported. The story notes that in many cases, these children end up in high-poverty areas with limited educational opportunities and return to America with little chance to move up the economic ladder.
| | | | | Spotlight on the States | | | |  Mount St. Mary’s College released its annual report on the status of women and girls in California. The report includes research on factors including education, employment, poverty and incarceration. For more on the state of California, click here.
| | | | Spotlight on Twitter | | | | Today, those in Gen X & Gen Y have built less #wealth than their parents did at that age over 25 yrs ago: bit.ly/WUSCFn via @povertynews 
Have an interesting poverty stat? Tweet @povertynews or e-mail it to: info@spotlightonpoverty.org. | | | | | |
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