Clipmarks | dmegivern's 'poverty' clips

The Whole History of Dmegivern's Clipmarks Comments

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:02:50 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: thewisdomgoldenmean.blogspot.com

All my Clipmarks Comments

what I am trying to stress is that even if I eventually made it to the indebted middle class, I am not okay from the journey. I am traumatized. Poverty harmed me deeply. It broke up my family. It put me into foster care, and led to dozens of stressful moves. It provided me with a first-hand seat to the ridicule of the poor; I carry in diaries... in memories... a lifelong record of anti-poor and anti-welfare comments hurled at me.

"I disagree. I grew up in the household of mentally ill people who went untreated. It led to us going to foster care, long-term poverty, neglect, and sometimes mistreatment. I take my meds religiously because I never want to endanger my family in the same way. They may not work for everyone, but they have been wonderful for me. My brother who committed suicide in 1996 at the age of 23 never wanted to take meds either. I think people are too cavalier about dismissing their importance for real mental illness."

Tags: comments, poverty, mental illness

Class Desegregation

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:31:40 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Next Kind of Integration

The chief justice didn’t address the idea of class-based integration in his opinion. But Justice Anthony Kennedy did, in a separate concurrence. And because Kennedy cast the fifth vote for the majority, his view controls the law. Though he agreed with Roberts that public school districts should not make school assignments based on the race of individual students, he added that the court’s ruling “should not prevent school districts from continuing the important work of bringing together students of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Harvard sociologist Christopher Jencks reanalyzed Coleman’s data in the 1970s and concluded that poor black sixth-graders in majority middle-class schools were 20 months ahead of poor black sixth-graders in majority low-income schools. The statistics for poor white students were similar.

poor kids have to be evenly distributed among classrooms

Tags: social_class, class, poverty, education

State's Ratings on Child Well-Being Revealed

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:41:29 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.socialworkers.org

States' Ratings on Child Well-Being Revealed

The report rates the 50 states on 10 major child well-being standards. The 10 bottom states identified are Arizona, South Dakota, Nevada, Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and at number 50, Louisiana.

The report's top 10 states for children are Maine, Washington, Minnesota, Iowa, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts, with Vermont ranked as the best state.

According to the report, children in the lowest-ranking states are:

Twice as likely to die in their first year as children in the highest-ranking state.

Three times more likely to die between the ages of 1 and 14.

Eight times more likely to be incarcerated.

A child living in the bottom 10 states is twice as likely to live in poverty as a child in the top 10. In Mississippi, the child poverty rate is 3 times greater than in Maryland or New Hampshire.

Tags: children, poverty, states

Proms-Dress Drive Aids Foster Girls

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:47:18 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.socialworkers.org

Student's Prom-Dress Drive Aids Foster Girls

It's a teenage rite of spring: picking out the perfect prom dress for a magical night of dancing and romance. But for some girls, it's not as easy as just wandering the aisles and finding what strikes one's fancy. NASW member and social work student Tyleen Caffrey decided to do something about that.

Caffrey, 32, was a foster child herself. Her foster parents were unable to afford a prom dress for her, but her foster mother was able to make one. She realized, however, that not all children in foster care would have that option. She developed the plan in October with the Southern Miss Student Association of Social Workers and began collecting dresses.

Her original projections estimated the project would serve about 50 girls, with hair styling and makeup for 10 of those girls. "We collected between 450 and 500 dress altogether," she said. "And every girl who came through [the Department of Human Services] got a full makeover.

Tags: foster care, children, poverty

A Hero from the Poverty Class

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:42:58 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Our family has admired Ben Carson for years. He didn't escape poverty and turn around to blame other poor people for not being able to do the same. Instead, he works to build the scaffolding necessary to lift others to where he is.

Clip Source: www.baltimoresun.com

From poverty to top U.S. honors

"I was just very grateful that people are starting to recognize some of the work I am trying to do," Carson, 56, said in an interview after the ceremony, referring to his promotion of reading programs and college education for at-risk high school students. He called high school dropout rates an "epidemic" and said, "Sometimes I feel people aren't paying attention."

Born in Detroit to a barely literate mother who married at age 13 and soon left her husband to raise two sons alone, Carson overcame what he has described as a temper problem as a teen and went on to attend Yale University and the University of Michigan medical school. He gained fame as a pediatric neurosurgeon for, among other things, leading the separations of five sets of twins conjoined at the head between 1987 and 2004. He is also skilled in hemispherectomies, a procedure to remove half the brain to prevent seizures.

Tags: poverty, upward mobility, achievement

Upward Mobility Very Difficult in...the USA

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:18:10 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The American Dream is Alive and Well ... in Finland!

It's harder to move up the economic ladder in the United States than in other wealthy countries. What happened to the American dream?

But new research suggests the United States' much-ballyhooed upward mobility is a myth, and one that's slipping further from reality with each new generation. On average, younger Americans are not doing better than their parents did, it's harder to move up the economic ladder in the United States than it is in a number of other wealthy countries, and a person in today's work force is as likely to experience downward mobility as he or she is to move up.

Moreover, the single greatest predictor of how much an American will earn is how much their parents make.

Tags: poverty, mobility, social.class

Many Americans Cannot Afford to Eat Right

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:48:03 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: healthday.com

Many Americans Can't Afford to Eat Right

THURSDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- In this land and season of plenty, low-income and rural Americans continue to have difficulty finding healthy foods that are affordable, a new study finds.

One study shows that low-income Americans now would have to spend up to 70 percent of their food budget on fruits and vegetables to meet new national dietary guidelines for healthy eating.

And a second study found that in rural areas, convenience stores far outnumber supermarkets and grocery stores -- even though the latter carry a much wider choice of affordable, healthy foods.

People with more money eat more fruits and vegetables than those with less money, research shows. In turn, poorer people also assume a greater disease burden relative to their wealthier counterparts.

However, a low-income family of four would still have to spend a very large percentage of its food budget on fruits and vegetables in 2005 to meet national healthy-diet guidelines.

Tags: diet, income, nutrition, poverty

Parts of the United States As Poor as Third World

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:24:47 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality.

The annual Human Development Report normally concerns itself with the Third World, but the 2005 edition scrutinises inequalities in health provision inside the US as part of a survey of how inequality worldwide is retarding the eradication of poverty.

It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday.

Although the US leads the world in healthcare spending - per head of population it spends twice what other rich OECD nations spend on average, 13 per cent of its national income - this high level goes disproportionately on the care of white Americans. It has not been targeted to eradicate large disparities in infant death rates based on race, wealth and state of residence.

Tags: inequality, poverty, u.s.

Chicago Homeless Shelter Has to Turn Away Women

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:03:18 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.suntimes.com

Women face fight for spots in city's shelters

On this night, 35 win and 6 lose in bid for night off the streets

BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

"Totally full. No more open beds," he announces from beneath the sign for Franciscan House for Mary and Joseph, one of the city's largest homeless shelters. "I'm sorry, ladies. We don't have any more open beds tonight."

Byzantine procedures

As the announcement is made, I look up into the faces of six women left standing on the sidewalk. Their last, best hope for finding a place to sleep has slipped away.

What I see in their faces is fear and anger, resignation and annoyance, desperation and bemusement. And shock.

Tags: poverty, homelessnes, neglect

No Poverty in the U.S.?

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:37:26 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: No poverty in the U.S. That is what some have had the nerve to suggest. Read the details of poverty at this web blog and decide for yourself.

Clip Source: thewisdomgoldenmean.blogspot.com

Evidence of Poverty in the U.S.

Once again, some know-it-all has stated stupidly that there is no poverty in America. As someone who went to foster care as a result of poverty, I find this infuriating. So, today, I post just some of the evidence our family has of the detriment of American poverty.

Tags: poverty, u.s.

UK inequality at 40 year high

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:51:34 GMT

clipped by: sunbeam

Clip Source: www.jrf.org.uk

New poverty and wealth maps of Britain reveal inequality to be at 40-year high

A new way of comparing poverty and wealth trends across Britain shows inequality has reached levels not seen for over 40 years. This is according to research released today (17 July) by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A second report, published simultaneously, has found that the public believes the gap between rich and poor people is too large.

households in already-wealthy areas have tended to become disproportionately wealthier and that many rich people live in areas segregated from the rest of society. At the same time, more households have become poor over the last 15 years, but fewer are very poor.

the report contains comprehensive maps which are based on census and survey data illustrating the changes in poverty and wealth across Britain from 1968 to 2005.

It found that over the last 20 years, a large and enduring majority of people have considered the gap between high and low incomes too large.

Tags: poverty, wealth, inequality, uk, census, attitude survey

Define Necessity

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:50:57 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.myspace.com

Tags: pro-life, poverty