Fathers At Work Initiative
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has launched the Fathers At Work Initiative, a three-and-one-half year, $10.2 million program that aims to improve labor participation and earnings of young, low-income fathers who are non-custodial parents. Funding has been divided among six organizations in New York, Illinois, California and Virginia that have demonstrated success in helping young fathers find and maintain jobs and in providing networks of support that include social service agencies, law enforcement and child-support systems. For more information: www.mott.org.

Self-Determination in Focus
Self-Determination Crisis Watch is an electronic journal that offers comprehensive analysis of self-determination issues. The biweekly journal provides a virtual forum for new ideas and policy recommendations on sovereignty and governance for the use of scholars, activists and government officials around the world. Along with a special web page on self-determination issues, the project aims to establish an international network of experts that will advance new ideas and paradigms for self-determination policy.

The new journal is a product of Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) and part of a self-determination and governance project funded by Carnegie Corporation. FPIF, dubbed the “think tank without walls,” is a joint project of the Interhemispheric Resource Center and the Institute for Policy Studies.

For further information, including how to subscribe: www.fpif.org, click on the Self-Determination in Focus button

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Expands Grantmaking
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is broadening its grantmaking to include support of initiatives that promote healthy communities and lifestyles. Plans include funding for a policy research program on physical activity, capacity building for public health leaders, community programs that promote physical activity, and a nationwide program to promote physical activity among older adults.

The Foundation, America’s largest health philanthropy, also focuses on issues relating to basic health care access for all Americans, care and support for people with chronic health problems, and reduction of the harm caused by abuse of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs. For more information: www.rwjf.org.

AdmitOne.org
The Artists Rights Foundation (ARF), founded in 1991 by the Directors Guild, has launched a web site for teens with step-by-step instructions on how to make an original 10-15 minute movie. Available to youngsters around the world, the site includes interactive tutorials, a chat room with access to professional filmmakers, an artists’ rights section exploring authorship issues, and a screening room where films created by teenagers can be viewed.

The acclaimed 125-page manual, downloadable at the AdmitOne web site, is currently being used by after-school programs and other educational initiatives connected with thousands of youth organizations, libraries, cultural centers, and museums.
AdmitOne.org Film School, developed through support from ARF Vice President George Lucas, is an expansion of an existing program called Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers that promotes teenage filmmaking and creative collaboration. For online information about filmmaking: www.AdmitOne.org. To request a print copy of Making Movies: A Guide for Young Filmmakers, contact jennisen@artistsrights.org.

Internet Accountability Study
A year-long study by the Markle Foundation finds that nearly two-thirds of Americans view the Internet favorably, although many express concern about online accountability, privacy issues and unmediated access to certain kinds of information. Asked if the Internet should be governed, most feel the public at large should have a say in establishing guidelines and that government should provide online protection. Still, by a wide margin Americans also say Internet rules should be developed and enforced by other entities, such as technology companies and nonprofit organizations.
Using samples drawn from the general population and Internet experts, researchers found that most users view the Internet as a source of information, i.e., a “library,” rather than a commercial medium. The survey also showed high favorability ratings among all age groups, belying the notion that the Internet is most appreciated by the young.
Survey data and results are available at www.markle.org.

Global Consortium of Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA)
American and international universities have joined hands to establish an organization to take on the dual challenge of feeding the world’s population in an environmentally sustainable fashion. GCHERA will work toward developing a worldwide system of collaboration and cooperation among colleges, universities and international organizations in the areas of agricultural education and research. A key part of the effort will also focus on transitioning agricultural curricula for the 21st century to assure that agriculture graduates are appropriately prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

Organized in 1999 under the leadership of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, National Agricultural University in Kyiv, Ukraine and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, GCHERA has established a broad-based network of international academic and industrial experts who will conduct international scientific conferences, promote faculty and student exchanges and share new developments in agricultural science and research. The second global conference of GCHERA met in San Francisco in July 2001 under the leadership of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. For more information: www.gchera.iastate.edu.

Future of the Performing Arts
A recent report analyzing a broad spectrum of performing arts trends over the last 30 years has concluded that performing arts organizations are becoming polarized by size, not by whether they concentrate on “high” art or mass entertainment. The report, called The Performing Arts in a New Era and based on a study conducted by RAND Corporation and commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts, indicates that large groups rely heavily on marketing campaigns and celebrity artists to attract audiences and that small groups focus on low-budget productions and depend on volunteer labor.

At risk are midsize performing arts groups that can afford neither highly paid celebrity artists nor massive advertising blitzes. Companies in this category face the most serious financial strain, confronting the prospect of having to become larger and more prestigious or downsizing production budgets, becoming smaller and relying on volunteer performers.

Midsize organizations have long been a conduit for young artists to gain performing experience and a sharp reduction in their number will inevitably result in a decline of live performances. To preserve these opportunities, the report suggests a need to develop policies that consider public interests served by artistic endeavors and a re-examination of the role of government in supporting these interests. For more information: www.pewtrusts.org

Youth Vote Study
A study on voter mobilization during the November 2000 election indicates that voters under the age of 30 were more likely to vote if they had been contacted a few days before the election and encouraged to go to the polls.

Working with Youth Vote 2000, a nonpartisan coalition of student and community organizations, Yale professors Donald Green and Alan Gerber randomly assigned registered voters to a group of people to be contacted by Youth Vote volunteers or to a control group that would receive no Youth Vote contact whatsoever.

Using cross-off lists, volunteers made follow-up calls a few weeks after the election to determine voting rates in both the treatment and control groups.

Results showed that those who were canvassed face-to-face were nearly 9 percent more likely to have voted than those not contacted, and that voters who got a phone call encouraging them to vote were 5 percent more likely to turn out.

Testing was done near college campuses in New York, Colorado and Oregon using voter lists compiled by student groups and lists purchased from commercial vendors. New York had the widest margin between canvassed and non-canvassed respondents. Margins in Oregon, perhaps because of its voting-by-mail system that permits voters to cast ballots up to two weeks before the election, were less striking. For more information: www.youthvote.org.

American Attitudes on Russia
Most Americans have a favorable opinion of Russia according to a recent report released on “Americans & the World,” a web site maintained by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) that integrates and analyzes publicly available polling data.

Researchers cite a February 2001 Gallup poll showing that 52 percent of Americans entertain a favorable opinion of Russia and remain steadfast in believing that Russia is of vital interest to the United States. More recent data show 69 percent of Americans rating relations with Russia as “extremely” or “fairly important” to our national interest. Other studies sponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and PIPA reveal that most Americans believe an inclusive approach is the best way to deal with whatever threats Russia may pose.

The analysis of attitudes toward Russia is drawn from results of polls conducted by Gallup, Louis Harris, The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, NBC/Wall Street Journal, Time/CNN and PIPA. The Program on International Policy Attitudes is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland. For more information: www.Americans-world.org

Foster Care Initiative
The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Casey Family Programs have combined forces to launch the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a new program to expand opportunities for foster care children in the areas of education, employment, health care and housing.

A special focus of the initiative is the approximately 100,000 older youth who are about to leave or have already left the foster care system. Foster children have markedly higher rates of homelessness, school dropout, unemployment and lack of access to health care.

The program, based in St. Louis, will support state and community organizations around the country through grants, technical assistance and coalition building. For more information: www.jimcaseyyouth.org.

Employers’ Influence on Health Plan Enrollment Analyzed
Results from a study of health insurance trends show that the number of Americans without health insurance grew from 38.3 million in 1992 to 42.6 million in 1998. Using data from employer surveys, researchers found that workers often didn’t receive coverage from their employer, not because coverage was not offered but because the employees’ share of the premium was too high or because they didn’t meet eligibility requirements. Findings also show that policy costs varied according to company size, income, industry and region and that enrollment and eligibility rates differed according to employer policies on coverage for part- and full-time workers and length of enrollment periods.

A significant factor influencing the take-up rate of those studied concerned the percentage of a company’s workforce earning $20,000 or less. Firms whose low-income workers comprised 35 percent or more of the workforce had lower rates of enrollment than comparable companies with a smaller percentage of low-paid workers. Take-up rates were also affected by the amount of monthly contributions workers were required to make towards a health plan. For example, companies with large numbers of low-paid workers who were asked to contribute $50 per month had fewer enrollees than companies asking for $25 per month. Not surprisingly, when no monthly contribution was mandated, the take-up rate across all income levels was high.

The study was released by the Health Research and Educational Trust and the Commonwealth Fund. For more information: www.cmwf.org.

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