What Works News Round-Up – April 5, 2016
In the News
Here is some of the latest poverty and community development news from this past week.
The Washington Post (4/5/16) Sending Nurses to Work with Poor Moms Helps Kids. So Why Don’t We Do More Of It?
This kind of support, with trained nurses coaching low-income, first-time mothers, is among the most effective interventions ever studied. Researchers have accumulated decades of evidence from randomized controlled trials — the gold standard in social science research — following participants for up to 15 years.
The New York Times (4/1/16) Thousands Could Lose Food Stamps as States Restore Pre-Recession Requirements
Hundreds of thousands of people could soon lose food stamps as states reimpose time limits and work requirements that were suspended in recent years because of high unemployment, state officials and advocates for the poor said Friday.
CityLab (3/31/16) The Growth of Concentrated Poverty Since the Recession, in 3 Infographics
The number of American poor living in depressed neighborhoods—those with at least 40 percent of residents below poverty line—has been on the rise since the 1990s. And according to a new analysis of Census data by the Brookings Institution, the recession further accelerated this upward trend.
Vox (3/31/16) Low-Income Americans Can No Longer Afford Rent, Food, and Transportation
A new Pew Charitable Trusts analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in 2013, low-income Americans spent a median of $6,897 on housing. In 2014, that rose to $9,178 — the biggest jump in housing spending for the 19-year period of data that Pew studied.
Governing (2/3/16) Can Teaching Peace Reduce Violent Crime?
Public policy students at Georgetown University have an idea for reducing violence in the nation’s capital: a peace cluster. Based off an international anti-violence program conceived by a Colombian priest, the approach teaches conflict-resolution skills to young people.
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