- Feb 02, 10 | Youth Today GAO Faults Labor on Quality, Delays of Evaluations The Youth Opportunity grants, also known as YO! grants, were meant to enable local agencies to collaborate to get youths in high-poverty areas re-engaged in education and employment. "If you're going to make expenditures on research and development, there has to be a certain level of transparency and requirements that these research studies find their way out into the public domain to fuel what needs to go on," said Linda Harris, director of youth policy at CLASP. "This is a population that we need to learn as much as we can about how we accelerate their learning and connections and movement."
- Feb 02, 10 | McClatchy Washington Bureau Jobs Funding Set to Expire Before It Has Chance to Work As the ranks of the unemployed continue to swell, more states want to use TANF Emergency Fund money for subsidized job programs that hire TANF recipients and TANF-eligible adults for up to a year. States were slow to seek the money initially because many state legislatures adjourned shortly after passage of the stimulus bill. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services didn't make application forms for the money available until July, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a senior policy analyst at the CLASP.
- Jan 31, 10 | The San Francisco Chronicle Employers Wanted: Federal Funds up for Grabs Nearly a year ago, the federal government, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, gave states a big pot of money to pay employers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to hire low-income parents. The program reimburses up to 100 percent of the employee's wages. Yet only a few counties - including San Francisco and Los Angeles - have launched large-scale programs and even in those places, many employers are unaware of them or unwilling to participate.The program got off to a slow start because many state legislatures recessed shortly after the recovery act was passed. Forms to apply for funds were not available until July, and a funding question was not answered until fall, according to Elizabeth Lower-Basch, senior policy analyst at CLASP.
- Feb 05, 10 Slight Drop in Unemployment Promising But No Reason to Cheer
- Feb 01, 10 President's Budget Proposal Includes Critical Investments in Programs That Affect Low-Income People The president's budget recognizes that a key to shared, long-term economic prosperity is investing in programs that provide low-income people with the supports and tools they need to move out of poverty.
- Jan 27, 10 CLASP Statement Regarding State of the Union In this time of increasing economic insecurity, rising unemployment and increasing poverty, the American public demands bold solutions that will put people to work and provide them with a foundation for long-term economic security.
- Jan 08, 10 Prolonged High Unemployment Could Have Serious Long-Term Consequences Unemployment depletes family resources, which has negative consequences for children. And for young people, joblessness early in their careers diminishes their long-term career prospects.
CLASP's policy experts present at a wide variety of events, conferences, seminars and forums throughout the country. Following are upcoming CLASP staff presentations:
- Feb 09, 10 Michigan's Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity
- Feb 23, 10 Briefing on the Early Learning Challenge Fund
- Feb 25, 10 Ending Poverty, Not Welfare
- Feb 26, 10 Overhaul of the Federal Poverty Measure
- Mar 10, 10 TANF in the Recession and Beyond
- Mar 10, 10 Finding the Money: Will the Federal Government Step Up
- Mar 13, 10 Shifting Gears: Shifting State Adult Education Policies to Support Postsecondary Success
- Apr 09, 10 ECE Policy at the Federal Level - What's in it for Me?.