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The Real Dirt on the American Dream
Home Ownership and Democracy
Owning ones home is the American Dream, but the process of home ownership, the path to a national pattern of ownership has been unique in America and has been an essential ingredient in shaping our democracy
Author Adrianna Long
shares a lifetime love and nearly
two decades of experience in the home ownership industry.
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From the European history that brought settlers to the New World to the building of public parks and the battle to maintain public holdings in the face of demands for more privatization, from tricks on how to make your home more valuable to the realities of affordabilty, this is a book that speaks to who we are and how we got that way... and how our way of life is threatened by high housing costs and homelessness.
The Real Dirt on the American Dream is published by LadybugPress where all titles include a charitable donation of 15% payable to the charity of the author's choice.
The Real Dirt on the American Dream available from LadybugBooks.com is a multimedia book in CD format, Copyright ©2001, ISBN 1-889409-02-2, one CD, $14.95 plus s&h.
Royalties from the sale of this book are being donated to:
National Center for Children in Poverty
at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Our Mission
The mission of the NATIONAL CENTER FOR CHILDREN IN POVERTY (NCCP) is to identify and promote strategies that prevent young child poverty in the United States and that improve the life chances of the millions of children under age six who are growing up poor. NCCP was founded in 1989 at the Columbia School of Public Health and receives core support from the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation.
The Challenge
Nearly one in four children under age six -over five million young children-live in poverty in the U.S. today. (The official poverty line is about $16,800 for a family of four.) Almost five million additional young children live in low-income households that are above the poverty line, but just one missed paycheck from dire financial straits. Despite a strong national economy, the U.S. continues to have the highest young child poverty rate of any Western industrialized nation. And the young child poverty rate has risen sharply over the past two decades.
Why Focus on Young Child Poverty
Preventing young child poverty is one of the smartest investments we can make because it reduces the likelihood of a wide range of problems that are associated with poverty early in life. Of all age groups, children under age six have the highest poverty rate and are the most vulnerable to the consequences of poverty. Scientific research documents that poverty has negative effects on families, communities, our nation, and on children's healthy growth and development. Children who grow up in poverty are significantly more likely to have costly medical problems; experience developmental delays and problems in school; and, as they grow into adolescence and adulthood, they are also more likely to drop out of school, become single parents, and be unemployed.
How We Pursue Our Mission
NCCP focuses on the following mission-driven activities:
Describing the nature, scope, causes, and consequences of young child poverty is critical to developing strategies to overcome it. NCCP's demographic unit conducts original research and publishes reports that alert the nation to the threat posed by young child poverty and gives policymakers insights into the dynamics of young child poverty. Currently, NCCP is developing and assessing alternatives to the official government measure of young child poverty to provide a more complete picture of the problem and to better understand the impact of policies on such poverty.
Identifying Strategies That Work
NCCP's program and policy analysis unit identifies and evaluates promising approaches to prevent young child poverty and to improve the life chances of children in poverty. This work builds on NCCP's expertise in child care, child health, family support, and welfare reform issues. Much of the work includes a strong state and local perspective on national issues. For example:
o The Map and Track series charts state initiatives for young children and families in all 50 states.
o The Children and Welfare Reform Project informs policymakers and practitioners about issues related to linking welfare reform initiatives with early childhood and family support strategies.
o The Child Care Research Partnership and the National Study of Child Care for Low-Income Families analyze administrative data to gain new insights about patterns of child care supply and demand.
Stimulating New Research and Its Application
The Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism was established at the Center in 1997 to facilitate the development of high quality research about the effects of shifting responsibility for many social programs from the federal government to states and localities. The Forum maintains an on-line database (www.researchforum.org) of research on welfare law changes and other relevant policies and programs.
Since 1993, the Center has been engaged in evaluating the largest school-based violence prevention initiative in the United States, the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP). The Center will use the data from RCCP to inform its emerging research agenda focused on young children and families under stress.
Communicating Facts About Young Child Poverty and How to Overcome It
The communications unit links NCCP's research and policy analyses to a dynamic communications strategy that effectively promotes progress against young child poverty. The Center publishes numerous reports, fact sheets, and opinion pieces, and uses on-line communications and library-based resources to disseminate a broad array of research-based information that is directly relevant to improving children's lives. (See the NCCP web site: http://www.nccp.org for full text and summaries of many of the Center's publications and its newsletters.) In addition, the Center commissions opinion research to gain a deeper understanding of public attitudes about child poverty and to gain insights into the attitudinal barriers that have prevented action to reduce child poverty. This research informs the Center's efforts to promote strategies to reduce young child poverty and improve the lives of low-income children.
Contributions toward the work of the National Center for Children in Poverty are tax deductible. Columbia University is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization.
For more information about NCCP and child poverty, please contact us:
National Center for Children in Poverty,
Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University
J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D., Director
Jane Knitzer, Ph.D., Deputy Director and Director for Program and Policy Analysis
Julian Palmer, Director for Communications and Publications
154 Haven Avenue
New York, NY 10032-1180
Tel: (212) 304-7100
Fax: (212)544-4200/544-4201
E-mail: nccp@columbia.edu
Web: www.nccp.org
To contact
Ladybug Press
Georgia@ladybugbooks.com
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