Breaking the Poverty Cycle: Strategic Points for Intervention

108 The press to meet mounting social any of these programs would affect problems, combined with budgetary well over a million people. Other pro cutbacks, elimination of programs, imgrams affect even more recipients. For poundment of funds, and scarce reexample, the 1972 changes in Medicaid sources, makes this a critical period (P.L. 92-603) terminated some bene for social welfare and the social work fits for over 20 million low-income profession. If the profession is to recitizens, and an increase in Medicare main viable, more social workers must fees would affect virtually everyone become active as legislative advocates, over age 65, or about 22 million In this article the term legislative adelderly and disabled people.2 vocate refers to any individual, agency, The largest social welfare program or organization who attempts to influis, of course, social security. If Con ence the course of a bill or other gress makes one change in social se legislative measure. curity benefits, which it does nearly The purpose of this article is threeevery year, that change can directly fold: (1) to present data supporting influence the income of 124 million the assertion that this is indeed a critipeople—30 million beneficiaries and cal and perhaps a pivotal period for 94 million workers (whose payroll tax social work, (2) to discuss factors in would be increased)—well over half the legislative process that set limits on the population.3 the amount of influence one may exDespite a Republican administration pect to exert, including the roles of and the demise of many social pro compromise, time, and rational persuagrams started in the 1960s, important sion, and (3) to examine specific tacwelfare legislation continues to be in tics that may be used—the provision troduced and debated in both federal of timely and relevant information, the and state legislatures. For example, selection of targets of influence, and major federal legislation has been in the use of legislative and administratroduced recently on child develop tive staffs as conduits of influence. ment, health care, the minimum wage, welfare reform, social security, hous NEED FOR ADVOCATES i„g( an(j manpower.4 And thousands The need for involvement of social of bills concerning social welfare are workers in legislative advocacy has introduced each year into the fifty state long been recognized and supported.1 legislatures. Few bills survive the tor However, it is even more critical now tuous legislative process. Some deserve because of three significant factors: to pass, but many are not in the best ( 1 ) The breadth of social legislation interests of the public or do not rep causes even minor changes in policy to resent enlightened social policy. The have a major impact on millions of point is that social change will come people. (2) Much important social about whether or not social workers legislation continues to be introduced are actively involved in the process, each year. Moreover, an ever growing Moreover, federal, state, and local proportion of the budget and national governments allocated 55 percent of resources is being devoted to welfaretheir budgets for welfare activities in type activities, and it is important that fiscal 1973, compared with 42 per social workers have a role in determincent in 1965. Social welfare expendi ing priorities. (3) The lack of a budtures under public programs rose from getary surplus, combined with a slow $52.3 billion in 1960 to $215 billion rate of growth, will make competition in 1972. The proportion of the gross for funds expended on social welfare national product devoted to public so more intense than in the past. cial welfare increased from 11.8 per New legislation can produce widecent in 1965 to 17.6 percent in 1973.5 spread social change for specific segIn short, the public sector's role in ments of the population. For example, financing social welfare is growing in fiscal 1972 there were 17 governrapidly. In addition, decisions affecting mental income-transfer and in-kind social welfare are being made increas programs, each of which had over a ingly in state and federal legislatures, million recipients. Thus a change in Revenue sharing shifts even more deci

There is great potential and legitimacy for redistributing income to low-income families through social security (OASDI). The potentiality exists since the expenditures for the program are enormous compared with those for other income maintenance programs. The legitimacy for income redistribution can be argued based on the grounds that social security is not a private insurance program but a mechanism to transfer income from the working population to groups of people who are afflicted by risks identified under the law. Empirically speaking, there are several grounds to argue that the amount of transfer income through social security to the high-wage beneficiary family is probably greater than that to the low-wage beneficiary family. Having argued on the potential and legitimacy for income redistribution through social security, the article ends with several proposals on how to implement income redistribution through the program.

SummaryIn one major respect British experience with social security policies since 1946 has vindicated Beveridge's analysis, namely that to be successful, any income maintenance program must be buttressed by an effective attack on other social problems. Two of these, the complications resulting from the varying size of families and the burden of medical care costs, have been the subject of special measures, Children's Allowances and the National Health Service. The former is not as effective as it might be, owing to the still modest level of the allowance per child; the latter has undoubtedly made the task of the income maintenance and public assistance services much easier by freeing them from the necessity of attempting to pay benefits or allowances to cover medical care costs, a particularly important consideration in regard to the aged.But in the areas of housing and employment less has been done. The lack of adequate housing means that in many cases the Assistance Board has to grant higher allowances to cover unduly high rents or to carry a heavy burden of supplementation to meet rent charges. And although Britain has, until recently, enjoyed a surprisingly high degree of full employment, there is little evidence that this has been the result of deliberate policy; the situation now seems to be changing. The next few years may well see social security policy responding, as in the prewar period, to the needs of the unemployed rather than so exclusively to the needs of the aged. And it seems likely too that the needs of the unemployed will be interpreted more broadly than was the case in the prewar period, when it was thought sufficient merely to ensure some modicum of income. In the future it can be anticipated that there will be much greater pressure on the government to provide employment, through general expansionist policies, measures to revive depressed areas, more effective retraining and transfer programs, and perhaps also expanded public works.In another respect, however, Britain's postwar social security experience has demonstrated that income security policy itself can never be determined once and for all. Increasing affluence has called in question the appropriateness of Beveridge's assumption that all that was needed was to ensure a very low minimum social insurance payment. Greater knowledge of the circumstances of those with little or no income has raised doubts as to the extent to which economic insecurity could be eliminated through universal coverage by social insurance, unsupported by a quite extensive national assistance system. It has also become clear, in view of the persistence in a period of high employment of groups of employable persons who for personal reasons are unable to secure or retain jobs, that assurance of income alone is not enough. The future is likely to witness a considerable expansion of social services other than income maintenance, not only for such groups but also for the aged whose needs are increasingly seen to demand something more than minimum income maintenance.

This article explores the governance of Houston, the archetype laissez‐faire city in the USA. The research examines the complexity of Houston's minimal government intervention rhetoric, which in practice involves extensive federal, state and local government involvement in economic development in combination with a disinterest in social service and income maintenance programmes. This governance strategy is outlined through an examination both of regional public policy and local public finances. The analysis illustrates that Houston's local governance has historically been based on a management approach that attempts actively to minimize costs for potential investors to locate in the City, through public intervention, while at the same time generating an unattractive urban environment for the socially marginalized — hence the disinterest in social services. Thus, despite the local laissez‐faire rhetoric, government intervention in Houston's growth has been vital and has produced the extraordinary impacts usually expected from public involvement in local economic development. The foundations of this local governance strategy are both predicted and advocated by the public choice approach, a theoretical framework whose emphasis on inter‐municipal competition advances management tactics based on maintaining low taxes and low expenditures on public welfare. The research also shows, however, that Houston is unique, when compared to other economically successful US cities, in following such an extreme approach of this management strategy.

To investigate associations between 'less healthy eating' and 'unhealthy snacking' at age 11, and family life (family structure, meals and maternal employment status) together with potential socio-economic confounders and gender. Children participated in a school-based survey, questionnaires also being completed by parents. Analyses were based on those with complete data, weighted to account for bias in return of parental questionnaires (N = 2146). Data from a dietary inventory, questions on food choice and snacks were used to classify 'less healthy eating' and 'unhealthy snacking'. Less healthy eating' (57%) and 'unhealthy snacking' (32%) were associated with greater deprivation, fewer maternal qualifications and being male. Compared with children of full-time homemakers, the likelihood of 'less healthy eating' was reduced among those whose mothers worked part-time (this effect remaining after socio-economic adjustment), full-time (effect removed after adjustment), or were unemployed, sick or disabled (effect emerging after adjustment). 'Unhealthy snacking' was not related to maternal employment, and neither measure was associated with family structure or daily meals. There was no evidence that family structure or meals were associated with children's diets, although maternal employment had a positive association. Contrasting with the size of these effects, relationships between diet and socio-economic status were strong.

Recent state and federal legislation such as the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) addresses hate crime prevention and punishment. Two pivotal questions that arise in the development of such legislation are (a) should hate crime perpetrators be subject to penalty enhancements? and (b) should protections be extended to sexual and transgender minority individuals? This article presents two studies addressing these questions employing a two-step vignette methodology. Jury-eligible community members provided sentencing and blame attribution ratings for one of three hate crime scenarios (i.e., anti-African American, antigay, or antitransgender), as well as penalty enhancement agreement (i.e., yes/no) and measures of need for affect (Study 1) and need for cognition (Study 2). Patterns of findings across studies suggest that participants comply with hate crime legislation instructions in general, but sentencing decisions are consistently moderated by whether a participant agrees with the penalty enhancement aspect of hate crime legislation. Moreover, need for affect and need for cognition differentially impact perceptions of hate crimes; need for affect demonstrated predictive associations with victim blame, whereas need for cognition moderated relations with perpetrator sentence and blame judgments. Results are discussed with emphasis on the state of federal hate crime legislation, antigay and antitransgender prejudice, and future directions in research and policy.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine why the uptake of free milk in a particular nursery class was low, to explore the meanings children attribute to drinks given to them in school and those brought from home, and make suggestions as to what might be done to improve children's intake of free school milk.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a case study of a nursery class attached to a primary school in West London. A total of 24 morning sessions were observed, comprising of 72 snack times. In addition, interviews were carried out with parents and early years' practitioners i.e. teachers and nursery nurses. Children's views were elicited through use of narrative observations and an activity using their drinks' cartons.FindingsThis study found that these young children linked drinks brought in from home to having choices whereas drinking school milk was associated with having little or no choice. Unlike school milk, drinks from home were linked to stories of personal identity and family life. The children seemed to exert pressure on their parents to provide them with a drink from home and appeared to be attracted to drinks that included representations of characters from popular culture as well as particular brands.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is based on one case study, therefore issues raised may not be generalisable to all nursery settings.Practical implicationsThis paper encourages early years' practitioners to look in detail at how they organize snack times and the way that this might contribute to negative perceptions of healthy foods/drinks. It offers practical suggestions around how the uptake of milk could be improved in a nursery setting, emphasizing the need for the active involvement of the children. In addition, the study highlights the importance of informal as well as formal discussions with parents about food and drinks. The study recommends that improvements need to be made to early years' practitioners' initial and subsequent training in this area, given the significant role they play in health promotion.Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in the way it elicits the active participation of young children in the research as well as the focus on the minutiae of nursery practice and its implications for promoting healthy eating/drinking.

T HE RELATIVELY HIGH PROPORTION of lawyers serving in American legislative bodies has long attracted the interest of political scientists. Lawyers now consistently comprise well over one half of the membership of the United States Congress and generally are believed to constitute between one quarter to more than one half of the membership of most state legislative chambers. The practice of law is clearly the predominant occupation among state and federal legislators, and understandably, this descriptive fact has raised questions as to whether lawyer-legislators behave differently than nonlawyer-legislators. Lawyer-legislators do tend to be younger than their nonlawyer colleagues, and appear to be more politically ambitious and more likely to view legislative office as a temporary position useful for either political or private professional advancement.' But empirical

Influencing public policy through advocacy is an essential strategy used by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) to achieve its health impact goals and programmatic objectives, which include helping all Americans lead healthier lives and reducing the incidence and consequences of cardiovascular disease and stroke. This advocacy work involves and engages the association's national officers, researchers, volunteer advocates, staff, and the general public and is a core strategy and key work process of the AHA/ASA. The organization's strategic approach to influencing public policy and leveraging its science and evidence base is not well known. This article provides the historical context of AHA advocacy, the organizational and legal structure under which these activities are carried out, the process used to develop the association's public policy positions and goals, the approaches used to achieve these goals, and the methods that have been developed to evaluate progress. This statement also examines the various tools and tactics that advocacy organizations use to influence public policy and specifically how the AHA/ASA conducts policy research, legislative and regulatory lobbying, coalition building and grassroots mobilization, and media advocacy. Finally, the ways that AHA/ASA evaluates the impact of its advocacy efforts are discussed, highlighting specific case studies and a brief summary of the association's 2010 to 2013 public policy agenda. The AHA's efforts to translate the science of cardiovascular disease and stroke into meaningful public policy began in earnest in the early 1980s. The association established a full-time office in Washington, DC, in early 1981 that was initially focused on increasing federal research funding administered by the National Institutes of Health.1 Other early policy priorities included tobacco control and support for programs that increased access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs), new clinical preventive benefits in the Medicare program, and nutrition policy. The commitment and involvement of …

Vpliv družine na posameznika je zelo močan in traja vse življenje. Družina se loči od drugih dejavnikov, ker posameznik v družinskem okolju preživi največ časa. V okviru družine otrok napravi prve korake, izreče prve besede, pridobi prvo znanje in prve vrednote, oblikuje temelje za nadaljnji razvoj v popolno osebnost. Starši so otrokovi prvi in najodgovornejši vzgojitelji, vzgoja pa je najpomembnejša in verjetno najzahtevnejša naloga vsakega starša. Mladostniško obdobje je v življenju posameznika velikega pomena zaradi procesa osamosvajanja in individuacije. Je prehodno obdobje, ki vodi iz otroštva v zrelost, in je tudi najbolj dinamično v posameznikovem razvoju. V tem obdobju se mladostniki spreminjajo in zorijo ter postanejo sposobni sprejemati lastne odločitve. Odnosi s starši močno vpivajo na njihovo vedenje. Naš prispevek analizira družino skozi družinsko interakcijo, ki ima naslednje razsežnosti: zadovoljstvo z družino, sprejetost ali zavračanje s strani matere in očeta. Namen raziskave je bil ugotoviti, ali starševsko ravnanje in zadovoljstvo z družino, kot ju doživlja mladostnik, vplivata na njegova stališča do raznih vidikov družinskega življenja. Raziskava je zajela 862 dijakov zadnjih letnikov srednje šole, od katerih jih je bilo 385 moškega spola in 477 ženskega. Izsledki so pokazali statistično pomembno korelacijo med ovrednotenimi dimenzijami družinskih odnosov in stališči mladostnikov do družinskega življenja, z izjemo odnosa do dela. Pridobljena spoznanja je mogoče uporabiti v programih, ki naj skrbijo predvsem za pripravo mladih na starševske in zakonske vloge in razvijajo veščine, ki jih bodo mladostniki potrebovali pozneje v družinskem življenju za konstruktivno reševanje problemov, s katerimi se bodo srečevali.

For children with type 1 diabetes, the period of adolescence is associated with higher blood glucose levels and increased psychological distress compared to other age groups. Focusing on pre-teens (9-12years) with type 1 diabetes and their families has been suggested as key to understanding and reducing these challenges. The aim of this study was to explore: 1, how diabetes affects family life, 2, experiences of and needs for support and 3, how care responsibilities are negotiated among pre-teens with type 1 diabetes and their families. Data were obtained from four interactive workshops with pre-teens (n=17), their parents (n=26) and their siblings (n=14). Dialogue tools, for example quotes and picture cards, were used to facilitate discussion and reflection concerning family life with type 1 diabetes. Data analysis resulted in three themes: 1, diabetes takes up 'a lot of space', 2, giving and receiving support and 3, balancing control and flexibility. While diabetes took up significant space in the families, family members protected each other from their respective frustrations. The findings point to the significance of considering all key family members and their interactions in diabetes interventions. This includes balancing control and flexibility, negotiating responsibilities and building trust.

Use of information on inflation, pharmacoeconomics, market introduction of new drug entities, practice-site-specific drug-use patterns, federal legislation, and the changing structure of health care delivery to project drug expenditures is discussed. Drug price inflation has been declining over the past several years, from 6.9% in 1991 to 2.2% for part of 1994. This can be attributed to both the growth of managed care and the industry's fear of government price controls. Pharmaceutical industry analysts project the overall price increase for pharmaceuticals in the next 12-24 months to be 2-5%. Pharmacoeconomic research is likely to become increasingly important; pharmacists will need to understand and critically evaluate this research. Drug budget projections should include a complete review of new drugs and biotechnology agents pending FDA approval, drugs pending approval for new indications, and common unlabeled uses of expensive existing agents. Various methods are available for tracking practice-site-specific drug-use patterns; those that categorize expenditures by diagnosis-related group may underestimate total expenditures associated with treating a given condition. State and federal legislation may affect drug rebates, prices, and ultimately drug expenditures. Although health care reform legislation did not pass in 1994, changes are occurring in both the pharmaceutical industry and in health care delivery, shifting the control of drug selection, utilization, and expenditures from individual prescribers to large purchasers. The accuracy of projections of drug expenditures can be improved by examining inflation, pharmacoeconomic research, the introduction of new drug entities, practice-site-specific drug-use patterns, federal legislation, and the changing structure of health care delivery.

Under Australian constitutional theory and practice the Federal executive is the sole organ for the conduct of international relations and is constitutionally competent to negotiate, conclude and ratify treaties and international agreements binding upon the Australian Commonwealth internationally. The Power to conclude treaties is exercised solely by the Executive of the Australian Commonwealth. In regard to the implementation of treaties Australia adopts the dualist view, i.e., legislation is generally necessary to make treaty provisions operative within municipal law. The implementation of treaties concluded by the federal executive depends, however, on the constitution and the nature of the limits laid down thereby, particularly the federal division of legislative powers between federal and state legislatures. The federal executive is competent to legislate pursuant to treaties and international obligations in cases where the subject-matter of the treaties and obligations falls within legislative competence of the Federal Parliament (i.e., “external affairs” and other subject-matters). On the other hand there is reasonable doubt that the Federal Parliament can clothe itself with legislative authority which is inconsistent with the distribution of legislative powers between federal and state legislatures. As a result, politically if not constitutionally, the implementation of treaties domestically becomes a matter for the states in cases where the Federal Parliament or the Federal Executive is deemed not to have the necessary constitutional powers to enact legislation concerning the subject-matter of a treaty.1

Social work as a profession does not exist in the Soviet Union. But social welfare, interpreted to include income maintenance and social service programs, is very much in evidence; indeed, of Brobdingnagian proportions and considerable variety. Wel fare functions are performed by a multitude of people who fall into the following major groups: social insurance delegates directed by trade unions, welfare workers employed by the fifteen republic ministries of social welfare, physicians and nurses in public health, and teachers and vospitateli (peda gogues-upbringers) in the educational sys tem. What they do and what qualifications, if any, they possess constitute the focus of this article.

The main objective of this review was to describe and emphasize the care that a woman must have in the period prior to pregnancy, as well as throughout pregnancy and after the birth of the baby, cares and duties that should continue to be followed by mother and child throughout the first years of the child’s life. Such cares are of nutritional, behavioral and lifestyle natures, and also involve the father and the whole family. Human development, from conception to maturity, consists of a critical and important period due to the multitude of intrinsic genetic and environmental factors that influence, positively or negatively, the person's entire life. The human being, who originated and passed his/her first phase of development in the womb, receives influence from different factors: a) of parental origin (father and mother), including health and lifestyle of the father and mother, genetic inheritance, nutrition of the mother prior to and during pregnancy; b) events that affected the mother and hence the child under development in intrauterine life, at birth (delivery), during perinatal period, and throughout the early years of life. The fragility of development continues throughout the preschool, school and adolescent periods during which proper nutrition with a balanced lifestyle is essential and depends on guidance from the parents, caregivers and teachers.