Healthy Families program graduates 16 moms and 1 dad
WHAT: Boston Neighborhoods Healthy Families, a program of Crittenton Women's Union (CWU), will graduate 16 moms and one dad who have completed the free, first-time parenting program. Suffolk University student Mickah Pierre, 21, of Hyde Park, is the first primary dad to graduate from CWU's Healthy Families program. The 16 moms hail from Brighton, Brookline, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale, and West Roxbury.
CWU's Healthy Families serves 140 young parents every year, providing home visiting until the child's third birthday. Healthy Families offers first-time parents (20 years old or younger at the time of the child's birth) in-home support and guidance; parenting education; support groups; child development screenings; parent/child interaction groups; family-focused social and celebratory events; field trips to zoos, libraries, parks, museums, and other places of interest; and referrals to local community resources. CWU's Healthy Families serves Allston, Back Bay, Brighton, Chinatown, Downtown Boston, Fenway, Hyde Park, Kenmore, Mattapan, Roslindale, West Roxbury and Brookline.
A Tufts University evaluation of Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM) found that HFM families had fewer incidents of child abuse, healthier children, and higher parental educational achievement than national averages of teen mothers.
Roslindale, MA 02131
About Crittenton Women's Union
Crittenton Women's Union, a Boston-based nonprofit organization, combines direct service programs, independent research and public policy advocacy in its mission to transform the course of low-income women's lives so that they can attain economic independence and create better futures for themselves and their families. Each year CWU helps more than 1,500 people through its safe housing, education and training programs, and family support services. For more information, visit http://www.liveworkthrive.org/.
Lappen Auto Supply CEO and Harvard Vanguard physician
Lappen, who has headed up Lappen Auto Supply for the past 27 years, and St. Goar, a physician with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Watertown, Mass., and a staff member at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., were voted unanimously to the CWU Board of Directors in March.
“Both Ed and Anne bring particular areas of strength to our board and we welcome their talents,” said Pamela A. Murray, CWU chair and principal, Bessemer Trust Company. “Ed combines a legal background with 30 years as a successful businessman. Having employed more than 400 workers, he understands the economic obstacles employers face in providing their workers with benefits and a family-sustaining wage and, at the same time, knows how imperative it is to create opportunities for people to get ahead and achieve the American dream.
“Anne's three decades as a primary care physician equip her with knowledge and insight into the mental and physical health barriers that often impede our clients' paths to economic self-sufficiency,” added Murray. “Anne's already been heading up a volunteer group of five doctors at our Hastings House facility designed to train CWU staff in recognizing and addressing client behavioral health issues.”
Lappen grew Lappen Auto Supply Co., based in Quincy, Mass., to 20 locations with over 400 employees. In 2005, he sold the business to Advance Auto Parts, but retained a small portion of the business that sells automotive service equipment. A resident of Cohasset, Mass., Lappen serves as vice chair of the Cohasset Advisory Committee and is a member of the local Democratic Town Committee. Lappen is an adult adviser for the Appalachia Service Project and team captain for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. He received his B.A. from Clark University and his J.D. from Suffolk University.
In addition to her positions at Harvard Vanguard and Mt. Auburn Hospital, St. Goar is a clinical instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. St. Goar, who resides in Cambridge, Mass., is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, American Women's Medical Association, and the Society of General Internal Medicine. Currently, she is a board member of Pathways to Wellness, a nonprofit organization that provides alternative therapies on a sliding fee scale. St. Goar received her B. A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
About Crittenton Women's Union
Crittenton Women's Union, a Boston-based nonprofit organization, combines direct service programs, independent research and public policy advocacy in its mission to transform the course of low-income women's lives so that they can attain economic independence and create better futures for themselves and their families. Each year CWU helps more than 1,600 people through its safe housing, education and training programs, and family support services. For more information, visit http://www.liveworkthrive.org/.
Crittenton Women's Union is Named Finalist for $250,000 Nonprofit Collaboration Prize
Crittenton and The Women's Union merged operations in 2006 to form Crittenton Women's Union with the goal of furthering their shared commitment to helping low-income families attain economic self-sufficiency. Combining Crittenton's extensive programming with The Women's Union highly developed research and advocacy areas has positioned CWU to become a laboratory for social change. Today, CWU provides a continuum of services to foster a woman's journey from homelessness to a family-supporting job, conducts independent research into the obstacles the people it serves face, and advocates for policy changes to remove those obstacles.
"We went ahead with our merger because we were convinced that it would make us a stronger organization and allow us to create greater positive impact upon the lives of women struggling to be economically independent," said Elisabeth D. Babcock, president and CEO of Crittenton Women's' Union. "Being chosen as a finalist for this wonderful award is terribly validating because it shows that others, like the Lodestar Foundation, can see this impact, and that we are actually starting to achieve our dreams for the organization and the women we serve."
The Collaboration Prize winner will be announced on March 5, 2009 at a seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona on nonprofit effectiveness hosted by Lodestar and the Association of Small Foundations. The winner - chosen by a Final Selection Panel of leaders from the nonprofit and business worlds - will provide the most successful model of collaboration meeting the prize's criteria (as described on the award's Web site, http://www.thecollaborationprize.org/). All eight finalists will be invited to attend the seminar and to participate in panel discussions to share their experiences.
The announcement of the winner will come at a time when many nonprofits are desperately seeking ways to remain viable in an increasingly harsh fundraising environment.
"The economic crisis has decreased charitable giving and that has dramatically increased interest in collaborations and mergers among nonprofits, particularly with respect to eliminating duplication and sharing resources," says Lodestar board chairman, Jerry Hirsch. "Though such strategies can be an imperative during this economic crisis, collaborations and mergers are best practices that should be considered even in the best of economic times."
To set up an interview with Pamela A. Murray or Elisabeth D. Babcock of Crittenton Women's Union, contact Stephanie Nichols at 617.259.2946 or snichols@liveworkthrive.org.
To speak with someone from The Lodestar Foundation, the AIM Alliance or any of the other finalists, contact Claudia Gunter at cgunter@fenton.com or (212) 584-5000 x 226. For more information on The Collaboration Prize or for more details on the finalists, please visit www.thecollaborationprize.org.
The other seven Collaboration Prize Finalists are:
(in alphabetical order)
- Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, New York, New York, Cancer research collaboration promoting learning over competition
- Chattanooga Museums Collaboration, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Administrative collaboration among The Creative Discovery Museum, The Hunter Museum of American Art and the Tennessee Aquarium
- Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas, Texas, Merger among the Dallas Children's Museum, The Science Place and Dallas Museum of Natural History
- New York LawHelp Consortium, New York, New York, Collaboration among legal services organizations providing on-line resources
- Ready, Set, Parent, Buffalo and Lackawanna, New York, Collaboration between organizations supporting at-risk new parents
- ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia, Ilwaco, Washington, Merger of two community development financial institutions
- YMCA/JCC Integration, Sylvania, Ohio (Greater Toledo), Merger of Jewish Community Center and Young Men's Christian Association in Greater Toledo
About Crittenton Women's Union
Crittenton Women's Union, a Boston-based nonprofit organization, combines direct service programs, independent research and public policy advocacy in its mission to transform the course of low-income women's lives so that they can attain economic independence and create better futures for themselves and their families. Each year CWU helps more than 1,600 people through its safe housing, education and training programs, and family support services. For more information, visit http://www.liveworkthrive.org/.
Crittenton Women's Union board welcomes Shire executive Bruhn
We're thrilled to welcome Suzanne to the CWU board, said Pamela A. Murray, CWU chair and principal, Bessemer Trust Company. With her expertise in strategic planning, Suzanne will contribute invaluably to CWU as we investigate and launch new programs and services that will help low-income families overcome lives trapped in economic distress and achieve economic self-sufficiency.
Dr. Bruhn, who joined Shire in 1998 and heads up strategic planning and program management for HGT, was voted unanimously to the CWU board at its November 12 annual meeting held at the State House.
Dr. Bruhn has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for 14 years. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral research fellow in genetics at Harvard Medical School. Bruhn earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. from Iowa State University of Science and Technology.
About Crittenton Women's Union
Crittenton Women's Union, a Boston-based nonprofit organization, combines direct service programs, independent research and public policy advocacy in its mission to transform the course of low-income women's lives so that they can attain economic independence and create better futures for themselves and their families. Each year CWU helps more than 2,000 people through its safe housing, education and training programs, and family support services. For more information, visit http://www.liveworkthrive.org/.
Low-Wage Workers Earning $8/Hour Can Be Better off Than at Twice the Pay
greater family economic instability
Fits & Starts: The Difficult Path for Working Single Parents also reports that a single parent not receiving housing and child care aid will find herself up to $1,666 a month short of meeting her basic living costs when making the $8 an hour minimum wage, and will not earn enough to meet all her familys living expenses until she earns $29 an hour or $58,000 a year. Two-thirds of eligible families do not receive housing and child care assistance, primarily because of lack of available funding to meet the demand, though they may be more likely to receive some public supports.
Fits & Starts highlights the tough choices Massachusetts low-wage workers must make between taking higher paying jobs and losing critical work supports before they can afford to meet their basic living expenses. Among the reports key recommendations is a call for greater, more sustained investments in critical work support programs, chiefly by pegging eligibility to the real cost of living for low-wage workers in the state. The report also recommends improving access to financial aid for education for low-income adult students, in combination with expanded child care and housing supports.
The current fragmented system of state and federal work supports, with its varying eligibility criteria and funding shortfalls, means that working parents can easily find themselves in worse financial straits even as they work toward economic independence, said Donna Haig Friedman, director, The Center for Social Policy, UMass Boston. This research shows that housing and child care assistance can provide the greatest benefit to low-income families in meeting their basic family needs, yet these programs remain woefully underfunded.
In Massachusetts, a family of three needs to earn about 300 percent of the federal poverty level to make ends meet. However, most public assistance program thresholds dont reflect that reality, said Elisabeth D. Babcock, president and CEO of Crittenton Womens Union and a report co-author. We need a system of increased graduated supports that will sustain low-skilled working parents as they pursue the education and training necessary to get jobs paying wages high enough to eliminate their need for public assistance altogether.
Those receiving public assistance find that their net monthly resourcestheir after-tax income from earnings plus the value of work supports minus the cost of all basic needsdo not rise in step with wage increases for full-time workers earning between $11 and $29 per hour. Instead, workers at higher wages levels can be left with fewer resources than when they earned less.
Fits & Starts reviewed the eligibility thresholds of seven public work support programs: child care assistance, Child Tax Credit (CTC), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Food Stamps, MassHealth, Section 8 rental housing assistance and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Applying these programs varying criteria, the report tracked the net monthly resources of a Boston family of three (single parent with two school-age children) receiving all eligible work supports as its earnings increased. A single parent making $8 per hour ($16,000/yr) nets $439 a month. However, at $16 ($32,000/yr) this is reduced to $391, and at $21 per hour ($42,000/yr), shes left with $440, about the same as at $8 per hour.
Using the Massachusetts Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard (FESS) published by Crittenton Womens Union, the Center for Social Policy found that close to 900,000 people in Massachusetts families with earningsone out of every fourfall far short of meeting their basic needs, even with whatever work supports they receive. FESS indicates that, depending where they live in the state, a family of three requires an income of between $44,000 and $58,000 annually (between 266 percent and 350 percent of federal poverty level) to afford basic needs without public assistance.
The Fits & Starts report makes additional recommendations including training case manages to provide in-depth financial and educational counseling and introducing work support calculators to help families anticipate and plan for benefit loss.
About The Center for Social Policy at UMass Bostons McCormack Graduate School
The Center for Social Policy, within UMass Boston's McCormack Graduate School, seeks to positively impact the public/private/nonprofit policies and practices that affect the lives of those with the lowest incomes in Massachusetts and elsewhere. The focus of our applied policy research participatory evaluation and action research, technical assistance and strategic messaging/outreach is on system-level changes targeted at the structural causes for poverty and social exclusion in low income communities. For more information go to: www.mccormack.umb.edu/csp and www.umb.edu/bridgingthegaps
About Crittenton Womens Union
Contacts
Crittenton Womens Union
Stephanie Nichols
Ofc: 617-259-2946
Cell: 617-365-5931
snichols@liveworkthrive.org
or
UMass Boston
David Sparks
Ofc: 617-287-5550
Cell: 617-378-1112
david.sparks@umb.edu
Suze Orman pledges $50,000 to Crittenton Womens Union
The Working Poor Families Project Report
Crittenton Womens Union to Honor Suze Orman
FESS Report Release
Read the and download press releases about the 2006 Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard, published February 2007.
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Crittenton Women's Union Merger
Read the press release (139 kb) about the merger between Crittenton and The Women's Union, published March 9, 2006.
