Children's Issues

Foster Care & Education

Children living in foster care face a broad range of unique challenges.  As a result of being estranged from their biological parents for an undesignated amount of time, both their emotional and physical stability is disrupted.  There are a number of repercussions associated with this lack of stability.  One of the observed consequences of foster care is lower performance in an educational setting.

 

According to a report published by the National Conference of State Legislatures in 2008, children placed in foster care are more likely than their peers not in foster care to have higher rates of school transfer, school absence or tardiness, suspension.  They also reportedly exhibit lower academic performance and are not as likely to graduate high school or go on to college. 

 

The stark differences witnessed between foster children and those not in foster care called for immediate policy attention and collaboration.  Fortunately, this need was recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families. In November of 2011 the two entities met to discuss how a collaboration between them could improve educational outcomes for children in foster care.

 

Part of the meeting entailed a comprehensive discussion on the implementation of the 2008 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act and how it will improve educational outcomes for foster children.  According to the Department of Education, “the law requires that State child welfare agencies include action in case plans that will increase educational stability for children in foster care.”  One way they imagined minimizing instability for foster children and enhancing their educational outcomes was by ensuring children remain in their original school throughout their placement.  A full summary of the 2008 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act provided by the Children’s Defense Fund is available here.

 

While the partnership established by the Department of Education and Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families on the federal level is extremely important, in order to ensure a level of stability for children in foster care, collaboration must exist at all levels.  Most notably, this includes ensuring guidance counselors and school administrators are aware of their students’ living situations so that they can offer them the tools they need to thrive in a school setting amidst the disruption of their home lives.  Through the integration of electronic files, necessary personnel would be able to receive automatic notifications about a change in a student’s custodial status and reach out to him or her before there is cause for concern.  

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

 

Piggybackr

Fundraising is a classic rite of passage for many children.  They spend time selling cookies, wrapping paper and lemonade.  Two innovators, Andrea Lo and Keenahn Jung, realized an opportunity to integrate children’s efforts, technology and philanthropy.  Together, they founded Piggybackr, a web-based platform that allows children to take their fundraising efforts from doorsteps to the Internet. 

 

Implementing a similar strategy to their crowdfunding predecessors Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Piggybackr establishes a safe environment for children to campaign online.  Here, children have the flexibility to fundraise individually or as a group, with or without supervision.  Sample fundraisers include Matthew, a thirteen-year-old boy from the Bay Area in California who wanted to raise money for the Bay Area Outreach & Rec Program YOUTH.  He raised over one thousand dollars, far surpassing his five hundred dollar fundraising goal. Another example includes a Robotics team looking to purchase parts, materials and supplies to build a robot that competed in various robotics competitions.

 

Piggybackr takes advantage of the fact that children already interact with the Internet and creates another frontier through which they can give back to their community, advocate for a cause they care about and develop confidence.

 

In addition, the fundraising platform uses gaming mechanisms that shift the emphasis away from earning the most money for a team.  Piggybackr’s point system rewards efforts and assigns points to specific efforts, such as emailing twenty family members for a donation.  This allows children to feel proud of their accomplishments regardless of the dollar amount they raised. Aside from gaining confidence, Piggybackr is also an excellent place for children to learn professional skills, such as setting goals, emailing contacts and partnering with local businesses.   

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

 

Children and Obesity

Did you know that approximately one in every three children is obese?  Rates of obesity in children between the ages of two and nineteen have grown over time and are a cause for concern.  There are many factors that lead to obesity.  These include: unhealthy diet, lack of mobility and genetics.  Apart from genetics, obesity drivers can be mitigated through corrective behavior.

 

Unhealthy Diet

With the ubiquitous presence of fast food restaurants and processed foods, it’s no wonder that such a high proportion of American children are obese!  Rather than ingesting nutritious food options, such as fruits and vegetables, children are turning to easy snack foods such as chips and candy bars. The high levels of sugar and lack of nutritional value actually end up leaving children under-nourished.

 

Since people living in poverty are more likely to have poor health outcomes than those not living in poverty, including obesity, it is important to consider what barriers might exist that deter people from buying healthy food options.  Two examples of such barriers include the price of healthy alternatives to junk food and the relative inconvenience of obtaining and preparing these options.

 

Cooking is expensive for a number of reasons.  For one, buying produce can be expensive, especially if you end up wasting it!  Recently, due to the drought in 2012, food has become more expensive.  The price alone may be a barrier to buying healthier foods. SNAP, the government’s supplemental nutrition assistance program is designed to minimize the economic burden of buying produce.

 

Additionally, consumers may be aware that in order to prepare a meal you need more than just a couple representatives from the food pyramid (eg: chicken, rice and broccoli).  To create a healthy and delicious meal that can compete with fast food, you need to invest in spices and condiments.  This may feel like a large investment for people with limited cash flow.

 

Cooking is also expensive in terms of time.  You have to invest time in going to the grocery store, preparing the food to be cooked and actually cooking the food. Investing such a large amount of time is especially difficult for single-headed households where parents have to balance their time between working and parenting.

 

Two additional barriers that are not classified as “expensive” in terms of resources or time, but create an obstacle to parents in low socioeconomic communities seeking to provide nutritious alternatives for their children include the lack of grocery stores with healthy food options in impoverished communities and the lack of cooking knowledge, especially in young parents.  It would be interesting to consider how increasing the availability of nutritious produce paired with a campaign to teach simple, quick and healthy recipes to parents living in communities with high rates of poverty might minimize the risk of obesity in children.

 

Lack of Mobility

More than ever before, children are living relatively static lives.  This is strongly correlated with a rise in obesity and due in part to advances in technology.  Studies found that children who are overweight spend more time watching television than children who are not overweight.  In combatting obesity in children, it is important to create opportunities for children to develop a positive relationship with exercise.  This will teach them how to integrate exercise into their schedules and foster the necessary groundwork for them to become healthy adults.

 

Even though children living in poverty are more likely to be obese than their more affluent peers, many of the aforementioned factors are not specific to children living in poverty.  While people living in poverty have additional socioeconomic strains to consider, the obesity epidemic is pertinent to all children and we America must be proactive in implementing policies to eliminate it.

 

Part of the solution lies in getting the information out to the public and drawing attention to the alarming rates of obesity in American children.  Additionally, creating technologies (as the USDA has done with ChooseMyPlate) that present healthy food options to children is an integral part of the process. Lastly, since children spend the majority of their time in school, it is important to ensure fighting obesity is at the forefront of every school’s agenda, as sported by the USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge that recognizes schools with healthy lunch programs. 

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

 

Children and Homelessness

Although the National Alliance to End Homelessness announced in its most recent report that the downturn in the American economy has not lead to an increase in homelessness nationally, there are a number of areas in which homelessness increased drastically over the past year.  One of those areas includes New York City.  According to Seth Diamond, the commissioner of homeless services, the stark increase in homelessness is cause for concern and requires immediate action.  

 

The Coalition for the Homeless, an organization dedicated to creating strategies that end mass homelessness in New York City, reported that homelessness in New York City has increased by 22 percent since 2012.  To frame that statistic in another way, consider the following facts:

• 12,000 families are living in NYC homeless shelters
• 21,000 children are living in NYC homeless shelters
• 50,000 people in NYC are living in homeless shelters

 

New York City Open Data collects information about homelessness in New York City.  One dataset, the Directory of Homeless Population By Year, offers information on homelessness from 2009-2012.  The information is classified by several characteristics, including what borough the individual was in and whether or not the individual was sheltered or unsheltered.  Additional datasets available to the public include information about homelessness throughout the nation, afterschool programs available to homeless youth and homeless prevention services.

 

While homelessness is heartbreaking and destructive for people of all ages, it is particularly detrimental to children.  For one, children who experience homelessness are more likely than other children to face a number of physical and mental health problems.  These include a greater risk of asthma, hyperactivity and depression.  Additionally, children living in poverty are more likely to repeat grades in school and drop out of high school.  The negative implications on a child’s education are likely to haunt them throughout their adult lives and careers.

 

It is important to realize that the negative implications of homelessness spill over into other parts of children’s lives and have long-term consequences felt by individuals and the community.  In order to ensure children do not endure the negative consequences of homelessness, it is important to use data to create effective policies that respond to the drivers of poverty and homelessness in the United States.

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

How Social Media Helps Children

The effect of social media on children is a topic of frequent discussion.  Research has been compiled on the impact of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on the lives of teenagers and preteens.  The negative effects of social media on youth are widespread and touch on various elements of adolescents’ lives.  For one, the use of social media has been positively correlated with depression and anxiety among teenagers.  Additionally, there is a growing concern that adolescents are not learning the basic, face-to-face social skills they need to actively participate in society because of their reliance on virtual interactions.  Social media has also been castigated as yet another avenue for harmful bullying and exposure to unmonitored sexual and violent messages.   On a similar front, technology and virtual games have been criticized for hindering outdoor and physically interactive activities. 

 

Amidst the denigration of social media, there are a number of positive benefits recognized by researchers, as well.  These include: the retention of larger social networks, the ability for teachers to engage students through a mechanism familiar to children and the opportunity for introverted children to develop confidence in engaging with other members of their age group.

 

The most compelling role social media plays in impacting children, however, is not through children’s individual interactions with technology, but rather through the use of social media platforms in relaying information to the masses.  Through social media, the strife of children around the world can easily be articulated to a broad audience.  Organizations such as Save the Children and UNICEF have incorporated Twitter and Facebook in their outreach campaigns.  These organizations, along with other organizations invested in the wellbeing of children, post 140 character messages on their websites for the public to copy and tweet.  By providing preconfigured tweets, organizations can control the messages they want to disseminate, attract people’s support by diminishing the burden on the public to come up with their own tweets and reach a broad and diverse population.  Twitter and Facebook have become an integral part of public outreach.  Look out for Tweets ready for you to send at the bottom of emails from organizations you care about!

 

Another example of the way in which the public is recruited to help organizations through use of social media platforms is the advent of Tweetathons.  Tweetathons organize the public around a particular issue and ask their followers to spread the word through tweets.  For instance, InterAction launched a Tweetathon last month and asked the public to spread awareness about the Syrian Crisis by tweeting from 9AM to 9PM on March 15^th.

Here are a couple examples of the tweets Interaction prepared to facilitate the Tweetathon:

• Please RT: Stop the suffering in #Syria each day. 52% are children. To help, visit: http://ow.ly/gBUPi v@UNRefugeeAgency #SyriaCrisis
• Meet Bushra: A single mother who is also the 1,000,000th Syrian refugee. http://ow.ly/iSWr8 via@UNRefugeeAgency #SyriaCrisis

 

Twitter has also been used to help raise awareness and money on the domestic front. Various causes, organizations and departments in the government actively use Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms to engage the public in their mission.  For instance, an individual interested in eliminating child hunger can follow @USDANutrition, @EndChildHunger, @nokidhungry or a variety of other handles to find out the most up to date information about the cause.

 

Shira Lazar, the host of a live, interactive news hub reports on the potential for organizations to use Twitter to raise funds by creating a challenge where a dedicated donor agrees to donate a certain sum per tweet.  She claims that by broadcasting Tweetathons on YouTube, organizations can “[bring] back those telethons we all loved growing up, but for the digital age.”

 

As social media becomes more embedded in our lives, perhaps the negative implications of social media on children’s health and mental statuses will be eliminated, allowing for it to be accepted as beneficial part of adolescence.  Until then, it is important to realize the immense benefit of being able to address large populations and efficiently disseminate important messages concerning the wellbeing of children.  Furthermore, by allowing the public to easily learn about and support a cause, social media plays an important role in creating a more engaged and informed population.

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

How Open Data & Open Source Governance Impact the Children of the World

The adage reads, “It takes a village to raise a child.”   In today’s age of open data, governance and technology, we have transitioned from relying on a village to relying on the vast collections of data and public online help forums that impact children’s lives.  Technology now influences both policies related to children's wellbeing and parenting techniques.  We are collectively raising the children of the world as we gather information that better reflects the health status, poverty rates and access to education, among other concerns, of children around the world.  

The Children’s Defense Fund in conjunction with the United States Census Bureau has gathered and published a wide range of information pertinent to the history and status of child since the 1970s.  The Children’s Defense Fund focuses on implementing new policies and improving current policies that address the following issues: eliminating child poverty, ensuring all children and pregnant women have access to medical care, protecting children from abuse and neglect, providing high quality childcare and early education, improving education outcomes and ending the criminalization of youth.  More recently, the Children’s Defense Fund has worked on collecting data and allowing the public to access that information in an effort to create an intersection between policy making, open data and public intervention.  Apart from collecting a broad range of data, the Children’s Defense Fund also relays the information it has collected in a user-friendly format that effectively disseminates information to parents as well as policy officials, drawing on the Open Government Partnership’s dedication to transparency.

On the global level, the United Nation Children’s Fund, more commonly known as UNICEF, has also made an earnest effort to release influential data to the public. UNICEF’s dedication to protecting children’s rights, improving their health and nurturing their development, as articulated on their website, is inevitably tied to their ability to assist countries as they collect reliable data about the state of children throughout the world.  Statistics on the broad range of programs UNICEF supports are available online.  UNICEF’s Office of Research also teams with a number of partners to build databases and gather information related to certain issue areas such as the Child Impact database, TansMONEE database and Innocenti Library.

Increased access and collection of statistical data are not the only improvements in the convergence of technology and children’s issues.  Caregiving adults and children now have a wider variety of tools to make more informed decisions that undoubtedly influence their children’s lives.  For example, parents can access information about student-teacher ratios in specific school districts on the Institute of Education Sciences’ website when researching schools for their children or observe flu trends when debating whether to take their children to get a flu shot.  A quick search on Google with the phrase “parenting help blog” provided me with almost two hundred million forums where parents can solicit help and advice from each other.  Similarly, Teen Line, an organization that was built on the model of teenagers helping other teenagers by listening to their problems on the phone, has now transitioned to include online message board forums, open blogs and texting services to help distressed teenagers.

The expansion of technology allows for current concerns to be resolved in creative ways and long-term policies that improve the future outcomes of children to be developed, as well.  These solutions address the issues of children living in both the developed and developing world. And, perhaps most importantly, continuing to incorporate technology keeps the dialogue open between critical advocates for the wellbeing of children, including, of course, the public’s voice.

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their wellbeing. 

UNICEF's Next Generation

This week's blog post features an exciting interview with the UNICEF's Next Generation founder Casey Rotter. Next Generation engages young professionals in UNICEF's projects through advocacy and philanthropy.  The group, which is comprised of over two hundred 21 to 40 year olds, is led by three steering committees in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.  Since its establishment just a few years ago, the group has raised over three million dollars for UNICEF programs across the world.  Some of Next Generation's campaigns include equipping a neonatal center in Ethiopia, supporting nutrition programs in Guatemala and collecting over $150,000 for emergency relief in the Horn of Africa. 

Join UNICEF's Next Generation's pledge program and commit yourself to doing whatever it takes to save children's lives. Follow Next Generation on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr for up to date information about Next Generation's life-saving work! 

 

Casey Rotter Interview

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their well-being.

Social Media Revolution

In case you’re still apprehensive about the impact of social media, check out Erik Qualman’s video Social Media Revolution 2013.  Don't have time to watch the full video?  Here are some interesting facts about the sheer size of the social media population and the potential it has to disseminate information and mobilize people.

Through social media people can express their opinions, share information, warn others and generate change.  The Social Media Revolution isn't coming, it's already here. It's time we used it to create the kind of world we want to live in.

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their well-being.

Incorporating Children in Russia's Open Government Action Plan

To understand how open government relates to children, we must first understand what open government is.  Open government, as described by the Open Government Partnership is an initiative to include the people (literally, you, me and everyone we know) into the governance of the states and countries in which we live.   By transitioning to, “ transparent, effective and accountable government,” the Open Government Partnership plans to incorporate the people’s voice in its decision making process in an effort to create a state that best reflects its citizenry.

Since its launch on September 20, 2011, 55 countries have joined the movement and created platforms for their electorates to express their concerns, opinions and ideas on a broad range of matters.  Now, where do children fit into this equation?  Until they reach the age of majority, children are barred from fully entering society.   As such, we rely on a number of other actors to look out for the wellbeing of the youngest members of our nations.  Most notably, this group of representatives includes parents, teachers, doctors and specific state and federal agencies purposefully designed to pinpoint children’s needs.

In framing the discussion of open government around the wellbeing of children, I researched the ways in which the open government movement has teamed with federal departments in the United States to create initiatives centered on children.  Below are a number of enterprises I imagine Russia could feature, as well.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health project transformed survey data collected from parents (and other invested adults) into a resource designed to help fellow caregivers navigate the health system.  For example, this resource directs parents to healthcare options and informs caregivers on basic health indicators relevant to children.  The tool is designed to incorporate the information caregivers across the country have and use that data to address issues of maternal health, special needs and other health concerns related to children in America.

By way of the Department of Agriculture, the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion is incorporating open government practices in combatting the obesity epidemic in the United States.  Through this initiative, nutritional data on over a thousand commonly consumed foods is released as software developers and students are petitioned to create mobile games that teach American children about portion control and healthy food options.  Check out the USDA’s ChooseMyPlate.gov and see how healthy food options are being presented to children!

The Department of Transportation has also incorporated open government in its latest plans to address risky behaviors while driving.  By creating a national campaign that enlists adolescents to reach out to their peers about the dangers of distracted driving (which include texting, reading, taking your eyes off the road to socialize with friends), young adults are fully immersed in the effort to promote safer driving behaviors. 

And, of course, the Department of Education has outlined the numerous ways in which the open government has influenced its efforts to improve education in the United States.  These include Race to the Top, College.gov and ED Data Express to name a few. For a full list, click here.

In reviewing Russia’s proposed strategy for open government and stipulating how it might be utilized to improve children’s wellbeing, I found that while they have not explicitly addressed children in their proposal, there are areas where initiatives to benefit this young subset of the population could be included.  Similar to the United States, Russia’s Open Government Action Plan emphasizes transparency and participation, however, it also lists three other goals: fighting corruption, expanding “e-government” and promoting a favorable investment climate.  Russia hopes that in developing an open government, they are also able to expand education and social policy.  In preparing to attain these goals, Russia has already taken the initiative by creating an information-oriented society.  An information-oriented society is where I imagine the most growth in the convergence of the wellbeing of children and open government.

In 2008, Russia began incorporating public center systems to relay information to its citizenry regarding the scope of services and resources available.  By creating a more direct avenue of access to the services the government already provides, Russia is improving the outcomes for children. 

In June of 2012, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev held an interesting forum addressing the government’s role in facilitating safe and educational summer vacations.  Here, the Prime Minister and a number of key staff members discussed a broad range of issues affecting children. This included addressing the dilapidation of certain recreational centers, the high cost of nutritional foods and the status of government vouchers provided to orphans and disabled youth for summer trips.  With the help of open government, Russia can organize its youth to rebuild educational centers for their communities and inform parents about the services the Russian government already provides.  This forum is an example of the emphasis Russia places on its youth and an excellent place to begin its campaign to prioritize open government and children's needs.

My recommendation for the successful merging of open government and the wellbeing of children is for Russia to push forward with its Open Government Action Plan and incorporate the programs that already improve the lives of its youth.  Children are a unique subset of the population in terms of political participation because their privacy is heavily protected and, until they reach the age of majority, they do not have the full set of rights afforded to adults.  A right of which includes voting.  However, with the incorporation of open government, children will have a new voice in the political arena.  Information sharing among politicians, parents, teachers, doctors, government officials and children themselves will create the information-oriented society Russia’s Open Government Action Plan is hoping to achieve.

 

Annabelle Eliashiv is a graduate student at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service committed to engaging readers in children's issues and advocating for their well-being.