The Carsey Forum

Issue #5, May 2006

A Message from the Streets of New Orleans
Avoiding the Money Trap
Student Fellows Will Spend their Summer with Nonprofits
Meet the 2006 – 07 Partnership for Effective Nonprofits Fellow
Demographics Report Cited in More than 80 Newspapers
Community Foundations Support Policy Leadership Initiative
Carsey’s Voice Heard at Meetings on Rural People and Policies

Talking About Income Inequality in New England
Hot Topic Report on Immigration Coming this June

Justiceworks

Spotlight On

The Rural Forum Announces Carsey’s Rural News

More news is good news. The Carsey Institute now publishes two newsletters, the Carsey Forum and our new Rural Forum. Those fortunate folks on our mailing list now get two for the price (free) of one! The Rural Forum specifically highlights our Investing in Rural Families and Communities research and publications, funded by the Annie E. Casey and W.K. Kellogg Foundations. To read the inaugural issue of the Rural Forum, go to http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/rural_news_1.html

Coming Soon!

Carsey Reports on Substance Use and Abuse in Rural America

Recent news about methamphetamine use and creative media strategies for reducing youth abuse of the drug remind the nation that substance abuse continues to be a serious problem. Our next report in a series of publications on rural America, funded by the Annie E. Casey and W. K. Kellogg Foundations, will take a hard look at some uniquely rural trends regarding substance use and abuse. The report examines who is at risk for abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs and why rural youth are particularly vulnerable. Find this report, authored by Sociology Professor Karen VanGundy, by early June at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu.

Who’s Taking Care of Rural Children?

Kristin Smith, Carsey’s family demographer, explores this question in an upcoming policy brief on child care for preschoolers of employed mothers in rural America. She finds that rural families in which the mother is employed, challenged by lack of choice and low-income, make different decisions about who will care for their children than urban families. Learn about who is taking care of rural children during this critical time in their development by downloading the brief in early June at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/

Lending Practices that Leave Low-income People in Financial Straits

Carsey will also soon be releasing a policy brief on predatory lending in rural America co-authored by our partners at the Housing Assistance Council and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. Predatory lending includes a wide range of financial products and practices that threaten the income and assets of borrowers. The brief discusses who is “preyed upon” by predatory lenders – people like Julian and Sandra from North Carolina who lost more than $8000 after turning to payday loans for some quick cash to pay their bills after Julian lost his job – and offers policy recommendations for helping people to avoid these fraudulent lending practices. Find this publication later this month at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/

Other News

A Message from the Streets of New Orleans

An energizing and impassioned discussion about community organizing and politics in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans took place during the last Carsey Institute seminar of the spring on May 3, 2006. Ross Gittell, Professor of Management at UNH, and Phillip Thompson, a former community organizer and now Associate Professor of Urban Planning at MIT, are working on a book together about empowering low income and disenfranchised groups. They presented recommendations from their research though the lens of a city in chaos, where community organizing means enticing people to meetings by offering free showers and places to nap. Slides from the presentation can be downloaded at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/seminars.html.

Avoiding the Money Trap

On the eve of publication of our predatory lending brief, the Carsey Institute is partnering with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to help families steer away from harmful financial practices. In March, Mil Duncan, director of the Carsey Institute, provided an overview of issues affecting low-income rural families at the Washington D.C. premier for the Casey Foundation documentary “Avoiding the Money Trap,” which warns viewers of predatory lending practices and offers practical advice on avoiding them. Carsey helped to bring the road show to New Hampshire on May 10th in Concord. For information on Avoiding the Money Trap, visit http://www.avoidingthemoneytrap.com

Student Fellows Will Spend Their Summer with Non Profits

Every year the Carsey Institute offers a competition for $3000 fellowships for students with a keen interest in public service. Students receive the funds in the form of a stipend for a summer internship with a New Hampshire nonprofit of their choosing. This year Carsey is pleased to offer four fellowships to very deserving undergraduates: Emily Olsen ’06 will apply her research on Portsmouth Black history as an education intern with the Strawbery Banke Museum. Jessica Cawley ’06, a music education major, will develop a new music program for children attending the Manchester Boys & Girls Club summer day camp. An aspiring doctor-to-be, Joseph McGuiness ’07 will be working on a smoking cessation project with Lamprey Health Care. Laura Haselton ’06, who minors in women’s studies, will be educating crisis centers with the NH Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence about new policy that affects their work. Read more about these fellowships or register your non profit as a potential internship host at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/fellowships.html

Spring Brings More Research Seminars for Faculty

Maureen Reilly’07 writes in her application for the Partnership for Effective Nonprofits Fellowship, “It is my obligation, both as a human and as a journalist, to attempt to alleviate suffering in whatever way I can. Information will motivate change.” This passionate English major at the University of New Hampshire will be our next fellow as the current fellow, Meghann McCluskey ’06, writes her last few articles for the Portsmouth Herald newspaper as required by the fellowship and looks ahead to teaching English in Japan. Fellows receive an award of $1400 and write about topics of importance to local nonprofits – such as affordable housing, homelessness, and substance abuse – for seacoast newspapers. Learn more about this fellowship opportunity at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/journalism.html

Demographics Report Cited in More than 80 Newspapers

From an article in the Sacramento Bee in California to the New York Times, the news of a changing rural America spread from coast to coast in March with the release of Carsey’s report on Demographic Trends in Rural and Small Town America. The Associated Press wrote on March 16, 2006, “Rural America has been adding population for about 30 years, after losing residents for much of the first half of the 20th Century, according to a study released Wednesday by the Carsey Institute.” The report came out on the heels of new Census Bureau estimates indicating that most of America’s fastest-growing counties are suburban and rural. Read the Carsey Institute report at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/Demographics_complete_file.pdf

Community Foundations Support Policy Leadership Initiative

New funding from the Maine and Vermont Community Foundations will support participation by nonprofit leaders from these two states in the October 2006 Carsey Policy Leadership Institute. This funding also provides capacity building stipends to participants’ organizations. The Northern New England Institute, funded by Jane’s Trust, will create policy actors and spokespeople for investments that bring about improved social, economic, and environmental outcomes and build regional collaboration and social capital among nonprofit leaders in northern New England. Stay tuned for more details. The Carsey Institute thanks the Maine Community Foundation and Vermont Community Foundation for their generous support.

Carsey’s Voice Heard at Meetings on Rural People and Policies

In advance of a Hewlett Foundation Farm Bill retreat at the Wye Plantation in April, Carsey’s Associate Director Priscilla Salant interviewed rural advocates and stakeholders about the prospects, motivations, and strategies for farm bill reform. At the retreat itself, she used information from the interviews to frame a plenary discussion. Later in May, Salant provided an overview of demographic and economic trends critical to the future of rural America at a Rural People Rural Policy Intiative meeting, organized in Arizona by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Carsey’s visiting faculty member Amy Glasmeier presented on “Definitions Count: What is ‘Rural’?” at the meeting.

New Projects

Talking About Income Inequality in New England

Carsey is now offering a bi-monthly “interview with a researcher” on our web site. The month’s interview with economist Ross Gittell and his graduate student, Jason Rudokas, has just been released. Gittell and Rudokas talk about trends in income inequality in New Hampshire and New England and implications for the middle and lower class. Read the rotating interview with a Carsey affiliated researcher at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/

Hot Topic Report on Immigration Coming this Summer

As immigrants and their children are making their voices heard loudly in Washington D.C. and as the debate about illegal immigration heats up, the Carsey Institute is looking ahead to our third report on new immigrant settlements in rural America. This report authored by Leif Jensen, professor of rural sociology and demography at Penn State University, will address who the new immigrants are, why they are moving to rural areas, the socioeconomic and policy implications, and the problems and prospects of the new post-1965 immigration wave. Dr. Jensen gave a standing room only presentation during the Carsey seminar series in April; this report in the Carsey series on rural America serves as his much anticipated encore. Stay tuned for more information.

Spotlight on Carsey Affiliate

Justiceworks

Crimes such as identify theft, fraud, and child exploitation require technical training, new forensic technologies, and information sharing for law enforcement to keep New Hampshire citizens safe. Justiceworks at the University of New Hampshire currently provides research, technical assistance, and program support to the New Hampshire Cyber Crime Initiative (NHCCI) to implement the state’s strategic plan to combat cyber crime. Justiceworks and the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council are holding cyber crime training classes for law enforcement only across the state. If you would like more information on the NHCCI contact Andrew MacPherson at amx6@unh.edu or visit the Justiceworks web site at http://www.justiceworks.unh.edu

The Carsey Forum is published by The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Inquires and requests to subscribe and unsubscribe should be addressed to Amy Seif, Forum editor, at amy.seif@unh.edu.