The Carsey Forum

Issue #6, july 2006

Spotlight On

Alcohol Abuse Still Leading Problem in Rural America

A telling photo decorates the cover of the Carsey Institute’s newest report on substance abuse in rural and small town America. In a rustic and unkempt kitchen, pill bottles spill from open cabinets. One wonders if the drugs are used to treat an illness, or if they feed an addiction. Are children using these drugs, and are the parents at home? Karen Van Gundy, Professor of Sociology at UNH, examines these and other questions for all rural Americans and finds alcohol abuse in rural America to exceed illicit drug abuse and excessive drinking to be a serious problem among rural youth, particularly in homes where parents are absent. Download Carsey’s newest report in our series on rural America, Substance Abuse in Rural and Small Town America, by clicking on http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/SubstanceAbuse_FinalPDF.pdf A fact sheet on the findings is available at http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/FactSheet_SubstanceAbuse.pdf.

Rural Employed Mothers Choose Informal Care Providers

Rural preschoolers with employed mothers are more likely than their urban peers to be cared for by informal care providers, such as in-home babysitters, neighbors, or friends, according to the most recent Carsey policy brief. In light of research suggesting that these home-based care arrangements often focus less on education than do child care centers and other formal early care programs, the brief’s author, Carsey family demographer Kristin Smith, suggests more training for relatives and other informal caregivers to help promote child development and stimulate learning, among other recommendations. Read the brief, and find out who’s taking care of rural children and the cost of rural child care, by clicking on www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/documents/ChildCare_final.pdf

Coming Soon!

Keeping Predatory Mortgage Lending at Bay

Carsey is working with the Housing Assistance Council and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. to illuminate the signs of mortgage lending practices that prey on rural Americans in financial straits. The report offers recommendations at the state and federal level for protecting populations vulnerable to “predatory” mortgage lending. The paper includes a case study in which authors investigate the prevalence of inequitable mortgage lending practices in Maine. Check www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu in late July for this upcoming brief.

Country or City Mouse? New Immigration to Rural America

Carsey’s next report in our series on rural America, New Immigrant Settlements in Rural America: Problems, Prospects and Policies, will show that the “melting pot” is still churning away, and not just in our nation’s cities. The upcoming report will explore such questions as: Where are new immigrants moving to? Who are these new immigrants? Does immigration cause rural poverty? Will new immigrants revitalize communities? The report, by rural sociologist Leif Jensen, explores immigration by Hispanics and other ethnic groups and comes in the midst of national debate on illegal immigration. This report is expected out in the early fall, more information to come.

Fueling Rural Development

An answer to some of rural America’s economic woes may be sticking to the bottom of your shoe, in the form of biomass, plant or animal materials such as manure, crops, trees, municipal waste and other organic materials that can be converted to fuel. To date, most recommendations for creating a successful bio-economy have noted the potential for rural development, but have failed to address ways to ensure that local communities and producers reap the benefits. An upcoming Carsey policy brief on biofuels and the countryside is a primer on the issue that will examine needed policies and incentives that can support rural development and environmental goals alongside economic and production considerations. Visit www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu in August to download this brief.

Are the Poor Are Getting Poorer, the Rich, Richer?

Ross Gittell , James R. Carter Professor of Management and Carsey Senior Fellow, and graduate student Jason Rudokas are exploring this question for New England. A policy brief authored by the researchers will examine the growing divide between people making higher incomes and those making little or no income and discuss what this trend means for the middle class and the social fabric and culture of New England. Stay tuned for more information, and in the meantime read an interview with the authors about their research at www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/gittell_interview.html

Fall Seminars on Northern New England

When the leaves start to turn their splendid fall colors, thoughts turn to Northern New England. This fall, the Carsey Institute’s seminar series will explore a changing New England and implications for policy and practice. Seminars will take place from 12:40 – 2pm at UNH in the Memorial Union Building on September 28, October 26, and December 7, and a special evening seminar with Bob Greenstein from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities is planned for November 29. The first presentation in the series–Is the Middle Class Losing Ground in New Hampshire and New England?–on September 28 will feature Professor Ross Gittell and graduate students Jason Rudokas and Allison Churilla discussing low-income families and income inequality. Visit www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/seminars.html for the full schedule, and read the next Carsey Forum for information on our fall faculty colloquia on women and work and on research methods.

Other News

Carsey Web Site Evolves

At the Carsey Institute, we try to keep up with the times and the times are a changin’, which explains why we have once again changed the look of our home page. The new format offers more space for news, interviews with researchers and practitioners, and other informative tid-bits, such as a new page called “Graphical Views.” From our home page at www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu, the link for Graphical Views takes visitors to multifaceted “pictures of data” that help to answer questions about America’s families and communities from sociologist and Carsey Senior Fellow Lawrence Hamilton. This month, Professor Hamilton explores the question: Is poverty more common in rural areas?

Shedding Light on North Country Needs

Working with the Family Resource Center in Gorham, NH, the Carsey Institute has updated the Upper Androscoggin Valley Area Profile. This new version updates an older report covering 1990 – 2000 and provides a sense of how needs and resources have changed or remained stable since the previous decade. Sarah Savage, a Carsey Evaluation Fellow, provided data to the report from the U.S. Census and other data sources unique to the five-town region. Says Sarah, “Many community practitioners provided data to facilitate the writing of the report. Their willingness to assist the Family Resource Center was a testament to how valued the organization is in the North Country.” Visit www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu in August to read an interview with Catherine McDowell, the Executive Director of FRC at Gorham.

Building a Middle Class Amid Persistent Poverty

Carsey is looking for the path out of persistent poverty in both rural and urban communities, and we think it lies with the middle class. Carsey director Mil Duncan and graduate student Chris Colocousis have teamed up with the Rural Policy Research Institute to identify social, political, and institutional factors that help to alleviate poverty and build a middle class. Together, RUPRI and Carsey will publish a paper outlining a new research agenda for social scientists, stay tuned for more details.

Summer as a Winant Fellow

Ah, the lazy days of summer. While this nostalgic phrase does not exactly describe the summer experiences of the three undergraduates who received Winant fellowships, the fellows report they are greatly enjoying their internships with New Hampshire nonprofits. Jessica Cawley’06 may be at this moment in her music cabin at the Manchester Boys & Girls Club summer camp, singing along with the kids in a karaoke or teaching the campers to play the guitar on the eight guitars she secured through a grant. Laura Haselton’06 has conducted research on child support, sexual assault, and stalking codes for the Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence and is participating in a variety of meetings across the state to learn about changes in legislation that may impact the Coalition’s crisis centers. Joseph McGuiness’07 is creating a curriculum to help Lamprey Health Care’s diabetes patients to quit smoking and reports that he has already witnessed some positive changes among patients. For more information about Carsey’s John G. Winant Fellowship Program, go to www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/fellowships.html

Construction at Carsey Means Improved Space

The open concept design of the Institute’s Huddleston Hall office has proved to be a little too open: voices from the conference space would drift into offices and befuddle the staff’s white noise machines. With the old ¾ walls now extended fully to the ceiling, the Carsey Institute can boast a fully-functional and private conference room space for meetings and small seminars. The former meeting space has become work space for four graduate students, opening up space for new staff offices. Read below to find out who’s moved in.

New Projects

Painting a Portrait of the Red States

The last Presidential election unfolded like a Red Sox versus Yankees game, with each side wearing either red or blue. A team of researchers at Carsey are investigating what makes the mostly Republican South so “red” and will publish their findings in a Values in the South report. This report will be one is a series of three regional reports on changing demographics, values and voting patterns, funded by the Kellogg Foundation. The authors will explore changing demographics, racial composition, and inequality and poverty to paint a more complicated picture of value-driven politics than we usually see in the popular media. These reports will be available in the fall.

Making Ends Meet in New Hampshire

New Hampshire is fortunate to be among the states with the lowest percentage of the population living in poverty, but low-income families living in New Hampshire are challenged just like their counterparts elsewhere. An upcoming policy brief by researcher and graduate student Allison Churilla will discuss housing needs for low-income families in the state and examine the demographics of these families through the lens of PUMS data. Look for more information on this brief in the fall.

New Staff

Grimm offers Program Development and Coordination

Curt Grimm has been to far corners of the world and back again, returning to UNH, where he received his undergraduate college degree, after more than twenty-five years of work with socio-economic development programs across Africa. While pleased with the expanded meal options now available in the student dining halls, Curt is most excited to apply his expertise in rural development research and strategic planning to Carsey initiatives. For more than a decade, Curt served as Senior Social Scientist with the U.S. Agency for International Development where he helped form and implement policy and guidance on social development issues, and most recently he has been helping New England nonprofit organizations build institutional capacity. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from SUNY-Binghamton. For more on Curt, go to www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/grimm.html or contact him at curt.grimm@unh.edu.

Introducing our New Policy Leadership Director

As a woman who spent more than three years traveling the world by bicycle, Andrea Colnes isn’t daunted by her 150 mile drive from East Montpelier, VT, to the Carsey Institute’s headquarters at UNH. Andrea’s “drive” for coalition building and non-profit advocacy brings her to Carsey, where she will be managing the Policy Leadership for a Changing Region initiative and serving as a policy research analyst. Prior to coming to Carsey, Andrea was the Policy Director for the Northern Forest Center and earlier served as the founding Executive Director of the Northern Forest Alliance and as Deputy Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. She also co-founded Americans for Our Heritage and Recreation and the Eastern Forest Partnership. Andrea can be reached at andrea.colnes@unh.edu. Read her bio at www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/colnes.html

A Fond Farewell to Priscilla Salant and Amy Glasmeier

Over the past year, Associate Director Priscilla Salant and Visiting Faculty Amy Glasmeier have helped to bring the Institute from a fledgling program to a strong voice on rural America. Priscilla tirelessly worked to get Carsey’s rural publication series up and running, and we owe much of the initial success of the project to her. Amy taught a popular college course on globalization and authored Carsey’s policy brief on low-skill workers in rural America. Alas, they have both returned to their friends and families in Idaho and Pennsylvania, respectively, and they are missed. Priscilla continues to work on a number of projects for Carsey, including a regional indicators site. Contact Priscilla at psalant@uidaho.edu, and Amy at akg1@ems.psu.edu.

Spotlight on Carsey Affiliate

Crimes against Children Research Center

Researching child abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse and their impacts is not a job for the faint of heart. The Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) exists at UNH to combat crimes against children by providing research and statistics to the public, policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and other child welfare practitioners. Recent news from the CCRC frontlines: an article written by the center on the victimization of children and youth, published in Child Maltreatment, won the 2005 Child Maltreatment Article of the Year Prize, and this summer the center organized an international conference on family violence and child victimization. The CCRC is beginning a new national study on juvenile prostitution, which involves surveying law enforcement agencies across the U.S. to determine the types of criminal cases seen by these agencies that involve the prostitution of and by youth under the age of 18. David Finkelhor, director of CCRC, reports that their second Youth Internet Safety Survey will be released in early August, showing five-year trends in youth Internet victimization. Get a copy of this report and learn more about the CCRC and its programs at www.unh.edu/ccrc.

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.