E-Notes
June 20, 2005

In this issue of E-Notes, you'll find:

A.  RSVP TODAY FOR "PROTECTING CONNECTICUT'S CHILDREN: PROMOTING PERMANENT
FAMILIES"

B.  NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM CT VOICES
*  Poverty Despite Work in Connecticut, 2005
*  A Quick Review of Early Care Funding: FY06 Budget Update
*  Connecticut Child Care Center Operating Budget Basics: Calculating Your
Bottom Line


A.  RSVP TODAY FOR "PROTECTING CONNECTICUT'S CHILDREN: PROMOTING PERMANENT
FAMILIES"

Connecticut Voices for Children and
The North American Council on Adoptable Children

present

Protecting Connecticut's Children, Promoting Permanent Families
June 27, 2005, 9:45 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Torp Theater, Davidson Hall
Central Connecticut State University, New Britain

Has your life been touched by foster care or adoption? Are you in a position
to make decisions about where vulnerable children live or how resources are
spent on behalf of foster children? Do you work with adoptive, foster,
birth, or kinship families? Do you know adoptive parents who need support to
help meet their children's special needs?

If you are interested in how the child welfare system and the community
could better serve children and families, you are invited to "Protecting
Connecticut's Children, Promoting Permanent Families" on June 27, 2005 at
Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.

During this free community forum, the individuals who are most affected by
the child welfare system -- adoptive parents, a grandmother raising her
grandchild, a birth parent, and former foster youth -- will share their
personal experiences and insights to illustrate strengths and weaknesses of
Connecticut's foster care and adoption system. Through their stories, the
panel will demonstrate the importance of permanent families for children,
the need for preventive services to keep families together, and the
importance of post-placement support. These stories will also illustrate the
key role of court systems to quickly and effectively produce good child
welfare outcomes.  Representative Nancy Johnson of the Fifth Congressional
District has already confirmed her attendance for this important event.
Representative Johnson is a ranking member on the House Ways & Means
Committee, which handles child welfare financing and other related issues.

Connecticut Voices for Children and the North American Council on Adoptable
Children are hosting the forum in collaboration with the Connecticut
Association of Foster and Adoptive Parents, the Connecticut Department of
Children and Families, Casey Family Services, and the Connecticut Office of
the Child Advocate.  We are working to inform the public about how the Pew
Commission on Children in Foster Care's recent recommendations could help
Connecticut's children and families. The Commission, a national,
non-partisan panel, undertook an in-depth assessment of how child welfare
services are financed and how court systems protect children and preserve
families. Reform in these areas, the Commission determined, would have
far-reaching effects for foster children and is a critical first step to
solving many other problems that plague the child welfare system.

The forum is open to the public. If you would like more information or to
RSVP, please contact Katie McKeon at 203-498-4240 or katiem@ctki....

For links to a map and directions, see:
http://www.ctkidslink.org/announcement_31.html


B.  NEW PUBLICATIONS FROM CT VOICES

Poverty Despite Work in Connecticut, 2005

Employment is widely recognized as a necessary condition to emerge from
poverty.  Yet for too many Connecticut families, employment may not be
sufficient to escape poverty.  This brief finds that the majority of
Connecticut's poor families have a working parent, but nonetheless have a
family income under the federal poverty level.  Among poor Connecticut
families with a parent who was able to work, over three quarters (76%) had a
parent in the workforce, and almost half (21,000 families) had a parent who
worked more than 26 weeks over the course of the year.
http://www.ctkidslink.org/pub_detail_244.html

A Quick Review of Early Care Funding: FY06 Budget Update

The combined FY 06 early care and education budget in the Connecticut
Department of Social Services and Department of Education represents an
improvement over FY05, increasing 4%.   However, total funding proposed for
early care initiatives in FY 06 is still 11% less than actual funding in FY
02 (and even less than this if one adjusts for inflation).
http://www.ctkidslink.org/pub_detail_242.html


Connecticut Child Care Center Operating Budget Basics: Calculating Your
Bottom Line

This fact sheet offers tips for child care providers on how to develop an
operating budget for their child care centers in order to help ensure
financial stability and improve planning.
http://www.ctkidslink.org/pub_detail_243.html

-----------------------------------------

Connecticut Voices for Children
New Haven office: 33 Whitney Ave, New Haven CT 06510, (203) 498-4240
Hartford office: 60 Gillett St, Hartford CT 06105, (860) 548-1661
www.ctkidslink.org
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