By Joseph Martinez and Walen Ngo, United Way of Greater Los Angeles The EITC, or Earned Income Tax Credit, has been known for over thirty years to be one of the more successful anti-poverty programs in the nation. The tax relief program is geared toward only workers earning income below a certain income threshold and [...]
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
What Tax Time can do for the Working Poor
Posted in Data, Economy, Employment, General, Los Angeles, Poverty, Working poor, tagged Earned Income Tax Credit, EITC, Employment, Poverty, Public benefits on March 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On hiatus
Posted in General, Homelessness, Los Angeles, tagged Homelessness, Los Angeles, Philanthropy on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted to this blog, due simply to having too many things to do over the couple months. I’m hoping to get back to the blog more regularly in the near future. In the meantime, you may want to check out a post I did recently over at the Funders Together [...]
Good News/Bad News
Posted in Economy, General, tagged Economy, Employment, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times on January 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I have a confession to make: I fight with my daughter almost every morning. Well, “fight” might be a strong word, but part of our morning ritual is to tussle over who gets the Business section of the paper. She is the household meteorologist (a word she learned in her first grade section on “community [...]
And the winner is…
Posted in Data, General, tagged Human development index, Soccer, World Cup 2010 on December 11, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Most of the world – outside the U.S. anyway – was fixated over the last week on South Africa to learn the draw for next summer’s soccer World Cup. The 32 teams that qualified for the competition were divided into eight round-robin groups. The top two teams from each group then go into the single-elimination [...]
Compassion: it’s who you know
Posted in General, Immigration, tagged Immigration, us vs. them on November 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This past weekend I participated in the third annual HomeWalk, an event to raise funds and awareness to end homelessness in Los Angeles, with thousands of other people. The walk raises hundreds of thousands of dollars each year that are distributed to organizations working to house the homeless. The money is great, but potentially more [...]
Inequality and insecurity, Latin American style
Posted in General, Poverty, tagged crime, Ecuador, inequality, insecurity, Latin America, Poverty on July 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I am currently visiting family and friends in Ecuador, where I cannot help but be confronted daily with poverty and inequality. Having lived here in the early 1990s and returning at least every couple years since then, I’ve been able to observe the changes occurring – some positive but many negative – in this country [...]
Vulnerability and hope for foster children
Posted in General, Youth, tagged child welfare, foster care, foster youth, Youth on July 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Kids in the child welfare system are among the most vulnerable people in our society. The educational and socio-economic outcomes for foster youth are staggeringly abysmal. According to the Child Welfare League of America: There are more than 500,000 in foster care in the U.S., at an average age of 10 years and an average [...]
California Parolees Have a High Need for Health Services; Accessing Services Is a Challenge
Posted in General, Health, tagged Ex Offenders, Prison on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
By Lois Davis, RAND Corporation As California continues to release more prisoners, most will return to California communities, bringing with them a host of health and social needs. This raises key public health challenges, especially because ex-prisoners are returning to communities whose safety nets have already been severely strained. The RAND Corporation has just released [...]
Giving was down in 2008; Human service organizations hit hard
Posted in General, tagged Charitable giving, Giving USA, Philanthropy on June 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that according to Giving USA’s report findings released today, charitable donations fell by nearly 6% in 2008, the sharpest drop in 53 years. Americans gave over $300 billion to nonprofit organizations in 2008, amounting to about 2% of the gross domestic product. As the article points out, the decline from the [...]
