Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Changing Patterns X: Mortgage Lending To Traditionally Underserved Borrowers And Neighborhoods In Greater Boston, 1990-2002, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

The present study is the latest in a series of annual updates of the original report, Changing Patterns: Mortgage Lending in Boston, 1990-1993. Beginning in 1998, the reports’ geographic scope was expanded to include an examination of mortgage lending patterns in 27 cities and towns surrounding the city of Boston. In this year’s report, the geographic coverage has been further expanded t o include a total of 108 communities.

This introduction is followed by ten pages of text that identify some of the most significant findings that emerge from the extensive set of tables and charts that constitute the …

Technology Goes Home Evaluation – Executive Summary, Donna H. Friedman, Michelle Kahan, Tatjana Meschede, Consuela Greene

Center for Social Policy Publications

Technology Goes Home (TGH) is an innovative program designed to bridge the digital divide by bringing technology into low-income families’ homes. This Boston Digital Bridge Foundation (BDBF) program strives to prepare adults for employment opportunities and to help children improve academic performance by offering computer training and equipment to families in Boston neighborhoods and schools. Classes are offered in groups, with parents and children learning together in order to strengthen families and build community as well as skills. Neighborhood programs are operated in six communities through Neighborhood Technology Collaboratives, coalitions of community-based organizations. These coalitions select participating families, and provide …

Growing Disparities Among Greater Boston Communities During The 1990s, David Terkla

Economics Faculty Publication Series

During the 1990s, rich communities in the Greater Boston area got richer, and the richest made gains that were proportionally greater than the gains made by those communities only slightly less rich. At the same time, the poorest communities stayed poor, and in fact became more poor in comparison with communities slightly less poor. This dynamic is even more striking when the ten poorest communities are compared and contrasted with the ten wealthiest communities. Census figures show a rapidly expanding differential between the communities of the Greater Boston area. As a commonwealth, we should be considering policies designed to ameliorate …

Institute Brief: More Than Just A Job: Person-Centered Career Planning, Colleen Condon, Kristen Fichera, Danielle Dreilinger

The Institute Brief Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Sometimes counselors think that person-centered career planning has to involve a big meeting, or is only for people with the most significant disabilities. The first issue in the new ICI Professional Development Series lays out the principles of listening to job seekers to help them shape and achieve their career goals.

Alternative Job Brokering: Addressing Labor Market Disadvantages, Improving The Temp Experience, And Enhancing Job Opportunities, Françoise Carré, Joaquín Herranz, Jr., Dorie Seavey, Carlha Vickers, Ashley Aull, Rebecca Keegan

Center for Social Policy Publications

Alternative staffing is a key form of labor market intermediation worthy of consideration alongside that provided by other community-based job placement programs. Furthermore, an examination of alternative staffing services underscores the essential role that supports to employment play in job-brokering for workers who are disadvantaged in the labor market because these are businesses that tend simultaneously and daily to the two sides of the work relationship (worker-client and customer business). Much can be learned from their experiences about the expertise and resources required to effectively broker jobs for these kinds of workers—expertise and resources that could be necessary if public-sector …

Growing Inequities Among Women In Massachusetts: Income, Employment, Education And Skills, Erika Kates

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Massachusetts women compare very favorably to women in other states in earnings, education, and employment. However, these general trends mask a substantial and growing divide between women in these areas.

Research To Practice: Innovations In Employment Supports: Washington State's Division Of Developmental Disabilities, John Butterworth, Allison Cohen Hall

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

As evidence of the positive outcomes associated with integrated employment develops it is important to identify policy and practices at the state level that expand access to employment opportunity. This brief presents findings from Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) case study research focused on state agencies that support individuals with developmental disabilities.

Rockport Municipal Harbor Plan: Issues, Goals And Policies, Rockport Harbor Planning Committee, Town Of Rockport, Massachusetts, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

This first phase of the plan for Rockport and its four (4) major harbor areas was developed to ensure growth, prosperity, and preservation of Rockport’s important resources through responsible and reasonable future use and management of the harbors and their shorelines.

The Plan has been prepared by the Town of Rockport to identify existing problems and to establish consensus about the character and quality of the harbors in the future. The Plan responds to a specific list of issues raised by the Harbor Planning Committee in a participatory planning process.

The Harbor Planning Committee is an ad hoc committee of …

Long-Term Care: Informed By Research, Francis G. Caro

Gerontology Institute Publications

Health services research has contributed to health policy and service developments that have led to major improvements in the quality of long-term care in the United States. This policy brief highlights a few areas in which publicly and privately funded research has informed the long-term care field.

“Growing Pains And Challenges”: Grandfamilies House Four-Year Follow-Up Evaluation, Alison S. Gottlieb, Nina M. Silverstein

Gerontology Institute Publications

During the past decade, there has been increased awareness of issues facing grandparent caregiver families on the part of policymakers and service providers. This awareness has prompted efforts to document the numbers of children being raised by grandparents, to identify challenges faced by grandparents raising grandchildren, and to provide services to meet the needs of these families. National estimates suggest that the numbers of grandparent caregiver families are increasing. Recent estimates suggest that 1.4 million (2%) of all children under 18 live in “skipped generation” families in the United States; similarly, 29,000 (nearly 2%) of all children in Massachusetts live …

Seniors In Public Housing, Jan Mutchler, Francis G. Caro

Gerontology Institute Publications

In recent years, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) discovered that nearly 40% of the seniors (residents aged 62 and over) living in their public housing developments were living in family housing developments rather than in senior/disabled housing developments. Administrators at the BHA were aware that some seniors lived in family developments, but they were committed to learning more systematically about this population and their needs. They turned to the Gerontology Institute at the University at Massachusetts Boston as a partner in this effort. With funding from the Boston Foundation, the collaboration resulted in a research and policy development effort on …

Research To Practice: Local Vocational Rehabilitation Interagency Agreements For Employment: Partners, Collaborative Activities, And Impact, Cynthia A. Smith, Deborah S. Metzel, Bob Schalock

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Federal legislation and state policies increasingly mandate or encourage interagency agreements and collaboration. This study examined the content and impact of interagency agreements between the local office of VR and the following local state agencies for FY1999: Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, Mental Health, local schools, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Tools For Inclusion: Four Strategies To Find A Good Job: Advice From Job Seekers With Disabilities, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Doris Hamner, Jennifer Bose

Tools for Inclusion Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

An ICI study with job seekers revealed four strategies that can make it easier to find a job.

Holding To Basics And Investing For Growth: Cuban Education And The Economic Crisis Of The 1990’S, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

Since the middle of the 1980’s, processes of economic restructuring have led to large changes in the landscape of educational and social policy in most of Latin America. Faced with severe economic crisis, Latin American nations have sought structural transformations that have redefined the role of government in the provision of social benefits and sharply reduced expenditures through wholesale privatization and deep reductions in remaining government-sponsored programs. Between 1980 and 1990, expenditures in education as a percent of total government expenditures fell in most countries in Latin America, affecting especially public education, the only recourse for the poor. By 1996, …

The Vote On Bilingual Education And Latino Identity In Massachusetts, Jorge Capetillo-Ponce

Gastón Institute Publications

In November 2002, the Massachusetts electorate voted overwhelmingly to pass Referendum Ballot Question 2 (Q. 2), sponsored by California millionaire Ron Unz. The passage of this initiative by close to 70% of the voters effectively ended bilingual education in the state as it had been known for thirty years. Exit polling done at selected cities in Massachusetts by the Mauricio Gaston Institute and UMass Poll revealed, however, that out of a total 1,491 Latinos polled, a vast majority of them, around 93%, had voted in favor of rejecting Q. 2 and keeping bilingual education in place.

Indeed, Q. 2 became …

Brief 16: In Search Of Equity: An Institutional Response, New England Resource Center For Higher Education, University Of Massachusetts Boston

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

The United States Supreme Judicial Court is currently deliberating the University of Michigan Affirmative Action lawsuits involving three white students who claim they were discriminated against because of race-conscious admissions policies. Organizations, such as the Center for Individual Rights, which sponsored the Michigan plaintiffs, and the Center for Equal Opportunity, have spearheaded drives to evaluate affirmative action programs in light of equal protection under the law. Viewed in this light, these policies appear to be unfair to white candidates. Examined more closely, concerns about equitability are missing from arguments about fairness. NERCHE’s Multicultural Affairs Think Tank members discussed the changed …

Research To Practice: Medicaid Involvement In Employment-Related Programs- Findings From The National Survey Of State Systems And Employment For People With Disabilities, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Dana Scott Gilmore, Susan Foley

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This brief analyzes data from ICI's National Survey of State Systems and Employment for People with Disabilities regarding the priority Medicaid agencies place on employment and their involvement in recent policy initiatives.

Policy Brief: The Applicability Of The Ada To Personal Assistance Services In The Workplace, Robert Silverstein

Policy Briefs Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This policy brief addresses whether providing personal assistance services in the workplace is a reasonable accommodation as defined in the ADA, and if so, under which circumstances.

Research To Practice: High-Performing States In Integrated Employment, Allison Cohen Hall, John Butterworth, Dana Scott Gilmore, Deborah Metzel

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Despite recent improvements, community employment outcomes vary widely across states. This report highlights successful practices of states that were identified as "high performers" in integrated employment for people served by state MR/DD agencies.

Surviving Against The Odds: Families’ Journeys Off Welfare And Out Of Homelessness, Donna H. Friedman, Tatjana Meschede, Michelle Hayes

Center for Social Policy Publications

Homeless families face complex challenges when making the transition from welfare to the workforce. By focusing on the experiences of homeless families participating in a Boston-based welfare-to-work program, the multimethod, longitudinal study described in this article explored factors contributing to more successful transitions as well as barriers faced by families having a harder time making the transition.

Nearly 90 percent of the families that were studied left a shelter with a housing subsidy and retained it 6 to 12 months later. Successful employment outcomes after exiting a shelter were more evident for families whose head of household was older, two-parent …

Characteristics Of Homeless Individuals Accessing Massachusetts Emergency Shelters, 1999-2001, Tatjana Meschede, Michelle Kahan, Michelle Hayes, Donna Friedman

Center for Social Policy Publications

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the McCormack Institute, University of Massachusetts Boston oversees the Connection, Service, and Partnership through Technology (CSPTech) project. CSPTech operates a homeless management information system being implemented throughout the Commonwealth. Founded in 1995, this project is a networked computerized record-keeping system that allows homeless service providers across Massachusetts to collect uniform client information over time. This information is aggregated in a database used by service providers, advocates, government officials, researchers, and people experiencing homelessness. Analysis of this information is critical to efforts to understand the extent of this problem in Massachusetts in an attempt …

Retirement And High Level Human Capital, Irving Gershenberg

Gerontology Institute Publications

Given that demographic trends in economically advanced industrial countries such as our own continue to shift toward increasingly older, formally retired populations, we need to find ways to keep more of this older retired population productive. Economists and others differ in their estimation regarding the ability and/or willingness on part of the retired to retain, let alone utilize the know-how, the human capital accumulated prior to retirement. This is as true for those who have spent their work life engaged in producing and communicating new ideas and synthesizing and diffusing what is known, those who have accumulated what I term …

Tools For Inclusion: Making It Easier To Go To Work: What The Changes At Social Security Mean To You, David Hoff, Elena Varney, Lisa O'Connor

Tools for Inclusion Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Recent changes to Social Security reduce the financial consequences of working for people who receive benefits. This publication explains the changes and how they impact people with disabilities who want to work.