International Poverty Centre. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 284.

In Focus

In Focus is an online bulletin of the International Poverty Centre. Its purpose is to present succinctly the results of recent research on poverty and inequality in the developing world.

World Summit in Reflection: A Librarian at Every Table.No. 283.

World Summit in Reflection is an online site that hosts 82 papers in addition to links to the 37 contributions in the printed volume. Its intentions are to serve the community of scholars and practitioners as they reflect on the World Summit on the Information Society events in Geneva, plan for the meeting in Tunis, and ultimately build the global information society.

Progressive Legislative Action Network: A Librarian at Every Table. No. 282.

The Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN) launches August 16, 2005. The Progressive Legislative Action Network's mission is to drive public policy debates and change the political landscape in the United States by focusing on attainable and progressive state level actions. It will do so by providing coordinated research support for a network of State legislators, their staff's and constituencies, in order to equip them with coherent logistical and strategic advocacy tools necessary for advancing key progressive economic and social policies.If states are the "laboratories of democracy," they are also the most important breeding ground for progressive policies that serve the interests of America's middle class.

Co-chairmen are former Montana Senate Minority Leader Steve Doherty, D-Great Falls, and David Sirota, a Helena author who will be leaving his position as a fellow at the Center for American Progress to assume his new role."With an entrenched majority in Washington, D.C., that ignores the needs of ordinary Americans, the real fight has moved to the states," Sirota said in a press release.

"PLAN will take the lead in crafting innovative policy solutions to improve the lives of Americans across the country. For far too long, right-wing groups have dominated the debate at the state level. With PLAN, that is going to change."

Think of PLAN as a training camp, a policy resource and an information hub for progressive leaders across the country. PLAN will do everything from keeping local leaders on message to helping them draft legislation. Simply put, it will serve as the orchestration of a movement that PLAN leaders say needs some steam in the country right now.
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[additonal updates on Sirotablog]

"To increase the capacity of the states to prevent and reduce poverty." A Librarian at Every Table. No. 281.

The National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) assists states in responding to poverty issues.
The Government Performance and Result Act (GPRA) addresses accountability and performance by focusing on results of government programs. The GPRA measures for the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program reflect efforts to reduce or eliminate conditions of poverty among low-income families and the communities in which they live. The GPRA measure on poverty conditions captures both the individual conditions of family and community poverty that are addressed by CSBG and other resources mobilized by Community Action Agencies, and the broader outcomes, such as economic self-sufficiency, that can only be achieved through coordinated action among programs/services both within such agencies and with partnering organizations in the community.
NASCSP members are state administrators of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (DOE/WAP).

Global Footprint Network. A Librarian at Every Table: No. 280.

The Global Footprint Network is committed to fostering a world where all people have the opportunity to live satisfying lives within the means of Earth's ecological capacity. We are dedicated to advancing the scientific rigor and practical application of the Ecological Footprint, a tool that quantifies human demand on nature, and nature's capacity to meet these demands. Created in 1993 by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, the Ecological Footprint is now in wide use by governments, communities, and businesses to monitor current ecological resource balances and to plan for the future.

Footprint Network News

Child Poverty in Rich Countries. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 279.

Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005.
The proportion of children living in poverty has risen in a majority of the world's developed economies. No matter which of the commonly-used poverty measures is applied, the situation of children is seen to have deteriorated over the last decade. This publication is the sixth in a series of Innocenti Report Cards, designed to monitor and compare the performance of the OECD countries in meeting the needs of their children. It is also the first in what will be an annual Innocenti Report on Child Poverty in Rich Countries.
See Innocenti Center.

CultureWork. A Librarian at Every Table. No. 278.

CultureWork is an electronic publication of the University of Oregon Institute for Community Arts Studies. Its mission is to provide timely workplace-oriented information on culture, the arts, education, and community.

Cities for Progress: A Librarian at Every Table. No. 277.

Cities for Progress
Cities for Progress is a growing network of locally-elected officials and community-led activists and citizens working together for social change. We are a network that takes a local, national and international approach to issues that affect us in our own communities. Following in the footsteps of Cities for Peace local resolutions prior to the Iraq war in which almost 200 cities and towns expressed their concerns about local costs of such a war, Cities for Progress is taking on other issues such as Universal Health Care and Anti-Walmart campaigns.