The Daily Tell

Retailer will donate a minimum of $100,000 to Komen

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 1 – Borders is teaming up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to promote breast cancer awareness. The company will leverage its Borders Rewards loyalty program, which includes millions of members, to help raise money in the fight against breast cancer. For its part, Borders has pledged to donate to Komen for the Cure a minimum of $100,000 based on sales of select products during the month of October.

* Borders and Seattle’s Best Coffee will donate $1 from the sale of every 12 ounce or one pound bag of Seattle’s Best Coffee.

* Borders will donate $1 for each copy of Komen founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker’s newly released memoir “Promise Me.” The book details the 30-year history of the breast cancer movement since Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything in her power to end the disease that claimed her
sister’s life.

* The company will also donate $1 from each sale of the exclusive 24-ounce Pink Quench Water Bottle that displays the iconic Pink Ribbon.

“Partnering with Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a natural fit for Borders,” said Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders, Inc. “Our Rewards program allows us to communicate with millions of customers on a weekly basis. Considering that many of our customers are women, this is a powerful tool to not only draw awareness to National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but to also give our customers the opportunity to join us in supporting research grants and community outreach programs.”

All products are featured on a special table at the front of all Borders superstores. The company has also created a special bookmark, which it is providing to customers in-stores to commemorate National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Borders Rewards members will receive e-mails throughout the month of October inviting them to purchase these items to help in the fight against breast cancer.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure, we have invested more than $1.5 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit www.komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.

Four Young Entrepreneurs Addressing Social Issues to Speak at TEDxYSE Event

ARLINGTON, Va. – Sept. 13, 2010- Ashoka , the world’s community of leading social entrepreneurs, and Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS), announced today the first four winners of eight in the annual Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition . The global competition highlights youth-led innovations addressing social issues affecting their communities, and is part of Ashoka’s Youth Venture(r), an initiative that fosters young entrepreneurs to become changemakers, people who are creating positive change in communities around the world. Since 2006, Staples Foundation for Learning, the charitable arm of Staples, Inc., has enabled Youth Venture to expand to eight countries in North America, South America and Europe through more than $2.5 million in funding.

“Staples and Ashoka understand the value that changemakers bring to anything they do and are heavily invested in helping more people become changemakers,” said Gretchen Zucker, executive director of Ashoka’s Youth Venture. “They are critical to the success of any organization, company or community, and together they form a powerful force for improving lives. Our Staples/Ashoka Competition winners, sourced from hundreds of entries spanning 44 countries, are demonstrating just how much one person can do to make a mark in the world, but the most important contribution we can make is to help everyone around us become changemakers.”

The first four winners of the Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition are:

* Rebecca Kantar is a founding member of Minga, a youth-run civic organization dedicated to ending the global child sex trade through educating teens worldwide. Rebecca serves as Minga’s Director of Film Media and is a highly accomplished public speaker. She has been named as one of TIME Magazine’s Tomorrow25 and will be attending Harvard University as a freshman in September.

* Mohammed Berry, of the Republic of the Gambia, has a truly inspiring story of leadership and perseverance. Mohammed lost his father and contracted HIV at age 7and faced enormous social stigma and discrimination in his community. He is the founder of Aid for Smiles, a coalition of global social activists who work toward empowering and mainstreaming marginalized and socially disadvantaged young people. He also leads Speak AIDS, a campaign that confronts the misunderstanding and stigma associated with HIV-positive youth. Mohammed was recently nominated for the World Children Peace Prize.

* Shiv Dravid is the founder and creator of The Viewspaper, a youth journalism website for young people in India. Shiv was inspired to take action when he realized that his own daily experiences were quite different from the observations and discussions amongst media elites. The Viewspaper is seen by more than 150,000 readers a month and publishes daily articles written by youth staff writers. Over the last three years they have engaged close to 4,000 young people in sharing their views and opinions and have emerged as India’s largest youth paper. Shiv has ambitious plans to scale his work and hopes to branch out to 50 sites within the next year.
* Ben Lyon was inspired to create FrontLineSMS:Credit while traveling abroad in Uganda and East Timor. During his travels, Ben witnessed how communities and families in these countries were devastated by natural disasters like hurricanes and how soldiers did not receive the support they needed when returning home from war. Today, Ben is pioneering technology that is connecting microfinance institutions to their borrowers via cell phones in Sierra Leone. Ben is using his knowledge in economics and international studies to make a positive impact on these people and their communities. Ben has been selected an “Unreasonable Fellow” by the Unreasonable Institute, which attracts up to 25 high-impact, young social entrepreneurs from across the globe for a ten week conference.

“Together, Staples and Ashoka are providing young entrepreneurs with a chance to show how their Ventures are creating a positive, lasting impact in communities all around the world,” said Paul Capelli, vice president of community and public relations, Staples. Inc. “These first four finalists bring unique approaches to effecting social change, and serve as motivators to inspire young people to initiate and lead their own social change.”

The eight winners of the Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition will receive cash awards, consulting from Staples executives and an all-expenses-paid trip to speak at TEDxYSE, a Youth Venture-hosted conference which will be held at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC on Nov. 13. TEDxYSE leverages the global TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference model of thought leaders, which enables local community groups to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events. Actor James Cromwell will be the opening speaker at the event.

For more information, please visit http://www.tedxyse.com http://www.tedxyse.com. Tickets for the event will go on sale today and are available at http://www.tedxyse.com/register http://www.tedxyse.com/register.

The competition is open to existing and new Youth Venture teams comprised of young people between the ages of 12-24, who are creating entrepreneurial ventures that make a positive impact on communities. Nominations and entries will be accepted on a rolling basis through Sept. 30, 2010. For additional information on the Staples/Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition, please visit the competition web site at: http://www.genv.net/en-us/staples-yse

About Youth Venture

Ashoka’s Youth Venture aims to help an entire generation of young people develop as changemakers, who will improve their communities now and throughout their lives. Youth Venture inspires and supports teams of young people to launch and lead their own civic-minded organizations and businesses. Youth Venture was created by Ashoka, the global pioneer of the social entrepreneurship sector and the world’s biggest network of changemakers. We believe that the greatest contribution we can make to the world is to increase dramatically the number of changemakers today and in every future generation. This is the key factor for success for every part of society, from a school to a company to an entire country. Ashoka’s Youth Venture operates in 18 countries and engages 75,000 young people.

About Ashoka

Ashoka is the world’s community of leading social entrepreneurs-individuals with innovative and practical ideas for addressing social needs. Working with these social entrepreneurs, Ashoka builds communities of innovators who work collectively to transform society and design new ways for the social sector to become more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. For more information, please visit www.ashoka.org.

About Staples
Staples, the world’s largest office products company, is committed to making it easy for customers to buy a wide range of office products and services. Our broad selection of officesupplies , electronics, technology, and office furniture as well as business services, including computer repair and copying and printing , helps our customers run their offices efficiently. With 2009 sales of $24 billion and 91,000 associates worldwide, Staples operates in 26 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia serving businesses of all sizes and consumers.

New Program Consists of a $100,000 Consumer ‘Sabbatical’ Contest, In-Store Seminars, Employee Challenge and New National Advertising Campaign

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. (September 14, 2010) – IKEA, The Life Improvement Store, announced today the consumer launch of The Life Improvement Project, a program designed to educate, inspire and empower people to improve their lives, as well as the lives of others in their community. The national program consists of the Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest, offering one person the opportunity to win a year-long sabbatical* (worth $100,000) to improve the lives of others; a series of free Life Improvement Store Seminars for consumers, hosted in IKEA stores across the U.S.; and a Life Improvement Co-Worker Challenge, giving IKEA employees (co-workers) the opportunity to get further engaged in local community initiatives. Starting today, people can visit The Life Improvement Project website for more information on these programs, and to begin building a better life.

The Life Improvement Project supports the company’s new brand platform, The Life Improvement Store, an idea designed to communicate the company’s core vision and mission of creating a better everyday life for the many people. This concept is also being introduced to the public via a national ad campaign, “Made By,” that commenced on national cable, online and print media, and local broadcast media, on August 29, 2010.

“As ‘The Life Improvement Store,’ we deepen our connection with consumers, and provide new opportunities – beyond just our products and services – to support them in life improvement projects at home and beyond,” says Leontyne Green, Marketing Manager, IKEA North America. “We are excited to launch The Life Improvement Project – the Contest, Seminars and Co-Worker Challenge – to really bring this new initiative to life in a tangible way.”

Details for The Life Improvement Project components are as follows:

* Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest: Understanding that people have a desire to be a positive force within their community, but may not have the time or resources to do so, IKEA is offering a unique contest for one person to win a year-long sabbatical* (worth $100,000) to advance a project that improves the life of others, and share their experience with the world. From September 14 – November 8, 2010, those that are interested can submit their Life Improvement proposal online at www.thelifeimprovementproject.com. Five
finalists will be chosen from submissions by a panel of judges and the winner will be determined by public vote, and announced on January 31, 2011.

*NOTE: The grand prize winner is not required to take a leave of absence from work. If the grand prize winner chooses to take leave from employment to work on their project, they can utilize a portion of the prize toward living expenses.

* Life Improvement Store Seminars: IKEA understands the challenges people face in their day-to-day life at home, and will host a series of 51 free Life Improvement Store Seminars at store locations across the country to provide customers with the tools, inspiration and product suggestions to help people improve their life at home. These seminars will be hosted by experts from 13 publications including Family Circle and their partner Food University, Cooking Light, ReadyMade and This Old House. In addition, seminars will be offered in select stores by life coaching experts provided by O, The Oprah Magazine. The free, in-store seminars will
kick-off October 9, 2010 and extend through July 24, 2011. Information on the Life Improvement Store Seminars – including dates and locations – will be posted on www.thelifeimprovementproject.com.

* Life Improvement Co-Worker Challenge: Committed to the company vision of creating a better everyday life for the many people, IKEA co-workers are dedicated to being a positive force in their local communities. IKEA is hosting an internal Life Improvement Co-Worker Challenge to provide $10,000 each to support five winning community projects suggested by teams of co-workers across the country. This challenge gives IKEA co-workers the opportunity to win additional funding and support for a local charitable organization/cause of their choice. This challenge kicked off September 8, 2010, and reaches more than 13,000 IKEA co-workers across the U.S. The five winning community projects will be determined on December 8, 2010.

* “Made By” Advertising Campaign: The creative agency for IKEA and brainchild behind The Life Improvement Store concept, Ogilvy & Mather, created an integrated marketing campaign to demonstrates how everyday people – the Johnsons, the Garcias, and others – create individual living spaces “made by” them, and “designed by” IKEA to help make their life at home better. The new campaign, titled “Made by,” kicked off August 29, 2010 on national cable, and will run throughout the year in national print, online and local broadcast media.

For more information on The Life Improvement Project, including the Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest and Life Improvement Store Seminars, visit www.thelifeimprovementproject.com.

Public Invited to Vote for Favorite Playground “Idea;” Winner Will Receive $70,000 to Build All-Inclusive Playground

Woonsocket, RI – August 23, 2010 – CVS/pharmacy, Boundless Playgrounds, and Pepsi are inviting the public to join them as they work together to provide all children with the opportunity to play together in a truly inclusive environment. The partnership is part of the Pepsi Refresh Project, a groundbreaking effort that funds ideas, big and small, that can refresh the world.

From now until September 28 at noon ET, the public is asked to visit boundlessplay.refresheverything.com and vote on which playground idea should receive $70,000 in funding to build a Boundless Playground. Voting is limited to one vote, per person, per day. The website will announce the winning idea on September 28, 2010.

On a Boundless Playground children of all abilities can gain the important developmental and physical benefits of unstructured play. They also learn to appreciate the unique capabilities of others, regardless of any perceived ability, and are able to grow together while playing side-by-side in a safe environment.

The partnership with the Pepsi Refresh Project is made possible through CVS Caremark All Kids Can, a 5-year, $25 million commitment to support children with disabilities. Since 2006, CVS Caremark All Kids Can has supported Boundless Playgrounds and donated more than $4 million which has resulted in the building of more than 50 Boundless Playgrounds nationwide.

“Our goal with All Kids Can is to help all children succeed in life. A Boundless Playground has a real impact on a child’s physical and emotional development and we’re thrilled to be a part of creating an environment that encourages all children to learn and play with one another,” said Eileen Howard Dunn, Senior Vice President of Community Relations for CVS Caremark. “We are excited to be part of the Pepsi Refresh Project and to give people the opportunity to support organizations like Boundless Playgrounds in their commitment to making local communities a better place for all children.”

“We are proud to partner with CVS/pharmacy and Boundless Playgrounds and support their mission to give children of all abilities the opportunity to play together in a fun and welcoming environment. The Pepsi Refresh Project supports powerful, creative and fun ideas that encourage positive change and we’re thrilled to be part of an initiative that has and continues to make a difference in the lives of children with all abilities in communities throughout the country,” said David Regine, Pepsi National Account Manager, CVS/pharmacy Team.

Through the Pepsi Refresh Project, Pepsi is awarding more than $20 million in 2010 to fund ideas that move the world forward. At www.refresheverything.com, anyone can submit an idea and each month the public votes to determine which ideas get funded.

The Pepsi Refresh Project is an evolution of the Refresh Everything initiative Pepsi launched in 2009, which showed the brand as a catalyst for optimism. In 2010, Pepsi is funding ideas that will move the world forward in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. The Pepsi Refresh Project features significant social engagement around people and the power of ideas.

Boundless Playgrounds

Boundless Playgrounds is the leading nonprofit developer of truly inclusive playgrounds where children of all abilities gain the important developmental and physical benefits of unstructured play. On a Boundless Playground all children can be in the middle of the fun. There are nearly 200 Boundless Playgrounds in 31 states and Canada, with over 100 under development. For more information about Boundless Playgrounds, visit www.boundlessplaygrounds.org.

About CVS Caremark All Kids Can

All Kids Can, a program of the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust and CVS Caremark, is a five-year, $25 million commitment to support children with disabilities. The goals of All Kids Can are to support children with disabilities by raising awareness in schools and in local communities about the importance of inclusion, creating greater opportunities for physical activity and play, and providing access to medical rehabilitation and related services. CVS Caremark and its more than 211,000 employees help children with disabilities learn, play and succeed through partnerships with leading local and national nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit cvsallkidscan.com

Washington, DC – August 17 – Partners In Health (PIH), The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) and Grammy-winning reggae band Steel Pulse today announced the release of Hold On [4 Haiti], a new song composed by lead singer David Hinds and recorded to raise funds for the solar electrification of health clinics for PIH in Haiti. The clinics, operated by Zanmi Lasante, are located in the remote mountain highlands and do not have access to the electric grid. In the aftermath of the January earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the facilities have experienced a rise in demand for health-care services, countered by dangerous fluctuations in fuel supplies needed to operate their generators.

Steel Pulse has launched a new website, www.holdon4haiti.org, where the song is available for download on a donation basis. One hundred percent of donations received will benefit Haiti.

Explained Mr. Hinds: “Because the initial media coverage has waned considerably, we want to revitalize the focus on Haiti’s plight. We wrote Hold On [4 Haiti] to support the people of Haiti through the work being done by the Solar Electric Light Fund and Partners In Health. We’ve got to make a real difference on the ground -that’s what this project is all about.”

“Steel Pulse’s Hold On [4 Haiti] is a song of hope,” said SELF’s executive director, Bob Freling. “Our hope is that we can solar electrify all 12 hospitals and health centers for Partners In Health in Haiti. We were already working on electrifying PIH clinics, but in the wake of the earthquake we’ve been requested by PIH to accelerate our timeline for bringing solar power to all of their sites in Haiti.”

Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health, has been an advocate for the Solar Health Care Partnership between the two organizations from the very beginning, when SELF worked on electrifying PIH clinics in Africa. “We know that solar energy is self-replenishing and sustainable. It works for us in Africa, and we want to use it across all our facilities in Haiti; diesel is already in short supply and will likely become even more difficult to obtain as time goes by,” said Dr. Farmer. “This song by Steel Pulse serves as a reminder that we stand with the people of Haiti in solidarity and compassion.”

About PIH
Partners In Health (PIH) works in 12 countries around the world to provide quality health care to people and communities devastated by joint burdens of poverty and disease. PIH has been providing vital health care services in Haiti for more than 20 years and is the largest health care provider in the country, working with the Haitian Ministry of Health to deliver comprehensive health care services to a catchment area of 1.2 million across the Central Plateau and the Lower Artibonite Valley. Learn more: www.pih.org.

About SELF
The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit working to reduce energy poverty and combat climate change by bringing solar power and wireless Internet access to remote rural villages in the developing world. SELF has pioneered innovative applications of solar power for drip irrigation in Benin, telemedicine in the Amazon rainforest, vaccine refrigeration in Rwanda, online distance learning in South Africa, and microenterprise development in Nigeria. These successful pilot projects culminated in SELF’s whole-village approach, or Solar Integrated Development model. Since 1990, SELF has completed projects in 20 countries, making it a leader among non-governmental organizations in realizing practical and cost-effective alternative energy solutions for rural villagers. For more information, please visit www.self.org.

About Steel Pulse
For over 35 years, Grammy-winning reggae band Steel Pulse has won the hearts and minds of audiences all over the world. Bob Marley numbered Steel Pulse among his favorite reggae bands when the group had just come up out of Birmingham in 1975. Steel Pulse performed at Bill Clinton’s inaugural celebration, the first reggae band to appear at such an event. African Holocaust, their most recent album, was been hailed as “the rebirth of political consciousness in reggae music” and was received with accolades from fans and critics alike. The band is currently working on a new album and DVD. Visit: www.steelpulse.com.

Inconsistent Access to Food Attributed to Worsening Economy

New York City – Twenty-one percent of American households with children are “food insecure” – a situation that adversely affects children most – causing poor cognitive development, socio-emotional and health outcomes – according to a new report by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a think tank at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Food insecurity is a term used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to describe the situation when the food intake of one or more members of a household is reduced and eating patterns are disrupted because the household lacks money and other resources for food.

NCCP reports that the incidence of food insecurity has markedly increased in recent years, due largely to the worsening economy. “Households with children appear to be more at risk today of experiencing food insecurity than they were a decade ago,” says Vanessa R. Wight, PhD, the lead author of the NCCP report, “Examining Food Insecurity Among Children in the United States.”

The prevalence of food insecurity among children rose sharply in 2008 to about 11 percent after remaining between 8.0 and 9.5 percent for a decade. “With recent increases in poverty and unemployment, this trend is very sad for America, but not surprising,” says Wight. The researchers also say that as the recession pushes more families into unemployment, the need for food assistance programs targeting children and families is even more apparent. A number of state- and federally-funded policies exist to address food insecurity and mitigate the effects of poverty on families and children, such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, the Emergency Food Assistance program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs.

Among NCCP’s findings:

· Since the late 2007, when the recession began, the number of children living with an unemployed parent nearly doubled from 5.5 million to 10.5 million children by 2009.
· Concurrently, participation in food assistance programs spiked: The number of food stamps participants increased 31 percent, from 25.7 million in 2005, to 33.7 in 2009. The sharpest uptick occurred between 2007 and 2009, as participation increased by 27 percent.
· Participation in the School Breakfast and National School Lunch Program rose by 18 percent and six percent respectively.
· In the last year alone, Emergency Food Assistance programs, such as food banks and pantries, have seen an 18 percent increase in demand.

“It is very critical that programs and policies are flexible enough to respond to extreme times of need like these today, yet also be comprehensive enough to address the potential long-term effects of poverty and food insecurity on children’s wellbeing,” says Wight.

The complete NCCP report can be accessed free online at: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_948.html

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring positive outcomes for the next generation.

Five London students awarded a place at Washington D.C. Leadership Summit and eight-week internship as part of Bank of America Student Leaders program

LONDON – Five young people from London have been selected as 2010 Bank of America Student Leaders in recognition of their leadership skills and passion for improving their local communities. This unique programme offers London-based sixth form and college students the opportunity to spend the summer learning key social and business leadership skills, to further inspire them in serving their communities and effecting positive changes in their local areas.

As part of the award, this month the selected students will be travelling to Washington D.C. for the Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s week-long Student Leadership summit. In addition to attending the summit, the Student Leaders will participate in eight-week non-profit internships, paid for by Bank of America, at organisations in their local communities. Students gain hands-on experience and learn the finer points of nonprofits management and leadership while the non-profit organisations benefit from the additional resources and support.

This year’s London Student Leaders are:

Merlain Makiadi, Southfields Community College
Sami Ali, Drayton Manor High School
Verdzhiniya Ivanova, New Vic Sixth Form College
Rebecca Duncan, Newsted Wood School for Girls
Olorunfemi Bolarinwa Situ-Amoo, Pimlico Academy

“At Bank of America, we strongly believe that an investment in future leaders plays a pivotal role in revitalising our communities,” said Jonathan Moulds, President of EMEA, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “By providing opportunities for our youth to be leaders in their communities today is important not only to our long-term success in London but also as a nation and world. Through our Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative and our larger corporate social responsibility efforts, we’re helping to create a culture of global service – one that benefits individuals, families, non-profit organisations and the neighbourhoods they serve.”

At the week-long leadership summit, students will learn how service benefits communities economically; how corporate, non-profit and government collaboration is instrumental in community revitalisation;and the important role that non-profit organisations play as community anchors, particularly during times of economic difficulty.

Through a series of interactive workshops and hands-on activities, the summit will include educational seminars and the participation of several special guests. Highlights include:

Meetings on Capitol Hill to discuss important issues that impact young people such as lack of financial education in secondary schools and affordable opportunities for a post secondary education.
Leadership sessions that introduce business etiquette, identify personal strengths, develop future goals and identify opportunities for giving back to the community wherever they land.

The Student Leaders programme is one component of Bank of America’s signature philanthropic programme, the Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative(r). Since the programme’s inception in 2004, it has recognised and awarded more than 1,200 Student Leaders in the US and the UK, many of whom have gone on to leadership positions at colleges and universities while continuing to lead civic engagement efforts.

About the Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation’s Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative annually recognises organisations, individuals and students who have shown a commitment to improving their communities. Since the programme’s inception in 2004, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation has committed more than $110 million globally to the NEI programme and will invest over $20 million in 2010 alone.

This fall, as part of the Neighbourhood Excellence Initiative, Bank of America will also announce Neighbourhood Builders, two local nonprofits in each of the 45 participating markets that will be awarded $200,000 each in unrestricted funding for their commitment to improving and revitalizing their communities, and Local Heroes, five individuals in each market with proven dedication to improving their communities through community service who will be able to direct a $5,000 contribution from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation to an eligible non-profit of their choice.

Bandana Spettigue is from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

State’s Outcomes-based Approach Employs Evidence-based Practices

New York City – A study conducted in Michigan by a national poverty research center shows the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth in its public mental health system by focusing on outcomes is a model for health care in the United States.

“Michigan demonstrates that when we start to track outcomes we are more likely to focus on access and quality,” says Janice L. Cooper, PhD, interim director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), a think tank based at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Knowledge about evidence-based and effective practices is high in Michigan. We think this is because they are using data on how children are doing to inform decision-making about what practices to implement and train on. A major focus of health care reform is on patient-centered outcomes research. Our study shows that Michigan was able to focus on how they can improve their system by getting information on how well children in services are doing. They instituted a quality improvement system that included many different stakeholders.”

Dr. Cooper and Patti Banghart, a research associate at NCCP, report in “Unclaimed Children Revisited: Focusing on Outcomes – A Case Study of the Michigan Level of Functioning Project” that the state’s approach to delivering care to children and youth with the highest need begins with sharing data about children and families with providers, system leaders and the children and families themselves. This accountability and monitoring mechanism is a large part of why, unlike many states, Michigan is able to report on how well the children and families they serve are doing, what types of services are working, and what trends exist for specific conditions. With this information they can better plan and address servicgaps, explains Cooper.

Cooper and Banghart examined Michigan’s Level of Functioning Project, a 14-year effort to monitor and improve outcomes for children and youth with severe emotional disturbances, through the use of the “Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale,” which they found has helped improve individual and systems-level decision-making statewide.

NCCP found that:
· Michigan is a national leader in implementing such a mechanism for state accountability in children’s mental health.
· The state’s assessment tools allow it to use interventions that work, and address factors that support or impede quality.
· Michigan’s tools can and should be used to help facilitate communication between mental health care providers and families.
· Using Michigan as an example, mental health care services providers will benefit from “buy-in” and training in such assessment systems.

“Michigan’s statewide effort to monitor child outcomes through the collection of functional assessment data, using learning opportunities to review data, get feedback and improve practice is a promising approach to how systems can enhance their accountability and quality,” says Banghart. “Clinical decision-making is made easier by focusing on how well children in services are doing. Tracking the data also helps to identify populations of children in need, and in turn can help to introduce evidence-based practices to serve children better.”

The full report can be found online at: www.nccp.org/publications/pub_940.html

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring positive outcomes for the next generation.

Bank of America recently launched its 2010 grassroots philanthropic initiative, the Neighborhood Excellence Initiative (NEI), which honors and awards nonprofits and community leaders that are producing positive change through service, helping to revitalize their communities and tackling critical social issues ranging from hunger and housing to workforce development. In 2010 alone, this initiative will allocate a total of $20 million in 45 markets across the U.S. and in London, and has already awarded $110 million globally. Nonprofits and individual community leaders are urged to apply.

Applications are available online at www.bankofamerica.com/neighborhoodexcellence. The deadline for applications is June 1, 2010 for Neighborhood Builders and Local Heroes.

WHAT: The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has issued a call for applications for the Neighborhood Builders and Local Heroes categories of its Neighborhood Excellence Initiative (NEI), the Foundation’s signature philanthropic program. Now in its seventh year, NEI recognizes and rewards service and leadership by organizations, individuals and students in 44 U.S. cities and in London. Applications for the Neighborhood Builders (nonprofit organizations) and Local Heroes (community leaders) awards are due by June 1, 2010* and can be submitted online at www.bankofamerica.com/neighborhoodexcellence
.

WHO: Through NEI, Bank of America will award two Neighborhood Builders in each participating market who work to promote vibrant neighborhoods. Each will receive $200,000 in unrestricted grant funding and will participate in a strategic leadership training program. Additionally, NEI will recognize in each market five Local Heroes whose achievements and leadership on local issues contribute significantly to neighborhood vitality. Recipients direct a $5,000 contribution from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation to an eligible nonprofit of their choice.

HOW: Award recipients are chosen by local selection committees comprised of private, public and nonprofit sector leaders and chaired by local Bank of America executives in the 45 NEI communities.

*Applications for the Student Leaders(r) category of NEI, which honors five exemplary high school students with a passion for improving their neighborhoods in each market, were due in February 2010. Student Leaders
will be announced in the summer; Neighborhood Builders and Local Heroes will be announced in the fall.

Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy

Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, last year Bank of America embarked on a ten-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health
and vitality of their neighborhoods. Bank of America approaches giving through a national strategy called “neighborhood excellence” under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Bank associate volunteers contributed more than 800,000 hours in 2009 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.

Applicants in the following markets are encouraged to apply:

Arizona
Phoenix

California
East Bay/Oakland
Inland Empire
Los Angeles
Orange County
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
Silicon Valley

Connecticut
Hartford
Stamford/Bridgeport/Norwalk

Delaware
Kent, New Castle & Sussex Counties

Florida
Broward County
Jacksonville
Miami
Orlando
Palm Beach County
Tampa Bay area (Pinellas and Hillsborough counties)

Georgia
Atlanta

Illinois
Chicago

Massachusetts
Boston

Maryland
Baltimore

Michigan
Detroit

Missouri
Kansas City
St. Louis

Nevada
Las Vegas

New Jersey

New York
Long Island
New York City

North Carolina
Charlotte

Oregon
Portland

Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Rhode Island
Providence

Tennessee
Nashville

Texas
Austin
Dallas

Ft. Worth
Houston
San Antonio

Virginia
Hampton Roads
Richmond

Washington
Seattle

Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan Washington, DC

U.K.
London, England

For more information, contact:
Nicole Nastacie
Bank of America
1.980.388.7252
nicole.nastacie@bankofamerica.com

New York City – In a new report by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, researchers detail a variety of ways war affects the wellbeing
of children – academically, emotionally and socially – and warns that the mental health services and support system now in place is inadequate to handle a growing and increasingly apparent urgency.

“After nearly a decade of war, a growing area of research shows the negative impact on children, youth and families of U.S. military personnel,” says Janice L. Cooper, PhD, interim director of NCCP. “Without appropriate mental health support systems, these children and youth are at a significant disadvantage compared with their peers in non-military families.”

According to the NCCP brief, entitled “Trauma Faced by Children of Military Families: What Every Policymaker Should Know:”

- More than two million American children have had a parent deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 19,000 children have had a parent wounded in action. More than 2,000 children have lost a parent in one of the conflicts.
- Children in military families experience high rates of mental health, trauma and related problems. Military life can be a source of psychological stress for children. Multiple deployments, frequent moves and having a parent injured or die is a reality for many children in military families.
- Behaviors reported included changes in school performance, lashing out in anger, worrying, hiding emotions, disrespecting parents and authority figures, feeling a sense of loss, and symptoms consistent with depression.
- Media coverage of the war posed a significant source of stress for children and makes it much more difficult for children to cope with a parent’s deployment.
- Both departures to, and returns from, combat deployment cause stress in families that can lead to increased rates of child maltreatment at home. Rates of maltreatment in military families far outpaced the rates among non-military families after the U.S. started sending larger numbers of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003.
- Among families of enlisted U.S. Army personnel with substantiated reports of child maltreatment (physical, emotional or sexual abuse), rates of maltreatment are greater when the soldiers are on combat-related deployments. In fact, the rate of child maltreatment in families of enlisted Army soldiers was 42 percent higher during combat deployment than during non-deployment. Dismayingly, another one of the findings detailed in the brief is a severe shortage of military and civilian mental health providers with
expertise working with military families:
- 40 percent of all active duty licensed clinical psychologist positions remain vacant. There is also a shortage of other specialties including social work and psychiatry.
- Military and community mental health providers face high burn-out and attrition rates.
- Military provider deployment and turnover results in lack of continuity of care for patients, even as deployment-related stress increases family need for services.
- Inconsistent policies on access to on-base mental health services for other than full-time military personnel impacts the ability to receive care for National Guard and Reserve families.

NCCP’s researchers recommend increased training in the use of effective practices for children of military personnel; training military and community mental health providers in self-care to reduce burn-out and attrition; and ensuring equal access to family support to active duty and reserve personnel. The NCCP brief, and its full list of recommendations can be found at: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_938.html
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The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health and well-being of America’s low-income families and children. Part of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, NCCP uses research to inform policy and practice with the goal of ensuring positive outcomes for the next generation.

Contact:
Morris Ardoin, APR | Director, External Affairs
NCCP – National Center for Children in Poverty
Mailman School of Public Health | Columbia University
646-284-9616 | ardoin@nccp.org | www.nccp.org