Homelessness

Homelessness

Homelessness is the condition and societal category of people who lack fixed housing, usually because they cannot afford a regular, safe, and adequate shelter. The term "homelessness" may also include people whose primary nighttime residence is in a homeless shelter, in an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. [1][2] A small number of people choose to be homeless nomads, such as some Roma people (Gypsies) and members of some subcultures.[3] An estimated 100 million people worldwide are homeless.[4]


Definition of homeless

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines the term "homeless" or "homeless individual or homeless person" as --

(1) an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and
(2) an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is:

A) supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);

B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized; or

C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodations for human beings.


Other names for homelessness

The term used to describe homeless people in academic articles and government reports is "homeless people". Popular slang terms, some of which are considered derogatory, include: vagrant, tramp, hobo (U.S.), transient, bum (U.S.), bagman/bagwoman, or the wandering poor.

The term '(of) No Fixed Abode' (NFA) is used in legal circumstances. Sometimes the term “houseless” is used to reflect a more accurate condition in some cases.[5] [6]
In different languages, the term for homelessness reveals the cultural and societal perception and classification of a homeless person:

• Britain: "rough sleeper" (person who sleeps "in the rough" i.e. outdoors)
  
• Spanish: "persona sin hogar", (person without a home) , "sin techo" or "sintecho" (person without roof above)
  
• French: "sans domicile fixe" (SDF, without a fixed domicile)
  
• German: "obdachlos" (without a shelter)
  
• Dutch: "zwerver" (wanderer), "dakloze" (without a roof)
  
• Italian: "senzatetto" (without a roof)
  
• Swedish: "uteliggare" (someone lying outside), "lodis"/"lodare", luffare.
  
• Portuguese: "sem-abrigo" (without a shelter) or "sem-teto" (without a roof)
  
• Polish, Russian, Slovene: "bezdomny", "бездомный", or in more frequent use, "бомж", standing for without fixed place of living (без определенного места жительства), "brezdomec" respectively (without a house)
  
• Japan : erirasbeth portirro" "直す"

Voluntary homelessness

A small number of homeless people choose to be homeless, living as nomads. "Nomadism has been a way of life in many cultures for thousands of years" either due to the "...seasonal availability of plants and animals" or by "their ability to trade." A 2001 study on homelessness issues in Europe noted that "Urban transience [e.g., homelessness] is different from nomadism/rootlessness or travelling.." in that nomads and Gypsy travellers in caravans have "planned mobility" rather than forced mobility.[7] In Britain, most nomadic people are Roma (or Gypsy) people, Irish travellers, Kalé from North Wales, and Scottish travellers. Many of these people "... continue to maintain a semi-nomadic lifestyle and live in caravans"; however, "others have chosen to settle more permanently in houses." [8]Some European countries have developed policies that acknowledge the unique nomadic (or "travelling") life of Gypsy people[9][10]; similar work has also been done by the Australian government, regarding the subgroup of Aborigine people who are nomadic. In large Japanese cities such as Tokyo, the "many manifestations of urban nomadism" include day laborers and subculture groups [11] (e.g., street punks).


Assistance and resources available to the homeless

Refuges for the homeless

There are many places where a homeless person might seek refuge.

• Outdoors: In a sleeping bag, tent, or improvised shelter, such as a large cardboard box, in a park or vacant lot.
  

• Hobo jungles: Ad hoc campsites of improvised shelters and shacks, usually near rail yards.
  

• Derelict structures: abandoned or condemned buildings, abandoned cars, and beached boats
  

• Vehicles: cars or trucks are used as a temporary living refuge, for example those recently evicted from a home. Some people live in vans, covered pick-up trucks, station wagons, or hatchbacks.
  

• Public places: parks, bus or train stations, airports, public transportation vehicles (by continual riding), hospital lobbies, college campuses, and 24-hour businesses such as coffee shops. Public places generally use security guards or police to prevent people from loitering or sleeping at these locations for a variety of reasons, including image, safety, and comfort.
  

• Homeless shelters: ranging from official city-run shelter facilities to emergency cold-weather shelters opened by churches or community agencies, which may consist of cots in a heated warehouse, or temporary Christmas Shelters.
  

• Inexpensive Boarding houses: called flophouses offer cheap, low-quality temporary lodging.
  

• Residential hostels: where a bed as opposed to an entire room can be rented cheaply in a dorm-like environment.
  

• Inexpensive Motels: also offer cheap, low-quality temporary lodging. However, some who can afford housing live in a motel by choice. For example, David and Jean Davidson spent 22 years at a UK Travelodge [30].
  

• 24-hour Internet cafes: are now used by over 5,000 Japanese "Net cafe refugees". An estimated 75% of Japan's 3,200 all-night internet cafes cater to regular overnight guests, who in some cases have become their main source of income.[12]
  

• Friends or family: Temporarily sleeping in dwellings of friends or family members ("couch surfing"). Couch surfers may be harder to recognize than street homeless people[13]

Health care for the homeless

Health care for the homeless is a major public health challenge.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Homeless people are more likely to suffer injuries and medical problems from their lifestyle on the street, which includes poor nutrition, substance abuse, exposure to the severe elements of weather, and a higher exposure to violence (robberies, beatings, and so on). Yet at the same time, they have little access to public medical services or clinics, in many cases because they lack health insurance[22] [23] or identification documents. [24] Free-care clinics, especially for the homeless do exist in major cities, but they are usually over-burdened with patients.[25]

The conditions affecting the homeless are somewhat specialized and has opened a new area of medicine catering to this population. Skin diseases and conditions abound, because homeless people are exposed to extreme cold in the winter and they have little access to bathing.

Homeless people also have much more severe dental problems than the general population. Specialized medical textbooks have been written to address this for providers.[26]

There are many organizations providing free care all over the world for the homeless, but the services are in great demand given the limited number of medical practitioners helping. For example, it might take months to get a minimal dental appointment in a free-care clinic.

Communicable diseases are of great concern, especially tuberculosis, which spreads in the crowded homeless shelters in high density urban settings.


Income sources

Many non-profit organizations such as Goodwill Industries maintain a mission to "provide skill development and work opportunities to people with barriers to employment", though most of these organizations are not primarily geared toward homeless individuals. Many cities also have street newspapers or magazines: publications designed to provide employment opportunity to homeless people or others in need by street sale.

While some homeless have paying jobs, some must seek other methods to make money. Begging or panhandling is one option, but is becoming increasingly illegal in many cities. Despite the stereotype, not all homeless people panhandle, and not all panhandlers are homeless. Another option is busking: performing tricks, playing music, drawing on the sidewalk, or offering some other form of entertainment in exchange for donations. In cities where pharmaceutical companies still collect paid blood plasma, homeless people may generate income through frequent visits to these centers.

Homeless people have been known to commit crimes just to be sent to jail or prison for food and shelter. In police slang, this is called "three hots and a cot" referring to the three hot daily meals and a cot to sleep on given to prisoners. Similarly a homeless person may approach a hospital's emergency department and fake a physical or mental illness in order to receive food and shelter.


Main causes of homelessness

The major reasons and causes for homelessness as documented by many reports and studies include:[27][28][29]

• Lack of affordable housing
  
• Substance abuse and lack of needed services
  
• Mental illness and lack of needed services
  
• Domestic violence
  
• Poverty, caused by many factors
  
• Prison release and re-entry into society
  
• Lack of affordable healthcare
  
• Natural Disaster

Other major causes

• Adjusting from forces to civilian life
  
• fleeing care
  
• asylum seekers

The high cost of housing is a by-product of the general distribution of wealth and income. The rate of homelessness has also been impacted by the reduction of household size witnessed in the last half of the 20th century.

Individuals who are incapable of maintaining employment and managing their lives effectively due to prolonged and severe drug and/or alcohol abuse make up a substantial percentage of the U.S. homeless population.[30] The link between substance abuse and homelessness is partially caused by the fact that the behavioral patterns associated with addiction can alienate an addicted individual's family and friends who could otherwise provide a safety net against homelessness during difficult economic times.

Increased wealth and income inequality have caused distortions in the housing market that push rent burdens higher, thereby decreasing the availability of affordable housing.

There is an initiative in the United States, to help the homeless get re-integrated into society, and out of homeless shelters, called "Housing First". It was initiated by the federal government's Interagency Council on Homelessness. It asks cities to come up with a plan to end chronic homelessness. In this direction, there is the belief that if homeless people are given independent housing to start off with, with some proper social supports, then there would be no need for emergency homeless shelters, which it considers a good outcome. This is a very controversial position.[31]

In Boston, Massachusetts, in September 2007, an outreach to the homeless was initiated in the Boston Common, after some arrests and shootings, and in anticipation of the cold winter ahead. This outreach targets homeless people who would normally spend their sleeping time on the Boston Common, and tries to get them into housing, trying to skip the step of an emergency shelter. Applications for Boston Housing Authority were being handed out and filled out and submitted. This is an attempt to enact by outreach the Housing First initiative, federally mandated. Boston's Mayor, Thomas Menino, was quoted as saying "The solution to homelessness is permanent housing". Still, this is a very controversial strategy, especially if the people are not able to sustain a house with proper community, health, substance counseling, and mental health supportive programs.[32]


Pre-disposing factors to homelessness

Most researchers attempt to make a distinction between: 1) why homelessness exists, in general, and 2) who is at-risk of homelessness, in specific. Homelessness has always existed since urbanization and industrialization.

Factors placing an individual at high-risk of homelessness include:

• Poverty: People living in poverty are at a higher risk of becoming homeless.
  Drug or alcohol addiction: It is common for homeless to suffer from a substance abuse problem. [34]Debate exists about whether drug use is a cause or consequence of homelessness. However, regardless when it arises, an untreated addiction "makes moving beyond homelessness extremely difficult."[35] Substance abuse is quite prevalent in the homeless population.[36]
  
• Serious Mental Illness and Disability: It has been estimated that approximately one-third of all adult homeless persons have some form of mental illness and/or disability. In previous eras, these individuals were institutionalized in state mental hospitals. According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), there were 50,000 mentally ill homeless people in California alone because of deinstitutionalization between 1957 and 1988 and a lack of adequate local service systems.[37] Various assertive outreach approaches, including a mental health treatment approach known as Assertive Community Treatment and the Path Program, have shown promise in the prevention of homelessness among people with serious mental illness.[38][39][40]
  
• Foster Care background: This population experienced rates of homelessness nearly 8 times higher than the non-foster care population.
  Escaping domestic abuse, including sexual, physical and mental abuse: Victims who flee from abuse often find themselves without a home. Abused children also have a higher chance of succumbing to a drug addiction, which contributes to difficulties in establishing a residence.[41] In 1990 a study found that half of homeless women and children were fleeing abuse.[42]
  
• Prison discharge: Often the formerly incarcerated are socially isolated from friends and family and have few resources. Employment is often difficult for those with a criminal record. Untreated substance abuse and mental illness also may put them at high risk for homelessness once discharged.[43]
  
• Civilian during war: Civilians during war or any armed conflict are also are at a higher risk for homelessness, because of possible military attacks on their property, and even after the war rebuilding their homes is often costly, and most commonly the government is overthrown or defeated which is then unable to help its citzens.[44]

History of homelessness

In the sixteenth century in England, the state first tried to give housing to vagrants instead of punishing them, by introducing bridewells to take vagrants and train them for a profession. In the eighteenth century, these were replaced by workhouses but these were intended to discourage too much reliance on state help. These were later replaced by dormitory housing ("spikes") provided by local boroughs, and these were researched by the writer George Orwell.

By the 1930s in England, there were 30,000 people living in these facilities. In the 1960s, the nature and growing problem of homelessness changed for the worse in England, with public concern growing. The number of people living "rough" in the streets had increased dramatically.

However, beginning with the Conservative administration's Rough Sleeper Initiative, the number of people sleeping rough in London has fallen from over 1,000 in 1990 to less than 200 in 2006. This initiative was supported further by the incoming Labour administration from 1997 onwards with the publication of the 'Coming in from the Cold' strategy published by the Rough Sleepers Unit, which proposed and delivered a massive increase in the number of hostel bed spaces in the capital and an increase in funding for street outreach teams, who work with rough sleepers to enable them to access services.

In general, in most countries, many towns and cities had an area which contained the poor, transients, and afflicted, such as a "skid row". In New York City, for example, there was an area known as "the Bowery", traditionally, where alcoholics were to be found sleeping on the streets, bottle in hand. This resulted in rescue missions, such as the oldest homeless shelter in New York City, The Bowery Mission, founded in 1879 by the Rev. and Mrs. A.G. Ruliffson.[50]

In smaller towns, there were hobos, who temporarily lived near train tracks and hopped onto trains to various destinations. Especially following the American Civil War, a large number of homeless men formed part of a counterculture known as "hobohemia" all over America.[51]

Although not specifically about the homeless, Jacob Riis wrote about, documented, and photographed the poor and destitute in New York City tenements in the late 1800s. He wrote a ground-breaking book including such material in "How the Other Half Lives" in 1890, which inspired Jack London's The People of the Abyss (1903). Public awareness was raised by this, causing some changes in building codes and some social conditions.

However, modern homelessness as we know it, started as a result of the economic stresses in society, reduction in the availability of affordable housing, such as single room occupancies (SROs), for poorer people. In the United States, in the late 1970s, the deinstitutionalisation of patients from state psychiatric hospitals was a precipitating factor which seeded the homeless population, especially in urban areas such as New York City.[52]

The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was a pre-disposing factor in setting the stage for homelessness in the United States.[53] Long term psychiatric patients were released from state hospitals into SROs and sent to community health centers for treatment and follow-up. It never quite worked out properly and this population largely was found living in the streets soon thereafter with no sustainable support system.[54][55]

Also, as real estate prices and neighborhood pressure increased to move these people out of their areas, the SROs diminished in number, putting most of their residents in the streets.

Other populations were mixed in later, such as people losing their homes for economic reasons, and those with addictions, the elderly, and others.

Many places where people were once allowed freely to loiter, or purposefully be present, such as churches, public libraries and public atriums, became more strict as the homeless population grew larger and congregated in these places more than ever. As a result, many churches closed their doors when services were not being held, libraries enforced a "no eyes shut" and sometimes a dress policy, and most places hired private security guards to carry out these policies, creating a social tension. Many public toilets were closed.

This banished the homeless population to sidewalks, parks, under bridges, and the like. They also lived in the subway and railroad tunnels in New York City. They seemingly became socially invisible, which was the intention of many of the enforcement policies.

The homeless shelters, which were generally night shelters, made the homeless leave in the morning to whatever they could manage and return in the evening when the beds in the shelters opened up again for sleeping. There were some daytime shelters where the homeless could go, instead of being stranded on the streets, and they could be helped, get counseling, avail themselves of resources, meals, and otherwise spend their day until returning to their overnight sleeping arrangements. An example of such a day center shelter model is Saint Francis House in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in the early 1980s, which opens for the homeless all year long during the daytime hours and was originally based on the settlement house model. [56]

There was also the reality of the "bag" people, the shopping cart people, and the soda can collectors. These people carried around all their possessions with them all the time since they had no place to store them. If they had no access to or capability to get to a shelter and possible bathing, or access to toilets and laundry facilities, their hygiene was lacking. This again created social tensions in public places.

These conditions created an upsurge in tuberculosis and other diseases in urban areas.

In 1979, a New York City lawyer, Robert Hayes, brought a class action suit before the courts, Callahan v. Carey, against the City and State, arguing for a person's state constitutional "right to shelter". It was settled as a consent decree in August 1981. The City and State agreed to provide board and shelter to all homeless men who met the need standard for welfare or who were homeless by certain other standards. By 1983 this right was extended to homeless women.

By the mid-1980s, there was also a dramatic increase in family homelessness. Tied into this was an increasing number of impoverished and runaway children, teenagers, and young adults, which created a new sub-stratum of the homeless population.

Also, in the 1980s, in the United States, some federal legislation was introduced for the homeless as a result of the work of Congressman Stewart B. McKinney. In 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was enacted.

Several organisations in some cities, such as New York and Boston, tried to be inventive about help to the swelling number of homeless people. In New York City, for example, in 1989, the first street newspaper was created called "Street News" which put some homeless to work, some writing, producing, and mostly selling the paper on streets and trains.[57] It was written pro bono by a combination of homeless, celebrities, and established writers. In 1991, in England, a street newspaper, following on the New York model was established, called "The Big Issue" and was published weekly.[58] Its circulation grew to 300,000. Chicago has "StreetWise" which has the largest circulation of its kind in the United States, thirty thousand. Boston has a "Spare Change" newspaper built on the same model as the others: homeless helping themselves. Seattle has "Real Change," a $1 newsletter that directly benefits the homeless and also reports on economic issues in the area. More recently, Street Sense, in Washington, D.C. has gained a lot of popularity and helped many make the move out of homelessness. Students in Baltimore, M.D. have opened a satellite office for that street paper as well (www.streetsense.org). One program that has found success[citation needed] in New York City is Pathways to Housing, which adopts the Housing first philosophy in providing housing for those homeless with mental health issues.

In 2002, research showed that children and families were the largest growing segment of the homeless in America,[59][60] and this has presented new challenges, especially in services, to agencies. Back in the 1990s, a teenager from New York, Liz Murray, was homeless at fifteen years old, and overcame that and went on to study at Harvard University. Her story was made into an Emmy-winning film in 2003, "Homeless to Harvard".

Some trends involving the plight of the homeless have provoked some thought, reflection and debate. One such phenomenon is paid physical advertising, colloquially known as "sandwich board men"[61][62] and another specific type as "Bumvertising". Another trend is the side effect of unpaid free advertising of companies and organisations on shirts, clothing and bags, to be worn by the homeless and poor, given out and donated by companies to homeless shelters and charitable organisations for otherwise altruistic purposes. These trends are reminiscent of the "sandwich board signs" carried by poor people in the time of Charles Dickens in the Victorian 1800s in England[63] and later during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s.


Violent crimes against the homeless

There have been many violent crimes committed against the homeless. A recent study in 2007 found that this number is increasing. [64] [65]


Voting Rights

Over half the states in the USA require a person to have an address in order to vote. In this fashion, many homeless people are denied the opportunity to vote. Similar situations exist in many countries in the world.


See also

Other itinerant or homeless people or terms for this condition

Nomads

Itinerants

Carnies

Circuit rider

Freight train hoppers

Gutter punks

Gypsies (Roma people)

Gyrovagues

Hoboes

Mendicants

Perpetual travelers

Technomads

Vagabond (person)

Vagrancy (people)

Rough sleepers

Street children

Tramps

Refugees

Economic migrants

Internally displaced persons

Schnorrer



Socieconomic issues or aspects of homeless life

Flophouses

Substance abuse

Squatting in abandoned houses

Poverty

Panhandling and begging

Housing authority



Miscellaneous homelessness-related articles

Homeless World Cup

Bumvertising

Tafari, Jack

Housing first



External links

Homeless Statistics

Salvation Army

A US perspective

An on-the-street perspective

David Shankbone's "Street Sleepers" photograph series

Toxic Playground: Growing Up In Skid Row

Interview with a young Japanese homeless man

Homelessness course - University of Maryland Sociology course by Dr. Reeve Vanneman.

United Nations Children's Fund

United Nations Children's Fund

The United Nations Children's Fund (or UNICEF) was created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 11, 1946 to provide emergency food and healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations System and its name was shortened from the original United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by the popular acronym based on this old name. Headquartered in New York City, UNICEF provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries.

A voluntarily funded agency, UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors. Its programmes emphasize developing community-level services to promote the health and well-being of children. UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 and Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 2006. In the United States, Canada and some other countries, UNICEF is known for its "Trick-Or-Treat for UNICEF" program in which children collect money for UNICEF from the houses they trick-or-treat at on Halloween night, sometimes instead of candy.

Following the reaching of term limits by Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy, former United States Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman took control of the organization in May 2005 with an agenda to increase the organization's focus on the Millennium Development Goals. Total income to UNICEF for 2006 was $2,781,000,000.


Priorities

UNICEF is present in 190 countries and territories around the world.

UNICEF is currently focused on five primary priorities: Child Survival and Development, Basic Education and Gender Equality (including girls' education), Child protection from violence, exploitation, reploitation, montatioplation, and abuse, HIV/AIDS and children, and Policy advocacy and partnerships for children’s rights. Related areas of UNICEF action include early childhood development, adolescence development and participation, life skills based education and child rights all over the world.

UNICEF works to improve the status of their priorities through 14 methods ranging from direct and legal interventions to education and beyond to research and census data collection.


Education

Education is a proven intervention for improving the lives of all people, including children. Educating young women yields spectacular benefits for the current and future generations, and specifically affects a range of UNICEF priorities including child survival, children in family, immunization, and child protection.

UNICEF’s aim is to get more girls into school, ensure that they stay in school
and that they are equipped with the basic tools they need to succeed in later
life. As part of its on-going efforts to ensure every girl and boy their right
to an education, UNICEF’s acceleration strategy is speeding progress in girls’
enrollment in 25 selected countries during the 2002–2005 period.[1]

Immunization plus

Immunization is a direct intervention method which has made great improvements in the health of children world-wide over the past 20 years. But every year, more than 2 million children die from diseases that could have been prevented by inexpensive vaccines. Not cool.

The plus in the program is the additional immunizations made possible during interventions. Ranging from client education to nutritional supplements to insecticide-treated mosquito netting, these life-saving services make immunization programmes a powerful tool for child health.[2]


Child protection and well-being

UNICEF uses the term ‘child protection’ to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children and teens up to 18 yrs – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labor and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital cutting/mutilation and child marriage. UNICEF’s child protection programmes also target children who are uniquely vulnerable to these abuses, such as when living without parental care, in conflict with the law and in armed conflict. Violations of the child’s right to protection take place in every country and are massive, under-recognized and under-reported barriers to child survival and development, in addition to being human rights violations. Children subjected to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV/AIDS infection, educational problems, displacement, homelessness, vagrancy and poor parenting skills later in life.[3]

Among many other programmes, UNICEF supports the international Child Rights Information Network. In 2007, UNICEF published An Overview of child well-being in rich countries, which showed the UK and the USA at the bottom of a league of 21 economically advanced nations when it comes to overall child well-being.[4]


HIV/AIDS

15 million children are now orphaned due to AIDS. It is estimated that by the year 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa alone, more than 18 million children will have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Half of all new infections are people under the age of 25, with girls hit harder and younger than boys. Working to protect and support orphaned children, legal environment. UNICEF is also running several programs dedicated to controlling both online and off-line child pornography.[5]


Early childhood

Every child must be ensured the best start in life – their future, and indeed
the future of their communities, nations and the whole world depends on it.[6]

UNICEF applies a holistic, evidence-based approach to early childhood, including the following principles:

• Preventive and curative health care including immunization, adequate nutrition, and safe water and basic sanitation must be provided as a sine qua non.

Structure of the organization

The heart of UNICEF's work is in the field, with staff in over 150 countries and territories. More than 120 country offices carry out UNICEF's mission through a unique program of cooperation developed with host governments. Seven regional offices guide their work and provide technical assistance to country offices as needed.

Overall management and administration of the organization takes place at its headquarters in New York. UNICEF's Supply Division is based in Copenhagen and serves as the primary point of distribution for such essential items as lifesaving vaccines, antiretroviral medicines for children and mothers with HIV, nutritional supplements, emergency shelters, educational supplies, and more.

Many people in industrialized countries first hear about UNICEF’s work through the activities of 37 National Committees for UNICEF. These non-governmental organizations (NGO) are primarily responsible for fundraising, selling UNICEF greeting cards and products, creating private and public partnerships, advocating for children’s rights, and providing other invaluable support. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is the oldest of the National Committees, founded in 1947.[7]

UNICEF is supported entirely by voluntary funds. Governments contribute two thirds of the organization's resources; private groups and some 6 million individuals contribute the rest through the National Committees.

Guiding and monitoring all of UNICEF's work is a 36-member Executive Board which establishes policies, approves programs and oversees administrative and financial plans. The Executive Board is made up of government representatives who are elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, usually for three-year terms.


The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence, Italy, was established in 1988 to strengthen the research capability of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and to support its advocacy for children worldwide.

The Centre, formally known as the International Child Development Centre, has as its prime objectives to improve international understanding of the issues relating to children's rights, to promote economic policies that advance the cause of children, and to help facilitate the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in industrialized and developing countries.

The program for 2006-2008 was approved by UNICEF Executive Board in September 2005. It reaffirms the Centre's academic freedom and the focus of IRC's research on knowledge gaps, emerging questions and sensitive issues which are relevant to the realization of children's rights, in developing and industrialized countries. It capitalizes on IRC's role as an interface between UNICEF field experience, international experts, research networks and policy makers and is designed to strengthen the Centre's institutional collaboration with regional academic and policy institutions, pursuing the following four goals:

• Generation and communication of strategic and influential knowledge on issues affecting children and the realization of their rights;
  
• Knowledge exchange and brokering;
  
• Support to UNICEF's advocacy, policy and programme development in support of the Millennium Agenda
  
• Securing and strengthening the Centre's institutional and financial basis.

Three interrelated strategies will guide the achievement of these goals:

• Evidence-based analysis drawing on quantitative and qualitative information, the application of appropriate methodologies, and the development of recommendations to assess and inform advocacy and policy action.
  
• Enhanced partnerships with research and policy institutions and development actors, globally and at regional level, in developing and industrialized countries.
  
• Communication and leveraging of research findings and recommendations to support policy development and advocacy initiatives through strategic dissemination of studies and contribution to relevant events and fora.[8]

Public perception

UNICEF is the world's leading children's organization. Over the 60 years of its history it has become a primary reference for governments and NGOs, collecting and disseminating more research on children than any other organization, writing position papers on various aspects of the health and environments of children. UNICEF has also organized world-wide fundraising drives, to fund interventions which directly benefit children.

But many groups, governments, and individuals have criticized UNICEF over the years for what they view as failing to meet the needs of their particular group or interest. Recent examples include criticism of its perceived failure to hold the Government of Sudan adequately accountable for the practice of slavery in southern Sudan, its policy against the marketing of breast milk substitutes in developing world hospitals, and its adherence to the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by every member state in the United Nations except for the United States (which is a signatory to the convention) and Somalia.

Unlike NGOs, UNICEF is an inter-governmental organization and thus is accountable to governments. This gives it unique reach and access in every country in the world, but may also sometimes hamper its ability to speak out publicly on rights violations, or to openly criticise the policies and actions of governments.

UNICEF has also been criticised for having political bias by NGO Monitor, an Israeli NGO with the stated aim of monitoring other non-governmental organizations operating in the Middle East. NGO Monitor asserts that while UNICEF aims to fund only non-political organisations, it also funded "Palestinian Youth Association for Leadership and Rights Activation" (PYALARA), a student-run Palestinian NGO. NGO Monitor alleges that PYALARA has a covert political agenda justifying suicide bombings and demonising Israel.[9]

The Catholic Church has also been critical of UNICEF, with the Vatican at times withdrawing its donations, because of reports by the American Life League and others that UNICEF has used some of those funds to finance sterilizations and abortions.

A further example is the emotive issue of intercountry adoptions from Guatemala.[10] The country has ratified the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption with effect from 1 January 2008. UNICEF has been criticised by some interested parties of failing to support adoptions that are underway before the deadline[11] but, once again, this fails to recognise UNICEF's status and obligations as an international organisation, rather than an NGO.


Sponsorship

Recently, UNICEF has begun partnerships with world-class athletes and teams, to promote the organisation's work and to raise funds.

On 7 September 2006, an agreement between UNICEF and the Catalan club FC Barcelona was reached whereby the club would donate 0.7% of its total yearly revenue to the organization for five years. As part of the agreement, FC Barcelona will wear the UNICEF logo on the front of their shirts, which will be the first time a football club sponsored an organization rather than the other way around. It is also the first time in FC Barcelona's history that they have had a sponsor on their shirts. They had previously had sponsors, but never on their shirts in the way that the UNICEF logo is.

In January 2007, UNICEF struck a partnership with Canada's national tent pegging team. The team was officially re-flagged as "UNICEF Team Canada", its riders wear UNICEF's logo in competition, and team members promote and raise funds for UNICEF's campaign against child labor.[12]

The Swedish club Hammarby IF followed the Spanish and Canadian lead on 14 April 2007[13], also raising funds for UNICEF and displaying the UNICEF name on their sportswear and wears a shirt much like the FC Barcelona shirt.

Additionally, UNICEF was seen on the #27 Bill Davis Racing of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series pickup truck driven by Jacques Villeneuve.



Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box

Since 1950 when a group of children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania donated $17 they received on Halloween to help post-World War II victims, the Trick-or-Treat UNICEF box has become a tradition in North America during the haunting season. These small orange boxes are handed to children at schools and at various locations (such as Hallmark Gold Crown Stores) prior to October 31. To date, the box has collected approximately $91 million dollars (CAD) in Canada and over $132 million (US) in the USA.


Art in All of Us

UNICEF sponsors the Art in All of Us[14] initiative founded and organised by Anthony Asael (Belgium) and Stephanie Rabemiafara (Madagascar). The mission of Art in All of Us is to promote creative cultural exchange throughout the UN listed countries, using universal language of Art. The AiA World Art Book Program of Art in All of Us will present in one book each and every of the 192 UN-listed countries through a single portrait of a resident, a drawing and a poem done by a local child.


See also

Facts for Life

List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

Maurice Pate, first executive director of UNICEF

Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, statistical monitoring program of UNICEF

Music for UNICEF Concert

Street children

Voices of Youth


External links

UNICEF

UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre

Pune Street Children Project by Identity Foundation- Global volunteering initiative on Nabuur.com

Unicef - Breastfeeding Support Forum

Child abuse

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect of children by parents, guardians, or others. While most child abuse happens in the child's home, large numbers of cases of child abuse have been identified within some organizations involving children, such as churches, schools, child care businesses, and in particular native residential schools,[1] or in government agencies.[2] It also can occur almost anywhere (eg kidnappings, random murders etc.)

According to a recent UNICEF report on child well-being[3] the United States and the United Kingdom ranked lowest among rich nations with respect to the well being of their children. This study also found that child neglect and child abuse are far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are present. There are many forms of abuse and neglect and many governments have developed their own legal definition of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. In the United States, the Federal Government puts out a full definition of child abuse and neglect and creates a summary of each State definition.[4]


Effects of child abuse

Child abuse in its various forms has numerous effects and consequences, both tangible and intangible, upon society, those mistreated, and those entrusted with the responsibility of its detection, prevention and treatment. Child abuse can have dire consequences, during both childhood and adulthood. The effects of being abused as a child vary according to the severity of the abuse and the surrounding environment of the child. If the family or school environment is nurturing and supportive, the child will probably have a healthier outcome. The U.S. National Adoption Center found that 52% of adoptable children (meaning those children in U.S. foster care) freed for adoption had symptoms of attachment disorder.[citation needed] Children with histories of maltreatment, such as physical and psychological neglect and physical abuse are at risk of developing psychiatric problems.[5][6] Such children are at risk of developing a disorganized attachment.[7][8][9] Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms,[10] as well as anxiety, depressive, and acting-out symptoms.[11][12] A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants exhibited symptoms of disorganized attachment.[13][14]


Negative Consequences of Child Abuse

Emotional effects include low self-esteem, depression and anxiety, eating disorders, relationship difficulties, alienation and withdrawal, and personality disorders.
Physical effects include injury, death, lifelong health problems, cognitive difficulties, and physical disabilities.

Behavioral effects include problems in school and work, delinquency, teen pregnancy, suicide attempts, criminal or antisocial behavior, substance abuse, aggressive behavior, spousal and child abuse, and anger.


Causes of child abuse

There are many causes of child abuse. Many child abusers were themselves victims of abuse. Mental illness is another common factor, with many abusers having personality disorder or other severe forms of mental illness. Psychosocial factors also play a role.

Parental choices and other unforeseen circumstances that place families under extraordinary stress ― for instance, poverty, divorce, sickness, disability, lack of parental skills and drugs are often associated to child maltreatment. Children in families that have a parent deployed in combat are also more likely to be victims of child maltreatment. Many of these factors may contribute to family stress that can result in child abuse or neglect. Understanding the root causes of abuse can help better determine the best methods of prevention and treatment. There are four primary categories as to why people harm their children. Intergenerational transmission of violence, social stress, social isolation and low community involvement, and family structure.


Prevention

Given these possible causes, most professionals agree that there are three levels of prevention services; primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention.


Primary prevention

Primary prevention consists of activities that are targeted at the community level. These activities are meant to impact families prior to any allegations of abuse and neglect. Primary prevention services include public education activities, parent education classes that are open to anyone in the community, and family support programs. Primary prevention can be difficult to measure because you are attempting to impact something before it happens, an unknown variable.


Secondary prevention

Secondary prevention consists of activities targeted to families that have one or more risk factors including families with substance abuse, teen parents, parents of special need children, single parents, and low income families. Secondary prevention services include parent education classes targeted for high risk parents, respite care for parents of a child with a disability, or home visiting programs for new parents.


Tertiary prevention

These families have already demonstrated the need for intervention, with or without court supervision. Prevention supporters consider 'tertiary prevention' synonymous with treatment and entirely different from prevention through family support.


Treatment

Treatment for those experiencing sequalae from abuse, or Complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which may be caused by early chronic maltreatment, should address each dimension. Often treatment must be multi-modal. Children who have experienced complex trauma caused by chronic maltreatment can be treated effectively with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy interventions, other therapeutic interventions, education, EMDR and other approaches. For children with attachment difficulties or disorders there are a number of recognized interventions.


Child abuse prevention organizations

Childhelp

CEO and Co-Founder Sara O’Meara and President and Co-Founder Yvonne Fedderson started Childhelp in 1959, establishing it as a leading national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children. Childhelp focuses on advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach.

The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam. Childhelp’s programs and services also include residential treatment services (villages); children’s advocacy centers; therapeutic foster care; group homes and child abuse prevention, education and training. Childhelp also created the National Day of Hope that mobilizes people across America to join the fight against child abuse.



ISPCAN (International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect)

The International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, founded in 1977, is the only multidisciplinary international organization that brings together a worldwide cross-section of committed professionals to work towards the prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect and exploitation globally.


7th Asian Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

A 2-day “7th Asian Regional Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect,” of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), opens on September 24, 2007 at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel in Pasay City, Philippines. It was organized by the Philippines’ Child Protection Unit-Network (CPU-Net), to be attended by 675 participants, including judges, lawyers, doctors, law enforcers and social workers, from 37 countries around Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. The theme "Ako Para sa Bata (I am for the Child)," includes issues such as child trafficking, children in armed conflict and natural disasters, child-friendly judicial reforms, and the involvement of media in promoting child protection.[16]


SPARC (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child)

SPARC is a Pakistan-based child abuse prevention organization. In its annual report titled 'The State of Pakistan's Children-2006', SPARC stated that child abuse in Pakistan is on the rise and that around four Pakistan children are abused everyday and that Pakistan had the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in South Asia.


Reporting of child abuse

Authorities

Depending on the country, the agencies responsible for investigating child abuse are either managed nationally, regionally, or locally. These agencies may be called Child Protective Services (CPS), Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), or by other similar names.

In the U.S., these agencies are usually listed in the state government section of the telephone book under "Children" or "Health" or "Human Services". In a few instances in the U.S., some of the functions of these agencies are outsourced to private individuals or companies.
People who investigate claims of child abuse may be called a "children's social worker" (CSW) or a case worker.


See also

Attachment disorder

Attachment theory

Child sacrifice

Child sexual abuse

Child Welfare

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder

Covert incest

Dissociative identity disorder

Emotional abuse

Emotional dysregulation

Incest

Trafficking of children



External links


Child Protection - Protecting homeschooled children from abuse

Childhelp

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-4-A-CHILD

Childhelp Child Abuse Learning Center

Prevent Child Abuse America

Child abuse prevention through parenting support

Child abuse at the Open Directory Project

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services based in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia adjacent to the campus of Emory University and east of the city of Atlanta. It works to protect public health and the safety of people, by providing information to enhance health decisions, and promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations.

The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease prevention and control (especially infectious diseases), environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, prevention and education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States.


Health protection goals

CDC is committed to achieving true improvements in people’s health. To do so, the agency is defining specific health impact goals to prioritize and focus its work and investments and measure progress.


Healthy people in every stage of life

All people, and especially those at greater risk of health disparities, will achieve their optimal lifespan with the best possible quality of health in every stage of life.

Start Strong: Increase the number of infants and toddlers that have a strong start for healthy and safe lives. (Infants and Toddlers, ages 0-3 years).

Grow Safe and Strong: Increase the number of children who grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn. (Children, ages 4-11 years).

Achieve Healthy Independence: Increase the number of adolescents who are prepared to be healthy, safe, independent, and productive members of society. (Adolescents, ages 12-19 years).

Live a Healthy, Productive, and Satisfying Life: Increase the number of adults who are healthy and able to participate fully in life activities and enter their later years with optimum health. (Adults, ages 20-49 years).

Live Better, Longer: Increase the number of older adults who live longer, high-quality, productive, and independent lives. (Older Adults, ages 50 and over).


Healthy people in healthy places

The places where people live, work, learn, and play will protect and promote their health and safety, especially those at greater risk of health disparities.

Healthy Communities: Increase the number of communities that protect, and promote health and safety and prevent illness and injury in all their members.

Healthy Homes: Protect and promote health through safe and healthy home environments.

Healthy Schools: Increase the number of schools that protect and promote the health, safety and development of all students, and protect and promote the health and safety of all staff. (e.g. – healthy food vending, physical activity programs).

Healthy Workplaces: Promote and protect the health and safety of people who work by preventing workplace-related fatalities, illnesses, injuries, and personal health risks.

Healthy Healthcare Settings: Increase the number of healthcare settings that provide safe, effective, and satisfying patient care.

Healthy Institutions: Increase the number of institutions that provide safe, healthy, and equitable environments for their residents, clients or inmates.

Healthy Travel and Recreation: Ensure that environments enhance health and prevent illness and injury during travel and recreation.


People prepared for emerging health threats

People in all communities will be protected from infectious, occupational, environmental, and terrorist threats. Preparedness goals will address scenarios that include natural and intentional threats. The first round of these scenarios will encompass influenza, anthrax, plague, emerging infections, toxic chemical exposure, and radiation exposure. Increase the use and development of interventions known to prevent human illness from chemical, biological, radiological agents, and naturally occurring health threats.

Decrease the time needed to classify health events as terrorism or naturally occurring in partnership with other agencies.

Decrease the time needed to detect and report chemical, biological, radiological agents in tissue, food or environmental samples that cause threats to the public’s health.
Improve the timeliness and accuracy of communications regarding threats to the public’s health.

Event

Decrease the time to identify causes, risk factors, and appropriate interventions for those affected by threats to the public’s health.

Decrease the time needed to provide countermeasures and health guidance to those affected by threats to the public’s health.

Post-Event

Decrease the time needed to restore health services and environmental safety to pre-event levels.

Improve the long-term follow-up provided to those affected by threats to the public’s health.
Decrease the time needed to implement recommendations from after-action reports following threats to the public’s health.


Healthy people in a healthy world

People around the world will live safer, healthier and longer lives through health promotion, health protection, and health diplomacy.

Health Promotion: Global health will improve by sharing knowledge, tools and other resources with people and partners around the world.

Health Protection: Americans at home and abroad will be protected from health threats through a transnational prevention, detection and response network.

Health Diplomacy: CDC and the United States Government will be a trusted and effective resource for health development and health protection around the globe.



Structure

CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC's major organizational components respond individually in their areas of expertise and pool their resources and expertise on cross-cutting issues and specific health threats. The agency comprises these major organizational components:

Office of the Director manages and directs the activities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; provides overall direction to, and coordination of, the scientific/medical programs of CDC; and provides leadership, coordination, and assessment of administrative management activities.

The CDC is under the direction of Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Gerberding has been the director of the CDC since July 2002.[1]


Coordinating Center for Environmental Health and Injury Prevention

National Center for Environmental Health/ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH-ATSDR) provides national leadership in preventing and controlling disease and death resulting from the interactions between people and their environment.

CDC performs many of the administrative functions for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a sister agency of CDC, and one of eight federal public health agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. The Director of CDC also serves as the Administrator of ATSDR.

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) prevents death and disability from non occupational injuries, including those that are unintentional and those that result from violence.


Coordinating Center for Health Information and Services

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides statistical information that guides actions and policies to improve the health of the American people.

National Center for Public Health Informatics (NCPHI) provides national leadership in the application of information technology in the pursuit of public health.

National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM) provides national leadership in health marketing science and in its application to impact public health.


Coordinating Center for Health Promotion

National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) provides national leadership for preventing birth defects and developmental disabilities and for improving the health and wellness of people with disabilities.

National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) prevents premature death and disability from chronic diseases and promotes healthy personal behaviors.

National Office of Public Health Genomics provides national leadership in fostering understanding of human genomic discoveries and how they can be used to improve health and prevent disease.


Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases

National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) prevents illness, disability, and death caused by infectious diseases in the United States and around the world.

National Immunization Program (NIP) prevents disease, disability, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases in children and adults.

National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) provides national leadership in preventing and controlling human immunodeficiency virus infection, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis.

Coordinating Office for Global Health provides national leadership, coordination, and support for CDC’s global health activities in collaboration with CDC’s global health partners.

Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness & Emergency Response provides strategic direction for the Agency to support terrorism preparedness and emergency response efforts.


National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

NIOSH ensures safety and health for all people in the workplace through research and prevention.

Budget and workforce

CDC’s budget for 2008 is $8.8 billion. Today the staff numbers nearly 15,000 (including 6,000 contractors and 840 Commissioned Corps officers) in 170 occupations. Engineers, entomologists, epidemiologists, biologists, physicians, veterinarians, behaviorial scientists, nurses, medical technologists, economists, health communicators, toxicologists, chemists, computer scientists, and statisticians—to name only a few—each are dedicated to the pursuit of public health.

CDC is headquartered in DeKalb County, Georgia, but it has 10 other locations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Those locations include Anchorage, Alaska; Cincinnati, Ohio; Fort Collins, Colorado; Hyattsville, Maryland; Morgantown, West Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Spokane, Washington; and Washington, D.C. In addition, CDC staff are located in state and local health agencies, quarantine/border health offices at ports of entry, and 45 countries around the world, from Angola to Zimbabwe.

The work force is diverse and well qualified. More than a third of CDC’s employees are members of a racial or ethnic minority group, and women account for nearly 60 percent of CDC’s workforce. Nearly 40 percent of employees have a master’s degree; 25 percent have a Ph.D.; and 10 percent have medical degrees. The average age of a CDC worker is 46.
The CDC campus in Atlanta houses facilities for the research of extremely dangerous biological agents. This setting was well represented in the Dustin Hoffman film Outbreak, although the location depicted in the film was supposed to be the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases bio-research facility. The CDC labs also figure prominently in the book "The Demon in the Freezer" by Richard Preston and "Virus Hunter" by C.J. Peters, former head of the Special Pathogens Branch at the CDC.

The CDC also conducts the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the world’s largest, on-going telephone health survey system.[2]


CDC timeline

CDC Timeline


Data and survey systems

CDC Scientific Data, Surveillance, Health Statistics, and Laboratory Information.[3]

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.[4]

Mortality Medical Data System.[5]