Welcome to the e-Voices MONDAY MINUTE, your weekly email newsletter from New Mexico Voices for Children. Please take a minute to add your voice to the pressing issues of the day. Also, tell us what issues you'd like to know more about so we can tailor the MONDAY MINUTE to your interests. Thanks!

December 18, 2006

'Tis the Season
While you're making plans for seasonal charitable giving, please consider a donation to New Mexico Voices for Children. Your support makes it possible for us to educate policymakers, eradicate policies that harm our children, and identify and advocate for policies that improve the well-being of New Mexico's children, families and communities. An easy and painless way you can help is to sign up for a monthly donation of just $5. For the price of a latte at Starbucks you can make your Voice count for New Mexico's children all year long.

What you can do:

• Monthly contributions can be made online via your credit card here: https://secure.ga3.org/05/onlinegiving.
• You can also send a check to New Mexico Voices for Children, 2340 Alamo Rd. SE, Suite 120, Albuquerque, NM 87106.
• Thank you for your support!
  

Reports Offer Reality Checks
Before you eat that holiday goodie, you may want to take a look at some of the numbers just released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States shows that Americans are fatter, consumer more high fructose corn syrup and watch more television than we did in past decades. That should come as no surprise - nor should the specter of health problems that such lifestyles create. Child obesity and diabetes are also at an all-time high.

One statistic that actually bodes well for the American family - the divorce rate is at its lowest since 1970. For a somewhat whimsical approach to all these facts and figures, read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece by Sam Roberts courtesy of Common Dreams here: http://www.commondreams.org:80/headlines06/1215-09.htm

A more global perspective indicates that the health and well-being of many of the world's children is directly related to that of their mothers. The State of the World's Children 2007 report, released recently by UNICEF, says that gender equality is critical to child survival and development. When women are not educated, healthy or empowered, their children suffer as well, according to UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman.

The report concludes that an end to gender discrimination would benefit children as well, and while progress has been made in that regard, it's not been enough. Around the world, millions of women and girls continue to live in poverty, are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, and less likely to attend school. In most places, men continue to earn more pay than women for the same jobs.

The UNICEF report underscores the reason NM Voices would like the state to expand Medicaid to cover more parents. It's clear that kids do better when their parents do better. Also, parents who have health coverage are more likely to take their kids to the doctor than parents who don't. You can read the whole UNICEF report here: http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07.pdf

New Mexico Numbers
Here at NM Voices we're gearing up for the 2007 legislative session. That means, in part, pulling together fact sheets that are specific to each of the state's 112 legislators' districts with data about issues like child poverty. Admittedly, this entails a great deal of work, but before you genuflect in honor of our unparalleled greatness, we must confess that we've gotten a lot of help. (Not to mention a couple of hard-working volunteers.)

The Annie E Casey Foundation - the same folks who put out the national Kids Count data books every year - have lots of great data on their website that's available for use by advocates like us (and you).

The data, on issues like child poverty, educational attainment and parental unemployment, can be sorted at the state level or at sublevels such as legislative districts, counties, metropolitan areas, and even Native American areas. Check it out here: http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/census/

Select 'profiles' to get data on a specific district; select 'rankings' to see how New Mexico districts compare with each other and with the thousands of other state legislative districts nationwide.

Holiday Break
The NM Voices for Children office will be closed from Dec. 23 through Jan. 1, 2007. We'll be back at our desks bright and early on Tuesday, Jan 2. We wish all of you a joyous holiday season and a stellar New Year.

Call for Nominees
We're still accepting nominations for our 2007 Amy Biehl Youth Spirit Award. The award honors New Mexico youths (ages 13 through 26) who are making a difference in their communities through service work or outreach. This year we've split the award into two age groups - 13 to 18 and 19 to 26. One finalist and one winner will be selected from each of the age groups.

The deadline for nominations is 3pm, Friday, Feb. 9, 2007. If you'd like a nomination packet mailed to you call 505-244-9505, ext. 10. You can also download the forms here: www.nmvoices.org/abysa.htm. The awards ceremony will be Friday, April 20, 2007, in Albuquerque.

Your financial support is critical to our work. Please consider making a contribution today at http://www.nmvoices.org/donate.htm