Portrait of Marin

Marin County, CA (PRWEB) January 18, 2012

The American Human Development Project released today A Portrait of Marin, the first county-level American Human Development Report in the Measure of America series. Commissioned by the Marin Community Foundation, A Portrait of Marin ranks the well-being of Marinites on a scale from 0 to 10 using the American Human Development (HD) Index, a composite measure of health, education, and living standards.

The analysis reveals that some Marinites are enjoying extraordinarily high levels of well-being and access to opportunity, while others are experiencing levels of health, education, and standard of living that prevailed in the nation three decades ago. At the top of the ranking is Ross (HD Index: 9.70) and at the bottom is the Canal area of San Rafael (HD Index: 3.18), whose score is below that of West Virginia, the lowest ranked state. Rankings are provided for major racial and ethnic groups, men and women, and the forty-eight Marin County census tracts for which there are reliable U.S Census Bureau data.

“The goal of A Portrait of Marin is to bring greater awareness and understanding of the complexities of such critical issues as health, education, and income across our county,” said Thomas Peters, President and CEO of the Marin Community Foundation. “It makes sense of data, brings clarity to numbers, and connects seemingly unrelated dots. We hope it will be used by concerned residents, business and nonprofit leaders, elected officials, educators, and others to look holistically at who we are as a community and to help facilitate discussions of ways to support all Marinites in realizing their full potential.”

“What we are seeing in Marin is a harbinger of what’s to come nationwide, with important implications for where to focus public and private resources in the years ahead,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-director of American Human Development Project and co-author of A Portrait of Marin.

“The fastest-growing segment of the population in Marin—as in the country—is Latino. Today’s Latino children are a critical segment of the tax-paying workforce of tomorrow, yet Latinos lag on the American HD Index, especially in educational attainment and incomes. Improving American HD Index scores among Latinos is vital not only to their well-being and access to opportunity, but also to Marin’s and America’s long-term economic competitiveness and quality of life,” added Kristen Lewis, co-director of American Human Development Project and co-author of A Portrait of Marin.

AMONG THE KEY FINDINGS FROM A PORTRAIT OF MARIN:

Health:

There is a 13-year gap in life span separating towns in Marin County. Residents of Ross have the longest lives (88 years), outliving residents of Hamilton in southern Novato (75.2 years) by 13 years.
The average Ross resident lives nearly 8 years longer than the average Californian and an astonishing decade longer than the national average.
All major racial and ethnic groups in Marin County live longer than their counterparts in the rest of California.
African Americans lag behind other groups in longevity, though they live longer in Marin than elsewhere in California.

Education:

While 88 percent of white children are enrolled in preschool, only 47 percent of Latino children are.
While fewer than 30 percent of American adults have completed at least a four-year college degree, in Marin, over 50 percent have.
Though Marin’s overall high school dropout rate is very low at 7.3 percent, the rate has remained persistent, and the racial and ethnic gaps in dropout rates are not decreasing over time despite targeted in-school efforts.
In Marin, as across the nation, the schools whose students have greater needs tend to get fewer public dollars.

Income:

The typical female worker living in Marin earns nearly $ 14,000 less per year than the typical male worker—a larger male-female earnings gap than California ($ 10,217) and the nation as a whole ($ 11,179).
Though Marin’s planners have targeted employment in areas such as biotechnology and software as a way to stimulate the recovery and the county’s long-term growth, the job growth that has occurred over the last two decades in Marin is overwhelmingly at the other end of the scale: low-wage service employment.
The distribution of income in Marin is exceedingly lopsided; the top fifth of Marin taxpayers take home about 71 percent of the county’s total income. The bottom fifth earns 1.3 percent of the total income.

A Portrait of Marin highlights actions that Marinites can take to lock in human development successes today while setting the stage for significant budget savings and improved well-being tomorrow. These include creating an environment that reduces health risks; investing in preschool, and addressing the lower per-pupil spending in schools whose students have greatest needs; and expanding affordably priced housing to increase options for older adults and working families and to reduce Marin’s car congestion and pollution.

Supporters of A Portrait of Marin include The Marin Community Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. For additional information, including fact sheets on health, education and standard of living in Marin, and an interactive map program, visit: http://www.measureofamerica.org/marin.

About the American Human Development Project

An initiative of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the American Human Development Project provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding the distribution of well-being and opportunity in America and stimulating fact-based dialogue about issues we all care about: health, education, and living standards. The hallmark of this work is the American Human Development Index, an alternative to GDP and other money metrics that tells the story of how ordinary Americans are faring and empowers communities with a tool to track progress over time. The Index is comprised of health, education, and income indicators and allows for well-being rankings of the 50 states, 435 congressional districts, county groups within states, women and men, and racial and ethnic groups.

Through national and state reports, thematic briefs, and the project’s interactive website, the American Human Development Project aims to breathe life into numbers, using data to create compelling narratives that foster greater understanding of our shared challenges and greater support for people-centered policies. The Project is made possible through the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation‘s matching grant, which will match every dollar you donate—effectively doubling your contribution.

About the Authors

Sarah Burd-Sharps and Kristen Lewis are co-directors of the American Human Development Project. Previously, Sarah worked with the United Nations for over two decades, most recently as Deputy Director of the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Prior to this, she worked in China and in a number of African countries on gender issues and economic empowerment. Sarah holds an M.I.A. from Columbia University. Kristen also comes from an international development policy background, having worked primarily in the areas of gender equality, governance, environment, and water and sanitation. Kristen is co-author, under the leadership of Jeffrey Sachs’ Millennium Project, of the 2005 book Health, Dignity and Development: What Will It Take? She worked at the United Nations for some ten years and has served as a consultant for many international development organizations. Kristen also holds an M.I.A. from Columbia University.

About the Marin Community Foundation

The Marin Community Foundation is the primary center for philanthropy in Marin County, CA and is one of the largest community foundations in the U.S. It manages the assets of the Leonard and Beryl H. Buck Trust and nearly 400 funds established by individuals, families, and businesses. The Foundation makes significant improvements in communities around the world in two ways: by spearheading initiatives for long-term, sustainable change in Marin, and by distributing grants from donor-advised funds locally, across the U.S., and around the world. Now in its 25th year, the Marin Community Foundation has assets of approximately $ 1 billion, with annual grant distributions of approximately $ 50 million.

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, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Sabrina Cohen

Miami Bieach, FL (PRWEB) January 12, 2012

Sabrina Cohen is one of 25 finalists vying for a $ 50,000 grand prize in the inaugural “America Inspired” contest that is seeking to discover extraordinary people making a difference in their community.

A Miami Beach native, Sabrina, 34, is the executive director of the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading awareness and raising funds for stem cell research.

Her contest bio aptly sums up Sabrina’s combined zest for life and the cause: “Sabrina Cohen has performed stand-up comedy from a wheelchair, rolled the catwalk as a fashion model, and donned scarcely more than a bikini’s worth of body paint, all in the name of raising money for medical research.”

“She’s also lobbied Congress, hobnobbed with Bill and Hillary Clinton, strategized with Michael J. Fox, and has proved an inspiration to Dr. Sally Temple, winner of a MacArthur genius grant for her work as a neuroscientist.”

The 25 finalists were selected by a panel of judges from 900 nominations.

“I am so honored that Examiner.com chose to include my work in this contest and thrilled to be among these outstanding finalists. I’m excited to seize the opportunity being a finalist in this contest provides to raise awareness and funds for stem cell research. I just want everyone to “Click the Vote” and get their friends and family to do the same every day they can!” said Cohen.

Sabrina is competing in the “Overcoming Adversity” category, which is one of five categories in the contest. In nominating Sabrina, Miami Health Examiner Charlotte Libov said, “Sabrina is the best example I know of someone who has not only overcome adversity, but has put it to good use. She calls her wheelchair ‘a vehicle to promote change,’ but it is also her vehicle of providing hope. I know of no one who exemplifies hope more than Sabrina.”

Sabrina will host a “Click the Vote” registration and voting party on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at the new South Beach hotspot, Chalk, from 9 – 11pm.

To vote one simply registers or logs-in at Examiner.com and follow the links.

About the America Inspired Contest

“I’m very excited about this contest,” stated Ashish Kapur, chief operating officer at Examiner.com, in a recent interview with USA Today. “It’s a chance to expose individuals who are doing a lot of great stuff in their local communities who you often don’t hear about in the broad media. We hope that by surfacing these stories, we can inspire others to help them.”

The competition was open only to the approximately 55,000 writers who contribute to Examiner.com. In addition to writing for Examiner.com, Libov, who also lives on Miami Beach, is the award-winning author of several health books, and a journalist who writes for numerous other health publications and websites.

Internet voting is now underway and the top-voter in each category will be designed the runner up. Each of the four runners-up will receive $ 10,000, and the top overall vote getter will be awarded the $ 50,000. Voting commenced on Jan. 9 and continues until Jan. 27. Winners will be announced Feb. 1. The other categories are “Leadership” “Passion,” “Sacrifice” and “Outstanding Youth.”

About Sabrina and the Foundation

Since starting the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research in 2006, Sabrina has raised $ 75,000 in grants for the nation’s top stem cell research since it was established in 2006. Her foundation, which is dedicated to building a global network of top scientists and clinicians engaged in stem cell research, after she learned about the therapy and its potential for not only reversing paralysis, but also treating stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and many other devastating disorders.

Left a quadriplegic after a car crash when she was 14, Sabrina is now an effective fundraiser and electrifying motivational speaker in demand for her talks everywhere from elementary schools to institutions such as Harvard University, Baylor College of Medicine, and even the United Nations. Two years ago, she was named an “American Health Hero” by WebMD the Magazine.

Every year the Foundation raises through local fundraising events, merchandise sales, and its annual “CELLebrity” Doctors Calendar, now in its second year and sponsored by DMR and RegenerativeMedicineJobs.com.

Designed to raise public awareness about stem cell research, the 2012 Calendar of “CELLebrity” Doctors captures some of the leading females in science around the world involved in advancing stem cell research, from the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.

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, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
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In this and my next several blog posts, I’m going to try to draw out a few ideas, and pull together several disparate strands of thought around what I see as the great promise (and, to some degree, a great threat) of network technologies– including social media, the internet and, most of all, the mobile phone. The ideas I’ll be discussing are not new; rather, they’ve been described and detailed carefully by men and women much cleverer than I. But I hope to pull some of these strands together in a fresh discourse that will drive toward some kind of an agenda.

This first post will be largely an introduction of the problem, drawing largely on one particularly piece of sociological research… I’ve been re-reading portions of Bowling Alone, Robert D. Putnam’s seminal sociological chronicle of the decline of “social capital” in America in the past several half-century (up to the book’s 2000 copyright date). For the uninitiated, Putnam describes social capital this way:

By analogy with notions of physical capital and human capital– tools and training that enhance individual productivity– the core idea of social capital theory is that social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital) or a college education (human capital) can increase productivity (both individual and collective), so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups.

Putnam draws a dreary picture, illuminating an across-the-board decline among the organizations, associations, and memberships that can illustrate the strength and density of American social capital. Skipping to the end of the tome, Putnam reveals his best sociologist’s estimate of the causes behind these dreary trends. Fully half of the decline he attributes to generational change, particularly the aging of the “long civic generation” born in the early part of the last century who were historically notable for their “joining” instincts.

On this particular challenge, NDN Fellows Morley Winograd and Mike Hais offer a lot of reason for optimism in their two books Millennial Makeover and (forthcoming!) Millennial Momentum. I highly encourage you to go read their books and their blog; I’ll clumsily paraphrase one of their broader arguments this way: the Millennial generation, born roughly between 1980 and 2000, seems to be a “second civic generation” sharing many joining instincts with their grandparents, the cohort that contributed to the high-water mark of social capital in the 1950s and early 1960s. It’s encouraging that history’s largest generation seems uniquely predisposed toward civic engagement, and for my purposes, useful to note that they (we) also happen to be the first “digital native” generation.

But if this generation is to rebuild American social capital, it needs fora in which to connect, build bonds, and establish the mutual obligations of social relationships. While the primary causes Putnam points to are immense, historical shifts, the secondary causes can be largely boiled down to the resultant decline of membership in general community organizations: churches, Rotary clubs, PTAs, etc. It’s hard to imagine most of these organizations making a powerful comeback among the Millennial generation, and we’re left with the question of where, exactly, Millennials will come together to build social bonds.

Another cause Putnam identifies as contributing an additional 10% toward the decline in social capital is “suburbanization, commuting, and sprawl.” This trend has reoriented American communities away from the neighborhoods, downtown areas, corner bars, and public squares where social capital was once forged, to a landscape dominated by highways and strip malls where the closest thing to a shared public space can be found in the Caverns of Walmart. And so, in addition to the evaporation of civic groups, our shared physical spaces are also disappearing, and the question of where social capital can be created in the 21st century becomes still more confounding.

As you’ve no doubt guessed by now (Sorry this took so long. Actually, I’m not sorry at all. Brevity is for cowards.), the point I’m driving toward is this: with the decline of community organizations and associations, and the disappearance of shared public spaces, I look to new network technologies to bridge some of those gaps, and help create the shared public spaces of the 21st century.

In some of my writing earlier this year analyzing the impact of social media in the Arab Spring, I concluded that the great power of these new technologies lies in their ability to create a “second public sphere” in countries where offline speech and assembly are harshly censored. Well, it turns out we need a similar vitalization of our public sphere in America.

To be sure, an online public sphere already does exist in America: on social networks, blogs, and through the myriad connections facilitated by our myriad devices. But the questions I want to answer in the coming blog posts are these: how can new technologies– mobile, social technologies– help foster (and not detract from) civic engagement and social connections? How can these technologies enhance a place, or a city, rather than distract from it? How can civic structures around the world be strengthened by new technology?

I hope you’ll join me in taking on these questions, and help turn this into an interesting dialogue.  If there are things you think I’m missing or should be reading, please pass your ideas along in the comments or via email!

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