Posted by Elena del Valle on December 8, 2010
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Graphic: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
In 2009, 14.7 percent of residents of the United States or about 50 million people in the Land of Plenty suffered some form of hunger, representing the highest number of households suffering from hunger since 1995 when the first such survey took place. This included 5.7 percent of households where one or more household members ate less and their eating patterns were interrupted sometimes due to lack of money or food. The figures reflect no significant change compared to the previous year although 57 percent of all food-insecure households benefited from a Federal food and nutrition assistance program during the month prior to the 2009 survey.
Another way to look at it that last year only 85 percent of American households had access to enough food for an active, healthy life, according to the Household Security in the United States, 2009, a 62-page report written by Mark Nord Alisha Coleman-Jensen Margaret Andrews Steven Carlson and published by the United States Department of Agriculture (Nord, Mark, Alisha Coleman-Jensen, Margaret Andrews, and Steven Carlson. Household Food Security in the United States, 2009. ERR- 108, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Econ. Res. Serv. November 2010)
There were significantly more households with insufficient food than the national average among households with incomes near or below the Federal poverty line, among households with children, headed by single women (36.6 percent) or single men (27.8 percent), Black households (24.9 percent) and Hispanic households (26.9 percent). Households with low food resources were more prevalent than the national average (5.7 percent) for households with children headed by single women (12.9 percent), women living alone (7.4 percent), men living alone (7.1 percent), Black and Hispanic households (both 9.3 percent), households with incomes below 185 percent of the poverty line (14.4 percent), and households located in principal cities of metropolitan areas (6.8 percent).
The states with the highest percent of households with insufficient food were Arkansas (17.7 percent), Texas (17.4 percent) and Mississippi (17.1 percent); the states with the lowest percent of households where occupants went hungry in 2009 were North Dakota (6.7 percent), New Hampshire (just under 9 percent) and Virginia (9.2 percent). Some 17.7 million people (6 percent of Americans) compared with 1.3 million in 2008 had multiple times when they did not have enough food and could not afford meals.
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 6, 2010
A scene from the PSA
Photos, video: Adrenalina
Compared to parents of other racial and ethnic groups Hispanic parents are less likely to talk with their children about the risks of drug and alcohol use. About 88 percent of Latino parents talk with their children while 94 percent of African American and 92 percent of Caucasian parents do, according to a 2008 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study. Among the 35 million families in the country with children ages 9-17, nearly 7 million Hispanic families with children in that age group are considered at risk for abusing drugs and alcohol, according to the Partnership at Drugfree.org.
Although in past years the Partnership at Drugfree.org has teamed up with several ad agencies to target Spanish speaking Americans, this year the non profit organization announced an Habla Con Tus Hijos (Talk with your Kids) ad; the first effort designed to build on the nonprofit organization’s Habla Con Tus Hijos initiative, a Spanish-language website and educational campaign aimed at encouraging parents to have frequent conversations with their kids about the risks of drug and alcohol use. Scroll down to watch the video in Spanish.
The series of 15- and 30-second TV and radio spots in Spanish developed by Adrenalina, a New York ad agency with Hispanic market capabilities, showcases a common neighborhood where everyone points to the neighbor’s kid as the source of local drug problems.
“Talking to your kids about drugs isn’t easy for any parent. The message of this campaign is that today it’s imperative,” said Victor Zeiris, creative director, Adrenalina. “This campaign addresses the problem of denial that’s prevalent in our communities. Two key themes of the creative work are to bring this issue to the forefront and to emphasize the importance of prevention.”
A scene from the PSA
El Hijo del Vecino (Spanish for the neighbor’s child) is meant to illustrate that kids are more exposed to drugs than their parents think and to encourage parents to take an active role protecting their children from drugs. The idea is to help them understand that a problem with the neighbor’s kid can easily become their own problem.
In the ads, the characters ignore what organizers believe is the obvious: that drugs in a community are everybody’s problem emphasizing “Asumir que es el problema de otros es el problema” (“Assuming that it’s somebody else’s problem, is the problem.”)
“We expect that this campaign will strike a chord with Hispanic parents who may not grasp that their kids are just as likely to be exposed to drugs as other people’s kids,” said Caryn Pace, deputy director of creative development, the Partnership at Drugfree.org, by email.
The Partnership began airing Spanish language public service announcements in the late 1990’s in print and broadcast. In 2009, the organization launched online resources for the Spanish-speaking community. Although initially there was a greater response with television messages, in 2010 marketers began to see high CTR’s (click-through-rates) for online ads leading to the continuation of its Hispanic digital program.
In 2009, the Partnership launched Habla Con Tus Hijos, its Spanish-language resource for parents and caregivers. The staff plans for 2011 include increasing the scale of content available to Spanish speakers and aligning with Hispanic partners in the public health and media fields to increase the reach of its message and content to target audiences.
“The Partnership at Drugfree.org reaches out to the Latino community in both Spanish and English. We are cognizant that there are many Hispanic parents whose first language is Spanish and therefore prefer to receive their information in that language. Demographically, there are millions of parents who identify as Hispanic/Latino and are fully acculturated, having been born/raised in the U.S., and prefer to receive health information in English,” said Roselena Martinez, marketing/communications manager, the Partnership at Drugfree.org, when asked about the organization’s outreach efforts to Latinos.
“As a result, we communicate with Hispanic parents in both English and Spanish, and our goal with our Spanish messaging is that it be more sensitive to culturally appropriate issues that predominantly Spanish-speaking parents may face, such as lack of understanding of American slang names for drugs, for example. The Spanish-speaking segment of our target audience(s) has responded positively in the past few years as we have created campaigns that are reaching out to Latino parents with cultural sensitivity, responding to real issues that Hispanic parents are facing that are often unique to them, when compared to other demographic groups.”
Eleven members of Adrenalina worked on the ad which was filmed in suburban Los Angeles. The target audience for this initiative is bicultural and less acculturated Spanish-dominant Hispanic parents 37-years-old, on average, with tweens and teens ages 9-14. The TV spots were directed by Simon Bross, with production work provided by Cortez Brothers, Los Angeles, and edited via Bross. Production work for the radio spots was provided by Mixology Lab, New York. All creative work by Adrenalina and its agency partners was produced pro bono. The Partnership at Drugfree.org is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help parents “prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children.”
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 3, 2010
Iron Butterflies book cover
Photos: Prometheus Books
After spending several years in eight countries and interviewing 50 dynamic women in a variety of careers and jobs Birute Regine, Ed.D., a developmental psychologist, wrote Iron Butterflies: Women Transforming Themselves and the World (Prometheus Books, $19), a book describing the leadership styles and way of thinking of the women she believes are contributing to a social transformation and empowering others.
In the first chapter Regine mentions a Mayan and Mongolian prophecy that foretells the Era of Man ends and the Era of Woman begins this year. She believes the new era will be one of cooperation driven by women’s leadership style that relies on working together for the benefit of a social group. She is convinced that the feminine qualities that for years kept women out of powerful elite circles will drive them to success in the coming years.
Her 299-page softcover book is named for a poem by the same name by Janice Mirikitani. She believes the title reflects the strength, perseverance, resilience, fragility and beauty of the many women she interviewed for the book. In spite of their diverse lives she concluded the women shared five qualities in common. They are vulnerable, revolutionary, healers, strong and welcome paradox.
Author Birute Regine, Ed.D.
She interviewed women who dedicate their time to art, poetry, yoga, healthcare, nursing, politics, customer service, choreography, diplomacy, peacemaking, designing clothes, human resources, writing, teaching, consulting, making wine, running a non profit organization, running a football team, and being a spiritual leader.
A resident of Massachusetts and New Hampshire Regine is also an executive coach, speaker and the co-author of Weaving Complexity and Business: Engaging the Soul at Work.
Click here to buy Iron Butterflies
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 1, 2010
By Juana M. Véliz
Managing director, Hispanic Practice, Lagrant Communications
Juana M. Véliz, managing director, Hispanic Practice, Lagrant Communications
Photo: Lagrant Communications
New data from the Yankelovich Monitor Multicultural Study 2010 reported what we, as multicultural communicators and marketers, have experienced: Hispanic and African American consumers are more willing to purchase from, and be loyal to, companies actively engaged in their communities to make a positive change.
While one-third of Hispanic and African American consumers said they almost always choose brands because they come from companies that help the causes they support, just one in five non-Hispanic Whites agreed to do the same.
Accordingly, in order to build long-lasting relationships and earn the loyalty of Hispanics/African American consumers, it’s essential to include a social component into our strategies that shows understanding and commitment to their needs.
Click here to read the entire article CSR: A door to social and organizational growth
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 29, 2010
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According to a recent Associated Press article (Rate of unmarried mothers reaches 72% among blacks), the offspring of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely than others to under perform in school, be imprisoned, use drugs, live in poverty as adults and have children while unmarried. In spite of the grim statistics 41 percent of mothers in the United States in 2008 were unmarried.
When we examine the statistics by racial and ethnic groups the figures are revealing. The most notable figure is among blacks where 72 percent of mothers that year were unwed. Still significant was that 66 percent of Native American and 53 percent of Latino mothers were unmarried. Twenty-nine percent of non Hispanic white mothers were unmarried that year. Asian moms were the least likely (17 percent) to have a child while unmarried.
Social attitudes toward marriage have changed in recent generations and being a single mother is much less frowned upon by society than in past decades. As women have become better able to make a living on their own their need to be married and have a husband in their lives for purely financial reasons has decreased significantly even if their earning power is lower than that of their male peers in many professions according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see Earning power for women stalls as pay scale still lags behind men at NJ.com).
At the same time, it is possible that some of the mothers in the Associated Press article statistics have significant others helping to raise the newborn. Some may find the high percent of unmarried mothers among historically Catholic Latinos surprising.
In some cases they make have a life partner but didn’t marry because they couldn’t afford the cost of a big wedding in the country of origin, according to an article about unmarried Hispanic mothers in Tennessee. Some even may be in a relationship where one of the partners may not be able to marry because they already have a spouse in their country of origin. Or they may be mimicking United States living together trends as part of the acculturation process.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 24, 2010
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 19, 2010
The Myths of Innovation book cover
Scott Berkun looks, with humor, at the history of ideas in the newly published paperback edition of The Myths of Innovation (O’Reilly Media, $17.99). This edition includes four new chapters on finding ideas and putting them to work, updated references, and new stories.
The author set out to share with readers his thoughts on where ideas come from, the history of history, why people don’t like ideas, how ideas thrive, how to pitch an idea and the benefits of innovation. He believes one of the secrets to discovering ideas is to work hard while making sure to include down time. Letting the mind wander frees our subconscious to be creative, Berkun says.
According to Freeman Dyson, a physicist and author Berkun quotes in his book, people who are busy all the time are not creative. At the same time Dyson says that breaks only work if they represent a change from productive work. In other words, being on a full-time vacation does not necessarily lead to creativity; although multitasking may be helpful by allowing the mind to take a break from one project while the person works on another.
“Innovation is simple if you stop thinking about it in the broken, false, but popular ways others do, and the book is a great guide,” said Berkun in a press release. “It’s been so popular because it makes the surprising truth about how great things happen fun and inspiring, as well as easy to apply at work as soon as you put the book down.”
Berkun also points out that the line between creative and insane (or eccentric) is a fine one. At the same time he believes that the moment of discovery cannot be controlled and is only one part of making an idea into a success. He argues that innovation for the sake of innovation is not always the answer in the same way that the status quo isn’t always the best solution. In an earlier chapter he proposes that while innovation itself cannot be harnessed it is possible to identify the challenges faced by innovators; he proposes eight main challenges.
Berkun is the author of Making Things Happen and Confessions of a Public Speaker. Since Aug 2010 he works for Automattic on WordPress.com. The author grew up in Queens in New York City, studied design, philosophy and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with a B.S. in Logic and Computation. He worked at Microsoft from 1994 to 2003. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Wired Magazine, Fast Company, and Forbes Magazine.
Click to buy The Myths of Innovation
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 17, 2010
By Dianna L. Stone, Ph.D., professor of Management
Joy Row, MBA, research project manager
Teresa Svacina, M.S., and Julio Canedo-Soto, MBA doctoral students
University of Texas at San Antonio
Dianna L. Stone, Ph.D., Joy Row, MBA, Teresa Svacina, M.S. and Julio Canedo-Soto, MBA
There has been a dramatic rise in the number of Hispanic owned businesses in the U. S. One reason for this is that entrepreneurship often provides a springboard for the economic advancement and social integration of minorities. Despite this growth, little research has focused on the success of Hispanic owned businesses. Studies have shown that minorities are more likely to start small businesses, but are less likely to be successful than Anglos1.
Although there may be a number of reasons for this, researchers have argued that the lack financial skills may be a key source of the problem. Results of other research shows that Hispanics2, and Hispanic business owners3 may have limited knowledge of financial planning. Thus, the primary purpose of this article is to relay results of some recent research on Hispanic business owners’ knowledge and use of financial planning.
Click here to read the entire article Hispanic business owners are more knowledgeable about financial planning than previous research suggests
