Public Health Magazine: Winter 1995, Vol.5, No.1
Columbia School of Public Health in the News
Violence as a global health issue

The National Council for International Health will host their twenty-second annual conference June 25--28 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Va. The conference will focus on youth violence, violence against women, and intergroup violence, with panel presentations on such topics as domestic violence, violence as it relates to HIV infection, human rights, female genital mutilation, torture, firearms, gang violence, self-inflicted violence, and socioeconomic violence. Events will include an international film festival and job fair, and an exhibit hall featuring products and services from 78 organizations. Speakers include Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. For a conference registration and information packet, contact the NCIH Conference Department at (202) 833-5903; 1710 K Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20006.

The National Center for Children in Poverty at CSPH published an analysis of 1992 Census Bureau data revealing:

*Six million U.S. children under age six live in poverty. This is 26 percent of this age group; *58 percent of poor children under six had parents who worked full-time or part-time;

*Between 1972 and 1992 the number of children living in poverty increased from 3.4 million to 6 million;

*In the five years preceding 1992, the number of poor children increased by one million;

*38 percent of poor children under age six had parents who supported their families completely from earnings and without any cash public assistance.

"The significance of these figures for our society's social landscape cannot be overstated because we will pay the costs of these poverty rates for the next two decades," said J. Lawrence Aber, Ph.D., director of the Center. "Poor children live in isolated neighborhoods and are rarely noticed until they reach first grade and fail, become adolescents and get in trouble, or reach adulthood and can't find jobs."

The new analysis reveals demographic patterns that belie several popular myths about poor children and their families--facts with a direct bearing on the current national debate about welfare reform. The NCCP report, Young Children in Poverty: A Statistical Update, was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more information, call (212) 927-8793.

Violence as a global health issue

The National Council for International Health will host their twenty-second annual conference June 25--28 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Va. The conference will focus on youth violence, violence against women, and intergroup violence, with panel presentations on such topics as domestic violence, violence as it relates to HIV infection, human rights, female genital mutilation, torture, firearms, gang violence, self-inflicted violence, and socioeconomic violence. Events will include an international film festival and job fair, and an exhibit hall featuring products and services from 78 organizations. Speakers include Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. For a conference registration and information packet, contact the NCIH Conference Department at (202) 833-5903; 1710 K Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20006.