Weekly Update from Corporate Voices for Working Families

December 1, 2011

Corporate Voices and Working Mother Media Partner Again To Honor The Best of Congress

Best of Congress No Date Corporate Voices for Working Families and Working Mother Media are pleased to announce that they will once again recognize members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and throughout the country with the 2012 Best of Congress Award. The Award spotlights Congressional excellence in supporting working families through legislation and advocacy. Equally important, it also recognizes those members of Congress who practice what they preach - employing family-friendly policies in their own offices. Recipients of the Best of Congress Award will be featured in the August/September 2012 issue of Working Mother magazine and at www.workingmother.com. The Best of Congress Award will be presented to members of Congress at a recognition breakfast to be held in Washington, D.C.

In the coming weeks, Corporate Voices will unveil the 2012 Best of Congress Steering Committee, which will consist of individuals who have distinguished themselves as spokespersons for America's working families.

Corporate Voices will also be announcing sponsorship opportunities for this special award and event very soon, so stay tuned! The 2010 Best of Congress award, presented to 30 members of Congress, attracted widespread news media coverage and highlighted the accomplishments of the recipients with constituents and with business, government and community leaders.

For more information about the 2012 Best of Congress Award, please contact Tiffany Westover-Kernan.

Corporate Voices Thanks Baxter International Inc. For Its Support In Dissolving Silos

A special thank you to partner company Baxter International Inc. for its support of Corporate Voices' dissolving corporate silos initiative and its participation in the 2012 COMMIT!Forum. After presenting at this year's COMMIT!Forum, Alice Campbell, Senior Director, Global Community Relations and Corporate Voices' Board member, saw continued value in the work Corporate Voices is doing to integrate the silos that exist between different business divisions.

Corporate Voices will be working with Baxter and the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association to bridge the gap between corporate social responsibility and talent development. These two divisions have much to gain in partnering with one another to ensure their current and future employees have the skills they need to be successful in the global marketplace.

For additional information on funding opportunities, please contact Tiffany Westover-Kernan.

Business Tax Credits for Hiring U.S. Veterans

President Signature Recently, we reported on several initiatives proposed in Congress and by the White House to help American veterans transition back into the civilian workforce. In a rare display of bipartisanship, lawmakers came together before Thanksgiving and passed new federal tax credits for employers who hire jobless vets. President Obama signed the measure on November 21, saying, "Today, the message is simple: For businesses out there, if you are hiring, hire a veteran. It's the right thing to do for you, it's the right thing to do for them, and it's the right thing to do for our economy."

The need is undeniable. Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer much higher rates of unemployment than the overall population. For the youngest vets, the figures are shocking: More than 30 percent of returning troops ages 18 to 24 were unemployed in October. And the challenge will only grow as the U.S. withdraws from those war zones in the year ahead.

Key provisions of the law:

The Returning Heroes Tax Credit. Businesses hiring veterans who have been unemployed for at least four weeks will be eligible for 40 percent of the first $6,000 of wages up to $2,400. Businesses hiring veterans who have been unemployed for longer than six months could get a credit for 40 percent of the first $14,000 of wages up to $5,600.

The Wounded Warrior Tax Credit. An expansion of current law, this provision doubles the existing tax credit for hiring long-term unemployed veterans with service-related disabilities. It maintains the existing Work Opportunity Tax Credit for veterans with service-connected disabilities (currently the maximum is $4,800). And it adds a new credit, covering 40 percent of the first $24,000 of wages (up to $9,600) for firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities who have been unemployed longer than 6 months.

For more on commitments to hire vets made by some of the nation's top employers, see the White House's Joining Forces website here.

Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Finds Increase In Number Of Children Living In Low-Income Families

According to data released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in its annual KIDS COUNT� Data Book, over the last decade there has been a significant decline in economic well-being for low income children and families. The official child poverty rate, which is a conservative measure of economic hardship, increased 18 percent between 2000 and 2009, essentially returning to the same level as the early 1990s. This increase means that 2.4 million more children are living below the federal poverty line. Data also reveals the impact of the job and foreclosure crisis on children. In 2010, 11 percent of children had at least one unemployed parent and 4 percent have been affected by foreclosure since 2007.

The report also finds that the national number of disconnected young rose went from 5,028,000 to 5,223,000, representing 17 percent of the total US population age 18-24, vs. 16 percent in 2009 and 14 percent in 2008. On a city level, the largest increase was in New York which went from 145,000 to 165,000.

The 2011 Data Book message, "America's Children, America's Challenge: Promoting Opportunity for the Next Generation," examines how children and families are faring in the wake of the recession and ties together research findings on family economic success and the critical role of investing in early childhood programs that can allow the next generation to succeed. At the core of the message is the Casey Foundation's belief that providing the opportunity for all children to succeed requires two-generation strategies that simultaneously help parents put their families on a path to economic success and enhance children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development from birth.

Think of Corporate Voices This Holiday Season

giving As the holiday season approaches you may be considering donating to a special nonprofit or charity though your employer. We encourage you to remember Corporate Voices for Working Families and its mission of providing leading and best-practice employers a forum to improve the lives of working families, while strengthening our nation's economy and enhancing the vitality of our nation's communities.