GAMUT OF CHALLENGES FACING CHILDREN IS FOCUS OF NEW MONTHLY FORUM

Broadcast Journalist Judy Woodruff to Moderate

Chicago, IL. November 22, 2005 - The varied and often daunting pathways through childhood, and the public programs and policies meant to ease the journey, will be in the spotlight with the Thursday, January 19, debut of a monthly public discussion series co-hosted by the Urban Institute and the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children.

Thursday's Child: The Urban Institute-Chapin Hall Forum on Children, Families, and Communities will call upon the considerable expertise of policy researchers at the two institutions and from around the nation to distill and discuss the latest insights into growing up in America. National and state policymakers, program administrators, service providers, and other authorities will be panelists.

Thursday's Child will run initially from January to June and will resume in October. The series begins January 19 with a discussion of the role that positive youth development can play in the juvenile justice system. The forums will take place at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Urban Institute.

Emmy Award-winning journalist Judy Woodruff, who has covered politics and other news for more than three decades, will moderate. For 12 years, she was senior correspondent for CNN and anchor of its Inside Politics program. She has also been the chief Washington correspondent for The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS, anchor of PBS's Frontline with Judy Woodruff, and NBC's White House correspondent.

Among possible themes for future Thursday's Child forums are transitions to adulthood for vulnerable youth, growing up in public housing, lessons on child well-being from Hurricane Katrina, reforming child welfare systems and policies, educating at-risk youth, services for families with special-needs children, parent support and early childhood education, and health services for immigrant children.

"Chapin Hall and the Urban Institute have collaborated on efforts to develop a sound evidence base for improving investments in the well-being of children. We are pleased to be extending that collaboration to include this discussion series with the wider policy community," said Mark Courtney, director of Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

"Like the nursery rhyme's 'Thursday's child,' many young people have far to go before they can enjoy stable, secure, enriching lives," said Matthew Stagner, director of the Urban Institute's Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population. "By bringing together a broad array of experts, policymakers, and other committed individuals for ongoing dialogue and debate, this series can make an important contribution to improving the circumstances of children and their families."

To register for Thursday's Child forums, go to www.about.chapinhall.org/thursdayschild

Chapin Hall Center for Children is a nonpartisan policy research center dedicated to bringing rigorous research and innovative ideas to policymakers, service providers, and funders working to improve the well-being of children. Located at the University of Chicago, Chapin Hall now celebrates twenty years as a leading source of information and expertise about the needs of children and the service systems designed to meet those needs.

The Urban Institute—a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization—examines the social, economic, and governance problems confronting the nation and evaluates the public and private means to alleviate them. It provides information, analyses, and perspectives to public and private decisionmakers to help them address these problems and strives to deepen citizens' understanding of the issues and tradeoffs that policymakers face.

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