The Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services are pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a solicitation for applications for Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants. These grants, funded under the Affordable Care Act, continue efforts to find and enroll eligible children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that were initially funded under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA). Learn more about the grant opportunity here.

The ongoing conflict over the Fiscal Cliff and government spending underscores the crucial importance of effectively  communicating the core values and beneficial outcomes of human services. All too often, however, we try to make this case in our own specialized "professional" languages that fail to resonate with the general public and policy makers alike. To address this important challenge, the National Human Services Assembly (NHSA) is working with stakeholders across the human services sector to help identify ways to "reframe" the way we talk about our work.

As part of the research for this project, NHSA needs to first find out how the nonprofit sector thinks about itself. Please take a few minutes of your time to take the survey.

The adoption community was hit hard last week by news that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed the Yakovlev Act, banning adoptions by families from the United States. Kathy Brodsky, director of JCCA's Ametz Adoption Program, called it a "political act."
 
Ametz Adoption Program and Jewish Child Care Association are shocked and saddened by the recent events in Russia which put the lives of so many children in jeopardy and the families prepared to adopt them in limbo. Continue reading here.

Ametz Responds to Russian Anti-U.S. Adoption Bill, January 8, 2013, Jewish Child Care Association