Latino children make up the fastest growing segment of North Carolina's child population, jumping 34 percent in just three years. As the state's schools and other institutions incorporate this growing group of children and youth, it is important for policymakers, service providers, teachers and community leaders to understand the risks and protective factors at-play for these children and their families. Indeed, in the not-so-distant future, much of North Carolina's future as a state is tied to the success or failure of this growing group of children.

So, where do things stand? What are some of the roadblocks these children confront? What are the prospects for progress? Is the future bright or cloudy?

Please join NC Policy Watch and our partners and co-sponsors at Action for Children North Carolina and the Adelante Education Coalition for a special Crucial Conversation luncheon, "Latino Children in North Carolina," as we explore these questions with a panel of experts that includes:

Marco Zarate, President and Co-Founder of the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals.

Dr. Dina Castro of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Norma Marti, Health Check/NC Health Choice Minority Outreach Coordinator, NC DHHS Division of Public Health 

When: Thursday, July 29 - Box lunches will be available at 11:30 a.m. and the program will start at 12:00 noon.

Where: Campbell University School of Law, at the corner of Hillsborough and Dawson Streets in downtown Raleigh. Click here for directions. Ample parking is available in the City of Raleigh deck just south of the school at the corner of Morgan and McDowell Streets.

Cost: $10 - includes a box lunch.

Space is limited - pre-registration required.

Click here to register for this event

Dr. William L. Roper, CEO of the UNC Health Care System

"Opportunities for Better Health Care" 

The new health reform law means not just broad access to affordable care, but also a unique window to improve our health system to deliver more efficient, effective and coordinated care. Therefore, the NC Justice Center's Health Access Coalition has launched a NC Campaign for Better Care. 

With his wide-ranging experience in all levels of health care, Dr. William L. Roper is uniquely qualified to comment on the new direction of our health system as well the as challenges and opportunities ahead.

Dr. Roper is dean of the School of Medicine, vice chancellor for Medical Affairs and CEO of the UNC Health Care System at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He also is professor of health policy and administration in the School of Public Health, and is professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine at UNC. From 1997 until March 2004, he was dean of the School of Public Health at UNC.

Before joining UNC in 1997, Dr. Roper was senior vice president of Prudential HealthCare. He joined Prudential in 1993 as president of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research. Before coming to Prudential, Dr. Roper was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), served on the senior White House staff, and was administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (responsible for Medicare and Medicaid). Earlier, he was a White House Fellow.

Dr. Roper also shares his thoughts about health care at his blog, http://www.roperhealth.com/

When: Tuesday, May 4                                                                                 
(Registration opens 11:30 and discussion begins 12 noon)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum - 201 E. Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh.

Cost: $10 - includes a box lunch

Space is limited - pre-registration required.

Click here to register for this event

Dr. Heather Boushey of the Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress.

"Valuing families at work: Policy prescriptions for the 21^st Century" 

Heather Boushey is Senior Economist at the Center for American Progress. Her research focuses on employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. Much of her current work focuses on the Great Recession's impact on workers and their families, as well as policies to promote job creation. She co-edited The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster ebook, 2009) and was a lead author of "Bridging the Gaps," a 10-state study about how low- and -moderate-income working families are left out of work support programs. Her research has been published in academic journals and has been covered in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and a variety of other media outlets, including The New York Times, where she was called one of the "most vibrant voices in the field."

Dr. Boushey will share her thoughts on the actions that state and national policymakers can take to help the country adapt to the needs of today's working economy.

When: Wednesday, April 14                                                                                 
(Registration opens 11:30 and discussion begins 12 noon)

Where: NOTE - NEW PLACE Campbell University School of Law. Click here for directions. Ample parking is available in the City of Raleigh deck just south of the school at the corner of Morgan and McDowell Streets.

Cost: $10 - includes a box lunch

Space is limited - pre-registration required.

Click here to register for this event

On March 18, N.C. Policy Watch is proud to welcome Dr. Baker to Raleigh to help us make sense of the current economic situation. Please join us for this very special

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

Making sense of the economy with Dean Baker:

Where are we? Where are we headed? What steps should the country pursue in order to promote a broad-based and lasting prosperity? 

 When: Thursday March 18, 2010
(Registration @ 12:00 pm, presentation begins at 12:30 and concludes by 2:00 pm)
–Note special time — One-half hour later than usual

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

Click here to register for this event

On March 18, N.C. Policy Watch is proud to welcome Dr. Baker to Raleigh to help us make sense of the current economic situation. Please join us for this very special

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

Making sense of the economy with Dean Baker:

Where are we? Where are we headed? What steps should the country pursue in order to promote a broad-based and lasting prosperity? 

Who: Dean Baker is the Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and one of the nation's leading progressive economists. In his new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy, he recounts the strategies used by the country's top economic policymakers to keep the American public unaware of their failure to recognize the housing bubble and to take steps to rein it in before it grew to unprecedented levels, resulting in the loss of millions of jobs, homes, and the life savings for tens of millions of people.

When: Thursday March 18, 2010
(Registration @ 12:00 pm, presentation begins at 12:30 and concludes by 2:00 pm)
–Note special time — One-half hour later than usual

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

Click here to register for this event

Last month, a narrow majority of the United States Supreme Court issued one of the most controversial and potentially far reaching decisions in recent American history when it discovered a constitutional right for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on politics.

According to E.J, Dionne of the Washington Post, the Court's ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission was "an astonishing display of judicial arrogance, overreach and unjustified activism. Turning its back on a century of practice and decades of precedent, a narrow right-wing majority on the court decided to change the American political system by tilting it decisively in favor of corporate interests."

To help North Carolinians makes sense of this remarkable decision and begin to chart a path forward, NC Policy Watch (along with our friends at the government reform group N.C. Voters for Clean Elections) are hosting a very important Crucial Conversation luncheon. All who care about the preservation of democracy as we know it should consider attending.

The event will feature one of the nation's top experts in the field of voting rights, campaign finance reform and election reform issues, Brenda Wright. Wright is a veteran civil rights attorney and the Director of the Democracy Program at the national public policy research and advocacy organization, Demos. She has argued two voting rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has extensive experience as a speaker and writer on voting rights, voter suppression, access to voter registration, campaign finance reform, redistricting, election protection, Department of Justice oversight, and other election reform and democracy issues.

Please join us for this special

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-
Can this democracy be saved?

The Citizens United decision and what it means for our future 

When: Tuesday March 2, 2010
(registration @ 11:30 am, presentation begins at 12 noon and concludes by 1:30 pm)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

Click here to register for this event

Short of all-out nuclear war, it’s unlikely that any issue confronting humankind poses a greater threat to its long-term health and wellbeing than global warming. Now, happily, it appears that the federal government is beginning to get serious about enacting legislation that would place some limits on U.S. carbon emissions. But, of course, as with any major federal legislation, the devil is in the details.

One person who understands those details better than just about anyone else is Todd Wooten. Todd is director of the Southeast Climate Resources Center at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University and a former legislative counsel to U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Todd will be joined by Veronica Butcher of the N.C. Conservation Network and Dr. Steve Jackson of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center in explaining the legislation, its strengths and weaknesses, and its prospects for success. Please join us for this special

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

Federal climate legislation: Will it work? Will it be fair? Can it be enacted?

Click here to register for this event

When: Wednesday December 9, 2009
(registration @ 11:30 am, presentation begins at 12 noon and concludes by 1:30 pm)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

Wendell Potter is one of the nation’s most prominent spokespersons for national health care reform. He is a Senior Fellow on Health Care at the national nonprofit advocacy group, the Center for Media and Democracy. After a 20-year career as a corporate public relations executive, last year he left his job as head of communications for one of the nation's largest health insurers to try his hand at helping socially responsible organizations — including those advocating for meaningful health care reform — achieve their goals. He has testified before Congress, appeared on a variety of national television and radio programs and was profiled in a recent column by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times entitled “Health Care Fit for Animals.”

Please join us for this very special NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

An insider’s view: Why our broken health care system is in desperate need of reform

Co-sponsored by the N.C. Health Access Coalition

When: TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 (registration @ 11:30 am, presentation begins at 12 noon and concludes by 1:30 pm)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

The Crisis in Corrections: What can North Carolina learn from other states about how to contain the explosive growth in prisons

Click here to register for this event
Co-sponsored by the Carolina Justice Policy Center

Featuring:

State Rep. Jerry Madden of the Texas House of Representatives. Rep. Madden is a businessman, a graduate of West Point, a Vietnam veteran, a nine-term Republican lawmaker and nationally recognized expert on corrections policy.    

and

Michael Thompson,  Executive Director of a special project of the national Council of State Governments known as the Justice Center. He has worked on criminal justice policy issues at the Council since 1997 and has helped spur and facilitate bi-partisan corrections reform efforts in several states.   

When: Monday, July 13th
(registration @ 11:30 am, presentation begins at 12 noon and concludes by 1:30 pm)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

Click here to register for this event

NC Policy Watch Crucial Conversation luncheon-

The Crisis in Corrections: What can North Carolina learn from other states about how to contain the explosive growth in prisons?

Click here to register for this event
Co-sponsored by the Carolina Justice Policy Center

Featuring:

State Rep. Jerry Madden of the Texas House of Representatives. Rep. Madden is a businessman, a graduate of West Point, a Vietnam veteran, a nine-term Republican lawmaker and nationally recognized expert on corrections policy.    

and

Michael Thompson,  Executive Director of a special project of the national Council of State Governments known as the Justice Center. He has worked on criminal justice policy issues at the Council since 1997 and has helped spur and facilitate bi-partisan corrections reform efforts in several states.   

When: Monday, July 13th
(registration @ 11:30 am, presentation begins at 12 noon and concludes by 1:30 pm)

Where: Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street, Raleigh NC 27601

Cost: $10 (includes a box lunch) Pre-registration required

Click here to register for this event