Historic Downtown Littleton merchants will “Put Their Pajamas to Work” on Wednesday April 16th in an effort to raise money for the Greater Littleton Youth Initiative.  Participating boutiques and eateries will offer their pajama wearing customers special discounts and incentives that day.  Local businesses will give their employees the opportunity to wear their pajamas in exchange for a $10 donation to the GLYI. 

Call 720.252.5688 for more information or stop by Details at 2396 W Main St.  Details will also be collecting gently used womens and childrens pjs for a local womens shelter.

Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community: 2008 Resource Packet
Here’s a toolkit to help service providers strengthen families by promoting key protective factors that prevent child abuse and neglect. The packet includes tip sheets in both English and Spanish to share with parents.

• The Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention Month page has more on its history and ideas for adults to get involved locally.

KIDS COUNT Updates
The newly redesigned KIDS COUNT online database features the most current data on more than 100 indicators, including the percentage of children with no health insurance coverage, young adults who are enrolled in or have completed college, and the percentage of children in low-income working families.

click here for the article

Kicking Off the Ready by 21 Challenge
On February 27, the Forum for Youth Investment and its national partners launched the Ready by 21 Challenge to help state and local leaders “change the odds for youth by changing the way they do business.” Specifically, the aim is to help leaders make decisions that lead to bigger goals, bolder strategies and better partnerships to ensure that every young person is ready by 21 — ready for college, work and life.

Newsweek

January 14, 2008

Author: Interlandi, Jeneen

A vaccine that would teach the immune system to attack and destroy cocaine before the drug reached the brain is poised to enter its first large-scale clinical trial in humans. The shot is still years away from FDA approval, but the underlying concept — inoculating those at risk of addiction — is attracting increased interest.

Besides cocaine, researchers are developing vaccines against such highly addictive substances as nicotine, heroin and methamphetamine. NicVax, a nicotine vaccine by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, is the furthest along in development. In November, one year into a phase-two clinical trial, the company reported that twice as …

Students who learn that their intelligence can grow as synapses form do better in school. 

Story.

Teen Birth Rate Rises for First Time in 14 Years
The teen birth rate in the United States rose in 2006 for the first time since 1991, and unmarried childbearing also rose significantly, according to preliminary birth statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate rose from 40.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in 2005 to 41.9 births per 1,000 in 2006 – a 3 percent increase.

The sinking feeling came over me as soon as I saw the Page One headline: “Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say: New Look at Attention Deficit Disorders as a Delay, Not a Flaw.”

Here we go again, I thought. Another round in the Ritalin wars.

ADHD Riddle Solved

Time Magazine | Nov. 26, 2007 | By Julie Rawe

… in a surprising new study, kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)–which affects 3% to 5% of school-age children–hit peak thickness in some regions an average of three years later than other kids. And the developmental lags are most pronounced in the part of the cortex that supports attention and planning.