2018-10-30
Carsey School of Public Policy at The University of New Hampshire;
When schools close in the summer, children who depend on school nutrition programs can lose accessto regular meals. To help bridge this gap, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) works with state agencies to identify sponsors and meal sites to provide free lunchesin the summer to eligible school-age children. This paper reports on the results of interviews withprogram sponsors and site staff in four communities in Coös County, New Hampshire. Discovering how thisprogram works on the ground and understanding the experiences of program sponsors and staff can help toinform efforts to serve eligible children.
2008-05-13
The Carsey Institute;
To learn more about how Coos County residents view the changes happening in their communities and the region, the Carsey Institute conducted telephone interviews with more than 1,700 adults in Coos and adjacent Oxford County, Maine in spring and summer 2007. Through about 100 survey questions researchers collected data on residents' experiences of change, their levels of concern about environmental issues, and the key issues they feel their communities are facing. This information is especially timely given the present point of transition in Coos. The survey also provides data on the economic and demographiccharacteristics of the county population, such as marital status, educational attainment, race/ethnicity, age, politics, and household income. The survey data can be used to examine the relationships between demographic factors, and to compare the changing circumstances of subgroups such as newcomers versus long-timers, or low-income versus middle-income and affluent residents. The survey presents a useful opportunity to track change in ways that go beyond the limitations of commonly-used secondary data, and offers a benchmark against which future changes can be measured and assessed.While the results for Coos are discussed at length throughout the report, the figures that display data for Coos as a whole also show data from Oxford County, Maine for purposes of comparison. These comparisons will be more meaningful in the future, when Oxford will function as a "control" county against which change in Coos can be compared, particularly as it relates to new investments, initiatives, and choices made by Coos residents. Where relevant, the Coos population is separated into subgroups according to length of residence, income, and age.
2013-10-01
Carsey School of Public Policy at The University of New Hampshire;
Increasing national evidence highlights the important association between having a mentor and youths' academic success and well-being. Specifically, youths' mentor relationships often lead to gains in social and emotional development, which are directly reflected in improved academic behaviors and attitudes. Youth who have mentors are more confident in their abilities and focused on their futures. Likewise, youth with mentoring relationships have higher levels of self esteem, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being than youth with no identified mentor. This fact sheet explores whether Coös youths' mentor experiences and their academic attitudes and well-being are linked. To do so, we analyze data from the Coös Youth Study collected in 2008, focusing on seventh and eleventh grade students from all public schools in Coös County, New Hampshire.
