Special Interest Areas
You are in the Special Interest Areas section of the Casey Foundation Knowledge Center. This section contains resources published and or funded by Casey that you may download.
See also the Our Work: Special Interest Areas, an overview of the Casey Foundation's investments in this issue.
Featured Publications

The Integration of Immigrants and Their Families in Maryland: The Contributions of Immigrant Workers to the Economy
2008
This report examines the contributions of immigrants to Maryland’s workforce and trends in the workforce between 2000 and 2006, with a focus on labor force characteristics of sub-populations of immigrants across countries of origin, education levels, wages, and English language ability. Maryland’s immigrant workers are unusually highly educated and work in key skilled industries, such as health care, information technology, and the sciences. However, there are also large numbers of immigrant workers with low educational attainment and English proficiency who work largely in construction, agriculture, and services. A key recommendation is that investments and education and training to bridge the literacy and language divide for immigrants and native-born workers will be critical to help Maryland remain competitive in the 21st century.
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Borrowing Trouble: Predatory Lending in Native American Communities
2008
Developed by First Nations Development Institute, through the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this landmark report details the practices of lenders targeting Native American communities with loan products that are often designed to exploit vulnerable borrowers who generally cannot afford to repay the loans. As a result, borrowers often end up in foreclosures, bankruptcy, or having to endure other financial hardships.
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Urban Indian America: The Status of American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families Today
2008
This report by the National Urban Indian Family Coalition discusses the status of American Indian and Alaskan Native families today.
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Investing in Our Communities: Strategies for Immigrant Integration - A Toolkit for Grantmakers
2007
Foundations across the country are recognizing that their grantmaking strategies must respond to the needs and contributions of immigrants. Built on extensive research and interviews with foundation, community, business, and government leaders, this multimedia toolkit intends to better inform the development of program, policy, and grantmaking strategies that promote immigrant integration. It also aims to help foundations understand the importance of supporting efforts that incorporate newcomers into the fabric of our society.
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Making the Most of Family Remittances
2007
This report provides recommendations on policies for further lowering the cost of remittances and banking "unbanked" remittance senders and recipients. It also explores the potential of remittances to be a source of sustainable development in home countries.
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Children With Incarcerated Parents: A List of Selected Resources
2008
This resource guide, last updated in June 2008, lists selected citations of documents and resources in four categories: general, research, program and practice, and policy and state/local level activity. While the guide is not meant to be inclusive of all relevant information available on children with incarcerated parents, it represents informative work in the topic areas addressed.
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Broken Bonds: Understanding and Addressing the Needs of Children with Incarcerated Parents
2008
This report by the Urban Institute reviews the current research on children with incarcerated parents, and offers recommendations on how to reduce the negative impact of parental incarceration. The authors of the report pay particular attention to the influence that supportive relationships with the incarcerated parent and other adults has on children’s outcomes.
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Parental Incarceration and Child Wellbeing in Fragile Families
2008
In this policy brief, the authors highlight findings from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, conducted through Columbia University’s School of Social Work. The study explores the extent to which children of incarcerated parents are at a greater risk for material hardship, family instability, and developmental challenges.
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Merging Local Data to Explore the Experiences and Needs of Children of Incarcerated Parents
2008
The Urban Institute partnered with organizations in Chicago, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Providence, Rhode Island to merge local and state level criminal justice and human services data to learn about children of incarcerated parents in their localities. This report presents findings from the three sites and a discussion of the possibilities and difficulties involved in merging and analyzing administrative data on this population.
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Building the Financial Vitality of Border Families
2008
This report was written to promote a greater understanding of the role that community foundations have in supporting and promoting family economic success strategies in the U.S.-Mexico border region. By highlighting the experiences of community foundations already involved in these initiatives, this report may serve as a guide for other funders who support using family economic success strategies as a part of their anti-poverty efforts.
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