Homeless Youths Are Finding A Home And Hope

A program committed to helping young people make the transition from homelessness and hopelessness to stability and success is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Each year, more than one million young people under age 21 find themselves homeless in the United States. Many are runaways, throwaways (young people asked to leave home) or youths who have aged out of the foster care system.

For these homeless youths, life on the streets means not knowing where or when they will get another meal. Often, life on the streets can lead to more dangerous and damaging activities such as drug abuse, gang affiliation, prostitution and panhandling.

Fortunately for these young people, Covenant House administers a program called Rights of Passage that's designed to assist motivated young people ages 18 to 21 who need a place to stay while they train for a job with a future.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Rights of Passage program enables young people to live at Covenant House for up to 18 months while they learn a vocation, earn a GED, work a steady job or take college courses. When these young people graduate from the program, most are in a position to live stable and productive lives off the streets.

In 2005, Covenant House enabled nearly 60,000 young people throughout the U.S. to take their first steps toward a brighter future thanks to Rights of Passage and the many other programs offered by Covenant House-a nonprofit child welfare agency with 15 sites in the United States.

"For Rights of Passage to reach this historic mark is a very special moment for Covenant House," said Bruce J. Henry, Executive Director of Covenant House New York and a Founder of the Covenant House Rights of Passage Program. "During the past 20 years, thousands of youths at Covenant House sites throughout the U.S. and Canada have graduated from ROP and entered the world as self-sufficient adults. Their individual stories of struggle and ultimate achievement are the reason Covenant House means so much to all of us."

While some young people only went to a Covenant House site for short-term crisis care-such as a hot meal, a bed and new clothes--others worked with counselors and eventually enrolled in the Rights of Passage program.

Covenant House has ROP programs in Alaska, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

Approximately 85 percent of the funding for Covenant House programs comes from private donors. Their continued financial support is crucial. In addition, volunteers are needed to serve as mentors to young people in the ROP program.

Holiday's Best Selling Consumer Electronics

Shopping for the holiday season, you can never go wrong with gadgets! Here is a list of the top selling consumer electronics this holiday season.

The Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) is currently the most purchased gadget on the market. Not only can this device play games, you can also watch movies and listen to MP3's anywhere, anytime. It also comes with WiFi technology, which allows you to link up with other players or browse the internet.

While the Sony PSP may be the big seller for the year, the iPod nano is expected to takeover the holiday market. This version of iPod is the middle child, between the iPod shuffle and full version of iPod. Available in 2 GB or 4 GB models, this device can store between 500 and 1,000 songs and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

Another gotta-have gadget this holiday season is the PalmOne Treo 650. One of the newest and most advanced smartphones on the market, this is a combination between a PDA and cell phone. No more carrying around two little lifesavers; now you can have everything you need in one convenient device.

The Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 is the latest in laptop multimedia technology. This machine combines DVD, DVR, TV, MP3, and games — oh yeah, and it is also a computer! Not only does it come with an incredible 17" monitor, but high end speakers and a remote control.

Possibly the most interesting of all of the holiday sellers is the Sling Media Slingbox. This amazing gadget is wanted by everyone and is becoming harder and harder to find. It allows you to remotely connect and view your home television from virtually any computer. You can even view recordings captured on your TiVo! For television enthusiasts, this is an ideal gift that will knock them off their feet.

Multimedia devices seem to be taking over the market. It should be no surprise, then, that the Archos Gmini 420 is high on Christmas lists this year. This miniature toy allows you to enjoy 10,000 songs, 80 hours of video or 200,000 photos. With a massive 20 GB capacity, it is astounding this machine weighs less than 6 ounces. More proof that mobility is becoming essential in all electronic equipment; this is a huge product for the holidays.

Also big in stores this season are the Sony Ericsson W800i, the Nokia N90, and the Motorola Ravr V3. Combining all the features typical of cell phones these days, these tout cameras, MP3 capabilities, and connectivity. However, they each have a unique feature, such as direct phone printing, FM radio, and a small size.

History Needs A Hand

Every year, America devotes time for communities to honor the past and take pride in preserving it for the future. As government spending on preservation programs continues to decline drastically-in 2007, the budget will be cut by $15 million-May's National Preservation Month highlights the critical role that individuals and communities will have to play in protecting our country's history. It is through involvement in local preservation efforts such as saving the oldest drive-in movie theater, the Admiral Twin Drive-In in Oklahoma, or restoring Hogback Bridge in Iowa, one of the famed Bridges of Madison County, that citizens can do their part in restoring and revitalizing their communities.

There are several easy ways to get involved.

VISIT THE LIBRARY-Every community is infused with local and historical significance; most of us have just not taken time or don't know how to research it. A good place to start is the library. Make an event out of it-take the family for an afternoon and challenge one another to identify street corners and houses you're familiar with that hold historical significance.

TAKE A LOOK AROUND-When you see a landmark that looks like it is in need of restoration, tell someone. There are a number of organizations that recognize the importance of preserving communities throughout America. For example, Hampton Hotels' Save-A-Landmark™ Program encourages people to submit a community landmark for consideration to assist in revitalizing and refurbishing. Submissions can be made online at www.hampton landmarks.com or mailed to Save-A-Landmark at 8730 Sunset Blvd., Fifth Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90069. It's an easy way to make a big difference.

SUPPORT MAIN STREET -Many store owners have been in business for generations. By supporting these establishments, you're not only helping to protect any historic buildings they might be housed in, you're also encouraging the economy and helping a fellow community member. Not to mention that if they have been in business that long, they must have something great to offer.

GET INVOLVED-Join national, statewide or local organizations dedicated to preservation. A good resource to help identify these is the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where you can become a member online or research preservation groups and projects in your area.

A crew of volunteers is hard at work refurbishing one of the Bridges of Madison County as part of the "Save-A-Landmark" program.

Hindu Astrological Predictions

For thousands of years the Hindus in India were using the planets and stars to predict the future and confirm the past. The Hindu astrology defines the characteristics of a person depending on the place and the time of birth. The place and time of birth corresponds to a start and each star has its own distinct characteristics.

Some of the planets are thought to be good for people and some are thought to be bad for person’s life. If a person’s horoscope has a strong influence of the planet Saturn at any point in life, the person goes through lot of sufferings. As per the Hindu Vedas the life is full of joy and sorrows. One can not have life full of joy or full of sorrow. There are many remedies given to soothe the sufferings when a person goes through bad planetary positions.

Here are the categories of Hindu horoscopes.

Mesha
Vrishaba
Miduna
Kataka
Simha
Kanya
Tula
Vrischika
Dhanus
Makara
Kumba
Meena

The terms Aries,Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn , Aquarius and Pisces are used ONLY to denote their corresponding equivalents in Vedic Astrology. Any extension of them would lead to misinterpretation of the predictions . Predictions are on the basis of the birth stars and not on the English date of birth.

The hindu vedas gives many things one can do to prevent bad period in life. These are called Pariharams and are usually done in any temple. Some of the famous temples for doing pariharams are Tirupathi, Tiruchendur, Tanjore Siva Temple, Varanasi, Bath in the holy Ganges, Puttabarthi, Sai Baba temple, Palani, Kalahasthi, Thirunallar, Panjavadi, Guruvayur, Kumbakonam, Thiruvarur, Nagarcoil, temples in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh etc.

Many pariharams also talk about specific Gods like Krishna, Ganesha, Karthikeya, Siva, Vishnu, Kali, Linga.

Usually astrological predictions are done for a monthly or yearly period.

Highlights and vitality of criminal search in world of employment

Life has no longer remained simple and safe. The criminal activities happening around us have made turn highly dangerous. Crime has been termed as a growing threat to the manhood. It is highly important to have reliable criminal background check prior to get familiar with a person especially before employing an employee. Criminal records online serves as a most demanded and advantageous idea for everyone. As it is by this, that you can make criminal search, posses accurate criminal records, make criminal background search without going anywhere.

It is simply impossible to be fully equipped with the complete data. Hence there is a strong need of a source from where one can have criminal records to keep you safe in every aspect of life. There are a numerous kind of services, if availed from the proper channel can prove to be highly beneficial in every aspect.

Criminal search state wide is a special service that helps you make criminal search of the criminals statewide. This service enables user to search instantly access over 200,000,000 criminal, sex offender, and terrorist watch list records, some going back ten years. Criminal data base search is a service that enables to user to have information at country or state level. The service extended by the criminal data is a result of complete research that is derived from each state’s administrative office of the courts. These records include probate, warrant, arrest, trial, and any other trial court matters.

The service known as People search is a service that lets you have a search on the multiple credit bureau repositories. You can take the personal information of a person as his current and previous address, phone numbers etc. The service termed state dept of correction report is a manually prepared search records complied from multiple states where from you can have a record of the traffic violators and felonies etc.

Credit reports a service that is highly useful to verify the application information and lets you judge a person on his responsibilities in relation to employment, trade line etc. Employment verification; the most highly demanded service of the day; is a service that is a must for an employer or a company so that they do not get a wrong person among their employee. The state wise sex offenders are a search service that lets you have information from each state’s sex offender registry records from any part of world.

Driving license search saves you from any kind of fraud record especially as per the driver’s license registration records. An MVR record is a service that lets you have records according to DMV, Department of Motor Vehicle, records that enables you to validate your applicant's identification. State criminal report is a manually search records accumulated from multiple states to return felonies etc. The OFAC search or the Patriot search includes various government agencies that include information about lists from terrorist execution list etc. The education verification is the search to verify the education history directly from the institutions.

Criminal data.com is an excellent site that has been termed as a number one site in pre-employment screening. The site offers all the above mentioned services to the best level and promises you secure and healthy atmosphere to grow. It is the site that extends full reliability and updated information that ensures full security.

Helping Homeless Youths Rebuild Their Lives

You can make a difference in millions of fragile young lives.

Every night on streets throughout the Americas, an army of nameless, faceless young people fights to survive. They are homeless youths, driven to the streets by situations including physical, emotional or sexual abuse, parental drug or alcohol abuse or discharge from foster care.

There are approximately 3.5 million people who experience homelessness every year and 12 percent of them are unaccompanied young people under age 24. More than half say they have been beaten up while on the street. Many also report being robbed, stabbed, even shot.

The complications of life on the street cause many of these young people to lose hope, making it difficult-if not impossible-to transition into adulthood as happy, productive members of society. Covenant House provides the support and guidance necessary for these young people to rebuild their lives.

Covenant House is the largest, privately funded child welfare agency in the Americas. Since its inception in New York City in the early 1970s, it has grown to include sites in 21 cities in six countries. Through the generous support of donors, the organization provides shelter to an average of 1,700 young people a night. In addition, it provides food, clothing and crisis care, along with such other services as:

• health care;

• educational programs and vocational preparation;

• drug abuse treatment and prevention programs;

• mother/child programs;

• transitional living programs; and more.

The Covenant House Nineline -(800) 999-9999 or Nineline.org- operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It gets crisis calls from youths in all 50 states. Last year, it helped more than 50,000.

For more than 30 years, Covenant House has been restoring hope and providing a loving and respectful home for young people who otherwise would face the dangers and injustices of life on the street.

Helping Children With Disabilities Get "Fit For The Future"

A new program may help improve the lives of children with disabilities-and help them better manage their health.

Sixty-six percent of adults with disabilities are not very satisfied with their lives; 78 percent are unemployed; and they have increased health concerns, including greater susceptibility to additional health problems.

However, a new DVD may help improve the future outlook for children with disabilities. Called "Fit for the Future," it addresses two of the most important issues facing people with disabilities today: health and employment. The DVD was released by Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

"Fit for the Future" is meant to be a unique, innovative program that fills a void in available materials. The DVD includes three 20- to 30-minute, upbeat, kid-friendly exercise routines-stretching, strengthening and stamina-that can be done seated or standing. The exercise portion of the DVD features patients and therapists from the Tampa Shriners Hospital, as well as FBI personnel from Tampa, Fla., Washington, D.C., and Quantico, Va.

The program also includes informational sections on the Shriners fraternity, Shriners Hospitals for Children and the FBI.

The DVD has a second, equally important message of potential future employment. Statistically, people with disabilities have the highest unemployment rate (around 70 percent). Learning that the FBI specifically wants to hire people with disabilities could be a tremendous source of encouragement for kids with disabilities.

While designed primarily for children with orthopaedic disabilities, "Fit for the Future" is an exercise program virtually everyone can use. The exercise routines featured are general and basic enough to offer a starting point for a fitness regimen.

There is a growing awareness of the importance of providing exercise opportunities for people with disabilities. "We believe that a program featuring children with disabilities, as well as the strong presence of an FBI Agent as both partner and role model, may help motivate children with disabilities to exercise," said Peter Armstrong, M.D., medical affairs director for Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Credit for the concept belongs to FBI Special Agent James Knights, who is also a Shriner. Knights, of Pittsburgh, Pa., wanted to create a way to help children with disabilities know that if they worked hard and stayed as strong and healthy as possible, their future could include a career in the FBI.

For more information on Shriners' network of 22 hospitals that provide medical care and services to children with orthopaedic problems, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate at no charge, write to Shriners International Headquarters, 2900 Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607 or visit www.shrinershq.org. All services are provided at no charge to children under 18, regardless of financial need or relation to a Shriner.