New report: How does the well-being of Pa’s children rank?
Learn more about the annual Kids Count report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
For the past 27 years advocates for children and families have eagerly anticipated the annual Kids Count Report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This wonderful organization is one the very few operating foundations in the US dedicated primarily to the welfare of children. Founded and funded by the Casey family, founders of United Parcel Service, the foundation is named to honor their mother, a widow who raised her children with little support.
Pennsylvania ranked 18th in overall child well-being based on four measures: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community support. The report delivers both good and troubling news about kids in the state, but it also offers a wealth of opportunity for people everywhere to help improve the lives of children. Here's some tough news:
About nine percent of children in Pennsylvania live in extreme poverty, defined as family income at or below half of the poverty level. But that number is twice as high, at 18 percent, in Philadelphia, making the city second only to Detroit in that troubling category.
Binge drinking is a serious problem from young people aged 18 to 25, with 41 percent in Delaware, 38 percent in New Jersey and 43 percent of Pennsylvanians in that age group reporting that they had consumed five or more drinks at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other in the past month.
While the overwhelming majority of parents report that they read to their young children at least three times per week, for thousands of children that is not true – 17 percent of New Jersey's children, 12 percent of Pennsylvania's children and 11 percent of Delaware's children miss this crucial boost to early learning.
Advocates will continue to use this well respected and highly credible data to call for more and better programs, more funding and support. Advocates will and should be holding local and state government accountable for their omissions and failures on behalf of hundreds of thousands of children, and lauding success where they find it.
But a more important question is what will you do? As a parent, neighbor, aunt, uncle, member of a faith community, what will you do to make the kids in your life count? Can you offer time to an overburdened family trying to work its way out of poverty? Can you help mentor young parents through the more trying times of infancy and toddlerhood, helping them to navigate local support systems, like child care, education and the pediatric health care system in your community, so that maybe they can find the time and energy to read to their child regularly? Can you strengthen a bond with a teenager in your extended family as he naturally grows a bit farther from his parents, so your voice of reason can warn of the damage that can be caused by binge drinking?
Read this report and find the data for your state or city. Pick a troubling piece of data and make a plan to help do something about it. If your teen is looking for a service-learning project for school, if your social or civic organization is planning next year's good deeds, if you're looking for a cause to support, find inspiration in these numbers.
Show the kids in your life, in your community that they really do count, and not just to the number crunchers who write reports about them.
Rosenzweig is also author of The Sex-Wise Parent and The Parent's Guide to Talking About Sex: A Complete Guide to Raising (Sexually) Safe, Smart, and Healthy Children. For more information, read her blog , follow @JanetRosenzweig on Twitter.
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