[Kids Count Report] Getting a grip on poverty

from The Detroit Free Press

More state, metro Detroit kids worse off as agencies seek answers

Ask 10-year-old Quashawn Willis of Detroit what he plans to do this summer and his answer is pretty simple: "Nothing." Ask him what he'd like to do, and the answer is quick: "Go to Disney World."

That isn't likely to happen, because Quashawn lives with his mother, Michelle Griffin, 31, and sister Quachelle Williams, 3, in Brightmoor, a west-side neighborhood that is among the city's poorest. Griffin lost her last job at a Warren factory a year ago and now relies on help from her family to get by.

Her children are among a growing number of Michigan kids whose families are in poverty, according to the 2006 Kids Count study released today.

At the same time, the state's sluggish economy is also affecting programs for poor families.

Representatives from some of the nation's largest philanthropic organizations began arriving in Detroit on Monday for a conference convened by the Skillman Foundation on ways to strengthen private philanthropy in view of public cuts.

"No child should live in poverty," said Carol Goss, president and chief executive officer of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation. "We're pleased that foundations across the nation are rallying around this issue."

In 2004, about 18% of the state's children lived in families with incomes below the poverty level, $19,311 a year for a family of four, according to the Kids Count study.

That was a 29% increase over the number of poor children in Michigan in 2000.

Advocates for children already look back on the late 1990s as "the good old days" for kids, when the state and nation had programs targeting tough problems such as poverty.

"We had an economic boom the likes of which the state had not seen before," said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, senior research associate for Kids Count in Michigan. "And we thought it was going to last forever, as did the policy makers, so they gave away state revenue when they should've saved it for a rainy day," she said.

In Wayne County, including Detroit, 30% of children ages 16 and younger in 2004 lived in families with incomes below the poverty level, compared with 25% in 2003.

The childhood poverty rate also rose in Macomb County, from 8% in 2003 to 9% in 2004. In Oakland County, the rate fell from 11% in 2003 to 5% in 2004. Zehnder-Merrell attributed the decrease to the generally brighter economic picture in Oakland County.

The poverty rate also figured into other areas that measure child well-being in Michigan, especially the infant mortality rate.

According to the study, Michigan's 2003 infant mortality rate of 8.5 deaths per 1,000 live births meant the state ranked 43rd among all states in rates of children who die before their first birthdays.

Overall, using 10 measures of child well-being, Michigan improved in six areas, including teen death rates, which dropped from 64 to 55 deaths per 100,000 youths from 2000 to 2003, compared with a national average of 66 deaths. Also, the percentage of the state's children who dropped out of high school fell by 30%, and births to teenagers dipped by 15% during the same period.

Michigan's overall ranking dropped from 26th to 27th.

Among the organizations attending this week's conference at the Omni Hotel are the Ford Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Heinz Endowments and the Foundation for Child Development.

Goss of the Skillman Foundation is expected to discuss her foundation's Good Neighborhoods initiative, launched in January in six Detroit neighborhoods chosen because they hold about one-third of the city's kids.

The hope is that the programs that are developed will have a wide impact, said William Hanson, Skillman's communications director.

Brightmoor, where Griffin and her two children live, is one of the communities, and the Rev. Dennis Talbert, pastor of the Rosedale Park Baptist Church, is one of the leaders of the Good Neighborhoods project in Brightmoor.

"You only have to drive through the neighborhood, or walk through the neighborhood, or hang out with the kids here to understand that socially we are declining, as well as economically," Talbert said Monday.

These are some of the organizations that offer programs to help poor children and families:

• ARISE Detroit (Activating Resources Inspiring Service and Empowerment) is a Skillman Foundation-funded initiative looking for volunteers and donors willing to work with community and school groups in Detroit. Go to www.arisedetroit.org or call 866-942-7473 anytime.

• Think Detroit, a nonprofit, works to provide recreational and educational programs for kids. Go to www.thinkdetroit.org or call 313-833-1600.

• The Coalition on Temporary Shelter, or COTS, provides shelter for homeless families. Call 313-831-3777 anytime.

• Forgotten Harvest, which collects and distributes tons of fresh food from area grocery stores and restaurants, can use donations of money, food or time. Go to www.forgottenharvest.org or call 248-350-3663 anytime.