Children face poverty challenges

from the Charlottesville Daily Progress

Area workers seek solutions

By Rob Seal

A report measuring the welfare of children in the United States touched on some of the toughest challenges facing local youngsters, area child service workers say.

A UNICEF study published last month quantifies 40 factors in the lives of children, including poverty, health and safety, education and domestic life. It ranked the United States 20th out of 21 of the world’s richest countries, citing poverty and poor health among children. The United Kingdom was last.

Though some question the methodology used to develop the report, local service workers say it identifies some of the biggest obstacles area children face.

“These issues [outlined in the report] are all things that we try to address locally,” said Erin Garvey, an advancement specialist with Charlottesville-based Children, Youth and Family Services.

Garvey and her co-workers point to poverty as one of the biggest problems for area children.

The UNICEF report ranked the U.S. 17th out of 21 developed countries in terms of the “material well-being” of children.

About 20 percent of Charlottesville children live in poverty, according to 2004 data compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the most recent data available from the group.

That put the city 97th among Virginia’s 134 localities. Albemarle was 15th, with 8 percent of children living in poverty.

Maryfrances Porter is the research and planning coordinator for the Charlottesville/

Albemarle Commission on Families. The organization serves as a kind of network for public and private groups that work with area children, and publishes a study each year on the welfare of local children.

Porter pointed out that the UNICEF study calculates the number of impoverished children in each country based on income levels in that country.

So while there may be more children living in relative poverty in the United States than in other countries, the report doesn’t reflect whether that poverty is more or less severe than other places, she said.

Currently, commission employees are working on a report assessing both the needs of local children and the areas where money tagged for children’s services is spent.

The idea is to be able to match spending to areas that present the biggest challenges, Porter said.

Still, the UNICEF report shows some basic problems in services, she said.

“The U.S. being ranked so low kind of shows that there are basic infrastructures available in other countries that aren’t available here,” Porter said.

Garvey said low-income children also face the dangerous side effects of poverty, such as poor health care and sub-par educational performance.

According to Jacki Bryant, the executive director for CYFS, children from upper- and middle-income families typically know about 20,000 words when they enter kindergarten.

Children from low-income families typically know about 5,000 words.

This discrepancy puts low-income children about two years behind their peers when it comes to educational development, she said.

“Research tells us they are very likely to remain behind for the rest of their education,” Bryant said.

In hopes of reaching some of these kids, CYFS offers an early literacy program for area children in which volunteers go into daycare centers to read to youngsters, she said. More information on CYFS programming is available at cyfs.org.

The availability of affordable daycare is also an issue in the area, Garvey said.

Though Charlottesville is second in the state in terms of the number of available daycare centers per capita, many are expensive and few are accredited, she said

Gretchen Ellis, director of the area commission on families, agreed that affordable daycare is scarce for lower-income families.

She also pointed to poverty as one of the primary obstacles for area children, and said it is a problem many don’t notice.

“I think there are a number of people who aren’t aware of how many of our children live in difficult financial situations,” she said.