As hundreds of cyclists poured through the Summit City, there was hope that the event would not only bring some exercise and entertainment to the participants but hopefully a changed view of the community in general.A report released today confirms what Hoosier parents who have struggled with unemployment and foreclosure already know: Children are suffering, too.
The 2011 Kids Count Data Book indicates that about one in five Hoosier children live in poverty and 13 percent have a parent who is unemployed.
But the national report, released today, also shows some improvement in child well-being, including slightly lower rates for child and teen deaths, teen births and dropouts, and infant mortality.
The annual study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks the state 31st overall in terms of child health and well-being, based on 10 data-based measures.
Many of the measures, such as child poverty, lag a couple of years behind; the 2011 Kids Count report reflects 2009’s child poverty rate. Children’s advocates in Indiana have watched the rate tick up since even before the economic downturn began, and the state now has the nation’s 22nd highest child poverty rate.
The federal poverty line is defined as $21,756 for a family of two adults and two children. Since 2000, the number of Hoosier children whose families have dipped below the line has risen by 110,000, according to the Indiana Youth Institute.
Indiana Youth Institute President and CEO Bill Stanczykiewicz said the data could be a call for Hoosiers to focus on improving educational and vocational opportunities.
“The more training and education adults and children attain after high school, the better prepared they will be to find a well-paying job in this economy,” he said.
“It’s imperative that we drive that lesson home with our children, so that Indiana’s economy will grow and more of our children will prosper as a result of living in financially stable families.”
Financial instability drove a record number of people to Community Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Indiana in late June – 820 heads of households, representing almost 3,000 people.
“It’s all about jobs,” said Executive Director Jane Avery, who was not surprised by the Kids Count report. Over the past several years, she said, her organization has looked behind every door for new sources of food and funds.
It seems to her more people are gardening and bringing in extra produce – a small contribution in the grand scheme of things, but a massive help when it comes to raising awareness.
The food bank’s procurer has lately been visiting truck stops, where he hands out fliers to truck drivers to let them know Community Harvest is willing and able to take their excess produce loads.
The work has paid off, Avery said; more than three-quarters of the 54,000 pounds of food given away one Saturday in June was produce.
“I think it demonstrates people want to feed their families good food,” she said.
Reflecting on the struggles of children and families, Avery and the food bank’s communications and advocacy manager, Claudia Johnson, said the lines at the Saturday food distribution are diverse. If any good has come of the economic downturn, they said, it’s that perhaps it has brought up sensitivity to poverty, an awareness that it can touch anyone.
“It’s probably not a stretch to say that everybody knows people who have struggled or are struggling,” Johnson said.
Many organizations that help those who are struggling are struggling themselves. Fort Wayne’s Salvation Army is in the midst of its Tools for Schools campaign, which provides basic school supplies for children whose parents cannot afford them.
Even as Salvation Army has seen increased demand for its programs, donations have gone down, said Maj. Harold Poff, Allen County coordinator. So has government aid, which has been redirected to communities perceived to have worse unemployment problems.
“It’s kind of hard to see that from here,” Poff said.
