18 Aug 2022
Childhood Poverty in Central New York
In this episode of What We Can Do, we will have a much-needed conversation that describes the day-to-day challenges children and families that live in our community's lowest-income households face, as well as the effects of living with extremely low levels of income on children and their development. We will also discuss some of the local strategies, programs, and resources available to support children and families to mitigate the devastating effects of living in poverty. As always, we end our conversation with a call to action delivered by each of our panelists, which provides listeners with tangible and pragmatic things we can do to help children and families in need of support.
We will be joined by three local leaders, each with a unique vantage point and perspective when it comes to the difficult conditions community members face on a daily basis:
Meg Burns, Executive Director at the Allyn Foundation
Jaime Alicea, Syracuse City School District Superintendent
Summer Merrick, Help Me Grow Program Director
We hope you enjoy the conversation and become more knowledgeable about the effects childhood poverty has on our community, as well as the intentional and strategic steps our community is taking to support children and help families identify pathways out of poverty.
The United Way of Central New York financially supports 70 local programs (https://unitedway-cny.org/our-impact/community-program-fund/) across 28 agencies in our community. We are also the home of 9 community-wide initiatives (https://unitedway-cny.org/our-impact/collaborations-initiatives/) that help to address literacy, the early childhood system, financial empowerment, housing and homelessness, workforce development, and several other complex issues. Please visit our website (https://unitedway-cny.org/)to learn more about the work we do.
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During our conversation, we referenced several resources:
Marnie Eisenstadt’s article: A Syracuse school sits on the frontlines of nation’s worst child poverty: ‘It was a gut punch’ - syracuse.com (https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/04/a-syracuse-school-sits-on-the-frontlines-of-nations-worst-child-poverty-it-was-a-gut-punch.html)
Help Me Grow: Onondaga County | HMG Regional Programs - Help Me Grow NY (https://helpmegrowny.org/onondaga-county/)
Enhanced Childcare Subsidies: Pay For Child Care | Child Care Solutions (childcaresolutionscny.org) (https://childcaresolutionscny.org/pay-child-care) and check out the one-page flyer (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_1Fej_X8lutjN2hwCXCKLsJnGDHQr6ar/view?usp=sharing).
Finally, one correction:
According to the most recent data, there are 18,680 children in Onondaga County residing in households with income levels below the federal poverty line. Out of these 18,680, roughly 14,000 reside in the City of Syracuse. In our conversation, it might be understood that there are an additional 18,000 children in the County residing in poverty.
