“Growing Up Through the Cracks: When half the kids are in poverty, our fractured towns can offer no future”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an interactive article on January 14, 2019, “Growing Up Through the Cracks.” The article explores child poverty in southwestern Pennsylvania and the challenges that our decentralized cities, boroughs, and townships face in providing resources to keep kids “safe, active and healthy.” This article is the first in a year-long project to “explore the data tying childhood deprivation to a host of other problems, and delve into a dozen communities in which half of the kids live in poverty.”

What the data shows:

“The U.S. child poverty rate is 20 percent, and Allegheny County is 17 percent. But there are seven Allegheny County municipalities in which half of the kids live in poverty [emphasis added]: North Braddock, Mount Oliver, Rankin, Duquesne, McKeesport, Clairton and Wilmerding. They’ve got more than their fair share of kids and human needs. They’re short on stable, educated residents and starved for the funds needed to keep kids safe and healthy.”

Poverty in these communities causes great harm to children and families. But deep-rooted, systemic barriers make addressing poverty especially challenging.

Read the full article here.

Related coverage:

• “Rankin: Fighting ‘the depressed mindset'” (1/14/19)
• “Fragmented local government a challenge in addressing pockets of high child poverty in Allegheny County.” (1/16/19)
• “Where fighting poverty is a priority” (2/18/19)
• “Growing up through the cracks: The children at the center of North Braddock’s storm” (2/20/19)
• “Report offers plan to cut child poverty in U.S. in half in 10 years” (2/28/19)
• “Growing up through the cracks: Policing change brings cops up close with kids in poverty” (3/20/19)