It means lack of access to proper healthcare and affordable fresh foods. It means limited transportation options to get to and from work reliably, inadequate quality child care options, and limited savings for emergencies. And it often means living in unsafe housing or neighborhoods riddled with violence.
Our young children living in poverty are facing challenges some adults would find insurmountable – when walking to school through unsafe neighborhoods or going to bed hungry, it can be hard to concentrate on your studies. And children that fall behind in school are less likely to complete high school and college, making it hard to later become employed to support a family.
Clearly, the poverty epidemic in Central New York is detailed and complex. With it comes a series of causes and effects that make the solution seem almost unattainable.
But with every mentored child, job preparedness program or public policy change, the cycle of poverty begins to crack open. While our indicators in this section demonstrate the level of poverty in our region, it is important to remember that many of the indicators on this site are all connected to one another, and that the progress or decline of one can have a significant effect on the outcomes of another, especially our region’s poverty rates.
