REPORT
4 Million youth face tough road to
adulthood success
2004 KIDS COUNT:
Report shows state-by-state progress in child well-being; highlights
growing number of 18- to 24-year-olds lacking access to opportunities
A new report shows that eight of 10 indicators of
child well-being have improved nationally, corresponding to a six-year
period of economic growth and significant expansion of public programs.
Despite this news, the study cautions that nearly one in six young
adults, ages 18 to 24, are not working, have no degree beyond high
school, and are not enrolled in school. These “disconnected” youth face
a particularly tough transition to successful adulthood.
The 15th annual KIDS COUNT
Data Book released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that
national trends in child well-being are moving in a positive direction.
Nonetheless, a wide disparity among states still exists in several
critical indicators. Although the child poverty rate is declining in
nearly every state, the overall rate in America is among the highest in
the developed world. Child poverty rates ranged from below 10 percent in
Minnesota and New Hampshire, to more than 25 percent in the District of
Columbia and New Mexico. Looking across all well-being indicators,
Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Iowa rank highest, and Alabama,
New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi rank the lowest. While
improvement in most of the indicators of child well-being is welcome,
there is a disturbing trend concerning America’s youth.
“It is alarming that the number of disconnected youth is roughly 15
percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds,” declares Douglas W. Nelson,
president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore. “Since 2000
alone, the ranks of these young adults grew by 700,000, a 19 percent
increase over just three years. Over 3.8 million disconnected youth face
a greater likelihood of bad outcomes, now and in the future, which holds
severe implications for our society.”
William O’Hare, coordinator of the Foundation’s
KIDS COUNT project, reinforces the Data Book’s
findings that these disconnected youth are from low-income backgrounds,
which brings a significant disadvantage. “Our research over the years
has shown that children who grow up in poverty face a big hurdle,” says
O’Hare. “Another key finding is that this group is disproportionately
from minority backgrounds.” The 2004 KIDS COUNT
Data Book’s essay, “Moving Youth From Risk to
Opportunity,” presents a stark picture of who are America’s disconnected
young adults, why it is so critical that effective supports be put in
place, and what young adults need to succeed. The essay focuses
especially on a sub-group of young people who are the most at-risk kids
in the country — kids who have been failed by our public systems. They
face even worse odds and are most likely to consistently falter in
adulthood.
The experiences that define this sub-group are:
• Teens in foster care;
• Teens involved in the juvenile justice system;
• Teens who have already had children of their own;
• Teens who never finished high school.
The report discusses these four experiences that can occur during
adolescence and how each of them can diminish a young person’s prospects
for moving to a successful adulthood. The report also examines the
perils of ignoring this population of over 3.8 million Americans and
what will occur if we do not learn to intervene more effectively on
their behalf. “Among the harshest of these lessons is that over the next
decade a new generation of children will likely be born to parents whose
ability to financially provide for them is severely compromised,” Nelson
observes. “Furthermore, a sizeable portion of our potential labor market
will be untapped, and with it, a loss of billions of dollars in lost
earnings and tax revenues that could benefit our communities.” “Moving
Youth From Risk to Opportunity” presents examples of public and private
initiatives around the country that reflect more prudent and effective
investments in the most at-risk young adults.
The highlighted programs demonstrate successful and established
initiatives that:
• Connect foster youth to families and supports that
promote successful transitions to adulthood;
• Advance a more just and equitable juvenile justice system and lead
incarcerated youth to supports that can allow them to
successfully and productively re-enter their communities;
• Connect youth to the information and adult support that can help them
avoid early pregnancy and offer viable education, employment, and child
care options;
• Connect youth to powerful opportunities to develop the knowledge,
skills, and academic credentials they will need to succeed.
“Moving Youth From Risk to Opportunity’ advocates four calls-to-action:
getting our goals right so that America’s kids reach adulthood with
skills and confidence; acknowledging and addressing the reality that the
risk factors facing over 3.8 million youth disproportionately affect
poor kids of color; developing better data about youth in transition;
and developing the political will to commit national, state and local
resources to improving successful adult transition,” Nelson states. “It
is within our power to alter the future of these young adults,” he
emphasizes. “Policymakers, youth advocacy practitioners, and key members
of our communities, including parents, civic leaders and employers, can
take specific measures to bring about positive results for our at-risk
youth. But this requires making hard choices about how America uses its
time and resources to achieve successful outcomes.
We need to recognize that these kids belong to all of us, and need to
recognize it is in all of our interests to better support their
transition to the future.”
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private
charitable organization, whose primary mission is to foster public
policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more
effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.
In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states,
cities, and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective
responses to these needs. For more information, visit
www.aecf.org
The KIDS COUNT Data Book with state-by-state rankings,
supplemental data can be viewed online at
www.kidscount.org
_______________
READ THE ESSAY HERE:
Moving from Risk to
Opportunity (pdf)
Douglas W. Nelson, President
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
4 June 2004
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