Introduction
As the WIC Program Director in Cameron County, I am confident that you are well aware of our community’s challenges regarding the well-being of children living in poverty. Indeed, studying child poverty statistics and data in Cameron County, Texas, reveals that it is an urgent issue that needs immediate attention. Data from Texas Tribune (2016) shows that 47% of children in the County are living in poverty, the highest in Texas and sets the country apart from national averages.
It is, therefore, of utmost importance for all stakeholders to look deeper into the problem to identify the situation’s state and possible solutions to address the problem. Key people tasked with the role of dealing with child poverty in the County must understand that the well-being of the children is of profound importance as it impacts not only the current generation but also future generations. Through establishing collaborative efforts as key stakeholders and coming up with actionable recommendations, the country’s problems could be solved, thus paving a brighter way for the children.
Problem Statement
The problems facing children in Cameron County are not just a statistical metric but also reveal the deep underlying problems in the southern tip of that State, warranting a collaborative effort among the stakeholders. Poverty cuts across the fabric of the community and affects all populations, but the younger children are the most affected. The federal government has defined child poverty as those children living in homes that are below a certain income threshold. More than 15 million children across the US live in poverty (Koball et al., 2019; US News: Healthiest Communities, 2022).
The situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, where studies show that one in every ten children in New York is homeless (Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020). Among Texas counties with populations of above 10,000 people, Cameron County has the highest rates of child poverty, as shown in the appendix. Studies show that 47% of children in Cameron County live below this set level, invalid in both state and national averages (Texas Tribune, 2016). It reveals a significant problem in the county that goes beyond poverty and may include health, education, and other social problems.
As the WIC program director, it is essential to understand that child poverty could result in many other negative impacts on the county, contributing to child poverty and thus creating an iterative loop. The negative impacts of child poverty are known to be far-reaching, impacting many other facets of the well-being of humans (Marcil et al., 2021; Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020). It limits the potential for the children to grow economically when they become adults, obscures their learning opportunities, limits their chances of ever leaving the poverty stage, and impacts their overall health and life expectancies (Wahyunengseh et al., 2019).
Accordingly, addressing health-related social needs such as child poverty will likely improve premature deaths, life expectancies, and air pollution in Cameron County cities such as Brownsville (City Health Dashboard, n.d.). By addressing the problem of child poverty, the relevant stakeholders will not only impact the lives of the affected children but also ensure the potential future prosperity of the County as a whole.
Stakeholders
As you understand, addressing deep-rooted issues like child poverty is challenging as it needs a change of systematic operations; thus, good collaboration among the involved stakeholders is vital. Stakeholders could include authorities and facilities since increased expenditures on social services are required to improve population health related to child poverty (Marcil et al., 2021). Tyris and Parikh (2021) argue that community advocates and health institutions should also be identified as key stakeholders as their efforts are health determinants, a key issue related to child poverty. Furthermore, understanding the key roles that different stakeholders play in relating to the problem is vital. It could help guide you as a WIT in the county on who to contact for necessary support.
Through collaborating with governmental agencies such as the one mentioned above, social services, healthcare programs, and education could be disbursed to impoverished children. Marcil et al. (2021) further elucidate this concept by stating that governmental authorities have a key role in distributing finances, ensuring that safety nets are created to protect the children living in poverty, and implementing policies that could overtly reduce this big problem. The program that you lead, the WIC, can draw various benefits for low-income families through collaborating with the relevant governmental agencies. As the director, it is essential to present the statistics that will be presented in this memo and others you may come across to these stakeholders to convince these governmental institutions of the severity of the problem.
In addition to governmental institutions, public health advocates are good organizations that the WIC program could collaborate with to help eliminate the child poverty problem. In this study, Tyris and Parikh (2021) managed to link the relationships between child poverty and health, showing several social determinants of health, including a person’s economic status, their house, and their degree of education, among others.
Public health advocates could help address the child poverty problem as they could lead the factors that lead to poor health, which are also the root causes of child poverty. For instance, when public health advocates state that people should be provided with insurance benefits, this could lead to parents in the County avoiding poverty and, therefore, being able to grow their wealth beyond the threshold of poverty in the US.
Apart from the two discussed above, there are also several other stakeholders that you, as the WIP in the County, could collaborate with to reduce child poverty in the region. Community advocates generally have a role in grassroots activities and mobilizing resources that could help affected families get some income. Consequently, the implications in Cameron County are that local minors could receive assistance, which is essential considering that over 50% of the households in the region have underaged children (Scarbrough et al., 2019). Policymakers are also crucial stakeholders, and their solutions could result in long-term change in the County’s problem (Marcil et al., 2021). Other key stakeholders you could consider collaborating with include educational institutions that provide free education for children living in poverty in the region.
Engaging with the diverse stakeholders discussed above could have various positive outcomes and implications for the County. Governments will promote the ease with which families with children in the County can access health resources, education, and other social services vital to the children’s well-being. Policymakers could initiate policy changes critical for amending pre-set legislations that could contribute to increased poverty rates in the county.
Community empowerment campaigners could be vital in championing low-income families in the country to get the necessary support, jobs, and mentorship services to improve their income levels. A common problem affecting children in poverty is poor health outcomes (Blackburn & Sierra, 2021; Brooks-Gunn et al., 2021). Collaborating with healthcare specialists could help alleviate this problem by ensuring that low-income families and young children get preventive healthcare access similar to high-income children.
Multi-Sectoral Collaboration
One of the best methods that could be adopted to address the problem of child poverty in Cameron County is multi-sectoral collaboration. These collaborations occur when governments, non-profit making organizations, private companies, social businesses, and publicly incorporated organizations come together to solve challenges that affect the whole society. Child poverty in the country is a systematic problem, and these collaborations have proved effective when it comes to addressing the problem of systematic discrimination among populations.
In the context of our region, the collaborations will include The Cameron County Department of Health and Human Services, Cameron County, the Public Health Office, and the officials of the State of Texas (Scarbrough et al., 2019). When these organizations establish strategic collaborations, they can combat the local problem of child poverty. This will be mainly caused by pooling resources and expertise and ensuring that there is some coordinated effort, which is critical in addressing the problem.
Data Indicators and Sources
To minimize poverty in the County, relying on verified facts and figures is essential. It is only through leveraging data that you, as the WIC in the County and other stakeholders, can clearly understand the severity of the issue. Some reliable sources and data indicators include but are not limited to federal sources, such as the Census, City Health Dashboard, County Health Rankings, San Antonio Report, child poverty data sources, and findings from academic publications. It is also important to rely on due diligence and market research to know which report is more factual than the other, as sometimes sources may contradict.
One notable example is that while the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (2021) indicates the rate to be 15.3%, Blackburn and Sierra (2021) suggest that child poverty in Cameron County is approximately 45%. These disparities could cause considerable confusion to you as the WIC on the best research to follow when making decisions. However, as a WIC director, you possess the capacity to conduct your market research and come up with the required intel.
Data Representation
As of 2023, children remain the poorest age group in the United States. In the two years before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children living in poverty had fallen from 11.6 million to 11.6 percent. Still, the pandemic impacted the population, pushing an additional 1 million into poverty (Dawson, 2023). The Children’s Defence Fund shows that 11 million children live in poverty, and this includes 1 in every seven children of color and 1 in every six children under the age of 5.
As shown in Figure 1, Cameron County in Texas is pretty populated, with 425,208 people living within its boundaries, although many live below the stated boundary lines (City Health Dashboard, n.d.). The observation alights with HHC’s observation that poverty often occurs in concentrated areas and often endures for a long time (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023). The CityHealth Dashboard (2023) for Brownsville, located in Cameron County, shows that the city has an estimated 36.4 of children living in poverty in 2021, which is significantly higher than the national average, which stands at 16.9%, as shown in the appendix. According to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (2021), the poverty rate was higher for Blacks, non-Hispanic, and Hispanics than for the white populations, insights represented in Table 1.
Cameron County Data
Table 1: Comparison in Percentages of Child Poverty between Cameron County, Texas State and USA According to Annie E. Casey Foundation. (n.d.).
Mitigation Measures Taken
As you may know, Cameron County, The State of Texas, and the Federal Government have implemented various measures to curb child poverty. For instance, governments across the country have subsidies in the form of cash for low-income persons received in line with the established policies and procedures (US Department of Health and Human Services (2023). The governments have implemented various social safety nets to ensure that children below the age of 18 are protected. For children under age 18 living below the poverty line, $14,580 for an individual plus $5,140 for every additional person (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023).
Cameron County should leverage on these governmental disbursements to ensure that families with children and living under poverty are well supported. The three states excluded from this regulation have similar compensation and safety packages for the children. Community activities are critical as they can help expand the level of outreach achieved, and various platforms, such as social media, could be used (Saluzzo & Alegre, 2021). Additionally, childcare assistance at an affordable cost is being provided to ensure that parents can go to work and try to eliminate poverty.
Conclusion
The problem of child poverty in the County is an urgent and complex problem that requires the urgent attention of the key stakeholders involved. The fact that the county’s poverty averages far exceed those of the state, and the national level shows that there is a unique problem that the county is facing. To address this challenge, a multi-faceted approach must be taken, and all stakeholders, including the government, policymakers, public health institutions, and community organizations, must take appropriate action. Data is critical for understanding the root causes of the problem and eliminating personal biases when dealing with this critical issue. As the director of the WIC program, it is your role to acknowledge a big problem and take the steps recommended to others to see if child poverty numbers in the county will go down.
References
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (n.d.). Children in poverty by race and ethnicity. The Annie E. Casey Foundation Data Center. Web.
Blackburn, C. C., & Sierra, L. A. (2021). Anti-immigrant rhetoric, deteriorating health access, and COVID-19 in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. Health Security, 19(S1), S-50. Web.
Brooks-Gunn, J., Klebanov, P., Liaw, F. R., & Duncan, G. (2021). Toward an understanding of the effects of poverty upon children. In Children of poverty pp. 3-41. Routledge.
City Health Dashboard. (n.d.). Brownsville, TX. Web.
Dawson, B. (2023). The State of America’s Children 2023 – Child Poverty. Children’s Defense Fund. Web.
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. (2021). Child poverty and income distribution. ChildStats. Web.
Koball, H., Moore, A., & Hernandez, J. (2021). Basic facts about low-income children: Children under 9 Years, 2019. National Center for Children in Poverty. Web.
Marcil, L. E., Hole, M. K., Jackson, J., Markowitz, M. A., Rosen, L., Sude, L., & Vinci, R. J. (2021). Anti-poverty medicine through medical-financial partnerships: A new approach to child poverty. Academic Pediatrics, 21(8), S169-S176. Web.
Saluzzo, F. M., & Alegre, I. (2021). Supporting entrepreneurs: The role of third-party endorsement in crowdfunding platforms. Technological Forecasting and Social Change,162. Web.
Scarbrough, A. W., Holt, M. M., Hill, J., & Kafle, R. C. (2019). Is there a relationship between income and infectious disease: Evidence from Cameron County. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 2, 3-13. Web.
Texas Tribune. (2016). Poverty is prevalent on the Texas border and low in the suburbs. Texas Tribune. Web.
Tyris, J., & Parikh, K. (2020). Poverty is the elephant in the room. Hospital Pediatrics, 10(6), 544-546. Web.
US Department of Health and Human Services (2023). HHS poverty guidelines for 2023. Office of the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation. Web.
US News: Healthiest Communities (2022). The 15 counties where child poverty is highest. Web.
Van Lancker, W., &Parolin, Z. (2020). COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: A social crisis in the making. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e243-e244. Web.
Wahyunengseh, R., Hastjarjo, S., & Suharto, D. (2019). CSR for child poverty: Challenging policy in a disruptive era. Humanity, Education and Social Sciences, 353, 316-322. Web.
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