Using oral histories to bring a city alive

By Pam Bailey, NeighborWorks America blogger

This is the second post in a three-part series on the power of oral storytelling. Read the first post.

HANDS, a NeighborWorks member in Orange, NJ, was an early believer in the power and versatility of the human voice, and has put the medium to a unique use – an oral history “tour” of the community that is helping the old and young alike re-discover why they should love their home town.

“Orange is only 2.2 square miles, but sort of embodies the historical arc of American cities,” says Molly Rose Kaufman, who discussed the project called [murmur] at the May NeighborWorks Training Institute on Purposeful and Powerful Storytelling. “De-industrialization left it with a declining population and employer base, and a lot of vacant properties. It’s a contagious process. A lot of young people just want to escape; they don’t know or connect with the rich history of the town, and the progress that’s happening that should make them proud.”

Murmur, however, has helped change that dynamic. The concept, first piloted in Toronto and now in cities ranging from Sao Paulo to Edinburgh, is simple: Record stories of residents explaining the history behind a particular spot – whether a park, a building or just an intersection – and set up “listening posts” around town. A green ear-shaped sign marks the location of each story, inviting passers-by to call a special phone number and listen to a narrative about what happened at that spot in the past.

Two [murmur] volunteers interview a resident about
a local story.

Orange now has 15 sites, all within four to five blocks, with 30 stories. The stories run the gamut from memories of boxing legend and Orange native Tony Galento, to recollections of Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit shortly before his death, to the accomplishments of local hero Monte Irvin, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for his performance with the Orange Triangles, a professional baseball team in the Negro National League. (Click on the links to hear for yourself.)

While HANDS loved the idea of being part of an international movement, however, it gave the concept its own twist.

“We recruited high school students in our youth arts program to find and record the stories,” explains Kaufman, who launched the program while a community organizer with HANDS. “Some of them ended up telling their own, personal stories. It was the first time for many of them to discover and appreciate that they have roots in a pretty fascinating town.”

Khemani Gibson (left) in the process of installing the
ear-shaped [murmur] signs.

One of the eight youth who recorded those first stories was Khemani Gibson. And he is quick to agree that the [murmur] project changed his life – by awakening a love of history, and his town.Gibson was born in Jamaica, but moved with his family to Orange when he was just a few months old.

“But I really didn’t feel any connection to Orange until [murmur],” he says. “Actually, I wanted my family to move. I just saw it as a broken-down town. Now, though, after learning so much about the city’s history and the people, my perception has changed to ‘why would I want to leave this place?’”

Gibson is particularly interested in black history, and has gone on to major in pan-African studies and Spanish at New Jersey’s Drew University. He returns to Orange regularly, however, to help the next generation of youth follow in his footsteps. Since September, he has been working with sixth through eighth graders to help them gather a new round of stories that will be used not only to update the listening stations but to develop a booklet about their city’s history for the third-grade curriculum.

“I was a little apprehensive at first, thinking that maybe the kids would be too young to really engage on this topic,” laughs Gibson. “But they ask questions like you’d hear at a town hall meeting; I’m learning a lot from them.”

And what’s next for Gibson? He already is planning to pursue his Ph.D., focusing on the African diaspora, but ultimately, “I feel so connected to Orange now that I wouldn’t mind coming back when I’m done.”

Next post: Tips for recording your own “naked voice” interviews.

Inspired by CLI, teens open ‘clothing closet’ to fight bullying

By Pam Bailey, NeighborWorks America blogger

Bullying is painfully common on school campuses everywhere – with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that one in four high school students are victimized, and more than two-thirds are witnesses.

Among the frequent victims are children from low-income families who can’t afford to dress in “trendy” clothes. That’s particularly a problem for the immigrant farmworker families served by the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), whose children must attend school alongside wealthier students in California’s Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Patty Suarez (left) talks to a local radio reporter.

“Bullying often starts when someone judges your appearance,” says Patty Suarez, an 18-year-old who lives in one of CEDC’s 22 rental communities. “Like, I saw one girl get harassed because she wore knock-off boots. So the kids in my youth group decided to do something about it.”

Youth engagement is a core focus of CEDC’s community-building program. The organization has nurtured a youth-leadership group at each of its rental properties,  with activities ranging from lobbying the city council for better access to mass transit in their neighborhood to a mural-painting project that brought together different generations within families.

“We ask the youth what they care the most about – what they like doing, what they think needs improvement in their community,” says Juliana Gallardo, a community building manager who first joined CEDC in 2009 through the AmeriCorps VISTA program. “Then we help them focus on an activity they choose.”

In 2013, CEDC’s community-building team worked with youth leaders at the organization’s Villa Cesar Chavez property to start an anti-bullying campaign, including “flashmobs” to raise awareness at local events, after participants began reporting problems at school.

“My parents couldn’t pay for new clothes, because they have to pay for so many other important things, like food,” Vanesa Palomar told a local newspaper, describing how fellow students snickered at her worn garb. “Sometimes one of them would get laid off, or they wouldn’t have work for a few days. They worked really hard, but it wasn’t enough.”

A group of CEDC youth visited another organization
that sponsors an anti-bullying teen clothes closet in a
nearby town.

Suarez’ group at the Fillmore Central Station Apartment property soon joined in. Then, CEDC took the youth on a field trip to an organization in nearby San Luis Obispo that had developed a unique response to the same challenge: a “closet” of donated, fashionable clothes for youth who couldn’t afford them otherwise. They decided to start their own version of the project, which they call PACT (“providing accessible clothing to teens”).

To help the teens develop the organizational skills they would need to initiate and operate the program, CEDC sent the team to NeighborWorks America’s Community Leadership Institute last October.

“It was pretty cool to meet older people who are so interested in helping communities. More people care than I thought,” Suarez recalls. “They were surprised to see kids at the conference. But they were very welcoming.”

The trip to the conference in Sacramento helped give the teens the confidence to launch the project, and they began visiting yard sales as well as soliciting donations via community flyers and social media. “The response was so great that we literally filled up the back of a large truck,” says Gallardo. “And the donations keep coming in.”

The youth sort the clothes; any items that aren’t appropriate are given to a local homeless shelter or other charity. In January, the PACT teen closet opened in the community room of the Fillmore apartments. However, the complex is five blocks away from the school, and the youth want its services to be available to everyone in need under the age of 18 living in Ventura County – not just their building’s residents. So, PACT is re-locating to the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring room at the town high school – complete with an open house on April 12. Open twice a week for two hours each day, PACT is totally run and staffed by the students -- offering an ideal exposure to the skills required for entrepreneurship, with plenty of opportunity for job training.

 “We’re even partnering with a local organization that places students age 16-21 in internships. PACT will be a host site,” says Gallardo.

According to Suarez, PACT has become so popular that it has taken the “sting” out of wearing second-hand clothes. PACT clothes are cool!

Salt Lake City group fights crime by putting youth to work

Safety is one of the most basic requirements of desirable communities. If residents are afraid to walk down their streets, or even to socialize in their own front yards, they will flee the first chance they get – and certainly won’t engage with their community, much less their neighbors.

“We learned early on that we couldn’t just focus on housing,” says Maria Garciaz, executive director of NeighborWorks Salt Lake. “What’s the point of developing more housing if the crime rate is going up and people are afraid to live there?”

That’s what her organization discovered when it first began serving the west side of Salt Lake City (the quintessential “other side of the tracks”). It was 1982, and as members of the organization talked to stakeholders in the community, one problem kept surfacing: the neighborhood was increasingly ruled by gangs. Thus, the West Side Youth Project was born.  It gave youth hanging out on the street corners productive work, along with the skills and motivation to forge a new direction for their lives. Garciaz was probation officer for the local juvenile court at the time, and many of the youth were her charges. It was a natural fit for her to come on board, first as a volunteer, then as director of what came to be known as the YouthWorks program. Garciaz was named executive director in 1989, just a few years before the organization joined the NeighborWorks network – a milestone for which it celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Other services offered by NeighborWorks Salt Lake are commercial-development projects to reverse blight in retail districts, development of affordable housing and resident leadership training.

In the early years, YouthWorks targeted hard-core gang members, with youth enrolled for a year at a time. “We saw some amazing changes in their lives,” Garciaz recalls. “Last Monday, a young man who graduated from the program in 1989 walked through the door. I said, ‘I’m so glad to see you’re alive!’ He was so much more than alive…He now has a successful job as a machinist. Another graduate is now on our board of directors!”

A YouthWorks team frames a new, affordable home.

Today, YouthWorks focuses on prevention -- helping larger numbers of young people before they become “hard core.” About 14 youth are enrolled in each three-month “crew” – mostly 16- and 17-year-olds during the school year, and as young as 14 in the summers. Three days a week, they work from 1-6 p.m. building one of the organization’s affordable homes – from framing the building to pouring concrete and painting walls (with expert contractors providing on-site training). “Being able to build a home, to see their work come to such concrete, successful fruition, teaches so many important lessons,” explains Garciaz. “For instance, if the framing doesn’t turn out right, they can take it apart and re-build it. What better analogy for life?”

On the afternoons when they aren’t working on a home or community project, the youth learn the financial-management skills they need to wisely spend the weekly stipend they earn while employed with YouthWorks. Sometimes, they do painting jobs for other nonprofits such as museums, in return for free tickets or a pizza party. “It’s a subtle way to engage them with the community,” she says.

Teamwork is a strong emphasis of the youth program.

Twice a year, female crews are recruited to assure that hormones don’t get in the way of the learning experience. The organization also actively recruits “new Americans” for all of its sessions. Since Utah is a federally designated resettlement state, many youth now come from families who emigrated from countries as far-flung as Afghanistan and Somalia. To date, more than 1,800 youth have graduated from the program.

“We define success as completing high school, staying out of the court system and – once they graduate – either enrolling in college or getting a job,” says Garciaz. Program participants are surveyed a year after they graduate from YouthWorks, but she knows that the impact has longevity. One group of about 100 graduates was contacted 10 years later, and 80 percent owned their own homes, with many starting their own businesses.

“This isn’t the kind of program that produces immediate results, and it will never be economically self-sufficient,” says Garciaz. “But think about it. Seventy-five percent of our kids are poor, often from families of color, who aren’t reached by any other program. They’d be lost to the streets without YouthWorks. What better investment is that?”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America.

Forty-five years after founding, Pennsylvania group helps future homebuyers achieve ‘financial freedom’

When visitors walk into the NeighborWorks America offices in DC, one of the first images they see is a floor-to-ceiling painting of Dorothy Mae Richardson, along with the quote, “I believe people get their roots down when they own their own houses….take pride in them. That, in turn, is good for the whole city.”

Dorothy Mae Richardson

These wise words can be generalized to cities everywhere, but in 1968, Richardson – the “founding mother” of NeighborWorks America -- was speaking specifically about Pittsburgh, where she enlisted bankers and government officials to support her block club’s efforts to improve her neighborhood. Together, they persuaded 16 financial institutions and a local foundation to put up the loans needed to create opportunities for affordable homeownership. They named the program Neighborhood Housing Services, and it served as the model for other programs that followed -- today known as NeighborWorks organizations.

Forty-five years later, the NeighborWorks network encompasses more than 240 such organizations, and the group founded by Richardson is still going strong, known as NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. The dynamics of the community, however, along with the services needed by residents, have changed – and the organization has adapted along with it.

“More people own their own homes here now, thanks to our efforts,” says Margie Howard, education specialist with NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. “But we’ve realized that more than homeownership education and counseling are needed.  Residents also need help keeping their homes in good shape, staying out of foreclosure and managing their budgets to make it all affordable. In particular, we are serving a growing number of low-income, single heads of household. Race isn’t the issue here; economics is.”

While the organization has offered financial education for youth for the past five years, recent support from the Heinz Endowments has made it possible to expand its efforts to include the entire family, combating generational poverty.

 “We saw that parents weren’t teaching their children about money management – mainly because they themselves didn’t learn it,” Howard explains. “You see lots of instances of a mom spending $300 on shoes for her child, yet there’s a shortage of food in the house, or maybe the family is about to be evicted. It’s not just about teaching parents how to budget; it’s about changing attitudes and behavior around money.”

Youth don’t get financial education in the schools either, says Howard. “Schools are test- rather than life-skills-oriented.”

One of the youth financial-education classes

The organization’s youth financial-education program enrolls participants as young as 14 up through age 25, with instruction provided in four, one-hour classes. The program’s practical approach encourages participants to analyze real-life spending choices, such as getting ready for prom.

“The average girl realizes it will cost about $3,000 for a one-day event; for boys, it’s more like $1,000.  Many are okay with these figures when it’s their parents who foot the bill,” explains Howard. “But then they are asked what will happen if their mom has been laid off, or is working a minimum-wage job. How will she afford that while keeping up with the bills? Some of the students find ways to cut back like having a friend style their hair or using a parent’s car instead of renting a fancy one. Others decide to skip the prom altogether. The goal is to teach them to analyze their wants vs.  their needs. We see how their thinking changes when they realize they might have to pay for things themselves.”

The key, says Howard, is to separate spending from emotional triggers, starting with tracking where the money is going with a daily log. Ideally, major spending decisions should be made collectively, by the entire family.  Although teenagers typically prefer to attend workshops with youth from their own age group, family members from different generations are encouraged to come to one of the workshops together. Howard recalls one time when a 10-year-old girl came with her mother to a class because she didn’t want to go to the gym with her brother. After the workshop, the little girl went up to the instructor and proudly reported that she had her own bank account. The teacher asked what the girl would do with the savings, and she replied, “I want to have a princess birthday party.”

“A 10-year-old is breaking the cycle by planning ahead to make sure she has the money she needs to meet her goals,” says Howard. “We’ve created a saver!”

Long-term results from the financial-capability workshops are still being assessed, but the anecdotes are promising. One recent evening, for instance, Howard was approached at a community event by Essence Howze, who completed the organization’s financial-education program five years before, when she was just 16. Always ambitious, Howze first began earning money at age 9, manning a refreshment stand in front of her home. “I would sell iced tea and lemonade to joggers,” she laughs.

Essence Howze

However, self-teaching could get her only so far. When she was in 10th grade, Howze saw a flyer on a bulletin board, promoting NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania’s youth financial-education program. Howze enrolled, and the practical skills she learned, she says, enabled her to open her own savings account and enter community college, where today she is a sophomore studying business management. Always ambitious, she has supplemented her studies with extracurricular activities such as an internship with The Salvation Army’s Career Development Center, and recently started her own business -- which she calls “Silver Linings,” through which she helps others overcome personal barriers like those she faced during a troubled family life.

“Taking the NeighborWorks financial-education course gave me my financial freedom. It helped me avoid so many mistakes, and now I’m helping others,” Howze says, recalling how she showed her college roommate how to read the “fine print” when a credit card company tried to sign her up. “I refer back to the materials I got in those workshops all the time. It wasn’t just financial management I learned..it was empowerment.”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. 

Youth in San Francisco's Chinatown transform historic alleyways

Youth lead a tour through San Francisco's Chinatown
alleyways.

Step off the main roads of San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood and you’ll find yourself in a labyrinth of alleyways.  At each turn there is history: opium dens, a barbershop where Frank Sinatra used to get the perfect cut and thousands of other, untold stories from one of America’s oldest ethnic villages.  You’ll also see something you wouldn’t expect: teenagers leading tours with expert proficiency, sharing their story of how they cleaned up these neglected public spaces.

Back in 1991, Norman Fong, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center (which is celebrating its fifth year as a NeighborWorks network member), reached out

to local youth and asked them how they could help the community.  Their response was simple: Clean up the local alleyways that had been neglected by both the city and the community.  Chinatown’s historic alleyways are not considered public infrastructure, so the city would not take responsibility for their care; over time, they began to overflow with refuse and waste from the restaurants and businesses that filled the area.  Since traditional open space is limited, these students immediately saw an opportunity to improve the lives of their fellow citizens and went to work.

Students clean the alleyways. (Photo
by James Ng)

Fong’s inaugural group of eight Galloway High School students in the “Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project”  started by grading the alleyways just as they were in school, with marks of A, B, C, D or F.  They worked to have a local newspaper publish the grades, alerting the public to the dire state of their own space.   Then they got to work: washing walls and roads and sweeping away dirt and debris. Soon the community took notice.  Individuals began walking the alleyways again and local restaurants that had been dumping oil and refuse into the alleys began to take care of their waste properly.

A few years later, Fong set up a meeting at the city’s department of public works bureau of street use and mapping to discuss the alleyways.  Although the city had spent the previous several decades dodging the work of cleaning these alleys, the amazing progress of the students could not be ignored. The city commissioned its own master plan allowing the students an opportunity to expand their work and partner with the local government. Jointly, Chinatown CDC and the student volunteers worked to develop a master plan for the city’s entire network of 41 alleyways, describing the current state and the work needed to make them a place the community could use again.  They went door to door visiting with local businesses and residents to make the case for their plan, and in 1998 the city adopted the guidelines authored by students.

Murals now beautify many of the alleyways.

The students’ master plan went beyond cleaning the alleyways to include initiatives to reduce illegal parking, improve pedestrian safety and access for the disabled, add green features and include more beautification efforts like murals.  Since adoption of the plan, five phases featuring the renovation of 11 alleyways have been completed.  The public space transformed by the work of these youth benefits the community overall, including more commerce for local businesses that rely on the millions of tourists who visit each year.

Beyond their work creating clean and safe public spaces the youths have also started a small business that leads tours of the alleys.

Fong believes that the youth of a community are more than the future, but also very much the present. “The youth know what needs to be done like everyone else, but they took on the responsibility to do it and the results speak for themselves,” he says.

Written by Jason Powers, national public affairs and communications adviser for NeighborWorks America.

Youth Savings Builds Good Habits and Good Citizens

By Rebekkah Barger, NeighborWorks Umpqua
IDA program manager

The financial future of our children is determined, in part, by how much they know about money. NeighborWorks Umpqua offers classes that teach money management skills and financial wellness to our young people between 10 to 17; we call it the “Youth 3As.”  The class introduces financial management concepts at a kid’s level while allowing participants to earn matching dollars towards their own asset purchase. Those asset purchases can be anything athletic, artistic, or academic in nature, hence the name “3As.”Over the years we have worked with many young people, and I would like to believe that our classes have a long lasting effect. To be perfectly honest, though, it’s not that often that we hear back from the kids after they have made their purchase — that is, until I met Morgan and her sister, Quinn.

Morgan and Quinn contacted our office almost two years ago and wanted to save for dance lessons.  They had been very good savers, and by the end of the classes had reached their goal of saving $300 each. This qualified them for our 2:1 match of an additional $600 each — an impressive $1,800 for the two at the end of the program and enough to pay around 50% of their annual dance lesson costs ($1,500-2000 for each girl each year).

I didn’t hear about Morgan and Quinn again until a month ago when Morgan contacted me.  She explained that she was participating in the Miss Outstanding Teen pageant and had chosen financial education and goal setting as her platform. Her goal, she explained, was to teach the concept of goal setting and saving to little kids.  She had made arrangements with the local Boys and Girls Club and had even begun writing grants for some start up money.  She was off and rolling! 

I asked Morgan what inspired her to do this, and she explained that setting goals and then saving for them feels good. For six years, Morgan and her sister had been babysitting, dogwalking, selling doughnuts, doing chores for neighbors and many other fundraising activities to pay for their own dance classes and school trips. Cumulatively, she and her sister had raised thousands of dollars. 

Morgan liked being able to have the things that mattered to her, without needing her parents to pay for it. She thought others should learn to do the same and she is even writing a book about saving.  Morgan is a great example of how our programs create good savers, and good citizens.  

For information about Morgan, or other programs offered by NeighborWorks Umpqua, email Rebekah Barger at rbarger@nwumpqua.org  or visit our website at www.nwumpqua.org

Generation Volunteer: Creating Opportunity for Youth Engagement

By Liz McLachlan
development associate
Lighthouse of Oakland County

 Calen Knight is no ordinary nine year old. Last June, she independently organized a school-wide food drive which she donated to Lighthouse of Oakland County's emergency food pantry in Michigan. The project was part of a charity she helped created called CalenForKids.org, which she founded at the age of eight. 

"My parents have taught me that I am so lucky to have many nice things like toys, books, DVD's, and new clothes. So, now I want to help other children have something to smile about too," says Calen. The goal of CalenForKids.org is to create awareness within other children in hopes that they will also realize their good fortune and become inspired to lend a helping hand.

Calen with emergency pantry supplies

Calen’s early commitment to volunteerism is impressive, but not that unusual. In its annual survey, VolunteeringInAmerica.gov reported that 8.3 million volunteers between the ages of 16-24 dedicated 844 million hours of service to US communities in 2010.

At Lighthouse of Oakland County, we see the start of the new school year as the perfect opportunity to lay the foundation for youth volunteer engagement.  Benefits to the volunteers include:

• Volunteering can teach skills that they will use later in life.
• Volunteering can teach them compassion and responsibility, and gratitude for the things they have.
• Children who volunteer are less likely to engage in risky behavior, more likely to feel connected to their communities, and tend to do better in school. (source: World Volunteer Web)

Boy Scouts from Troop 1032 volunteering in the
Lighthouse food pantry, which serves ~650 people/month

At Lighthouse, our main priority is to develop solid relationships with  local schools, churches, and families. Reaching out to this core audience allows us to share the work we do in a familiar environment known to the children. This is necessary because many have never volunteered before; this is our opportunity to really hear what the student's volunteer interests are. From that point forward, teachers, parents and students are able to identify meaningful projects that resonate with their group.

Does your organization offer projects for younger volunteers and their families?  The following strategies can be incorporated into existing volunteer recruitment, planning, and placement activities to encourage community involvement and adapting volunteer projects for younger volunteers.

1.    Know your audience. Review your current donor base and volunteers actively participating within your organizations. Are there schools, churches, or groups who work with children? Contact these individuals first; invite them to tour your location with their children.

2.    Develop age-appropriate opportunities. One of the biggest mistakes an organization can do is offer an opportunity that is not meaningful to the volunteers. Yes, we all have the "must-get-done" projects, but when you develop a project that leaves a lasting impression, those volunteers will be back. Kids get bored easily, but when they are excited and engaged they will remember that project long after they leave.

3.    Encourage volunteer autonomy. Kids have great ideas. If you are in need of a food drive, get the kids involved in the planning process. The more they "own" their project, the more successful they will be in achieving it.

Lilly created "Parties in a box" to provide
birthday supplies to other children

4.    Planning is key! Families are busy and timing volunteer projects is crucial to successful volunteer engagement. Take time to know school schedules and plan projects around after school hours and planned days off. Offer projects on holiday breaks, teacher development days, and half-days.

5.    Don't forget teams. Do you need a large project completed? Coaches and parents are great resources to help get the work done quickly. Volunteering is a great opportunity for team building.

These are just a few ideas to get started and now it's your turn. We would love to hear how your organization engages kids in community service and volunteer projects.

Please leave a comment below and share your ideas. You can also read more stories of our young volunteers here.

Giving New Meaning to Summer Break

By Alexandra Chaikin,
Online Media Project Manager

Summer break is in full swing and many local NeighborWorks organizations  are using the time off from school to get kids involved in their communities. Below are a few of the many great projects going on around the country:

Michigan

Ava and Maria in the vegetable garden

Youngsters from the Detroit Country Day School Junior Community Service Club are helping Lighthouse of Oakland County by tending a vegetable garden with zucchini, spinach, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and peppers. The fresh produce supports Lighthouse of Oakland County's emergency food pantry and provides important nourishment to seniors.


Pennsylvania
A nonprofit called Little Acts of Love (West Lawn, Pa.) paired up with Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Berks (Reading, Pa.) to get Berks County youth to help the elderly by painting, roofing, and doing various other chores to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate.  Ten houses on Second, Front, Pear, and Buttonwood streets were improved by the efforts. This project was featured in the Reading Eagle news.

Virginia and Maryland
Research from Johns Hopkins the shows that two-thirds of the 9th grade academic achievement gap between disadvantaged youngsters and their more advantaged peers can be explained by what happens over the summer months during the elementary school years. To combat this, Arlington-based AHC Inc. is helping more than 120 children combine education and fun over the summer. This year's theme is the Olympic Games. Along with swimming each week, campers participate in a variety of educational activities and field trips to such places as local museums, Imagination Stage, and Upton Hills Water Park.

Texas

This summer, Alamo Area Mutual Housing is running a Dr. Seuss-themed reading program at one of its community Learning Centers. The program culminates in an end of summer bash, where kids will be able to celebrate their reading achievement - and the top 4 readers will participate in a field trip to Splashtown waterpark this month. In addition to the reading program, Alamo Area Mutual Housing is offering a 4-H math and science camp, gardening opportunities, and a chance to perform in plays and talent shows.

Why is Affordable Housing So Important? The Health and Development of Children Depend on It

Children playing at an after school program, sponsored by
Chelsea Neighborhood Developers in Massachusetts. 

by Leila Edmonds, Director
National Initiatives and Applied Research
NeighborWorks America

When there is housing instability, the most vulnerable in our society suffer. We recently shed a light on this issue at our symposium on senior housing in Atlanta, and now a recent study has again confirmed what we’ve always known: unstable housing has a significant, negative impact on the health and development of young children.

The study was published by the American Journal of Public Health, and it found that when children are moved multiple times a year or live in households where there is overcrowding, they have a greater risk for poor health (18 percent) than children living in secure households (11 percent). In addition, 22 percent of caregivers in households reporting multiple moves within a single year reported developmental problems in their children, whereas only 14 percent of caregivers in secure households reported similar risks.

These problems are compounded when families are poor and there’s not always food on the table. We’ve all seen the headlines on the growth in poverty in America. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2010, 25.3 percent of children under the age of six lived in poverty in the U.S. When housing insecurity is combined with food insecurity, the risk for poor health, developmental delays and hospitalization are even greater.

This is why the work we do at NeighborWorks America and across the network of 235 organizations is so very important: the health and development of our children depend on it. In 2007 NeighborWorks America released about a report on the benefits of homeownership. We found that children of homeowners are 25 percent more likely to graduate high school, 116 percent more likely to attend college and teenage pregnancy is 20 percent less likely.

Consistent housing also produces higher reading and math scores and lower rates of becoming involved in the juvenile justice system.

NeighborWorks encourages families and individuals searching for safe, affordable and stable housing to find a local housing counseling agency in their area. Providing affordable housing is the first step towards fighting the rise in poverty and homelessness in children. http://www.nw.org/network/nwdata/homeownershipcenter.asp.