PPC Board Chair Peter P. Brubaker, President & CEO of Susquehanna Media Co., noted the long-term benefits that accompany upfront investments in children.
"Pennsylvanians need to realize that the attention we pay to children today results in savings down the line," Brubaker said. "If we set our sights on helping more children succeed, our businesses will have a stronger pool of talent from which to draw, and our communities will have less strain on social services and law enforcement in the future.
The State of the Child's data breakdowns by county, major municipality, and school district come in a new format, on a navigable CDROM. Read The State of the Child's executive summary and find ordering information online at www.papartnerships.org/stateofthechild.asp.
The full 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book, plus options for extracting the data, are online at www.aecf.org/kidscount.
Order The State of the Child in Pennsylvania—2004 at www.papartnerships.org/stateofthechild.asp. Find the KIDS COUNT Data Book online at www.aecf.org/kidscount
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Where is the joy of summer for every child?
Joan L. Benso
President and CEO,
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
That time of year has come again, the time when children are enjoying summer vacation. Their minds turn to the fun things filling their summers. For my two children, who have just finished seventh grade and junior year in college, the summer is filled with wonderful opportunities. Our older child has an exciting summer internship lined up — a chance to learn firsthand if her college coursework will translate into a rewarding career. Our 13-year-old will do all those things we think of when the notion of summer vacation comes up. He will play baseball, go to the pool with his friends, improve his jump shot at a basketball clinic, and attend camp in the mountains where he will swim, kayak, mountain climb, and make new friends.
But I can't help but wondering. Will many other Pennsylvania children have the same kind of summer? A summer filled with fun and exploration? I worry that far too many Pennsylvania children won't have nearly the same opportunities. I worry that they're facing many more challenges. The State of the Child in Pennsylvania and the 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book detail their circumstances in cold, harsh numbers.
One child in three lives in a low-income family. One in seven is born to a mother without a high school education. Two children out of three have all available parents in the workforce. Nearly half of fifth graders fall below proficient in reading and math. One young adult in seven is out of school, out of a job, and has no degree beyond high school.
The point is that our children face challenges every day. Those challenges, research tells us, inhibit their ability to learn and prepare for the future.
Here at PPC, we have set a goal of striving to make Pennsylvania one of the top 10 states in the nation to be a child and to raise a child. To get there, we need to apply our best policy minds to improving child outcomes. It should seem that the numbers alone — definitively showing the hardships children face, by county and by school district — would make Pennsylvanians rise up and take action.
Unfortunately, action is only a possibility, not a certainty. Early childhood education is finally on the state policy radar, but not with a wholehearted commitment needed to assure that every child will benefit. The quality of Pennsylvania public schools varies from district to district, but lawmakers have not tackled the issue of funding that assures every child a good education. Family support policies don't fully recognize the pressures parents face to create time for their children and provide for them financially. Quality after-school programs and youth development programs — so important to helping our youth reach their potential — lack any meaningful policy direction or funding.
Where does this lead us? To a policy well that's brimming over with good ideas but not visited often enough by lawmakers. We can do so much with smart policy applications to enhance children's prospects. It's hard to find a better return for our money than investments in the well-being of children, but child advocates must make the case with intent and clarity. Otherwise, our do-good inclinations get lost in a sea of politics, where expedience can outweigh worthiness, and upfront investments are shuttled to the wish list because the initial outlay is hard to justify when money is tight.
Clearly, making Pennsylvania a great state to be a child and to raise a child requires our most persistent efforts. The State of the Child in Pennsylvania and the KIDS COUNT Data Book provide the roadmap. It's up to us to begin, and hopefully, next summer will be a time when more Pennsylvania children join my kids in that land of opportunity.
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60 Second Interview
Sharmain Matlock-Turner
PPC Board member
President, Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition
Sharmain Matlock-Turner leads community collaborations to strengthen opportunities for southeastern Pennsylvania families. Recently, Governor Rendell appointed her to co-chair the Task Force for Working Families.
Background: Since March 1999, I have been president of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC) — the first woman in the nonprofit organization's 35-year history. I have a long history of community service and commitment to building consensus among diverse audiences. Before joining GPUAC, I was associate vice president of legislative and community affairs for Mercy Health System and chief of staff to the late state Senator Roxanne H. Jones.
Primary activities and goals for GPUAC? GPUAC's vision is "to partner with all segments of our community to ensure that every person has the opportunity for educational and economic success, and a secure and healthy life," and personally, I share that vision. The organization brings together business and community leaders to solve urban problems and provide a wide range of services in education, economic and business development, workforce development, health, and neighborhood and community services. GPUAC has a $24 million budget and 400 employees, and I believe it is one of the most respected and complex organizations in Philadelphia.
Are you engaged in other child- and family-serving efforts? My areas of focus are housing, community development, education and health. As the co-chair of the new Task Force for Working Families, I will work with many dedicated Pennsylvanians to identify strategies and programs to help working families build their assets, achieve financial literacy, and avoid abusive financial practices. I am also active with The Campaign for Working Families, a partnership managed by GPUAC (Jean Hunt, executive director), which promotes free filing of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and connects Philadelphia residents to other tax credits, public benefits, and asset-building resources. Chair of the boards of directors/trustees of the West Oak Lane Charter School and the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Project.
What is your greatest success? Starting a school — as a volunteer, from an idea. This is the West Oak Lane Charter School, an elementary school in Philadelphia, which opened in 1998 as one of the city's first charter schools.
Personal: Also among my greatest successes are my two grown, healthy, and happy daughters. I hold a bachelor's degree in education from Temple University and live in Philadelphia.
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Lancaster County Nurse-Family Partnership
“Every client has her heart’s desire”
Mary Steffy is explaining the ceremony held for young mothers who have completed the Nurse-Family Partnership program in Lancaster County. The mothers receive a figurine of a mother and a child, and they get a framed certificate memorializing their achievement.
"For some of these mothers, it's the first certificate they've ever earned," she says. "We take pictures along the way, and we present a little photo album of our time with them. Most of our clients have no pictures of their childhood. They've been learning basic things — keeping memories, celebrating holidays. In the program, it's often the first time in their whole life their birthdays have ever been celebrated."
She pauses to catch her breath — and perhaps for dramatic effect. "Are you getting goose bumps yet?" she asks.
The mothers who participate in the Lancaster County Nurse-Family Partnership, a research-based, voluntary nurse home visiting program, encounter many new concepts. Reading to their children, proper discipline and encouragement, calling agencies and offices for assistance and appointments, setting goals and striving for them — many activities can be foreign to young women who have dropped out of school, have no job, or depend on parents and grandparents for housing. Their circumstances can be dire, with consequences for their infants if left unchecked. Lack of prenatal health care and use of tobacco during pregnancy diminish the child's chances for a healthy birth. The mother's own lack of education can restrict her reading and play options with the child. Although most of the program's mothers don't have criminal records or substance abuse problems, many of their surrounding family members and friends, including the babies' fathers and grandparents, are involved with the justice system.
A common thread, said Mary Steffy, is instability in the home and the lack of support from the young mothers' own parents. Steffy is a registered nurse and nursing supervisor for the Nurse-Family Partnership Program. She and her staff of five nurse home visitors have been part of the program, with zero turnover, since its inception in 2001. The state Department of Public Welfare funds 23 NFP sites through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and locally, the program is a partnership of the United Way of Lancaster County's Success by 6 and Lancaster General Hospital. The community-wide effort made its home at Lancaster General because, when the state issued the RFP, the hospital already had a Healthy Beginnings Plus program, providing prenatal and postpartum care for at-risk mothers.
The problem at the time had been the program's short span, said Melissa Stueck, Director of Success by 6 at the United Way of Lancaster County. It only lasted through the baby's eighth week, "at the time when parenting gets the most challenging and all the questions start arising." The decision to apply the Nurse-Family Partnership model was based on its research foundation, with 25 years of studies determining the most effective practices to yield desired outcomes. Nurses in the Lancaster County program spent three weeks at the University of Colorado, learning about the Olds model of nurse home visiting from its originator and academic researcher, Dr. David Olds.
Setting a routine is one of the program's first and most important steps, Steffy said. Many parents have never experienced routines that instill the same activity at the same time every week. Many others have never had the opportunity to build a trusting relationship that lasted for more than a couple of months.
At first, they're not sure," Steffy said. "The nurses are modeling behavior for the mother, so she can do the same for the infant and child. Putting the baby to sleep at the same time and creating a routine — it's a regulation and rhythm that our clients have actually responded to. When the nurses arrive, the moms are actually standing at the door with a notebook in their hand and their homework done."
The curriculum follows six domains, regularly implemented and tracked, that touch on the baby's health and development: Personal health (child's and mother's), environmental health, life course development, maternal role, family and friends, and health and human services. For instance, the environmental health domain concentrates on the atmosphere inside and outside the home. What can the mother do to make the home healthier, get safely to work, find reliable child care, and avoid damaging influences?
Life course development examines the mother's education, livelihood, and financial planning skills.
Many participants have never received positive feedback, and Mary Steffy noted that she and her staff are excited about the program's strength in helping young mothers build confidence in their abilities and strive toward goals.
"Every client has her heart's desire, even the client who appears to be homeless and seems to have no hope," Steffy said. "There's some dream in her heart. Empower her and show her the way on how she can achieve it. That is basically what the program's built on."
The Lancaster County Nurse-Family Partnership site meets or exceeds the large majority of its objectives. They include minimizing attrition rates, often caused when families move suddenly and can't be found or when the threat of domestic violence looms; reducing tobacco use during pregnancy, although preventing relapses remains a challenge among young mothers insistent on returning to pre-pregnancy weight; encouraging well-baby checkups; and improving participants' employment status.
The Nurse-Family Partnership, whose visits scale down from weekly during pregnancy to monthly by the time the child is 20 months, can now be followed by the Parent Child Home Program, which encourages parent-child interaction and parental education attainment. The PCHP is a new effort, also voluntary and a community collaborative, administered by the Lancaster Family Center and Community Action program in partnership with Success by 6.
The Nurse-Family Partnership has positively impacted the life of Lisa, a high school dropout and former special education student whose flat affect and lack of animation masked a desire to be a good mom and get ahead in life. Since enrolling in the program, Lisa's nurse, Denise Crowley Treier, RN, said she has "done a wonderful job with her little girl." The young mother has learned to interact with her baby and overcame her embarrassment at reading with her, is working toward her GED, applied for and secured a job as a housekeeper at a nursing home, and is looking for her own housing. After Lisa suffered the loss of a grandmother and the abandonment of the baby's father, Treier recognized signs of depression — a condition with "a huge impact on kids," she said — and got help for her. On graduating from the program and preparing to enter the Parent-Child Home Program, Lisa received a certificate that might seem like a small token to others but symbolized an enormous accomplishment for her.
"The look on her face was remarkable, because she'd never received a diploma," Treier said. "Words can hardly say. Her eyes were so bright."
Now, Treier said, Lisa is an excellent mother with higher prospects for herself and her daughter.
"She just needed someone to show her because there's no one in her life to help her along."
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Capitol veteran leads PPC policy office
Anne Mentzer, a longtime Harrisburg hand with a wealth of policy and legislative experience, has joined Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children as vice president for program and policy.
In the Ridge Administration, Mentzer served as deputy secretary in the governor's Office of Legislative Affairs and director of the Department of Public Welfare's Office of Legislative Affairs. Before that, she was executive director of the Pennsylvania Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee under Chairman John E. Peterson (R-Centre). She has also served as the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center's director of governmental relations.
"Few people can exceed Anne Mentzer's grasp of complicated public policy issues," PPC President and CEO Joan Benso said. "She understands the intricacies of programs that promote child well-being and support families, and she can communicate the benefits of smart and appropriate government policies. She is highly respected among Harrisburg's legislative and policymaking community."
Mentzer took the place of James L. Martin, who left PPC this year for a dramatic career change, turning his avocation as a licensed guide at the Gettysburg battlefield into a full-time job.
"I'm thrilled to be at PPC," Mentzer said. "I share their beliefs in the power of effective policies to give kids a strong and healthy start in life. I'm at a point in my career where I want to apply my skills toward making a measurable difference for children, and this is the place where it can happen."
Mentzer, a Hershey resident, holds a master's degree in public health from the University of Hawaii and a bachelor's in psychology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She also received training as a physician assistant. She and her husband have two grown children.
Data showing the lives led by Pennsylvania children highlight the need for targeted,
research-based policies to improve their health, education, and well-being
The State of the Child found that one Pennsylvania child in three is enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, relying on the federal or state government for health insurance. One Pennsylvania child in three lives in a low-income family. The figures are even higher in rural counties, where one child in two lives in a low-income household. Low-income is defined as a family of four living in a household with income below $37,700.
A good example of such strategic efforts are the CHIP and Medicaid programs, where Pennsylvania policymakers' and community leaders' efforts have focused on developing, financing, and implementing a high-quality program designed to meet a critical need. However, Pennsylvania has not made similar efforts in other program and policy areas. The State of the Child notes that the time has come to advance the same kind of bipartisan cooperation, research-based standards, appropriate funding, and partnerships with communities that have made Pennsylvania's health coverage program a national model. The same vigor should be applied to policymaking in early childhood education, quality basic education, family supports, and after-school programs and youth development.
