- Wisconsin’s black children remain trapped in poverty, study says, By Guy Boulton, September 10, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “African-American children still face dismal odds in Wisconsin. The state ranks last in the country in the overall well-being of African-American children based on an index of 12 measures that gauge a child’s success from birth to adulthood, according to a new report being released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Council on Children & Families. The measures, while not new, are bleak: Four out of every five African-American children in Wisconsin live in poor households, compared with roughly two out of three Latino children and three out of 10 white children…”
- Damning disparities: Wisconsin is a great place for kids to grow up — unless they’re black, By Steven Elbow, September 10, 2014, Capital Times: “Last year’s ‘Race to Equity’ report set off an impassioned discussion about the vast disparities in the quality of life for African-Americans and whites. But that discussion was restricted to Dane County. Now the authors have issued a new report that they hope will take the discussion to the rest of Wisconsin. The report, drawing on data from across the country, shows that the state is dead last in providing for the well-being of its African-American kids…”
Tag: Milwaukee
Poverty and Health
Interplay between poverty, health is complex, By Lillian Thomas, June 14, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Hundreds of plastic bins are stacked like jumbo shoe boxes, nearly scraping the ceiling of a bare-bones room in a former hospital. People sit nearby in rows of chairs, waiting to be matched with a pair of donated eyeglasses from the carefully labeled containers. It’s a slow process at City on a Hill, a nonprofit that runs a monthly free clinic on W. Kilbourn Ave. in Milwaukee. Many in the chairs look tired or anxious as they wait for their number to be called.Then John Patton Jr. shows up. He sprawls comfortably in his seat, throws his arms on the backs of the chairs next to him, and chats with those nearby. Then he focuses on the volunteer calling out numbers. . .”
Faith Communities Addressing Poverty
Milwaukee faith communities begin charting changes in fighting poverty, By Anyssa Johnson, June 4, 2014, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin’s faith communities are at the forefront of addressing the symptoms of poverty in the state. Food pantries, health clinics, housing initiatives — there is no shortage of faith-based programs aimed at serving what the Gospel of Matthew calls ‘the least of these.’ But people of faith have a moral obligation to change the social and political structures that are widening the gulf between the rich and poor and leaving large numbers of Wisconsinites — especially children — behind, faith leaders said Wednesday at a Milwaukee symposium on poverty. They began charting that change Wednesday . . .”