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2009 Child Watch Tour 2009 Child Watch Tour - Poverty's Impact on Our Children and Youth If you missed the tour, we encourage you to read the summary (click here). For everyone we encourage you to take the next step by reading on... Stay involved and be a part of the movement to reduce the impact and incidence of child poverty Child poverty manifests a complexity of overlapping and negatively reinforcing issues that can undermine a child's future success. About one out of five children in Buncombe County lives in poverty and that number will likely climb during our current recession. If one in five children were afflicted with an illness in our community we would mobilize a response. Yet, our community seems content with an epidemic of child poverty. Our high rate has become the status quo and we no longer recognize the drain of potential and real resources it creates. We need a new focus that leverages our resources and ingenuity and links us to research and experience to reclaim the potential of our children and youth now in poverty’s grasp. Children First/CIS proposes an ambitious plan to focus our community on successfully and sustainably reducing the incidence (number of children) and impact (e.g. poorer health, lower educational achievement) of children and youth in economically distressed families. As part of the first phase of our initiative, Children First/CIS is building networks of concerned individuals across the community and encouraging broader education around the poverty research and successful interventions (both services and public policy). We recommend the following websites as sources of excellent information on the issue: If you would like to become involved in the initiative's planning and outreach, please contact Greg Borom at 828-259-9717.
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