ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Low-income New River Valley residents say they need educational opportunities more than anything else.
That was the finding of a just-released survey conducted last year by New River Community Action, an anti-poverty organization.
Hundreds of low-income local residents, surveyed in 1995 during door-to-door interviews and focus-group meetings, were asked to identify their most pressing needs.
"I was surprised that people identified their highest need as being education," said Glenda Vest, New River Community Action's director of planning and program development.
"Generally, in a survey of low-income households people will identify an immediate need, such as having rent paid or needing a prescription filled."
Vest said the concern with education shows respondents "are taking a long-range view toward getting out of poverty."
Other high-ranking concerns recorded by the survey include emergency medical transportation, employment, housing, health services and economic development.
Also, a significant number of low-income households with young children reported their offspring had not had physical or dental examinations or up-to-date immunizations.
Other concerns included adequate housing and nutrition. One-third of the 880 low-income family members interviewed in Montgomery, Giles, Floyd and Pulaski counties and Radford said they had to seek emergency financial or medical assistance during the previous year.
New River Community Action said the survey was not a random sampling of all area residents, but specifically oriented toward low-income citizens.
One-third of the low-income households contained at least one member working 40 hours or more per week. Vest said that finding challenges popular assumptions that poor people don't work.
Still, almost 90 percent of households surveyed had incomes of less than $15,000.
Other findings include:
* Only 3.4 percent of women in low-income households said they were pregnant;
* There is a strong link between lack of a high school diploma and poverty;
* Lack of access to affordable child care significantly limited respondents' employment opportunities;
* Of 1,475 children residing in the low-income households surveyed, almost one-half were age 4 or younger.
New River Community Action says the survey results will influence the programs offered by the organization to mitigate poverty in this area.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB