THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300569
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Civic league members and church pastors joined City Council members and agency officials in brainstorming ideas Tuesday to help protect the city's most valuable resource: children.
Nearly 140 people, including police officers, politicians, teachers and parents, met to discuss the problems of the city's children and propose strategies to curb teen pregnancy, child abuse, homelessness, poverty and juvenile delinquency.
The brainstorming session was the kickoff of a grass-roots coalition called ``Portsmouth's Child'' that aims to strengthen the city's services to children.
The idea for the advocacy group came from Drema Hyman-Woodson, who works for Maryview Hospital's community and media relations department. She teamed with a group of human services officials to bring Tuesday's group together to help draft a prevention plan.
The statistics the group studied painted a sober portrait of Portsmouth:
In 1990, only 66 percent of Portsmouth residents over 25 had completed high school, compared with the state average of 75 percent.
In fiscal year 1991-92, Portsmouth ranked third in the state in the percentage of children living in poverty.
In fiscal year 1992-93, Portsmouth ranked eighth in the state in the rate of child-abuse complaints.
In 1993, the teen pregnancy rate in Portsmouth was 70 pregnancies per 1,000 females ages 10 to 19 years of old, compared with the state rate of 39 per 1,000.
The participants broke into seven different groups to examine risk factors of problems like poverty, teen pregnancy, homelessness. Then each group tried to figure out ways to reduce the risk factors. Their ideas, which included mentoring and recreation programs, will be drawn up into a prevention plan next month that can be used to apply for grants.
The grass-roots coalition also plans to meet periodically to increase volunteer efforts in the city, to reduce duplication of services and to pool resources.
``We want to create an environment for social change and enhance programs that already exist,'' Hymon-Woodson said.
The Portsmouth's Child coalition will work closely with the Portsmouth Interagency Network, a group of human services officials that has been studying the city's youth for four years. by CNB