THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140308
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Virginia cities have gained a new tool for tracking whether life is getting better or worse for the children who live there.
``Kids Count in Virginia,'' a report released Wednesday by an advocacy group, provides a city-by-city statistical profile of children's welfare, including teen birth rates, school dropout rates, child death rates and the number of juvenile arrests.
Bennet Greenberg, director of the Action Alliance for Virginia's Children and Youth, said his group's report could help cities identify and focus on their most pressing child-related problems.
In Hampton Roads, for instance, the five cities each had higher rates than the state for teen births and households headed by single women. Portsmouth and Norfolk had higher rates of poverty than other cities in South Hampton Roads. And Portsmouth showed the highest child death rate - 45 per 100,000 children - in the area for the 1992 year.
The coordinator of the study, Susan Gholston, cautioned against using the data to make sweeping conclusions. ``This is the first year of the report, so it's like a snapshot in time.''
However, future annual reports will help the alliance track the status of Virginia children over time, and see whether their overall conditions are getting better or worse.
``As soon as we've seen several years of data we can also make some correlations,'' Gholston said. ``Poverty is probably going to be a major one.''
The Action Alliance worked with several other agencies to compile the state study. The report is an extension of a state-by-state ``Kids Count'' report that's conducted annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based child advocacy group.
The Casey Foundation funded the Virginia report, and this state was the next-to-the-last in the nation to do a city-specific Kids Count analysis.
The alliance has funding to prepare reports for the next four years, but plans to keep the study going indefinitely.
Greenberg said the goal of the report is to help educate the public, and to provide data for child advocates both at the legislative and administrative level. The report could also help communities pull together resources to address the child-related concerns of their city.
While agencies that deal with juvenile justice or child abuse might not be surprised by the numbers, the comprehensive nature of the reports serves a purpose, according to some child-welfare officials.
``It not only makes people aware of the statistics, but it presents them in a way that isn't fragmented,'' said Suzanne Puryear, director of Norfolk Social Services.
Frank J. Kern, director of the Tidewater Detention Home, said the report also could help individual cities tailor solutions to problems specific to their community.
``It's each community's call as to how to deal with various problems,'' Kern said. ``What works here may not work in Northern Virginia.'' MEMO: For details about the study, call the Action Alliance for Virginia's
Children and Youth, based in Richmond, at (804) 649-0184.
THE REPORT'S AIM
The goal of the report is to help educate the public, and to provide
data for children's advocates both at the legislative and administrative
level. The report could also help communities pull together resources to
address the child-related concerns of their city.
ILLUSTRATION: Color charts
Teen birth rate
Families in poverty
Child death rate
For complete information see microfilm
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN STATISTICS by CNB