THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 TAG: 9702120454
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 125 lines
Virginia officials are challenging communities to solve a problem they admit they have no idea how to fix: reducing the number of out-of-wedlock births.
While research shows the benefits of such a decrease are many - shorter welfare rolls, fewer Medicaid expenses, lower school drop-out rates - the driving force behind this challenge is a sweet little bonus from the federal government:
A $20 million pot of gold.
As part of the welfare reform act, the federal government announced last year that five $20 million grants would be awarded to the five states that most reduce their out-of-wedlock birth rates, while not increasing the abortion rate.
Tuesday, state health and welfare officials announced just how they plan to accomplish this complicated feat, making Virginia the first state to unveil a formal plan.
The strategy goes something like this: Go to the communities and beg for help.
In the first of four regional meetings, state officials asked ministers, heads of nonprofit organizations and grassroots agencies and government officials to go back to their communities to organize town meetings, educate the public, come up with a plan to reduce out-of-wedlock birth rates and mobilize the resources to follow through with it.
``When it comes to matters of the human heart we have to go closest to the heart, and you are closest to the heartbeat,'' said Scott C. Oostdyk, deputy secretary of Health and Human Resources for the state.
The cash award comes at the end of endeavor, rather than the beginning, and even then, the payoff might be awarded to another state.
But state officials reminded participants that the real reward comes in reducing the number of children growing up in single-parent homes, a characteristic that has been linked to a variety of maladies such as greater reliance on welfare, higher drop-out rates and greater likelihood of being teen parents. ``If we can reduce unintended pregnancies then we are all winners whether we win the award or not,'' said Randolph L. Gordon, state commissioner of health.
If Virginia does win one of the grants, state officials said up to $1 million would be ``passed through'' to the communities demonstrating the greatest decreases. Those communities' plans might also be used as models across the nation.
The seven Hampton Roads cities rank among the top 50 the state has pegged as contributing the most to out-of-wedlock births. Norfolk had the highest number of out-of-wedlock births in the state from 1991 to 1995, but in terms of percentage of out-of-wedlock births to overall births fell below Portsmouth and Suffolk. Forty-four percent of Norfolk's births were to unwed mothers, compared with 50 percent of Portsmouth's births, and 45 percent of Suffolk's births.
The state percentage of out-of-wedlock births is 29.5 percent, which is slightly less than the national rate of 32 percent.
A meeting similar to Tuesday's kick off will be held in three other areas of the state, with one planned for Hampton Roads in late March.
Participants at Tuesday's meeting were gung-ho at the prospect of going for the gold, but for social rather than monetary reasons. ``We must take this step from the perspective of survival,'' said Lorenzo Dyer, who heads the Fatherhood and Family Development Institute in Richmond. ``We know what the results will be if we don't accept the challenge.''
However, one Norfolk unmarried mom who didn't attend the meeting questioned the bounty-hunter logic of the $20 million grant.
``I don't think it will work for the simple reason that even if people get married they may split after the kid is born,'' said Donna Straeter, who has a 12-year-old son and 3-month-old son, both born while she was unmarried. ``You can't force someone to stay together.''
Straeter said she wanted to marry the father of her first child but when she told him she was pregnant, he told her to get an abortion. ``I don't believe in that,'' she said. The father of her second child is married to someone else.
These are just some of the types of issues community leaders will be up against when trying to reduce the number of births to unmarried parents.
One expert in children's issues, Kristin Moore of Child Trends, reminded participants that they should not focus solely on teen-agers. Nationally, only three of 10 children born out of wedlock were born to teen-age mothers. The majority of out-of-wedlock children were born to mothers between 20 and 30 years of age.
And while a host of teen-age pregnancy prevention programs are in place across the nation, very few initiatives target births to unmarried parents who are beyond the teen years. ``We are in uncharted waters when pursuing that goal,'' she said.
While a goal in the teen population might be to prevent pregnancy, a goal for the older population might also include encouraging marriage, she said.
To participate in the state's race for the $20 million, localities must have a governing body sign a resolution agreeing to be a ``Partner in Prevention'' and host a town meeting by June 10 to organize resources. Localities must also send in a ``partnership agreement'' by July 1, which outlines a plan on how to reduce out-of-wedlock births. Then they must mobilize a diverse group of resources to follow through on the plan.
And while the cash awards might not come until later, if at all, there are a few incentives communities can get at the outset. Localities may be able to use some state funds for birth-prevention programs and also qualify for grants. The state also will give assistance in grant writing and organizing coalitions.
The soonest a state could receive money from the pot of gold is 1999. The grants will be awarded annually over a four-year period to states that most reduce their out-of-wedlock statistics over a two-year period.
``The answer to this does not lie in Richmond,'' said Clarence Carter, Commissioner of the state Department of Social Services. ``The answer lies in individual communities.'' MEMO: Anyone interested in setting up a town meeting can call Kathy
Wibberly at (804) 786-1211 for more information. ILLUSTRATION: Color graphic
The Virginian-Pilot
THE PROBLEM: HIGH RATES OF BIRTHS OUTSIDE MARRIAGE
Percentage of all births that are out of wedlock
Chesapeake: 27.9%
Norfolk: 44.5%
Portsmouth: 50.3%
Suffolk: 45.6%
Virginia Beach: 22.0%
Virginia: 29.5%
U.S.: 32.0%
Source: Virginia Department of Health
KEYWORDS: OUT OF WEDLOCK BIRTH RATE ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS