Officials: One in five children in poverty

More than 20% of children in Cape Girardeau County live in poverty, according to the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center's latest community health assessment.

According to U.S. Census data, nearly 3,400 children in the county lived in poverty in 2016.

The health center conducts a health assessment every three to five years. It seeks to compile data on various health issues, including everything from poverty to mental health.

The county assessment comes on the heels of data from the Missourians to End Poverty coalition group that shows about 261,000 children in Missouri were living at or below the federal poverty last year.

For a family of four, the poverty threshold was $25,100 in 2018. In 2016, it was $24,300.

Black children accounted for the highest percentage of children in poverty in Cape Girardeau County in 2016.

Nearly 56% of black children in the county were living in poverty, according to the assessment.

White children accounted for slightly more than 10% of children in poverty countywide.

The assessment, citing information from the American Journal of Epidemiology, said that children raised in poverty are at higher risk of experiencing health, educational and social disparities.

"Risk factors include inadequate nutrition, maternal depression, parental substance abuse, divorce, violent crime, lower educational attainment/early high school dropout," the health center report said.

"Children in poverty also have a greater risk for lower occupational status, lower wages and poor health as an adult," the report said.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated more than 11,000 Cape Girardeau County adults and children lived below the poverty level in 2016, according to the report.

More than 15% of Cape Girardeau County adults and children lived in poverty in 2017, the community health assessment said. That figure was higher than the statewide poverty rate of 14%.

The overall poverty rate was relatively unchanged for the three-year period ending in 2016, the latest report showed.

Melissa Stickel, executive director of Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri social services organization in Cape Girardeau, said the rate of poverty is higher than census data shows.

Many poor people don't fill out the census and, as a result, are under counted, according to Stickel. "It is alarming," she said.

In the City of Cape Girardeau's southside neighborhood, where many minority residents live, the poverty rate is above 40%, Stickel said.

In Cape Girardeau County, data shows, 31% of children under 6 years of age live in poverty, she said.

"You are talking about generational poverty," Stickel said.

Securing an accurate census count is key for government and social service organizations to secure federal money to fund programs that address poverty, Stickel said.

"Assessments are good because data drives funding," she said.

The poverty figures don't surprise Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Neil Glass.

Staff and teachers in the Cape Girardeau schools deal with children in poverty daily. "We see it every day," said Glass.

"You have to meet their needs before you can educate a child," he said.

The school district is working to transform Jefferson Elementary School into a STREAM school (Science, Technology, Research, Engineering, Art and Mathematics), with a goal of aiding at-risk students.

The district also plans to develop a centralized, prekindergarten center on the Jefferson campus to serve children from throughout the district.

Education is the key to efforts to break generational poverty, but society as a whole needs to address the issue, Glass said.

Renita Green, pastor of St. James AME Church in Cape Girardeau, said addressing poverty involves more than financial resources. "It takes a long-term investment in people's lives," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

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Poverty by the numbers

Poverty by the Numbers in Cape Girardeau County

20.5%: Percent of children, ages 0 to 17, living in poverty in 2016

15.2%: Percent of adults and children living in poverty

11,371: Number of adults and children living in poverty

Source: Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center Community Health Assessment