It is a sad inheritance passed from generation to generation.
Forty-two percent of children in Carbon County are at risk of remaining in poverty as adults, and 48 percent of youth ages 10-17 experiencing intergenerational poverty have some involvement with the Juvenile Justice System.
That’s according to Utah’s Fourth Annual Report on Intergenerational Poverty, Welfare Dependency and the Use of Public Assistance. Intergenerational poverty is defined as a situation of poverty and public assistance use that continues from one generation to the next.
The Utah Legislature approved the Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act in 2012 to address the cycle of poverty and welfare dependency. It directed the Department of Workforce Services to track annual statistics and share the information with other state agencies, local governments and organizations. The information was presented and discussed during the Carbon County Intergenerational Poverty Kick-off Meeting May 18 at the county commission chambers.
Analyze problem
Carbon County Commissioner Jake Mellor chaired the meeting, which also included Commissioners Casey Hopes and Jae Potter, and Price Mayor Joe Piccolo. Mellor said the purpose of the meeting, “was to inform county leaders of why intergenerational poverty has become a priority for the State of Utah, also explaining the history, the background and the data, specifically the data related to Carbon County, and also to identify the impacts of intergenerational poverty in our area and potential solutions.”
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox is chairman of the Intergenerational Welfare Reform Commission, and is touring ten counties in Utah where children are at the highest risk of remaining in the cycle of poverty and public assistance. Lt. Gov. Cox said government programs work pretty well for situational poverty, where people are affected by illness, the loss of a loved one, accident, fire or other misfortune. “And so they get the help they need, they get their feet back under them, and they get back out there and life improves. These programs work pretty good for those people.”
“Then there’s another group of people,” he continued, “the people we’ll refer to as this intergenerational poverty cohort, who grew up in poverty and on these government assistance programs. And not only do the programs not help them to get out, they actually sometimes have the opposite effect, that they keep people there.”
But the Lt. Gov. said in addition to government programs, a lot very well-intentioned people in the state are doing great things in the effort to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. These include private entities, non-profit organizations, faith-based groups, and volunteers. “So what we can do is bring all of them together, use the data to inform us on best practices on ways to help lift people out of poverty.”
“And I often offend people in the room,” Cox related, “I tell my Republican friends that we need Republicans to use their hearts a little more as we talk about these things, and I tell my Democrat friends we need them to use their heads a little more as we find these solutions and work together.”
The annual report shows the cycle of poverty and welfare dependency also affects other key statistics, such as educational attainment. As compared with the state value, Carbon County’s IGP population has a higher high school graduation rate, but 79 percent lack education beyond high school. Forty-four percent of IGP adults in Carbon County are unemployed and for those with jobs, the average annual wage is about one-fourth of the state overall average.
The county also shows a higher incidence of adult and child neglect, a higher rate of chronic absence from school, a higher percentage of adults reporting fair or poor health, a higher proportion of persons with no personal doctor, and a higher suicide rate, as compared with the rest of the state.
John Pierpont, executive director of the Dept. of Workforce Services and vice chair of the IWRC noted, “State government is not going to solve this problem alone. We’re here to be a key partner with the commissioners, the mayor and all of you to try to figure out what we can do differently to try to serve these families that we’re all interacting with. It’s really to give you a snapshot of your county and try to compel you to be interested in and to try to tackle this along with us and others that want to be a part of it.”
After a presentation by Tiffany Van Sickle on the local Communities That Care Coalition, Pierpont remarked, “We haven’t seen this level of organization thus far. You’re clearly steps ahead of some of the others. We admire what you’re doing. It’s very impressive.” Lt. Gov. Cox added, “I’m just soaking this all in. This is wonderful. I didn’t know you were so far ahead here.” He advised that the state has resources available in the form of grant money to help with the planning process.
Carbon School District Superintendent Steve Carlsen pointed out the district is part of the Intergenerational Poverty Grant for School Age Students. He reported the district has received the grant and is in the planning and hiring stages to implement programs in each of the five elementary schools. Carlsen said, “This year we’ve been able to hire a director for every one of the sites. This is going to include an after-school program- there’s enough money to pay for mentors, to pay for teachers to stay after school to help kids in intergenerational poverty, and we will start officially at the beginning of school next year.”