Children in poverty focus of Elgin event

An event in Elgin will spotlight the problem of children living in poverty, in hopes of eliciting not just conversation, but also action.

Representatives of the advocacy organization Voices for Illinois Children will present the 2015 report for Illinois Kids Count, titled "Confronting Poverty, Creating Opportunity," on Tuesday at Gail Borden Public Library, 270 N. Grove Ave. There is a meet and greet at 6 p.m. an the program at 6:30 p.m.

"Every year we look at different topic areas and how they impact kids and families in our state," said Joan Vitale, director of external relations for Voices for Illinois Children. "You can sit in a room and talk about how bad the budget is, but unless you have the specific data on what happens in our communities, sometimes it's in a vacuum."

The group doesn't have child poverty data specific to Elgin, Vitale said. It will present data for Kane and Cook counties based on the latest numbers available from the U.S. Census' American Community Survey, she said.

Child poverty doubled from 1999 to 2012 in Kane County, where it was 18.4 percent, and suburban Cook County, where it was 17 percent, Vitale said. "We still haven't recovered from the recession. Many of these kids are living in single-family households."

The highest percentage of children in poverty are 6 and younger, which is especially troubling, Vitale said.

"We know how key those first few years of life are to prepare a child for later in life," she said. "If you don't have the resources early in life, it puts you in a much more difficult position to be ready to go to school, to be ready to learn. There are all kinds of implications. Kids in poverty don't do well."

Illinois Kids Count presentations have taken place across the state, including in Carbondale, Peoria and Decatur. The Elgin event is co-hosted by the group Women on the Brink, which aims to help women out of poverty.

Elgin civic leaders, elected officials and social service organizations have been invited to Tuesday's event, which is open anyone who has an interest in learning about children in poverty, Women on the Brink Chairwoman Jennifer Ford said.

"We'll have a microphone set up for the audience so people can comment, ask questions, point to redundancies in the community," she said. "It's supposed to be the kind of forum where hopefully, at the end, we'll have some kind of idea what we'll do next."

Also presenting in Elgin will be Mitch Lifson, senior policy analyst with the Fiscal Policy Center of Voices for Illinois Children, who'll talk about the state budget, Vitale said. Kids Count is a national project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.