Poverty

I have subscribed to the podcast by Zero to Three, "Little Kids, Big Questions". They aren't  any podcasts about poverty as of yet. However, they do provide TONS of resources about poverty. They have everything from quick fact sheets to in depth research, emerging policy, and resources for professionals and parents. Zero to Three focuses on the impacts of poverty on child development for children ages birth to 3 years old. There is a direct correlation between economic hardship and compromised development. There are two common measures of poverty within the USA: poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines. The poverty threshold is updated by the Census Bureau, was the original poverty measure, but is now only used for statistical purposes. The poverty guidelines, a.k.a “federal poverty level” (FPL), are updated annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. The primary purpose is to determine eligibility for certain federal entitlement programs. Some of these programs include Head Start/ Early Head Start, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. What I found most interesting is Zero to Three states that research indicates that a typical family needs an income two times the FPL to meet their most basic needs. That is pretty shocking! It makes me wonder why the minimum wage level isn't raised and why the poverty guidelines aren't raised to reflect this difference. Some other astonishing facts are that "12 million infants and toddlers live in the United States" (www.zerotothree.org) and that the number of infants and toddlers living in low‐income families increased by 41% between 2000-2009.