Westchester Children’s Association releases quarter Poverty Pulse report

Westchester, NY The Westchester Children’s Association (WCA), an advocate for the county’s youth, has released its quarter Poverty Pulse report offering real-time insights into the state of poverty in the county. 

“Our country has always struggled with finding a current and accurate reflection of the status of our children. We need up-to-date economic, demographic, education, and health data to ensure that we are continuing to protect their well-being,”said Limarie Cabrera, director of data, operations & finance at WCA. 

“The information is challenging to come by with the U.S. Census Bureau, which releases child poverty data one year after it is collected. Yet, we receive daily and even hourly updates on the stock market and the price of eggs—why don’t we have more current data on the state of our children?” she added.

?Additionally, WCA is concerned that with the new administration removing and/or altering data sets at will, “this week’s cut of almost half the workforce of the Department of Education including the Office of Civil Rights will be detrimental to children’s well-being” says executive director, Allison Lake. The current administration is beginning to take the first steps in slashing programs that serve those in need including Medicaid, SNAP, and Head Start. What is particularly alarming is the elimination of breakdowns that the Administration is doing by race and ethnicity. Without those breakdowns, the often different educational, health and economic outcomes that people of color experience are at risk of being swept under the rug,” worries Lake. “Now more than ever the Westchester Children’s Association Poverty Pulse report is needed to ensure we are focused on the needs of our community.” And those needs are very real as shown by Feeding Westchester’s feeding a staggering 80K families a month. 

WCA is calling for the following actions and is advocating with the Governor’s office and both houses for these changes:

Passage of the Working Families Tax Credit

Establishing a Statewide Housing Voucher Program

Expanding SNAP benefits

Funding Universal School Meals

Enhancing Cash Assistance Programs