This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier Journal on December 5, 2016. I’ve lived in Kentucky my entire life. I grew up like many other kids in the more rural areas of the Commonwealth. I grew up climbing trees in my backyard and playing in the creek near my house. Although many of the wonderful experiences I had as a child were fairly normal, my childhood overall was far from conventional. I am [...]
This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier-Journal on December 5, 2016. It is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time: Kentucky’s own Tom Cruise plays attorney Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, and Jack Nicholson is Colonel Nathan Jessup in the 1992 film, A Few Good Men. You surely remember. Kaffee is pushing the Colonel and pushing him hard. The irascible Nicholson shouts, “You want answers?” And the usually cool Cruise explodes back, [...]
Contact: Andrea Bennett 502-381-1176 abennett@kyyouth.org JEFFERSONTOWN, KY – The Kentucky KIDS COUNT 2016 County Data Book provides a snapshot of children by county, including county-level rankings of child well-being based on 16 different indicators. The counties with the highest rankings on child well-being include (in order) Oldham, Boone, Spencer, Woodford, and Ballard Counties. Detailed data are available for every county in Kentucky. Please click here for your county’s profile. This year’s book goes a step further [...]
In the work that we do, it is imperative that we use data to inform our decisions and help children and their families access the resources they need. But with so many different tools and resources, it can be hard to find trusted information. That’s where the Data Center comes in. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT Data Center contains thousands of child well-being indicators related to education, poverty, health, and youth risk factors. [...]
This week, the New York Times featured an article from Warren Berger, the author of the wonderful book "A More Beautiful Question." Berger reminded organizations of the power of asking, “Why?” and “What If?” Two weeks ago you read about the data side of the recently released 2016 National Kids Count Data Book. This week I’d like to apply Berger’s interrogatives to that data. WHY does child poverty get ignored in the political chatter in Frankfort? And [...]
This week, we co-released with the Annie E. Casey Foundation the national 2016 KIDS COUNT Data Book. We get pretty excited about this release because the Data Book provides the best assessment of how Kentucky’s children and youth are faring in comparison to those across the nation. Let’s face it, we live in a very competitive state – think basketball and horse racing – so we eagerly await the Data Book to see if Kentucky [...]
Kentucky Youth Advocates is looking for photos of Kentucky kids to include in the 2016 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book and other Kentucky Youth Advocates publications. We know you all proudly share pictures of your kids and grandkids by carrying them in your wallet and posting them on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s a great chance to promote those great kids through Kentucky Youth Advocates’ materials. We need your photos by August 31st so please start sending them in. In order to [...]
Ashley* shares her story as part of the release of a new KIDS COUNT® policy report, A Shared Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families and Communities. She is one of 135,000 Kentucky children who has had a parent incarcerated, according to data collected in 2011/2012. By Ashley When I was 12, I discovered that my mom was addicted to drugs. It was hard for us from then on. As her drug addiction worsened, my [...]
Policy debates about incarceration rarely focus on the impact on children. Yet, we know that when a parent is in jail or prison, it creates an unstable environment for kids that can have lasting effects like poverty, changes in living situations, and mental and emotional health issues. A new KIDS COUNT® policy report, A Shared Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families and Communities, estimates 135,000 children in Kentucky have had a parent incarcerated, according [...]
For 25 years, Kentucky Youth Advocates has produced an annual Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book providing data on child well-being for professionals, policymakers, and community members working to improve the lives of the children and families in the Commonwealth. We collect state and local data to show how kids in Kentucky are faring because of our firmly held belief: What gets measured gets changed. To mark the 25th anniversary, we decided to take a [...]
