A year and a half ago, the Annie E. Casey Foundation – the creator of the national KIDS COUNT project – unveiled a new and improved online Data Center to house the thousands of indicators of child and family well-being they, and their KIDS COUNT groups across the states (like Kentucky Youth Advocates), collect and make available for policymakers, service providers, researchers, and child advocates like you. Figuring out how to use the new Data Center is well worth [...]

On Tuesday, we released the 2014 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book made possible with support from Signature Sponsor Passport Health Plan, Diamond Sponsors Kosair Charities and Delta Dental of Kentucky, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This report provides a picture of the status of children in Kentucky counties based on 16 indicators of child well-being. We hope state and local leaders will use the book to help evaluate what is going well for [...]

I have invited you to travel with me for over a month in exploring the 2014 National KIDS COUNT Data Book as it pertains to Kentucky.  We have talked about the stellar progress in health; the mixed bag of results we find in education; and, the changing dynamics of family life as seen in the “family and community” domain.  In today’s blog, we probe economic well-being which is a deep, overarching, and stubbornly persistent barrier [...]

Today’s television programming seemingly brims over with a million options -- reality shows, partisan cable news, and food shows (And, yes, there are thankfully fifteen ESPN channels!).  When I was growing up a million years ago, television programming was different to be sure.  Three channels.  Black and white. And the show options were “cowboys and Indians,” “Ed Sullivan” shielding America from Elvis’ dance moves and introducing us to the “lads from Liverpool,” and shows featuring [...]