KIDS COUNT in Delaware

Devoted to improving the well-being of our state's children, youth and their families, KIDS COUNT in Delaware has been using highly credible research, data collection and education to inform change on behalf of children for the last 25 years.

KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the well-being of children in the United States. KIDS COUNT in Delaware, a project of the Center for Community Research & Service, is a collaborative effort of over forty organizations to enrich local and state discussion concerning ways to secure better lives for all children by providing policy makers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being.

KIDS COUNT in Delaware Team:

Janice Barlow, MPA, Policy Scientist and KIDS COUNT Director

Erin Lynch, MS, Assistant Policy Scientist

Tatiana Galdamez, Graduate Research Assistant

Miranda Perez-Rivera, Undergraduate Student Researcher

KIDS COUNT in Delaware is pleased to present "Data to Action," a webinar series where we will bring together leaders and stakeholders from across the state to engage in conversation related to current conditions for children given our ever changing environment related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reviewing the most current data and research, panelists will offer insight to conditions in which children are currently living as well as examine policy decisions which could be impactful during these times. 

The webinar series will include focus on health, education, economic well-being, and family and community. Conversations will explore - through data and policy - how conditions highlighted due to COVID-19 intersect with the social determinants of health. Lessons learned from this series will be captured and disseminated via a coordinated set of issue briefs.

Save the Date(s)

Data to Action Webinar topics planned:

• September 21, 2021 at 1:00 PM Timeline Tuesday Wrap-up, Revisit and Review & Data to Action Kick-Off
  
• October 20, 2021 at 1:00 PM Health & Health Behaviors
  
• January 19, 2022 at 1:00 PM Education Involvement & Achievement Register Now
  
• February 16, 2022 at 1:00 PM Economic Security
• May 18, 2022 at 1:00 PM Family & Community
• June 15, 2022 at 1:00 PM Wrap-up, Revisit & Review
  

Compiling data for public use, the 2021 KIDS COUNT in Delaware Fact Book's central theme is Delaware kids and COVID-19. Traditional indicators included in the book assess trends in the health and well-being of children before the coronavirus pandemic began. These data are supplemented with measures from the Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey to show some of the immediate impacts of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Illuminates Flaws in Child-Serving Systems:

Starting in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been making an impact on our lives. Since its arrival in Delaware, we have each learned a lot about prevention, made personal sacrifices, and adopted new behaviors in order to limit exposure and reduce community spread. Many of our societal structures are operating in a modified way: virtual and hybrid schooling, telemedicine, limited number of patrons in businesses, and non-essential personnel working from home are some of the changes to which we are now accustomed.

The pandemic has illuminated flaws in the patchwork of infrastructure supports for Delaware’s kids and their families. COVID-19 did not create these systemic issues. But the pandemic has further stressed our child-serving system and highlighted the disparate outcomes dependent on social determinants of health. COVID-19 has also caused us to collectively grapple with many hard questions: How is this history making pandemic affecting our children’s well-being? What will the lasting impacts be – physical, mental, social, and economic – of this virus?

In Delaware, families are struggling to meet the needs of children during the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously managing finances, school, work, and health. Addressing historic systemic challenges in our health care, education, and social safety net programs will need to be a priority so that the impacts of COVID-19 and the related economic crisis are minimized for Delaware's youth.

​Keynote Address by: Dr. Melissa T. Merrick

Melissa T. Merrick, PhD, is President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America), the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect. She has more than 20 years of clinical, research, and leadership experience related to the etiology, course, and prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Previously, Dr. Merrick was a senior epidemiologist at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in Atlanta. She is recognized as one of the country’s foremost experts on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): in partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, she served for 8 years as the lead scientist for the ACEs study at CDC and is the lead author of CDC’s Vital Signs: ACEs, the most nationally representative report on the topic.

The online KIDS COUNT Data Center offers data on education, employment and income, poverty, health and youth at-risk factors. We invite you to discover ways to customize the data and join us in using this data to make informed decisions by investing in Delaware's biggest asset, our kids.

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