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Free Lunch Available to Jefferson County Children

During the school year children are guaranteed at least one full meal a day, something that goes away during the summer months. Three churches in…

During the school year children are guaranteed at least one full meal a day, something that goes away during the summer months. Three churches in Jefferson County are teaming up with other organizations to offer lunch to children.

St. John Lutheran Church and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Harpers Ferry and Bolivar United Methodist Church in Bolivar are teaming up with the Jefferson County Council on Aging to provide summer lunches and activities for children.

The Trinity MEAL program- MEAL stands for Methodist, Episcopal and Lutheran- is piggy-backing on the senior lunch program to offer meals for children. State Senator and Lutheran Pastor John Unger is one of the organizers.

“A child can come and if you’re 18 or younger the child will eat for free regardless of their socioeconomic status,” Unger said. “And we don’t take names all we do is count the number of the meals and also if they want a second meal they can have a second meal.”

Lunch is served at various locations throughout the county each weekday at noon, then activities are planned for the children and seniors to participate in.

“We’ve had everything from bingo to community gardening to a dance-a-thon,” Unger said. “Also people have been reading to the children, seniors have been reading. It just varies.”

Unger said there’s a great need in Jefferson County to continue offering children lunch when schools are not in session.

“We do have a large number of children that are designated as homeless,” he said. “They qualify for free and reduced lunches during the school year and this gives them an opportunity for them to continue to be provided nutritious meals during the summer and have interaction with other children as well as seniors.”

And since the program started more seniors are showing up for the lunches.

“And what we’re hearing is that these seniors are coming because they want to volunteer and work with children,” Unger said. “So they get out of their homes they eat a nutritious meal, they interact with children and other adults and so that’s a healthy life for them as well so it’s a win, win.”

Unger said the MEAL program is a model that other counties can use to offer children free lunch during the summer.

Free meals for children will be served at the following sites from June 23 to August 15, 2014:

Bolivar United Methodist Church, 1215 W. Washington Street, Harpers Ferry

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, lunch noon-1:00 p.m., activities 1:00-1:45 p.m., snack 1:45-2:00 p.m.

St. John Lutheran Church, 950 W. Washington Street, Harpers Ferry

Tuesday and Thursday, lunch noon-1:00 p.m., activities 1:00-1:45 p.m., snack from 1:45-2:00 p.m.

St. John’s Episcopal Church, 898 W. Washington Street, Harpers Ferry

Tuesday and Thursday, activities 1:00-1:45 p.m., snack from 1:45-2:00 p.m.

Blue Ridge Mountain Volunteer Fire Department, 181 Keyes Gap Road, Mission Road

Tuesday and Thursday, lunch noon-1:00 p.m., activities 1:00-1:45 p.m., snack 1:45-2:00 p.m.

Jefferson County Council on Aging Senior Center, 103 W. 5th Avenue, Ranson

Monday-Friday, lunch noon-1:00 p.m., activities 1:00-1:45 p.m., snack 1:45-2:00 p.m.

Child Advocacy Groups Question Priorities in Governor Tomblin's Vetoes

Child abuse and poverty prevention advocates are questioning Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s priorities.

Among the $67 million worth of cuts from the budget bill Thursday was about a $1 million reduction in funding for programs meant to prevent child abuse and child poverty.

“If those services are cut back those children are going to suffer,” Executive Director of the REACHH Family Resource Center in Summers County Beth Sizemore said. “It feels like we’re balancing the budget on the backs of children.”

Governor Tomblin started the 2014 session with a budget that cut funding for several programs.

Sizemore wanted to maintain the same funding as last year so she joined groups like Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia, and West Virginia Healthy Kids and Family Coalition, which is part of the statewide goal to end child poverty in West Virginia through the Our Children Our Future Campaign.

Throughout the session the groups worked together to call on legislators in the House and Senate to restore funding to these agencies … and it worked, until the final budget signing.

“I think the legislature did their job,” Sizemore said. “They listened to their constituents and they restored our funding so I guess what is shocking to me is it seemed like the system worked and then bam we got hit with this.”

The Family Resource Center in Hinton is just one of 24 across the state that will bare a portion of Tomblin’s budget cut burdens.

While Tomblin outlined 42 objections to the budget that was passed by the legislature last week, the groups point to six lines vetoed, totaling about $980,000 including;

Children’s Trust Fund (child abuse and prevention)
In home family education
Family resource networks/centers
Grants for licensed domestic violence programs
Domestic violence legal services fund
Child advocacy centers

“Your budget is a moral document,” Director of the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Family Coalition Stephen Smith said. “It’s a statement of what you think is important of the priorities of what you think is important.”
“If this is our moral document than we’re saying that luxury hotels and other programs and casinos and other things and those things are more important than early childhood programs.”

In a letter outlining cuts from budget vetoes, Governor Tomblin said, “cuts are never easy but are necessary in our state’s current financial situation.”

On the same day, the governor signed into law an extension of the Tourism Development Act which is expected to provide millions in tax breaks to The Greenbrier Resort. Owner Jim Justice says the money will be used to build an NFL training camp for the New Orleans Saints. The camp is expected to bring in tourism dollars to Greenbrier County.

State Coordinator of Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia Jim McKay says budget negotiations included a lot about sustaining the state’s thoroughbred and greyhound racing industry as well.

“There’s funds in the state budget for racetrack modernization funds that’s approximately $9 million each year,” McKay said. “Frankly we feel like thoroughbreds and greyhounds have much more success through the legislative budgeting process than children and families have this year.”

Tomblin also told reporters on Thursday that cuts were necessary to avoid dipping any more into the ‘rainy day fund’ in order to maintain higher bond ratings.

Tomblin told the Charleston Gazette Thursday, “The last thing we want to do is overspend the money and watch our bond rating decline, like it did back in the ’80s. The reason it was created many years ago was for rainy days like this.”

McDowell Men Have Shortest Life Expectancy, Women Second Shortest in U.S.

The life expectancy for American females is 81 years.

In West Virginia, Marshall County has the longest life expectancy for women, with 80 years, while those in McDowell deal with about 6 years shorter life span.

The life expectancy for American males is about 76 years.

For West Virginian men, the longest life expectancy is also 76 years in Monongalia County and once again, McDowell County men have the shortest life expectancy in the state at 66 years.

Those numbers also rank McDowell County on a national level … women have the second shortest life expectancy while McDowell men have the shortest life expectancy than any other county in the entire country.

Congress Holds a Hearing on Life Expectancy

The report, ‘Left Behind: Widening Disparities for Males and Females in US county Life Expectancy,’ was released in July. Although the average life expectancy for the country increased, the study showed that there are pockets of communities across the country that are dying much younger.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont hosted a hearing to highlight the new report that says Americans living in some neighborhoods have lower life expectancies than people living in Ethiopia and Sudan.

Sabrina Shrader shared her story of growing in ‘holler’ in the small town called Twin Branch in McDowell County. She was invited to speak at a hearing with the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after McDowell County was listed to have the shortest life expectancy for men and second lowest for women in the country.

“I have had family members, friends and classmates all die young,” Shrader said. “This past year both of my stepsisters died.”

Sabrina Shrader grew up in McDowell County.

“It was kind of heartbreaking to hear that just because you are from a certain place you are likely to die young,” Shrader said after returning from the hearing.

Analysis: Behavior, Health Care, Education, Income All Play a Factor

McDowell County has suffered major job loss and mass exodus of people after many coal mines closed. In 1950 there were close to 100,000 people. The population has plunged to about 21,000 in 2012.

The median household income in McDowell County between 2007-2011 was about $22,000; far less than the national median of about $53,000 and even West Virginia’s median, $40,000.

Dr. David Kindig with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, has studied and mapped population health for decades. He joined Shrader to speak with federal lawmakers on this issue.

“Health is produced by many factors including medical care and health behaviors but equally importantly or more importantly issues like income education the structure of our neighborhoods as my colleagues have been showing,” Kindig said.

The common theme across the panel seemed to focus on education and income.

“The bottom line is that we will not improve our poor health performance unless we balance our financial and policy investments across this whole portfolio of factors.”

Eastern Panhandle Residents Discuss Child Poverty

The forum started with opening remarks from State Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley) and Del. Tiffany Lawrence (D-Jefferson). Participants then watched part of…

The forum started with opening remarks from State Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley) and Del. Tiffany Lawrence (D-Jefferson). Participants then watched part of the PBS film Poor Kids and a short preview of a film about child poverty in the state being produced by West Virginia PBS.

They then met in smaller groups to talk about how poverty affects children academically and socially, stereotypes associated with being poor, what resources are available in the community and what can be done to prevent families from becoming poor.

United Way of the Eastern Panhandle Executive Director Pete Mulford shared his observations about the film clips.

“There was the one young kid that still had a dream,” Mulford said. “The nice thing was that the fact that you can still dream or hope or desire to have something better wasn’t lost yet in the kids.”

School teachers in another group talked about how hunger affects their students’ attitude and academic performance. Each group created a list of how they see poverty impacting children and what can be done about it.

Suggestions included having more people to work directly with poor families to help them find jobs and housing, breaking down barriers that prevent people from getting jobs and making more mental health services available.

The goal of the event was to encourage participants to take action by volunteering, donating money to organizations that help the poor and advocating for policies that help families dealing with poverty.

Forum will address poverty issues

This is National Homeless and Hunger Awareness Week, when the National Coalition for the Homeless and other advocacy organizations hope the country will…

This is National Homeless and Hunger Awareness Week, when the National Coalition for the Homeless and other advocacy organizations hope the country will focus on issues surrounding poverty. The United Way of the Eastern Panhandle is doing just that Thursday evening during a public forum.

During the forum “Poverty in the Panhandle: Children at Risk,” the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle, Family Resource Network and Health and Human Services Collaborative hope to discuss the problem and come up with possible solutions.

Del. Tiffany Lawrence (D-Jefferson) has been working with State Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley) to address child poverty. Lawrence said there’s a perception that the Eastern Panhandle doesn’t have much of a problem because it’s a bedroom community of the Washington, D.C. metro area.

“We often hear and that our socioeconomic status is elevated for some reason or another,” Lawrence said. “But truly that’s not the case in all parts of the Panhandle and we do see children and also adults and families really suffering from a lack of stability.”

During the forum there will be group discussions with a goal of coming up with a plan to address the problem. Sharon Awkard, director of community impact with the United Way, hopes the forum will lead to a heightened awareness of how poverty affects the community.

“If people are constantly living in poverty they may have no job, they could become incarcerated, they can move totally out of the area,” Awkard said. “So poverty affects the entire community and we cannot constantly go on and put it on the back burner.”

“This is something that’s real and this is something that we can tackle and this is something that we can do something about,” she added.

The forum will feature a viewing of the PBS documentary Poor Kids and a preview of a West Virginia Public Broadcasting documentary that will focus on child poverty within the state.

It runs from 5:30-8 p.m. at the WVU Health Sciences Center in Martinsburg, W.Va. with registration beginning at 5 p.m.

Keys to overcoming poverty: identifying complex trauma, building resiliency, experts say

Wheeling-based Crittenton Services began as a residential service for women, especially pregnant women, throughout the state. Today it’s grown to serve women and families with behavioral challenges in a variety of ways. Recent research has been shedding new light on patterns of poverty and possible methods of breaking those cycles.

“What’s really happening to us today? Why do kids have these behaviors? Why are we managing such poverty issues? It would be so simple to say that if we gave everybody an education, if everybody had food in their bellies and a roof over their head, that would end poverty," says Kathy Szafan, CEO, Crittenton Services Inc.

Szafran says, it’s not that simple.

Crittenton Services Inc. has been managing the side effects of poverty in West Virginia for over a century—dealing largely today with girls displaying behavioral problems. She says together with the National Crittenton Foundation, they’ve amassed certain insights about human psychology that could hold keys to breaking patterns of abuse and poverty—two things which, as it turns out, go hand and hand.

In fact, according to a recent study, identifying trauma is maybe the first step toward breaking cycles of poverty.

“You can take any of these girls and without dealing with their trauma, you can get them in school—doubt if they’ll stay in—you can get them in a house—sure they’re going to struggle—and the odds of them reliving that cycle of abuse would be very good.”

What is trauma? What does it look like? What usually springs to mind are severe scenarios like rape, physical abuse, loss of a parent. These are, unfortunately, common experiences that can take a long term toll of an individual but, as Tracee Chambers explains, even more common and equally harmful are small abuses that build up from very early ages. Chambers is the clinical intake specialist for the residential program at Crittenton. She says she trains staff to recognize behavioral symptoms that can come from what’s called complex trauma.

“Our kids that we serve have experienced from the time that they were little, mom and dad were using and not responsive when they cried, or mom and dad didn’t bother to feed them regularly, so from the period of infancy when you’re learning how to trust the world and that you can have your needs met based on your cues, they don’t feel like they have any control and they don’t have trust that their caregivers can meet their needs.”

Chambers says the trauma compounds as a child grows and develops.

“As they start to develop into toddlers and they start to try to explore environment and stuff like that, parents either restrict their movement and throw them in a crib for the day so that they don’t get to explore and learn, or they’re very punitive and negative when they get into things, or they’re exposed to this chronic chaos.”

Chambers says this chronic developmental trauma from intermittent love and neglect can create individuals who find it difficult to build trust, or feel helpless or hopeless to have an impact on what goes on around them. She says that a variety of behavioral problems are typical.

“It’s hard to get a kid in to a school to learn their ABCs when they’re not sure what’s going to go down tonight or they’re remembering what happened last night, or if they haven’t eaten in a couple days,” Chambers says.

Crittenton CEO Kathy Szafran refers to some of the girls who then, eventually land in Crittenton’s residential program. She says without learning how to cope, the infant, turned toddler, turned adolescent is likely unable to rise out of the impoverished circumstances in which they live.

“She got pregnant because it was something she could choose to do,” Szafran says. “And there will be someone to love her. And it may be her way out because this guy is promising her the world. So when you see that WV’s [teen] pregnancy rates are increasing, it is not increasing because we don’t have enough condoms. It’s increasing because of the situation of these children regarding poverty and abuse.”

The programs at Crittenton aim to allay behavioral symptoms by instilling healthy alternatives that teach someone how to self-regulate so that they can rise above the chaos. Protective factors are used to that end—things like having a daily routine and good nutrition, to teaching what a healthy relationship looks like and what unhealthy habits like addiction and abuse look like.

“Our kids don’t realize that they’ve been abused until they’ve had a couple classes and then they go, ‘Well yeah, that happened to me.’”

Chambers says they also teach teenage moms how to connect with their babies: positioning, eye contact, how to use real words and a positive tone of voice—reciprocal nonverbal contact that builds trust and a positive connection. She says these basic skills are fundamental. They build resiliency in the mother and in the child.

“The more connected and attached they become to their child, the more likely they are to protect them from people who would harm them and the more likely they are to work hard to get them what they need.”

And that, she says, can break the cycle of abuse. A resilient, happy child, she says, can overcome obstacles and find her way out of poverty. Or at least, she’s more likely to.