By WENDY BORI
BYU students have an opportunity to contribute to the well-being of Utah children by becoming informed voters and by participating in worthy community projects to give direct service to families.
Utah Kids Count, a project under the direction of Utah Children, a statewide advocacy organization that speaks out on behalf of children, was created to help kids grow to become contributing members of society.
Measures of Child Well-Being in Utah, recently published and released by Utah Children, is a data book that indicates or measures how kids are developing.
Graphs in the data book label trends in four domains of a child’s life: health, education, safety and economic security — all significant factors in a child’s growth and development.
Roz McGee, executive director of Utah Children said economic security is perhaps the most important domain of a child’s life.
The greatest threat to the well-being of children in Utah is the “inability of young families to earn enough money to support themselves and their children,” she said.
BYU students are a fairly advantaged group, McGee said, and by becoming informed voters, voting on economic issues that concern the welfare of families, and by participating in community projects that directly serve families and their needs, students can contribute to the efforts of the Utah Kids Count project.
Research conducted by Utah Children indicates that for black children and children whose parents earn low wages, patterns of success in health, education and safety may be taking a nose dive along with their economic security.
One goal of Utah Children is to help avoid situations in which families are unable to support their children and have to turn to an outside entity, McGee said.
“The system should work in such a way that parents would have support in a timely way and not end up being a complete burden on the public system,” she said.
According to Utah Children, long-term trends show that economic and social changes are now affecting families more than once thought. When families are economically threatened, they can become fearful, not seeing ways to organize themselves to raise children with good health, safety, education, security and recreation.
The organization has seen a steady decrease in the number of infants born with low birth weight and those dying in the first year of life. Increases have also been seen in two-year-olds receiving immunizations and more data collection has occurred on homeless children.
Older Utah children are experiencing difficulties in preventing unintended pregnancies, motor vehicle deaths and suicides, obeying the law, completing school and making smooth transitions from school to work.
Cynthia Taylor, coordinator of Utah Kids Count and editor/author of the book said, “The data for several of our chosen measures show that we must find many more effective methods to help all our children and youth grow up to be healthy, safe, educated and secure … that is, to become contributors to society rather than long-term burdens.”
According to Utah Children, Kids Count is an appropriate name for their project in at least three ways: First, it counts kids, showing their status or well-being. Second, kids count because while they are growing and developing, they learn to count and make distinctions. Finally, kids count in that they matter to our future.
