In many parts of northern Michigan the rate of childhood poverty is similar to, or below, the state average. But poverty has grown much faster than it has across the rest of the state, according to a five-year trend published today. The numbers go through 2011, with childhood poverty in the Traverse Bay region peaking in 2010.
The annual Kids Count survey looks at childhood wellbeing in Michigan, everything from education to the rates at which kids are removed from home and placed in foster care.
Mary Manner, with the Traverse Bay Great Start Collaborative, says it’s striking to see the disparity that exists in northern Michigan from one county to the next.
“Grand Traverse County is eighth in the state,” she says. “That’s a good ranking. But Kalkaska County is ranked very near the bottom.
“That tells us that whatever is happening in Grand Traverse County is not having the kind of regional impact that we would hope that it would have.”
In Grand Traverse County, and in many counties of northwest Lower Michigan, the number of confirmed victims of abuse and neglect is also rising faster than the state average.
Read the full report on Kids Count in Michigan, published by the Michigan League for Public Policy.