Whether we know it or not, poverty affects us all. It is a topic that we have discussed on many platforms for many years and will continue to for years to come. It is the duty of us all from leaders to community to ensure that we are aware of the needs to help those we consider "less fortunate", "underserved" and "undocumented". We have to help them all. There should be no child or family living in poverty in America. What is the land of opportunity when the land is filled with the wealthy who can help with the healthy food inequality? Why is there continued lack of inclusion when it comes to all this real estate being built with lovely landscape? Why can we not set up safe, affordable housing for the homeless? Many cities are growing in numbers daily mostly the inner city where mental health is causing even more poverty on the land of so called "opportunity". This may not be solved in a day, but we shall continue to strive to move forward with helping one child, one family one community at a time. In the meantime...
The "Spotlight" report posted by the CMS.Gov, which is an amazing platform for resources, community health updates and viable information for us to help others to improve our communities. The Office of Minority Health offers us an update on stats when it comes to our national poverty rates.
Here is a snippet of what they have reported for the year of 2023 "In 2023, an individual was considered to be living in poverty if their income was lower than $14,580, or $30,000 for a family of four. American Indian/Alaskan Native individuals were the most impacted (24.5%), followed by Black Americans (21.4%), Hispanic Americans (16.7%), Asian/Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (10%), and White Americans (9.5%)."
"Poverty levels in America also vary greatly by location. Between 2015 and 2019, Southern states had the highest rural and urban poverty rates (19.7% and 13.8%), while those in the Northeast had the lowest (12.9% and 12%). Additionally, rural poverty rates are consistently higher than urban rates, with Black Americans being the most likely to live in poverty in rural areas."
"Poverty often occurs in concentrated areas and continues for long periods of time. People living in impoverished communities often have reduced access to resources that are needed to support a healthy lifestyle, such as stable housing, healthy foods, access to health care, education, and employment opportunities. Children make up the largest age group experiencing poverty, which often leads to developmental delay, toxic stress, chronic illness, and nutritional deficits."
We support their efforts to pass on this information and share their website link: https://www.cms.gov/priorities/health-equity/minority-health/resource-center/resource-center/health-observances
We will share their information all month long. If you can help to end poverty please do something, volunteer your time in the community, organize a group and collect food, socks, water, clean clothing and warm safe shelters for the underserved, provide health education, promote health fairs, start a small group to teach those living in poverty to budget, read food labels, teach English as a second language so that they can learn to read our food labels to make healthier food choices. Share, give and spread love and respect to all people.
We are here to support our communities, hope you do the same.
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