United Way works to strengthen families

The Children's Advocacy Alliance hosted the "Focus on Kids" conference at the Las Vegas Country Club January 12. At the meeting, the Alliance gave a presentation of the 2000 Nevada Children's Report Card.

The report card, which used three grading factors: trend analysis, comparison to national scores and comparison to goals 10 years from now, was delivered as a reminder to lawmakers and public officials that Nevada is missing the mark on several key issues of ensuring the health, welfare and safety of children. The overall score given Nevada's childrens' welfare was C-.

The conference, presented in cooperation with the Andre Agassi Foundation and the United Way of Southern Nevada, brought together people from social service organizations, state legislators, Clark County School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia, family court judges and University of Nevada, Las Vegas social work professors and graduate students. Their goal was to raise awareness of children's needs from birth through teen years and how local communities can address them.

"We live in an area where there is a bias against our most precious resource, and that is our children," Gard Jameson, Children's Advocacy Alliance board member, said to the conference audience. In his opening statement he said the group wants to present some "models for systemic change," for the future of Southern Nevada children.

"We have an opportunity to really fix something that isn't working," said Thom Reilly, professor of social work at UNLV. Reilly spoke about the state child welfare system -- the nation's only bifurcated system, where county and state split the duties -- and the "crisis" that it is experiencing.

He cites reducing case load, increasing foster care dollars, and improving mental health services as major goals of Nevada's foster care system.

The message of the speakers and the power-point presentation was clear -- Nevada has a long way to go to serve its children. Some of the most dismal scores were those in the education category.

The statistic that quieted the room to the pin-drop level was that of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Nevada ranked the worst (51st) in high school drop outs (United Way's State of Caring Index, 2000). Nevada has earned the dubious distinction of gaining a hat-trick (1998, 1999, 2000) in that category.

Average to poor scores in most categories reveal that in health care (C-), safety and security (C), education (D-) and the teen years (a measure of the teen experience in terms of drugs and alcohol, sexual experimentation, and suicide, (B), there is a large population that is under served.

"We invest about 40 percent of our funds back to children," said Garth Winckler, president of the United Way. The Children's Advocacy Alliance relied on the United Way's State of Caring Index, published by the National United Way in November of 2000, for some statistics.

The United Way of Southern Nevada dedicates 40 percent of its dollars to "Strengthening Youth and Family" and an additional 14 percent to "Nurturing Early Childhood Development."

The current division of dollars suggests that the United Way puts a strong emphasis on childhood issues, but may be fighting an uphill battle.

"Every child's success or failure is a measure of how successful we are as an organization and as a community," said Winckler at the "Focus on Kids" conference.