Reach Up Falls Far Short of Meeting Children’s Basic Needs
Reach Up is Vermont’s income assistance program for very low-income families with children, funded by a combination of the federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) block grant and state funds. The powerful poverty fighting ability of Reach Up is undermined when families are kept in survival mode. Current inadequate funding all but ensures children in the program experience deep poverty. Vermont has the opportunity to meet the program’s funding obligation and ensure families have the resources they require to meet their basic needs.
Figures from the 2023 Reach Up Evaluation Report.
Keeping families in a state of deprivation takes their attention away from what matters
To allow families to struggle in deep poverty is not only an affront to human dignity, it undermines our collective wellbeing and prosperity as a state. Reach Up’s meager level of support makes it harder for the adults on the program to meet their goals, because so much of their energy is directed toward just surviving. Research shows that when people’s minds are in a constant state of stress and scarcity, their cognition is compromised. The fight for daily survival exacts a “bandwidth tax” on brain functioning, and focuses people on short-term needs.
Child poverty takes a heavy human and economic toll
The stress of living in poverty increases the likelihood that families will come in contact with the child protection system. Research shows that kids who grow up in a state of deprivation don’t do as well as their peers in affluent families, and even small increases in family income can improve outcomes. Economic hardship is the most common source of toxic stress for children in Vermont, and the current Reach Up benefit level keeps child participants in deep poverty while their adult caregivers strive to overcome barriers to employment.
Equity Implications
Federal welfare reform was motived by deeply entrenched racism and sexism and has done little to reduce child poverty.
An equity analysis of poverty recognizes that income inequality is a structural phenomenon that intentionally privileges certain populations and disadvantages others. But the welfare reform law from 1996 emphasized personal responsibility and incentivized caseload reductions independent of the economic realities facing marginalized groups like women and black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC).
Systemic income inequality is toxic for kids. A recent UNICEF report found that the U.S. ranked 26th
on the list of 29 developed countries surveyed on the well-being of children, the only rich country in the bottom third of rankings. 4
Social transfers play an important role in mitigating income inequality and child poverty in many developed countries. The US stands alone among rich countries in neglectingthe rights of children to have their basic human needs met.
2024 Policy Goals:
Use the Basic Needs Budget created by the Joint Fiscal Office as the basis for Reach Up family grants.
Eliminate the “ratable reduction” as it currently exists. Ensure that the cumulative benefits a family receives assures their ability to meet their children’s minimum basic needs.
Reach Up Coalition Members
CVOEO
Disability Rights Vermont
Hunger Free Vermont
King Street Youth Center
Planned Parenthood - PPNNE
Prevent Child Abuse VT
Public Assets Institute
Root Social Justice Center
Spectrum Youth and Family Services
Vermont Children’s Alliance
Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services
Vermont Commission on Women
Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance
Vermont Legal Aid
Vermont Food Bank
Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council
Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Vermont Parent Child Center Network
Voices for Vermont’s Children
Notes
Schilbach, F., et al (2016). The Psychological Lives of the Poor. The American Economic Review, 106(5), 435-440.
Sedlak AJ, et al. (2010) Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4): Report to Congress.
Brooks-Gunn, J. , & Duncan, G. (1997) The Effects of Poverty on Children. The Future of Children, Vol.7 No.2. https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/07_02_03.pdf
UNICEF Office of Research (2013). ‘Child Well-being in Rich Countries:A comparative overview’, Innocenti Report Card 11, UNICEF Office ofResearch, Florence. https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf