For children to grow up with so little in a region where affluence is so visible challenges our most basic principles of fairness.
Poverty exposes children to devastating levels of trauma that undermine a child’s future by stunting physical, cognitive, and behavioral development, thereby producing a lifetime of health and economic challenges.
Economists estimate that childhood poverty costs the U.S. economy over $1 trillion per year, or 5.4% GDP.
Each child growing up in poverty has an average net-cost to our economy of $1.6 million throughout that child’s life.
The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of action. Every $1 spent to fight child poverty lowers future costs by $7.
Dallas has the 3rd highest rate of child poverty in the nation.
The long-term economic cost of the 95,000+ local children growing up in poverty today exceeds $150 billion.
Over the past 15 years, the poverty rate in Dallas has increased by 42%, while the population has only increased 4.4%.
The cycle of poverty cannot be broken by only treating symptoms.
Trauma and toxic stress widen the opportunity gap for low-income children. Scalable results will require us to focus resources toward children and prevention.
How can we take action together to fight child poverty?
Learn more about CPAL’s approach.
