Percentage of Washington County children and youth, birth to age 17 living in poverty: There is a correlation between limited educational attainment and poverty. Children who are raised in generational poverty often inherit the low prioritization of educational attainment and other life skill choices associated with poverty. Factors include: lack of education, inadequate skill sets, lack of employment, decline in neighborhoods, big government, decline in social morality, urbanization, suburbanization of manufacturing, inadequate regional planning, immigration, eligibility and funding limitations of social services, absence of worker skills, absence of intellectual capital, absence of social capital, lack of career ladder between knowledge and service sectors, speed of economic transformation at local level, colonial exploitation (e.g. minimum wage vs. living wage, temporary jobs, less than 30 hours per week, lack of benefits, disposable employees, debt bondage, global outsourcing, payday lenders, lease/purchase, drug trade, exploitation for markets, exploitation of resources and raw materials), race, gender, transportation, inability to break the poverty cycle, substance abuse, mental illness, and homelessness. According to the September 2008 Needs Assessment, under valuing the importance of education in some of the outlying areas continues to be a generational issue. There continues to be a lack of motivation for students to move onto higher education, an issue that the local school system has been trying to change.

Rate of out-of-home placements per 1000 children and youth, birth to age 17: Families who lack resources are less able to provide for the necessities of their children, which may result in the placement of the child outside the home to meet his/her needs. Factors include: poverty, substance abuse, mental health issues, resistive parents, lac of awareness in community of issues, lack of funding to provide services, length of service restraints (from funding source), inconsistent response/consequences from the judicial system, insufficient resources in the community as well as location of services (centered in Hagerstown rather than throughout the County), transportation issues, lack of in-home services, lack of communication/collaboration between agencies (partly the result of confidentiality barriers), funding (lack of continuity), juveniles lack accountability, inconsistency in consequences or lack of consequences in the judicial system, inadequate number of resources in the community to treat sexual offenders, inadequate research to show what is effective (for sexual offenders), inadequate number of providers to work with the sexual offender population, high burn out or turnover of front line staff, inadequate number of staff to manage current caseloads, lack of community based wrap around services necessary to keep youth in the County, changes in population demographics and complexity of dual diagnoses.

Regional Family Navigation Program

All Washington County children live in households headed by an adult or adults who have attained a level of educational attainment and/or specialized training that affords them the opportunity to meet their financial obligations and provide for the necessities of their children without undue reliance on public supports. Such households facilitate the child’s opportunity to live a productive, developmentally appropriate childhood in their respective household.