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Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD The statistics are sobering. Over 26 percent of children age five and under living in Hampden Country are at the poverty level. In Springfield the poverty rate for children that age group is at 39.3 percent, while in Holyoke, the rate is 47 percent. The state-wide rate is 12.4 percent. The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts announced on Tuesday a new funding program to address this problem. "The Five and Under: Access to Opportunity Initiative" will invest over $500,000 a year for the next three to five years to nonprofit groups with educational programs aimed at this age group. At a press conference conducted Tuesday, Dr. Carol Leary, president of Bay Path College and chair of the Board of the Trustees for the Foundation, said the Foundation came to the decision to focus on the issue of child poverty after extensive meetings with non-profit agencies that identified the problem as a matter of great concern. Orlando Isaza of Holyoke Community College, the chair of the Foundation's Distribution Committee, explained that the "best way to interrupt poverty is through education." He added that educational programs have the greatest impact on children age five and under. The Foundation has released a Request for Proposal to various social service agencies that will have until March 1 to apply for the funds. The Foundation will then be reviewing the proposals and making the announcements in June. Bruce Brown, the chair of the Foundation's Strategic Initiatives Committee, said the Foundation is looking to fund either new programs or expansion and enhancements to existing programs. Isaza said the Foundation is also looking for programs that include ways to measure the results. Leary said the Foundation hopes to attract donors specifically interested in helping to fund this initiative. |
