Earlier this spring we released a report that tracked our state’s frustratingly-high child poverty rate. For years we have been struggling in Arkansas to make sure more kids are raised in an environment that provides them with a chance to succeed. Unfortunately, children raised in poverty don’t fare as well as their more affluent peers who are raised in more stable environments.

To say that our 2012 Arkansas Child Poverty Update did not contain much good news would be a charitable description. According to the report, the child poverty rate in Arkansas has grown by over two-percent during the past ten years. For minority children and single-parent households it is astronomical, further weakening a class of children that has historically struggled to establish wealth and prosperity on a large scale.

There was one particular stat in that report that should leave all of us shaking our heads in shame, embarrassed that we cannot do more. In Chicot County, an area right in the heart of the Delta that is consistently struggling to create sustainable jobs, a little over half the children live in poverty. Remember, there’s a big difference between living in poverty and being poor. Living in poverty means that a family of four must sustain itself on less than $24,000 per year. And half the kids in Chicot County live in those conditions.

If that isn’t troubling enough, consider this: if you take a look at children under the age of five, more than SEVENTY percent of them live in poverty in Chicot County.

This is quite shocking, even in a state that struggles with poverty.

Child poverty affects us all – not just the ones dealing with it every day. The entire state does better if the child poverty rate in every county falls. There is a compelling argument to be made that our financial prosperity and economic development as a state depend on all 75 counties producing families with higher incomes. But 70% of children under five years old living in poverty is a moral failure. Each of us bears some responsibility for this. The good news is that we all have a chance to help right this wrong.

Please join Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families this summer in our 2012 Kids Campaign. Learn about what it’s like to be a low-income kid in Arkansas. Find out how you can be a better advocate for them. And ask your lawmakers and candidates for office this year how they plan to address these alarmingly high poverty rates.

Get involved. Be a voice for these kids that have no vote.

If you would like to get involved in the 2012 Kids Campaign, please email our Outreach Director, Brett Kincaid, at bkincaid@aradvocates.org.