{"id":9165,"date":"2018-10-05T17:46:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T17:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9165"},"modified":"2018-10-05T17:46:37","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T17:46:37","slug":"report-time-to-change-the-odds-for-young-adult-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=9165","title":{"rendered":"Report: Time to Change the Odds for Young Adult Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9159\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9159\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9159\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gr-64096-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gr-64096-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gr-64096-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gr-64096-1-1-405x269.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gr-64096-1-1-60x40.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9159\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">77 percent of young adult parents in Texas are people of color who face discrimination and inequities in opportunities. Photo: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>by Mary Kuhlman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Finding their footing in life is a struggle for many young adults in Texas, and it\u2019s especially challenging for those who are also raising children.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aecf.org\/opening-doors-for-young-parents\/\" target=\"parent\">report released Tuesday<\/a>\u00a0by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 450,000 Texas kids have parents between the ages of 18 and 24, and 65 percent live in low-income households. Frances Deviney, CEO at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin, explained the odds cannot be changed by focusing only on the children in these families \u2013 their parents are still growing, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur brains don\u2019t fully develop until we\u2019re 25,\u201d Deviney said. \u201cAnd people who are still having babies while they\u2019re still babies too, they need additional supports to figure out the tough steps in life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report recommended state-level approaches that will help young parents pursue education and employment. Those include expanded workforce programs that integrate positive youth development and mentoring, as well as ensuring that government benefit programs include young parents.<\/p>\n<p>Deviney said too many young adult parents in Texas cannot access the higher education that could boost their earning power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly like 1 in 9 young parents have actually completed any kind of post-secondary degree, an associate degree at a community college, or four year college,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they\u2019re starting off already behind the curve when they are looking for those jobs that actually pay living wages. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Senior associate at the Casey Foundation Rosa Maria Castaneda explained that expanded parenting skills programs and increased access to high-quality childcare can also improve outcomes for these families.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYoung parents told us and have reported in surveys that childcare is one of the big pieces that they struggle with to be able to make ends meet and participate in the economy successfully,\u201d Castaneda said.<\/p>\n<p>The report noted that 3 in 4 young adult parents in Texas are people of color, whose challenges are exacerbated by discrimination and systemic inequities in employment, housing and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Mary Kuhlman AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Finding their footing in life is a struggle for many young adults in Texas, and it\u2019s especially challenging for those who are also raising children. A\u00a0report released Tuesday\u00a0by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that 450,000 Texas kids have parents between the ages of 18 and 24, and 65 percent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9166,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9165\/revisions\/9166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}