Issues

Issues Surrounding Alabama’s Children

The Alabama Kids Count Data Book gathers and reports a wealth of information regarding the welfare of Alabama’s youth. We separate this information out by “Domains”. Each Domain has several “indicators” that help us gain a better understanding of the issues impacting our children. It is our belief that the disaggregation and analysis of these various data sets can lead to improved decision making regarding funding and legislation, for areas and communities, across Alabama that need it most.

Thank you to our Advocates for all that you do to support the Kids Count Data Book!

While it is wonderful to know a great deal about an issue, it is important that we know how to advocate for solutions to those issues. VFAC offers advocacy training sessions for all who would like to empower themselves and others to truly advocate for what they want. Part of this advocacy training is the advocacy toolkit, which you can access in the link below! Sign up for our newsletter if you or your organization are interested in attending one of our training events.

Health

For years Alabama has focused on ensuring all children have some type of health insurance. As a state, about 97% of our children have health insurance but sadly lack access to healthcare where they live. The cost to operate hospitals in our rural areas is causing many to eliminate certain services such as OB/GYN or close altogether. Solutions on how to provide affordable access to care is a problem we must address soon. The health of Alabama’s children is at-risk.

Education

A proper education is a staple in readying Alabama’s future generations for next year’s workforce. Within this domain we look at the early education landscape, all the way to high school graduation, to get a sense of how future workers are being prepped for economic success through their schooling years.

Safety

The safety of Alabama’s children is a prime concern when you determine how past legislation has impacted our youth. The goal of the safety category is to look at data that show the impact of justice programs and preventable teen death statistics to get an understanding of where children may be missing the mark en route to becoming productive adults within Alabama’s workforce.

Economic Security

Economic opportunity in Alabama is not sorted out equally, and this domain section serves to capture data detailing the scope of poverty, and the social welfare burden on families across the state. It is important that we look at how many families have access to the proper resources and healthy choices in food.