At least four in ten children in San Diego County currently live in poverty, according to a new program that seeks to help that population of children by providing them with some cash to support their families.
The For Every Child pilot program has started in National City, San Ysidro, Encanto, and Paradise Hills.
The program recognizes that in a county as wealthy as San Diego, some 200,000 children under 12 currently live in poverty. And to address those concerning numbers, the program's goal is to reduce child poverty by half by 2030 through direct assistance to the poor community with children.
The pilot project is expected to deliver $500 a month for two years to families that qualify based on their poverty level.
The plan has a $1.9 million budget from the state of California and the Alliance Healthcare Foundation. Jewish Family Services administer it.
To qualify for the program, families must have children under the age of 12 and live in the gate codes of the selected areas in the county.
To prove that this project aims at an achievable goal, the same program was previously launched in Stockton, Northern California, in 2019, and it resulted in positive results for such population in need.
The program says that poverty "affects families in almost every neighborhood, affects families' access to community resources and their ability to get by."
This pilot program aims at changing the way children can live, learn and play, and creates barriers to achieving their dreams. Officials say that in a county as wealthy as San Diego, children should not grow up lacking the basics for their development.
"For Every Child" states that all children deserve a healthy diet, stable housing, reliable health care, quality child care, and early education in their communities.
