Series
Background:
In July of 2003, the Plain Dealer published a series
of articles called “Children Left Behind.” The
series compared Cleveland to nine other cities on several
quality-of-life indicators for children and found that Cleveland
ranked last in virtually every category.
-
Students in Cleveland are far more likely to drop out
of high school than those in Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
-
A larger share of children live in poverty than in Detroit
or Cincinnati.
- Kids
are poisoned by lead more frequently than youngsters in
Chicago and Baltimore.
- And
teen girls in Cleveland have babies at a higher rate than
girls in St. Louis and Pittsburgh.
And
these problems are not confined to the Cleveland city limits.
The Plain Dealer analysis found that children in
many greater Cleveland suburbs are not doing as well as those
in similar communities around the state.
In
response to this series and the growing problems facing NE
Ohio youth the Plain Dealer and WVIZ/PBS and 90.3
WCPN ideastream have partnered together to
create Tomorrow’s Promise – Helping
Children Left Behind. The project, presented
in cooperation with The Center for Community Solutions, includes
newspaper articles, television and radio programming and a
series of town hall meetings. The project is designed to:
-
INCREASE awareness of the challenges facing young people
in Northeast Ohio.
-
ENCOURAGE community dialogue focusing on these challenges
and plausible solutions.
- SUPPORT
a public process that will establish specific goals for
improving the lives of children in Northeast Ohio.
Tomorrow’s Promise – Helping Children Left
Behind will focus on specific challenges facing our youth
including high school graduation rates, teenage pregnancy,
environmental health, early childhood development and juvenile
crime.
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Production
of Tomorrow’s Promise on WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN
ideastream is made possible by The Thomas. H. White Foundation,
a KeyBank Trust. |
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