Report finds Arizona is missing opportunities to help young parents

PHOENIX — A new report found that Arizona is missing opportunities to help young parents.

The Opening Doors for Young Parents report, released last week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that there are 92,000 children in Arizona with parents aged 18 to 24.

Out of those children, 7 in 10 have low family income.

“We expect young parents with young children to be … at the lower end of the income scale, but what’s frightening is when you think about all of the barriers they face, and that we’re not really opening the doors of opportunity so that they can move up that economic ladder,” Dana Wolfe Naimark, president and CEO of Children’s Action Alliance, told KTAR News 92.3 FM last week.

The report found that state budget cuts and unstable funding for the Healthy Families program has led to fewer young parents being served.

The program provides professional mentoring and has resulted in improved parenting skills, more safety practices for children and higher employment for mothers who have participated.

“(Young parents) need help in navigating their own education and employment alongside parenthood,” Naimark said. “We all know how hard it is to juggle all those things, and it’s extra hard for young parents.”

Naimark said children of young parents who struggle with financial security often experience problems in school and lack the health care they need to grow up healthy.

The report cited cuts to child care funding as another obstacle for young parents with low income.

Naimark said state reimbursements to child care businesses have not been updated for 18 years, leading some business to shut their doors to families with low income.

“Arizona has $56 million in federal funds literally sitting in an account that should be invested in these child care rates, so it’s something that our new governor and legislature elected in November can take action on right away,” Naimark said.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino contributed to this report. 

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