LAKEPORT— The Lake County Board of Supervisors approved on Tuesday a letter of support for an initiative to improve child welfare locally and across the state.
The proposed initiative — two years in the making — would improve access to healthcare, by providing parents of newborns to 5-year-olds with a list of services their family would be eligible to receive, said Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg. It would also create a resource network including a designated person to connect new moms with services before birth.
Additionally, the proposal includes investment in “academic-driven” afterschool programs, advancing a STEM-focused approach at Konocti Unified School District’s programs, for example, McGuire said. A partnership with the nonprofit 10,000 Degrees would help low-income students get “to and through” college, he added.
“This initiative, we firmly believe, will be the largest and boldest anti-childhood poverty measure in recent Lake County history, bringing together multiple sectors in our community from throughout the region, all focused on one thing: ensuring that all kids from all backgrounds have an equal opportunity to thrive,” McGuire said.
The budget request for the state legislature, co-sponsored by the County Welfare Directors Association and Children Now, is for $50 million in state funds the first year and $100 million ongoing.
In Lake County, about half of children live below the poverty line and the rate of prenatal care is about 77% lower than the national average, McGuire said.
McGuire said the initiative was prepared in partnership with Lake County’s Hope Rising.
Supervisor Tina Scott, a Hope Rising board member, was specifically thanked for her advocacy and coordination efforts.
“This initiative will be the largest impact we will see with our youth,” Scott said. “Again, it’s not going to be something that’s gonna take a couple years. This is something that’s going to span out from the time children are in the womb to the time they exit high school. This is a bold move but this is the move we need to make to change Lake County.”
Chairman Bruno Sabatier said he was excited about the initiative and acknowledged how challenging it was to try to “break the cycle” in the county.
“We’ve all worked so hard,” Sabatier said. “This is why we need the long haul, because it is hard to break a long-term impact of having such constant poverty issues, such challenges … access to healthcare, access to education, higher education, and the like.”
