This paper is a discussion of present and historical trends affecting school-age children in poverty, with particular emphasis on the children of Mott Haven, in the Bronx section of New York City. This paper attempts to determine the social policy issues at work in Mott Haven, the reasons for the presence of these issues, and the ways in which such issues might be addressed more effectively, in order to provide better service to children living in poverty. Mott Haven provides both the unique problems and characteristic challenges of a large, urban client population at risk and in need of better social services programs. Studying this microcosm allows the social work student to understand the needs of children living in poverty in many different kinds of urban settings, while offering some specific remedies, practices, and policy changes that may allow the social work system to improve the quality of its work in such complex contexts.
A complicated system of programs presently addresses the needs of children living in poverty in America. In Mott Haven, these include health care, primarily Medicaid, although recent changes in the welfare laws have made this much more difficult for many poor children to obtain easily. Mott Haven is a district at the southernmost end of the Bronx, one of New York City's five boroughs, located north of Manhattan. Of the city's 59 districts, Mott Haven is one of the three highest at-risk communities, considered on the basis of economic conditions, community violence, infant mortality, household income, and other factors that have a particular impact on children. Its families are among the poorest in New York City, and its social welfare needs are massive.
Mott Haven families receive governmental help for child care costs through the city's Administration for Children's Services' (ASC) Agency for Child Development (ACD) and the Human Resources Administration's (HRA) Office of Employment Servi...