Healthy children the focus of Every Child Thrives initiative

Sarah Weihert, via Erich Zellmer:

“There is no app better than your lap,” says Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an associate professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health who practices primary care pediatrists, during the Healthy Child, Thriving Communities-Tomorrow’s Workforce Develops Today event Monday morning at Turner Hall.

Navsaria was one of three speakers at the event discussing the impact of early childhood on lifelong health and occupational success. “Today we hope to engage your hearts and minds by investing in our children,” said Tina Crave, president and CEO, Watertown Community Health Foundation. “The seed for Every Child Thrives was born when our foundation began to work with partners to begin to assess community needs.”

The foundation is spearheading the Every Child Thrives movement in the area. After speaking with hundreds of people in Jefferson and Dodge counties, the foundation learned some staggering statistics. The cost of living for a family of four in the area is $59,000 a year. That number includes only the basics: food, housing, health care and child care.

“Forty to 60 percent of our working families have incomes that are lower than the cost of living in our community, which presents all sorts of challenges for them.”

Fewer than one-third of children from economically disadvantaged families are reading proficiently in third grade.

“Third grade reading proficiency is a routine predictor of both academic and career success. It is also a statistic that the U.S. government uses to predict future prison capacity.”

Rates of child abuse and neglect have also risen by 30 percent over the last two years.

These socioeconomic factors are causing businesses to be short the skilled workforce they need. Further complicating the problem, over the next 20 years, the number of baby boomers leaving the workforce is significantly greater than the number of young people entering the workforce.