G U I D I N G

R E S E A R C H

Facts on Poverty

  • “One in six children in America lives in poverty, with income inequality having grown to the widest gap our nation has seen in 50 years.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “Of the nearly 12 million children living in poverty, 73 percent are children of color. One in six children in America lives with food insecurity, with Black and Hispanic children twice as likely to not have enough nutritious food to eat.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “Nearly 1 in 6 children—more than 11.9 million—were poor in 2018. Nearly 73 percent of poor children were children of color. Nearly 1 in 3 Black and American Indian/Alaska Native children and about 1 in 4 Hispanic children were poor compared with 1 in 11 white children.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “More than 1 in 6 children—12.5 million—lived in food-insecure households in 2017. The percent of Black and Hispanic households with food-insecure children was nearly two times that of white households.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “Children comprised 1 in 5 of the nearly 553,000 homeless people living in shelters, transitional housing and on the streets on a single night in January 2018.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “Despite a 63 percent reduction in child arrests since 2009, a child or teen was arrested every 43 seconds in 2018. Children of color were nearly two times more likely to be arrested than white children.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “At least 1 in 3 youth in the juvenile justice system has a disability qualifying them for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—nearly four times the rate of youth in public schools.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • “Migrant children, like all children, have unique needs due to their age and experiences, which require special child protection and support.” (Children’s Defense Fund, 2020) Learn More ➜

Facts on Homelessness

  • “1 in 10 young people ages 18 to 25, translating to 3.5 million individuals, experienced homelessness.” (National Network for Youth, 2018)  Learn More ➜

  • “One in 10 young adults ages 18-25, and at least one in 30 adolescents ages 13-17, experience some form of homelessness unaccompanied by a parent or guardian over the course of a year.” (National Conference of State Legislators, 2019) Learn More ➜

  • “As a result of their homelessness, unaccompanied youth face devastating harms and barriers in life, all of which hinder their ability to re-assimilate into society, depress their motivation, and inhibit their becoming independent, successful, and contributing members of their families and communities.” (National Network for Youth, 2020) Learn More ➜

  • Each year, an estimated 4.2 million youth and young adults experience homelessness, of which 700,000 are unaccompanied minors, meaning they are not part of a family or accompanied by a parent or guardian. On any given night, approximately 41,000 unaccompanied youth ages 13-25 experience homelessness. (National Conference of State Legislators, 2019) Learn More ➜

Facts on Teen Pregnancy & Parenting

  • “In 2017, the birth rates of Hispanic teens (28.9) and non-Hispanic black teens (27.5) were more than two times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white teens (13.2).” (Center for Disease Control, 2019) Learn More ➜

  • “Pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Only about 50% of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by 22 years of age, whereas approximately 90% of women who do not give birth during adolescence graduate from high school.” (Center for Disease Control, 2019) Learn More ➜

  • “The children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and to drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated at some time during adolescence, give birth as a teenager, and face unemployment as a young adult.” (Center for Disease Control, 2019) Learn More ➜

Facts on Mentoring

  • “Young people with a mentor were more hopeful and had a greater sense of efficacy in relation to the future than those in the control group.” Rodriguez L., Dolan, P. and Brady, B. (2018). Exploring the Impact of Mentoring Relationships in Adolescent Empathy: A Mixed Methods Approach. Galway: UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway. Learn More ➜

  • Research by Spencer (2012) found that “mentored young people had positive gains in many aspects of their lives, including social, emotional, behavioural, and academic domains.” Spencer, R. (2012). A working model of mentors’ contributions to youth mentoring relationship quality: Insights from research on psychotherapy, Learning Landscapes, 5(2), 295–312. Learn More ➜

  • “Mentoring can have an impact on young people by enhancing youth social relationships and emotional well-being, improving cognitive skills, and promoting positive identity development through role modelling and advocacy.” (Rhodes et al., 2006). Rhodes, J., Spencer, R., Keller, T., Liang, B., and Noam, G. (2006). A model for the influence of mentoring relationships on youth development, Journal of Community Psychology, 34 (6), 691–707. Learn More ➜