Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
Challenge: The rate of substantiated cases of abuse and neglect per 1,000 in Athens is more than 200 percent higher than the rate for the State of Georgia. Overall, the poverty rate in Athens was 27 percent compared to the statewide average of 14.3 percent, both were higher than the national average. The percentage of children living in poverty in Athens was 31 percent in 2018, compared with a statewide average of 21 percent and a national average of 18 percent (Kids Count, n.d.). In Athens, 50.6 percent of Black children, 44.6 percent of Hispanic children, and 32.7 percent of multiracial children live in poverty (Kids Count, n.d.). Overall, Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial children accounted for 89 percent of all children living in poverty in Athens in 2018. Athens has significantly lower median household income and owner-occupied housing units relative to the state and nation and lower observed participation rates in community support programs (SNAP and WIC). Thus, the ACEs environmental framework for Athens suggests a very high relative incidence of ACEs related to the family environment as well as a community environment of poverty, housing instability, and underutilization of concrete social supports and services. These two environments increase ACE prevalence. Unclaimed EITC amounts in Athens-Clarke County, due to low income tax filing rates per household are estimated to be between $5 million and $16 million annually. The combination of high ACE risk factors among minority households with children, lack of prior EITC campaigns, several state-designated opportunity zones, and an isolated media market, makes Athens an ideal location to study how increased EITC engagement (claiming and receiving) among eligible households impacts ACE protective factors among in-risk minority households. Overview: This project seeks to increase the awareness of, filing for, and receipt of the EITC among low-income minority households and promote the utilization of EITC funds to increase ACE protective factors. Community partners will be engaged to inform and develop tiered-multi-sector intervention strategies to increase EITC engagement (awareness, filing, and receiving) and utilization to promote ACE protective factors among minority households. A social-ecological approach will be used to carry out the intervention. Change over time will be tracked to determine the penetration and effectiveness of the tiered-multi-sector intervention as it relates to changes in EITC engagement and ACE protective factors reported by in-risk minority households. This project brings together experts from a variety of disciplines to address the challenge of increasing EITC engagement in Athens to mitigate the deleterious impact of ACEs among all youth, but particularly among Black, Latinx, and immigrant children. Outcome: By engaging with the Institute for Nonprofit Organizations and UGA Extension, the project team will utilize well established community partnerships both within Athens and in counties throughout rural Georgia where the project’s approach can be quickly adapted and implemented. The project will also utilize a campus/community design thinking process to conceptualize and prototype human-centered interventions to be further developed, implemented, and tested in the second and third years of the project. The intervention will be evaluated to allow for detection of significant increases in EITC engagement and ACE protective factors. The performance indicator for assessing success is a cumulative increase of 27 percent of the eligible sample claiming the EITC on tax returns. Additional outcomes of interest are social-ecological model protective factors for ACEs—improved financial well-being, access to specialized services, engagement with social institutions, access to concrete support, hopefulness, and connection to other services.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
