Good morning, Changemakers!
On Thursday, I headed to a small winery town in Southern California with some friends. As we all got situated into the house we're staying in, I opened up my Facebook app. I saw that one of my old friends from high school posted ABC10's article, Stockton Ranked 4th Worst Place to Raise Children in the Country. She commented on the post "I didn't turn out that bad." Of course, she didn't turn out "that bad" because she grew up on the north side of town with both of her parents making a significant income.
The article's information came from Diversity Data Kids in their 2020 report. According to the data, about half of Stockton's children live in low-opportunity areas. There are not enough programs for children, the air quality is bad, and most importantly, there is severe wealth inequality. How are people going to prosper when they don't have opportunities coming their ways?
Of course, since the Youth Development Manifesto came out last year, Stockton and its community leaders are making great efforts to improve the youth development programs. There aren't a lot in town, but the people of the city are working to change this- it has been in the works. Although, being ranked so poorly will definitely affect morale of our city. We all remember when Forbes ranked Stockton as the most miserable city in 2013. People still to this day reference that article when they want to talk poorly about Stockton. The city has also been ranked as "Most Dangerous" several times due to high gun violence.
What we need to do is not let these rankings affect our perceptions of the people of Stockton. Rather instead, we should use them to promote change and improve the quality of life for the people, especially the children. This is already in the works now, but we need more. Start a non-profit program, join an organization, volunteer, attend city council meetings. We can't fix the years of damage that the city has been through, but at least we can organize and try to improve.
All my best,
Liz Malone
On Thursday, I headed to a small winery town in Southern California with some friends. As we all got situated into the house we're staying in, I opened up my Facebook app. I saw that one of my old friends from high school posted ABC10's article, Stockton Ranked 4th Worst Place to Raise Children in the Country. She commented on the post "I didn't turn out that bad." Of course, she didn't turn out "that bad" because she grew up on the north side of town with both of her parents making a significant income.
The article's information came from Diversity Data Kids in their 2020 report. According to the data, about half of Stockton's children live in low-opportunity areas. There are not enough programs for children, the air quality is bad, and most importantly, there is severe wealth inequality. How are people going to prosper when they don't have opportunities coming their ways?
Of course, since the Youth Development Manifesto came out last year, Stockton and its community leaders are making great efforts to improve the youth development programs. There aren't a lot in town, but the people of the city are working to change this- it has been in the works. Although, being ranked so poorly will definitely affect morale of our city. We all remember when Forbes ranked Stockton as the most miserable city in 2013. People still to this day reference that article when they want to talk poorly about Stockton. The city has also been ranked as "Most Dangerous" several times due to high gun violence.
What we need to do is not let these rankings affect our perceptions of the people of Stockton. Rather instead, we should use them to promote change and improve the quality of life for the people, especially the children. This is already in the works now, but we need more. Start a non-profit program, join an organization, volunteer, attend city council meetings. We can't fix the years of damage that the city has been through, but at least we can organize and try to improve.
All my best,
Liz Malone
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