NCJ Number
148513
Date Published
1991
Length
98 pages
Annotation
Project Respond is a St. Louis-based program designed to develop a model for assessing and addressing sociological risk to children.
Abstract
Project Respond has identified eight primary categories in which such risk arises: insufficient family support, unmet basic material needs, poor health care, lack of needed child care, inadequate basic schooling, dangerous or dysfunctional community environment, poverty, and racism and institutional discrimination. This report describes the effects of profound sociological risk to children, the types of research conducted by Project Respond, the model for detailed assessment of risk, and preliminary research findings. These findings showed that a growing number of children have unmet basic life needs; poverty among children in single-parent, female-headed households is a primary risk factor. Black children are more likely to be at risk than their white counterparts. The social and economic costs arising from sociological risk cannot be avoided, only delayed. Policy initiatives to address the needs of these children must be broadly focused, well-coordinated, adequately funded, and community supported. For the most part, children's needs are best addressed in the context of their family, and family problems are best treated in the context of their community settings. 11 figures and 2 appendixes