{"id":3577,"date":"2012-01-12T06:45:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T12:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=3577"},"modified":"2012-12-27T13:29:18","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T19:29:18","slug":"choctaw-county-youths-face-entrenched-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/01\/12\/choctaw-county-youths-face-entrenched-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"For One of Oklahoma’s Poorest Counties, No Easy Way Out of Poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Ty Thomas and Christian Life Outreach Pastor Carolyn Hicks. Thomas is a young minister at the church that provides food, shelter and other services to the poor.<\/p>\n<\/div>

For Oklahomans under the age of 18, the hardest place to grow up is in Choctaw County. The area reflects the latest U.S. Census numbers showing poverty on the increase in many rural areas across the country.<\/p>

The situation is especially bad for Choctaw County\u2019s young people, who suffer under a poverty rate of almost 40 percent, the highest in the state.<\/p>

About 20 area citizens gather at the Christian Life Outreach Church in Hugo. They\u2019ve been told a reporter is coming and are anxious to tell why their area is so poor.<\/p>

\u201cJust the family unit as a whole, I think, is where the breakdown is\u2026There\u2019s not a lot of work opportunity here\u2026Teen pregnancy leads to parents sometimes not being well educated, not being taught how, you know, you have to get out here and make your own money to make it in life\u2026 Why am I going to work when I can draw this check? …The mother spends the money on drugs, and then she doesn\u2019t care where the kid is after three o\u2019clock.\u201d<\/p>

The situation is desperate in Choctaw County, where four live in poverty out of every 10 residents under age 18.<\/p>

Other stats tell more of the story. 37-percent of children are from single-parent families. 70-percent are on Medicaid. 30 percent of the total population receives food stamps and more than 80 percent of children qualify for free or reduced school lunches.<\/p>

Unemployment is right around the state average, but most of the jobs are low paying. The median household income is about 29-thousand dollars.<\/p>

[module align=”left” width=”half” type=”pull-quote”]<\/p>

“I\u2019ve been trying to make it on my own, and there\u2019s been several times that I\u2019ve been without food. I didn\u2019t have a home.”<\/p>\n

-21-year-old Ty Thomas on being young and poor in rural Southeast Oklahoma<\/h6>

[\/module]<\/p>

\u201cI just graduated three years ago,\u201d said Ty Thomas, a 21-year-old who mentors young people at the Outreach Church. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to make it on my own, and there\u2019s been several times that I\u2019ve been without food. I didn\u2019t have a home. I didn\u2019t have a lot of things, and I didn\u2019t know how to go get it for myself. I was just out on my own. I didn\u2019t have nobody, just my brothers and sisters at church, and that\u2019s all I had.\u201d<\/p>

While he\u2019s working to help other youths, he sees the cycle of poverty continuing among his former classmates.<\/p>\n

\n

Related<\/h4>\n
\n
Posts<\/h5>\n