This year marks 25 years since the Indiana Youth Institute has contributed to a national effort called Kids Count, intended to use data to snapshot what life is like for Hoosier kids.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, while some things like teen pregnancy rates are getting better, there’s much work to be done to give each Hoosier kid a better life.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed when you look at numbers from around east central Indiana.

In Grant County, the highest percentage of kids are living in poverty in the entire state.  It’s the number one county for evictions, more than double the state average.

In Blackford County, 40 percent of mothers smoked during their pregnancy, which has many known health risks for those babies.

And in Delaware County – the county with the lowest median income in the state – child abuse and neglect has more than doubled since 2014.  And of the children removed from their homes by state services, 64 percent of them are removed because of a caretaker’s substance abuse.

Indiana Youth Institute President Tami Silverman says it’s that last issue that’s greatly increasing numbers of kids in danger statewide.

“Let’s remember, that’s abuse and neglect.  And when we talked to the Department of [Child] Services, what they’re seeing is a lot of acute neglect particularly connected to the opioid crisis.”

Taken together, the numbers don’t inspire much hope.  That’s where community services need to come in, says Jenni Marsh of United Way of Delaware County.

“I think particularly with opioid addiction, you’re looking at families that don’t have a lot of hope.  So we have to help families find their hope again.  When you start from a place of hope, then you can really start brainstorming, ‘How do we overcome the obstacles and barriers that are keeping us from getting to our ideal?  And how do we work together to get there?’  And that’s really powerful conversation.”

Silverman says there’s some help on the way.

“What’s the reality those kids are living in today and how can we help support them so that there’s not a longer-term ripple effect for our communities of having grown up in a home that has a substance abuse disorder?”

The Indiana Youth Institute will soon announce they’ve received federal grant money to help provide mentors to kids impacted by the opioid crisis in three Indiana locations.  One of those is Delaware County.