Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Option 1:

Performing research on children and families who suffer from poverty has given us tremendous amounts of insight on how lower class families live. Children who come from low socio-economic families often fall into a category labeled “at-risk”; these individuals often experience numerous setbacks from their peers, such as lack of motivation, tired and restlessness, obesity, declining grades, and sometimes fall into delinquency. If research were not done on children and families who are affected by poverty, we would never know the physical, cognitive, and social and emotional setbacks that go along with being a lower class citizen.

One example I have is of a sixth grader that I helped out a few years ago. For one of my undergraduate classes, we would volunteer in an elementary after school program in a low-income neighborhood. Every week I helped different students, but one, which I remember, is of a sixth grade girl. I can see that she is caught up in her social life right now and is getting poor grades in the classroom. She told me that she would skip school and hang out with older high school kids, and that she would drink and smoke (actually, her older cousins were her peer pressures).  It is unfortunate, because she did tell me that she really does try to do well in school, but at the same time the reality of being a low-income citizen and neighborhood violence and corruptness in her neighborhood is getting to her. Learning about children who are affected by poverty, the neighborhood that goes along with it, and seeing it first hand is heartbreaking. These children feel hopeless and have nowhere to turn.

Now that we know of several cities, towns, states that are affected by poverty, there are now several organizations and governmental programs that can help those that are underprivileged.