DC ACTION FOR CHILDREN

DC Kids Count e-Databook

“People I meet... the effect upon me of my early life... of the ward and city I live in... of the nation” —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Every city has many identities, depending on But Washington, aka DC, is also simply a who you ask. A legislator, a police officer, a hometown, where many people live their daily coach or a clerk might describe the same lives, raise their children and create community city’s people, culture and reputation in starkly and the future together. different terms. Washington is home to 100,000 children We are the nation’s capital, the official under 18. They are one in six DC residents. Washington that so many politicians run The number of children under the age of 5 has campaigns against. We are an international started to grow again after almost a decade of center of power, featuring stately embassies and decline.1 serving as the temporary home to diplomats. This DC KIDS COUNT e-databook is for and For some Americans, Washington is a code about them. word for the bubble where politicians hobnob with “fat cats,” bureaucrats operate and media Why Place Matters in the Lives of swarm over the latest scandal. Children (and Families)

For some Americans, Washington is a place to Children grow up (and families live) in specific visit with their children to learn about history, places: neighborhoods. How well these read the original Declaration of Independence, neighborhoods are doing affects how well the stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and children and their families who live in them are 1. DC Action for Children. (2011). A Tale visit the Air and Space Museum. doing and will do. of Three Cities: What the Census Says About the District and How We Must Respond. For some Americans, Washington is a hub of Many children grow up in high-poverty African-American culture and education, as the neighborhoods, with the disadvantages that 2. Komro, K., Flay, B.R., & Biglan, birthplace of the movement that became the can create and perpetuate. Simply put, growing A. (2011). Creating Nurturing Environments: A Science-Based Harlem Renaissance, home to Black Broadway up in a high-poverty neighborhood is bad for Framework for Promoting Child Health on U Street and the site of one of the nation’s children.2 and Development in High Poverty Neighborhoods. Clinical Child Family most prestigious historically Black colleges, Psychological Review, 14, 111-134. Howard University.

DC Action for Children • 1432 K Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, DC 20005 • 202-234-9404 • @ActforDChildren • [email protected] • www.dckids.org 2

High-poverty neighborhoods put critical This phenomenon disproportionately resources for healthy child growth and affects children of color. Low-income development, including high-performing working black families are significantly schools, quality medical care and safe more likely to live in high-poverty outdoor spaces, out of reach.3 neighborhoods than low-income working white families.6 Neighborhood poverty is 3. Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2012). Children Living in Beyond the obvious effects of poverty, such also likely behind the striking mobility gap America’s High Poverty Communities. as not being able to afford the nutritious between blacks and whites in the US.7 In 4. See note 3. 5. DC KIDS COUNT. food, health care, and other things children DC, the neighborhoods with the highest 6. Turner, M.A., & Fortuny, K. (2009). Residential need to thrive, growing up in high-poverty levels of concentrated poverty are almost Segregation and Low-Income Working Families. Urban areas has far-reaching effects caused by entirely Black (although, certainly, not all Institute. 7. Sharkey, P. (2009). Neighborhoods and the Black- factors beyond parents’ income. Black children in DC are growing up in White Mobility Gap. Pew Charitable Trusts. high-poverty neighborhoods). 8. Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative. Nationally, the chance of a child living (Undated). Health Inequities in the Bay Area. 8 9. World Health Organization. (2008). Closing the Gap in a high-poverty neighborhood grew A robust body of literature, both national in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the significantly in the last decade. The and international,9 is growing around the Social Determinants of Health. 10. Jones, C. et al. (2009). Addressing the Social number of children living in high-poverty concept of social determinants and the Determinants of Children’s Health: A Cliff Analogy. neighborhoods has risen by 1.6 million, a powerful influence they have over an Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 25 percent increase since 2000.4 In DC, individual’s and a community’s health, 20(4), 1-12. 11. Grantmakers in Health. (2011). Supporting one in three children is growing up in a as well as children’s health and well- Children’s Healthy Development: Place DOES Matter. high-poverty neighborhood.5 being.10, 11 These determinants – such

Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the hard work and - Department of Mental Health: Barbara Parks support of many people and organizations – incredible partners who - Office of the State Superintendent of Education: Jessica Enos and shared their knowledge, expertise and talents with us. Jeffrey Noel

Our partners at DataKind, especially Jake Porway and his team, Others whose guidance, suggestions and data we relied on: opened a whole new world of analytic possibility for us, listening - Children’s National Medical Center: Jerome Paulson to our unorthodox ideas and signing up to help anyway. Through - Consumer Health Foundation: Margaret O’Bryon, Ria Pugeda and DataKind, we were connected with an amazing group of pro bono Rachel Wick data scientists – our data heroes – who helped us collect, analyze, - DC Lawyers for Youth: Eduardo Ferrer aggregate and visualize our data over a six-month period. - George Washington University School of Public Health: Olga Acosta Price and Julia Lear We are especially grateful to Sisi Wei (our fearless data team leader) - Urban Institute/NeighborhoodInfoDC: Peter Tatian and Jenn and Brandon Behlendorf, Emily Chow, Will Durbin, Jason Hoekstra, Comey Andy Hull, Nick McClellan, Alycia Perez, Max Richman, Josh Wenk - Unity Health Care: Robert Zarr and Jerzy Wieczorek and the many others who helped us during the - Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Sakshi Mehta March 2012 DC Datadive, where we met this amazing group. They put in their own time after work and on weekends to make our data come We received two years of invaluable advice and guidance from our alive. Little do they know, they are officially friends of DC Action for KIDS COUNT Advisory Committee: Lee Beers and Chaya Merrill of life! Children’s National Medical Center, Judy Berman of DC Appleseed, Ed Lazere and Jenny Reed of DC Fiscal Policy Institute, Martha Ross Many, many thanks to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, for faith in us of the Brookings Institution, Rachel Wick of the Consumer Health to do this work, and the KIDS COUNT staff there (especially Jann Foundation and Travis Wright, formerly of George Washington Jackson and Laura Speer), who encouraged us to take the long view University. and who did not flinch in their support of us, even as we explored a somewhat non-traditional approach to a KIDS COUNT databook. We are indebted to our partners at Red Thinking for walking with us in this journey of designing and executing both web-based and We also owe a debt of gratitude to many knowledgeable DC text-based materials to ensure the information came alive for all of government data experts who provided public data to us, as well us – design folks or not. Their wisdom, patience and creativity got us as guidance about what data to request from them (or from other to the very end! agencies) and how to interpret it. Last, but most certainly, not least, the staff of DC Action for Children, - Office of Planning: Chris David all of whom participated in the conceptualizing and executing - DC Public Charter School Board: Ashok Oli this work, including data collection, analysis, research and writing: - DC Public Schools: Kelly Linker HyeSook Chung, Tulli Dobler, Kate Kairys and Gwen Rubinstein. We - Department of the Environment: Harrison Newton and Adam were also ably assisted by numerous interns, but most especially our Allston Summer 2012 Education Pioneer Fellow Bonnie O’Keefe and our - Department of Health: Autumn Saxton-Rose and LaVerne Jones 2011-2012 intern Lauren Deutsch. - Department of Health Care Finance: Valentine Breitbarth, Benjamin Finder and Colleen Sonosky

DC Action for Children • 1432 K Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, DC 20005 • 202-234-9404 • @ActforDChildren • [email protected] • www.dckids.org 3 as education, housing and employment Place in DC’s History – have a powerful effect on people’s lives and well-being, including children. Since the city’s founding, laws, They are highly correlated with where policies and practices have shaped people live and the conditions of the DC neighborhoods, influencing where neighborhoods in which they live. many people could live and work. Some repercussions carry forward to today DC as a Place for Children and helped to construct the city and community as we know it. The city’s prosperity rests on the shoulders of its children. They are the For example, a city ordinance in the next generation of citizens, workers, 1830s forbade blacks from operating teachers, parents and leaders. How well their own businesses14 and, until 1948, they do is critical to our city’s future. racial covenants in property deeds restricted where blacks and other Where these children live, learn and play ethnic groups could buy property and deeply affects all aspects of their lives. land.15 Discriminatory practices made What kind of place is Washington, DC, for life difficult for owners and patrons of children? downtown black businesses,16 and DC’s Municipal Code effectively legalized DC children live in a city that is 68.3 segregation until the 1950s.17 Local square miles, of which the federal zoning regulations encouraged the government owns about one-quarter (a construction of rental apartments over little more than 23 percent).12 single-family homes in Southeast.18

They live in one of eight wards, although DC’s status as a federal city has also a large number (41 percent) live in Wards played a role in where DC residents 7 and 8, east of the River. live, work and grow up. The federal government, with its size and presence, They live in one of 39 neighborhood has displaced existing residents from “clusters,”13 although about one-quarter downtown neighborhoods and drawn (25 percent) live in the neighborhood new residents to neighborhoods such clusters of Columbia Heights/Mt. as . The establishment of Pleasant, Brightwood/Crestwood and embassies from Central American . countries drew Hispanic residents to the nearby neighborhoods of Adams The data and maps presented here Morgan and Mount Pleasant, as embassy show that the success of too many staff put down roots.19 Policies such these children may be predetermined by as segregation in federal agency their ZIP Code — and not their gifts and employment beginning in Woodrow abilities. Wilson’s presidency20 separated black office workers from whites and removed 12. http://www.blm.gov/public_land_statistics/ Some DC neighborhoods have many some black civil servants, helping to pls99/99pl1-3.pdf assets that enrich children’s lives. discourage blacks from joining the 13. A unit defined by the DC Office of Planning, see the map here: http://www.neighborhoodinfodc.org/pdfs/ But some DC neighborhoods are federal workforce, and a World War II- Cluster.pdf. Appendix A lists the neighborhood clusters characterized by concentrated poverty era federal policy not to disrupt existing by number and name. and the many challenges that come with racial housing patterns21 maintained 14. Fitzpatrick, S., & Goodwin, M.R. (2001). The Guide to Black Washington: Places and Events of Historical it, including poorer performing schools, the status quo. Federal policies aimed at and Cultural Significance in the Nation’s Capital. (p. more violent crime and less access to redevelopment have resulted in highways 35). New York, NY: Hippocrene Books, Inc. healthy food, libraries and parks and 15. The Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and Center and public housing in the neighborhoods for African American History and Culture. (2005). The recreation centers. of Mayfair, , Barry’s Black Washingtonians: 300 Years of African American Farm, Congress Heights, Kenilworth and History (p. 231). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 22, 23 Fitzpatrick & Goodwin, (p. 178). In DC, these differences are both product Southwest. 16. Smith, K.S. (Ed.). (2010). Washington at Home: An of and perpetuate a long history of Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s racial discrimination and segregation. DC’s history is one of fast-changing Capital (2nd ed.) (p. 66). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Discrimination and segregation were demographics. Historical events, such 17. See note 17. (p. xv). institutional, created and enforced over as the two 20th century world wars and 18. See note 17. (pp. 170-171). centuries by laws and practices whose 19. Cary, F. C. (ed.). (1996). Washington Odyssey: A desegregation, caused fast and large Multicultural History of the Nation’s Capital (p. 233). effects we still feel today. shifts in the racial makeup of numerous Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. DC neighborhoods, just as economic 20. See note 16. (p.146). 21. See note 15. (p. 59). development is doing today. Throughout 22. See note 15. (pp. 65-66). DC history and even today, who is 23. See note 17. (pp. 5, 95-97).

DC Action for Children • 1432 K Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, DC 20005 • 202-234-9404 • @ActforDChildren • [email protected] • www.dckids.org 4 moving into DC and who is moving individual children and families. Change out of DC have transformed the city’s will require place-based strategies and neighborhoods seemingly overnight.24 collective action.

Understanding the Role Place-based strategies seek to change of Place in Children’s Lives conditions in communities by going beyond traditional approaches.31 The Despite a growing recognition of the role strategies are holistic and long-term. of place in children’s lives, little research They aim to address complex problems has quantified how neighborhoods where by focusing on the social and physical children live affect their transitions to environment of a community and on adulthood or on characteristics (other better integrated and more accessible than poverty) that might influence their service systems, rather than focusing development.25 Place-based analysis principally on the problems faced by usually takes measures of individual or individuals.32 family well-being and reports them by city, county or some unit of place. This approach will take effort. Whether you are a parent or grandparent, a Recently, a new approach, based on teacher, a policy maker, a city leader, an mapping opportunity, has emerged.26 advocate or just a concerned citizen – Results indicate that neighborhood please join us. Working together, all of us conditions can measurably affect who care about our city’s future and our children’s educational outcomes,27 children’s success can: physical health28 and behavioral health.29 • Build and sustain neighborhood Through this DC KIDS COUNT assets that help support families and e-databook and its accompanying online help children grow up to become interactive tools, DC Action for Children healthy, successful adults. is blending a traditional approach to understanding child well-being • Identify where assets and needs are (mapping individual-level indicators) mismatched for children and their and this emerging approach (mapping families. neighborhood-level indicators). All of this work is to ask, and try to answer, the • Invest more wisely to address following questions: How do assets and inequity in opportunity and inequality opportunities available to DC children in outcome. and families vary by neighborhood? • Build data systems that help identify Place and Action where we are succeeding and where and why we are failing. Results from programs such as Moving to Opportunity (MTO) which tried to 24. See note 20. (pp. xiii-xxv). 25. Popkin, S.J., Acs, G., & Smith, R. (2010). reduce the negative effects of place on Understanding How Place Matters For Kids. children and families by moving them Community Investments, 22(1). 26. See, for example, the opportunity mapping work of out of high-poverty neighborhoods the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and into lower-poverty neighborhoods, at The Ohio State University (http://kirwaninstitute.osu. have been disappointing. For example, edu/) and the opportunity index of Opportunity Nation (http://www.opportunitynation.org/). the final evaluation of MTO found the 27. Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity program had few detectable effects at The Ohio State University. (2011). Mapping Child on child physical health or risky Well-Being in Duval County, Florida. 28. Singh, G., Siahpush, M., & Kogan, M. (2010). behaviors, no detectable impacts on Neighborhood Social Conditions, Built Environment educational achievement as measured by and Childhood Obesity. Health Affairs, 29(3), 503-512. 29. Buu, A. et al. (2009). Parent, Family and standardized testing and some negative Neighborhood Effects on the Development of Child effects on young men, despite some Substance Use and Other Psychopathology from beneficial effects for young women.30 Preschool to the Start of Adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 70(4), 489-498. 30. US Department of Housing and Urban Another action choice is to work to Development. (2011). Moving to Opportunity for improve the neighborhoods children and Fair Housing Demonstration Program: Final Impacts Evaluation. families already live in, especially those 31. See note 12. with the compound challenges of family 32. Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. (2011). Place-Based poverty and neighborhood poverty. Approaches to Supporting Children and Families. Doing this is beyond the power of

DC Action for Children • 1432 K Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, DC 20005 • 202-234-9404 • @ActforDChildren • [email protected] • www.dckids.org 5

Appendix A – DC Neighborhood Clusters by Name and Number*

Cluster 1: Kalorama Heights, , Cluster 2: Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Pleasant Plains, Park View Cluster 3: Howard University, Le Droit Park, Cardozo/ Cluster 4: Georgetown, /Hillandale Cluster 5: West End, , GWU Cluster 6: , Connecticut Avenue/K Street Cluster 7: Shaw, Logan Circle Cluster 8: Downtown, Chinatown, Penn Quarters, , North Capitol Street Cluster 9: Southwest Employment Area, Southwest/Waterfront, Fort McNair, Buzzard Point Cluster 10: Hawthorne, , Chevy Chase Cluster 11: , , Cluster 12: North , Forest Hills, Van Ness Cluster 13: Spring Valley, Palisades, , Foxhall Crescent, Foxhall Village, Georgetown Reservoir Cluster 14: , McLean Gardens, Cluster 15: Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, Massachusetts Avenue Heights, Woodland-Normanstone Terrace Cluster 16: , , Cluster 17: Takoma, Brightwood, Manor Park Cluster 18: , Crestwood, Petworth Cluster 19: Lamond Riggs, , Fort Totten, Pleasant Hill Cluster 20: , Michigan Park, University Heights Cluster 21: Edgewood, Bloomingdale, , Eckington Cluster 22: Brookland, Brentwood, Langdon Cluster 23: , Arboretum, Trinidad, Carver Langston Cluster 24: Woodridge, Fort Lincoln, Gateway Cluster 25: Union Station, Stanton Park, Cluster 26: Capitol Hill, Lincoln Park Cluster 27: Near Southeast, Navy Yard Cluster 28: Historic Anacostia Cluster 29: , Kenilworth Cluster 30: Mayfair, Hillbrook, Mahaning Heights Cluster 31: , Burrville, Grant Park, Lincoln Heights, Fairmont Heights Cluster 32: River Terrace, Benning, Greenway, Cluster 33: Capitol View, Marshall Heights, Cluster 34: Twining, Fairlawn, , , Fort Davis Park, Cluster 35: , , Hillcrest, Summit Park Cluster 36: Woodland/Fort Stanton, Garfield Heights, Knox Hill Cluster 37: Sheridan, , Buena Vista Cluster 39: Douglass, Cluster 39: Congress Heights, Bellevue, Washington Highlands

* A small number of DC residents (about 1 percent) live outside of cluster bounds.

DC Action for Children • 1432 K Street, NW, Suite 1050, Washington, DC 20005 • 202-234-9404 • @ActforDChildren • [email protected] • www.dckids.org