Oklahoma City Day Shelter Serves Homeless Women and Children

If you know of a woman who is homeless in Central Oklahoma, send her to  the Sanctuary Women's Development Center in Oklahoma City. Opened in 2009, it is the first of its kind serving homeless or at-risk women. Last year, they served close to 500 women and children. Located at 2133 SW 11th Street, it is a project of Catholic Charities. Call 526-2321. It is open weekdays from 8:30am to 3:30pm. Donations and volunteers are always needed. You can follow them on Facebook. Read more about the service at this Oklahoman article.

Increasing Numbers of Oklahoma's Children Raised in Poverty

Last week the Tulsa World ran an article on children and poverty in Oklahoma entitled Tulsa, state schools' free meal eligibility rises. In the article, State Superintendent of Schools Sandy Garrett and Anne Roberts, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, and others talked about the challenges of teaching children from very poor families. They also acknowledged that the percent of children in Oklahoma schools coming from very poor families is increasing over time (see below).

Today, The Oklahoman ran an editorial entitled Going Hungry: Poverty devastates children. It didn't offer solutions but at least acknowledged the problem.

The following are statewide percentages of public school students qualifying for free-reduced meals for the last five school years (note the disturbing trend):

2007-08: 55.50 percent
2006-07: 55.40 percent
2005-06: 54.84 percent
2004-05: 54.11 percent
2003-04: 53.23 percent

Source: Department of Education

Single Moms' Poverty Spikes After Welfare Overhaul

Women's eNews reports that:

The ranks of poor single mothers have grown since the 1996 welfare overhaul that
weakened their safety net, and 30 percent now live with neither job income nor
public assistance.

Read the post here.