What to expect from Cranley's speech tonight
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley will stand up Monday night to tout the city's successes in his State of The City speech, but he'll also admit the city's hidden shame: poverty.
And he's tired of it. After initiating the anti-poverty Hand-Up last year, Cranley is announcing a new task force to combat childhood poverty.
The goal: lift 10,000 children out of poverty in the next three to five years and help 5,000 unemployed or underemployed adults get into jobs and out of poverty.
The task force is expected to make actionable recommendations by June 30.
"We have a lot to be proud of – but we must be ashamed at our childhood poverty rate," Cranley said. "Our great civic renewal will not be complete without lifting up those who do not choose the dire and desperate circumstances in which they live.
New estimates from last last year show 44.3 percent of children in Cincinnati live in poverty, down from 53.1 percent in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Cincinnati is trending in the right direction on childhood poverty, but progress is slow and lags the drop nationally.
Cincinnati's rate is double the national rate of 21.7 percent and nearly double the state rate of 22.9 percent.
An exclusive look at the task force shows a who's who of local leaders.
The effort, inspired by the United Way's "Bold Goals" effort, will be led by the United Way, but has buy-in from the business community, the government, non-profit sectors, the faith-based community and civil rights leaders. Among the members:
* Michael Fisher, the CEO of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
* Tom Williams, co-owner of the Cincinnati Reds
* Donna Jones Baker, President and CEO of the Greater Cincinnati Urban League
* O'Dell Owens, the city's new medical director, but also a former county coroner and President of Cincinnati State
* Sister Sally Duffy, a Sister of Charity from Cincinnati
* Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, who will convene the summit
"It is unacceptable to have this rate of childhood poverty; this concentration of childhood poverty," Fisher said. "It's important that the community really understands the severity of this issue and what it is doing to stunt potential."
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Fisher said they will bring families affected by poverty to the table.
"We have good programs, good efforts and good intent," Fisher said. "We need to align it better, scale it and import new ideas and practices."
In May, after the Enquirer reported on a year spent inside Ethel M. Taylor – an elementary school in the city's poorest neighborhood – The Enquirer convened its own roundtable of stakeholders, including Cranley. The group recommended Cranley convene a task force.
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The task follows the city's creation last year of the Hand Up Initiative, a $1.12 million city program designed to help families out of poverty through job training.
The goal is to reduce poverty by five percent over four years.