Archive: Around Town

The Tompkins County Youth Services Department, along with community partners, has completed a needs assessment of residents between the ages of 0-24 to identify current trends, needs and resources. Youth Services Director Amie Hendrix presented highlights of the findings to the Tompkins County Legislature at its March 5 meeting.

The needs assessment is a rich source of information about the status of youth in Tompkins County and will be used for planning not only by the Youth Services Department but also by other private and public entities.

Featuring a variety of components, the report includes information on the strengths, needs and gaps among young people based on their community, educational institutions, family units and peer groups. Items addressed include population size, employment, school success, transportation, isolation, activities, availability of child care, health, bullying, awareness of services, use of technology, and economic well-being.

Among the results revealed in the 2012 needs assessment:

• 88% of parents responding to a needs assessment survey of over 800 parents with youth in Tompkins County, report that they use one or more community resource to help rear their child and believe that Tompkins County has a variety of recreation areas available for young people.
• The national unemployment rate for teens remains at ~20%. With local parents and teens sharing that there are a number of barriers to teen employment. These barriers include lack of transportation, lack of opportunity and lack of services available to provide employment experiences to prepare youth for their first job.
• 55% of Tompkins County 6-12 grade students reported in 2010 that they have had a full alcoholic drink at least once in their life; this is up from 49% in 2008. New assessment information will be available in late March from our 2012 survey.
• Just over 20% of youth are living in poverty within Tompkins County.
• One in four Tompkins County High & Middle School students self report that they feel sad or depressed most days during the past year.

The youth population (ages 0 - 24) of Tompkins County has held steady since 2000 showing a slight decrease of 0.15%. However, within subgroups, greater changes have occurred. The largest population decrease has been experienced in ages 10 – 14, while the age-grouping experiencing the largest increase is ages 21 - 24.

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