FAQs

• Opportunity to achieve the American Dream is increasingly out of reach for millions of kids in the U.S.
• This lack of opportunity threatens not only the well-being of young Americans but also the shared health and vitality of American communities.
• According to Dr. Robert Putnam, political scientist, researcher and author of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, fragile family structures, disappearing jobs and a diminished sense of community are moving us away from each other emotionally and narrowing our collective sense of responsibility for all “our kids.”
• We need to narrow this “opportunity gap” so that all children in America have the chance to achieve their full potential.

• In Duluth, 3,346 children are currently experiencing poverty (21.5 percent of 15,562 children under 18).
• In Superior, 1,038 children are experiencing poverty (25.8 percent of 4,023 children under 18).
• In the Twin Ports as a whole, 4,384 children are experiencing poverty (22.4 percent of 19,585 children under 18)
• The barriers they and their families encounter include:
  • Transportation
  • Housing
  • Health care
  • Out-of-school programming activities
  • Childcare
  • Job training
• There is a significant difference in school readiness found among kids in the Twin Ports—showing that the gap is beginning at the earliest levels of education.

• The Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation (DSACF) was motivated by the work of Dr. Putnam to act on behalf of our kids in Duluth and Superior.
• They applied for and received a $1.5 million three-year grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation to better understand and narrow the opportunity gap in the Twin Ports. The findings from data-gathering listening sessions and interviews found three areas of concern—education, parenting and community needs. Ten organizations with missions centered on helping children and families in the Twin Ports shared in the grant.
• The DSACF has launched a large, impactful community wide Opportunity Rising Initiative to engage Duluth and Superior residents to actively participate in narrowing the gap in opportunities for our kids in the Twin Ports.
• Dr. Putnam told us, “Minnesota and Wisconsin have a history, actually, on issues like this. This is the place out of which solutions to social problems have often come first. I’d like to nudge you to get in the game and begin thinking about how this problem can be fixed, first here but also nationwide.”
• Our goal is to, one day, say that no matter where a child lives in Duluth and Superior, no matter what their family income or their ethnicity, they have an equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

In the year since the 10 organizations received their grants (2016), here’s how they’ve already reached families across Duluth and Superior:

• 2,272 parents, caregivers and children have been reached through our grantees across Duluth and Superior.
• 65 children received health services.
• 202 family contacts have been made between parent coaches and teachers.
• 109 girls and 84 boys participated in leadership development.
• 60 teachers visited with parents in the homes of their students.

Over the next few years, periodic assessments of community perception, activities and grantee progress will be made.

• We are asking the people of Duluth and Superior to rise to Dr. Putnam’s challenge together through volunteering time, talents and money to organizations that serve the needs of people living in poverty.
• You can find out who needs help, what kind of help they need and who it will affect here.