This map shows which DPS schools, color-coded by school type, have AmeriCorps programs in 2012-2013. The larger a school’s dot, the more programs it has. If you mouse over a school, you’ll be able to see the names of its programs. Click on a point to find more information. You can pan and zoom the map to see more detail, or view a full-screen version.

Burmese refugee Ma Htay in her northwest Aurora apartment. A Buddhist shrine dominates the living room, which also doubles as a bedroom. Immigration and refugee resettlement have transformed this part of Aurora over the last 20 years.

The Glory apartment building sits near the southwest corner of Yosemite Street and 14^th Avenue in Aurora. The building resembles a wide, fat U, apartment doors opening to walkways, walkways looking down upon the concrete slab that is the courtyard. Residents drift in and out to smoke a cigarette, to see who’s up to what. On warmer days, they hang their laundry over the railing and the doors stay open.

Many of this building’s residents are refugees from Burma, also known as Myanmar. They are ethnic Karen, Karenni, Chin, Shan, Mon. They crowd into apartments, shoes piled near the door, air fragrant with curry and ginger and coriander. The elders offer shy smiles to strangers and then turn expectantly toward their children, their translators. The teenagers oblige, barefoot in skinny jeans, caught somewhere between Americanization and tradition.

Here, in this second floor, one-bedroom unit lives a Burmese family of six. Mom and dad, Ma Htay and Tinza Oo, sleep on the linoleum living room floor. Every day, they pile their bedding against the back wall and the room becomes whatever it needs to become. On this day, Ma Htay making pillow shams on the sewing machine she has set on the floor. She sells them for $5 each. Her husband works in the meatpacking plant in Greeley. The room is dominated by a Buddhist shrine laden with vases of roses and lilies, a bowl of apples, glasses of water, a man’s photo. The image of Buddha is framed with green tinsel and Christmas lights giving the room a kind of holy festivity.

Downstairs, the Burmese Muslims in the next building are marking Eid al-Adha and two men carry inside what looks be the haunch of a freshly-slaughtered goat in a plastic bin. A man walks by in a suit and red flip-flops. Two Bhutanese refugees wait for their ride to the meatpacking plant. A Burmese teenage girl appears, her face covered in a greenish paste. To block the sun, she says. She giggles, covering her mouth with her hand.

Everywhere, there are children.

***

So much has changed in this neighborhood in 20 years. In 1990, half the babies born in northwest Aurora were born to white women. Ten percent were born to immigrant parents (who could be of any race.)

In 2009, 945 babies were born here – 319 more than 1990. Only 15 percent were born to white women. Sixty percent of the babies had immigrant mothers. By far, the largest ethnic group – native or foreign-born — bearing children in the neighborhood was Hispanic. Of the 945 babies, 618 had Hispanic mothers.

This is the backdrop against which the Children’s Corridor must be seen.

A dramatic, widespread demographic transformation has taken place throughout the Corridor’s 41-square miles. Only a handful of neighborhoods outside its boundaries have seen anything like it.

Historic black neighborhoods have become Latino. African Americans have migrated north and east before heading south into Aurora. Middle-class whites lay claim to downtown neighborhoods once home to working-class Latinos and blacks. A brand new white, middle-class neighborhood has risen from the site of the old airport. Thousands of refugees, from Burma and Nepal and Somalia, have been resettled here.

The transformation can be seen in the small Mexican-, African- and east Asian-owned businesses, in the proliferation of Spanish-speaking churches, in the Spanish classes for English speakers and English classes for Spanish speakers, in public school classrooms filled with English Language Learners who speak Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Somali, Karen.

But it is the birth data that is most telling.

***

In roughly the last 20 years, the number of babies born in the Corridor has climbed from an average of about six babies born per day to an average of about 10 per day. In 1990, most babies in the Corridor were born to black and native-born women.  Fewer than 14 percent of babies were born to immigrant mothers, who, again, could be of any race or ethnicity. There has been a steady rise in births to white women, though the share of total births has dropped slightly to about one-quarter.

Nineteen years later, half of the births in the Corridor were to Latinas. More to the point, almost 43 percent of the 3,867 babies were born to immigrant mothers.

Herein lies both challenge and opportunity in the fight against childhood poverty in the Children’s Corridor. This demographic change was fueled, in part, by one of the largest waves of immigration – legal and illegal – in our nation’s history. With that immigration came many people with little formal education. The less education one has, the higher the risk of living in poverty.

According to the Urban Institute, newborns born into poverty and who spend at least half their childhoods in poverty are more likely to be poor as adults. They are more likely to enter their 20s without finishing high school. They are more likely become single, teen mothers.

About 20 percent of immigrants have less than a ninth-grade education compared to less than three percent of nonimmigrants, according to George Borjas, Harvard professor of social policy and economics. Focus on Mexican-born immigrants, who make up the largest group of immigrants in this country, and the challenge grows considerably. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, among Mexican-born immigrants ages 25 and older, 60 percent have less than a high school education, compared with 21 percent of other immigrants. Overall, Mexican-born immigrants are younger, less educated and less likely to speak English very well.

A little closer to home, you’ll find this: In 2010 in Colorado, there were 52,109 births to U.S.-born mothers, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Almost 12 percent of those moms did not graduate from high school or have a general education diploma. That same year, another 14,126 babies were born to immigrant mothers. Of those mothers, 43 percent did not graduate from high school or a GED.

More than half of these immigrant mothers were from Mexico. Of them, roughly seven in 10 did not graduate from high school or have a GED.

***

The work of combatting childhood poverty in the Corridor is, then, not only about providing more preschools or more parent education or prenatal care. It is also about immigrant integration. It is about bringing into the fold people who may be isolated by language or legal status, who may have different cultural understandings of how schools function or how parents teach their children or the need for education. It is about accepting that poverty is not always measured in the lack of dollars, but the lack of experience, imagination and opportunity. There is a difference between a mother being unable to take a parent education class because none exist around her and a mother unable to take a parenting class because she can’t speak English and a mother who asks, “what is parent education?”

“Some people don’t know what they don’t know,” says Cynthia Gallegos, executive director of the Focus Points Family Resource Center. “They have the desire. They just don’t have the tools.” The Center trains and sends Spanish-speaking parent educators into the homes of fellow Spanish speakers in the Corridor to teach mothers about the brain development of their children and what it takes to ready them for school.

If that is the challenge here, its flipside presents the opportunity. All that immigration has meant a Children’s Corridor that is younger than the rest of Denver. In that youth rests vast talent and energy. It has brought people who value hard work, family, community and who have demonstrated resourcefulness, resilience and ingenuity. They are laborers and business owners. “Immigrant parents are often pioneers in their own right,” Gallegos says. “Coming to an unfamiliar country is a courageous first step into the unknown.”

And there is this, says Yoal Ghebremeskel, an Eritrean immigrant who is engaged in community outreach for The Piton Foundation. “These immigrants and refugees they choose to come here, first of all, for their children. They want better for their children. They want them to be educated.”

Belen Aranda, center, prepares her daughter Alexandra, 2 months, to make a red hand stamp with Elvira Rivera, right, of Focus Points while Aranda’s other daughters, Susan, 3, left, and Corina, 4, watch and play. Aranda learns about child development and educational games as she teaches her kids.
Photo courtesy of the Denver Post

Great power exists in that yearning for better, in their willingness to sacrifice and in their   faith in this country to uplift their children. In that yearning, on that strength, the Corridor must be built.

A few weeks ago, in a home near the Glory apartment building, a refugee named Mulania Bathin, 24, admonished a group of teenage boys and girls she was helping ready for a fashion show. It would be the first time many in the audience would be exposed to different Burmese ethnicities, Mulania told them. Yes, they would wear traditional garb, but “show them,” she said. “You can be traditional and American.”

Four teenage Burmese refugees now living in Aurora, learning to negotiate their old world and their new home.

Metro-area facts

• Over the past 10 years, the number of students enrolled in ELL programs in metro school districts had increased 120% percent (source: CDE).
• ELL enrollment in APS has doubled, from 21% to 40% of the student body. APS has a graduation rate of 48.5% for all students and 31.5% for students with limited English language proficiency. In 2011 APS/DPS combined make up 24% of the metro school districts enrollment, but have 51% of the ELL students (source: CDE).
• In the seven county metro area, roughly 32,500 school-age kids (age 5 to 17) live in linguistically isolated households, which means no one over age 14 speaks English “very well” (source: American Community Survey, 2010).
• Every single metro school district had an increase in free and reduced lunch participation over the past 10 years (source: CDE).
• Three suburban school districts surpass DPS in FRL participation: Adams County 14 (in Commerce City), Sheridan and Westminster. Those same districts, along with APS, also surpass DPS in ELL enrollment (source: CDE).
• Boulder Valley has the largest performance gap between FRL and non-FRL students, but DPS and St. Vrain have gaps that are nearly as large (source: CDE).

Corridor facts

• There are 54,131 kids under 18. The school-age population breakdown: Elementary (age 5-10), 18,873; Middle (age 11-13), 7,636; High (age 14-17): 9,838 (source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).
• The Corridor is “younger” than Denver and the metro area: 29.7% of people in the Corridor are under 18, compared to 21.5% in Denver and 24.6% in the metro area (source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).
• Racial/ethnic demographics for youth: 56.5% Hispanic, 20.8% black, 14.5% white, 2.8% Asian, 5.0% other/two or more races, 0.4% American Indian (source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).
• An estimated 35,450 kids (two-thirds) are at risk, based on free and reduced lunch participation and births to low-education and teen mothers (sources: CDPHE, APS, DPS).
• Of the 36,755 Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools students living in the Corridor, 78.7% – 28,940 kids – participate in the free and reduced lunch program (sources: DPS, APS).
• In the Corridor, less than half of third-graders are reading at grade level and less than half of sixth-graders are proficient or advanced at math (source: CDE).

This infographic explores what data reveal about the level of education of mothers in the Children’s Corridor, and what that means for the future health and education outcomes of their children.

Download a PDF version

This map can help identify gaps and potential opportunities for service expansion.

Here is a printable map that displays the same data. On this version, the under 5 population is compiled by Corridor hub (click the image for a larger version or download a pdf):

Data notes: Service provider list up-to-date as of February 2012. Population data is from the 2010 Decennial Census.

The Children’s Corridor, which runs from Denver’s Five Points neighborhood to Green Valley Ranch and Original Aurora, has one of the fastest growing child populations in the state – and many of those children live in high-poverty areas. Of the 36,759 Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools students living in the Corridor, 79% qualify for free and reduced lunch, which means their families are living at or near poverty.

Public New Service reported on the data snapshot:

“Chris Watney, president and CEO of Colorado Children’s Campaign, says it is one of the biggest increases in the country – and it seems counterintuitive, because Colorado still is below the national rate of about 11 percent of children living in high-poverty communities.

“‘Our kids are faring worse, as far as trends. The thing that’s so alarming in Colorado is the rate at which this figure is growing. If it continues to grow at this rate, we will surpass the national average pretty quickly.’

“Watney says access to education – especially at the pre-kindergarten level – and health care can help break the cycle of poverty in neighborhoods.”

Here is how the child population of the Children’s Corridor breaks down by neighborhood hub:

• Near Northeast has 5,888 children; 86% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• Globeville and Elyria Swansea have 3,313 children; 95% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• North and Northeast Park Hill have 4,377 children; 72% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• Stapleton has 3,516 children; 10% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• Montbello has 11,137 children; 90% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• Green Valley Ranch has 10,074 children; 68% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch
• East Colfax and Original Aurora have 15,534 children; 83% of public school students qualify for free or reduced price lunch

The Public News Service article notes that, according to the KIDS COUNT report, “African-American, American Indian and Hispanic children are six to nine times more likely to live in high-poverty communities than their white counterparts.” Among the Children’s Corridor’s 54,000 youth, 56.5% are Hispanic, 20.8% are African-American and 14.5% are white.

Data Sources: KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot; U.S. Census Bureau 2010 Decennial Census; Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools October count, 2010.

Data Note: The KIDS COUNT analysis looked at the percent of children living in areas where more than 30% of the population is under the federal poverty level, based on the American Community Survey 2006-2010 data release. This is not a direct comparison with the free and reduced lunch participation, which measures the percent of public school students whose families are living under 180% of the federal poverty level.