Boston University hosts “Cities & Kids”

On March 23, 2017, in the Metcalf Trustee Center, Boston University Initiative on Cities hosted “Cities & Kids: Enabling Optimal Development for Urban Youth,” in partnership with Boston University School of Public Health.

With more that 80% of American youth living in urban areas, children are affected by the social, natural and built environments of the cities they live in. This one-day conference brought together government officials, public health professionals, youth and family advocates and young people to “explore the unique challenges posed by urban living and the ways in which cities spur and enable the positive environments that help children thrive.”

The morning began with opening remarks from Graham Wilson, Director and Professor of BU Initiatives, and Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at BU School of Public Health. Directly following their introductions, keynote speaker and President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Patrick McCarthy, gave the Foundational Discussion: The State of Urban Youth in America for the conference. The address focused on identifying and confronting the challenges for urban youth in America. He said, “I don’t think any issue could be more critical than our kids, the issues that face them, and how cities can help to eliminate or reduce some of those challenges.”

The morning continued with the first conference panel. Moderated by BU School of Social Work Associate Professor Ruth Paris, this panel on “The Family Environment,” which explored the issues of economic, mental, and physical well-being as well as cognitive, social, and emotional development and the supports that foster health family environments and where they come from. On the panel were Megan Bair-Merrit, MD, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Cherie Craft. Following an introduction by Professor Ruth Paris, each gave a short presentation.

The panel’s first speaker, Dr. Megan Bair-Merritt, is an associate professor and pediatrician at BU School of Medicine as well as the associate director of the division on general pediatrics and fellowship director at Boston Medical Center. She spoke on intimate partner violence, toxic stress, and their effects on child health. “Caring for children means caring for parents,” Dr. Bair-Merritt said. She stressed the importance of the collaboration in research and practice to address child health saying, “Health in infancy and childhood predicts health in adulthood.”

Cherie Craft, second panelist and Founding Executive Director of Smart from the Start, a family support and school readiness organization, spoke about her organization’s approach to creating healthy family environments. With a mission, “to prevent the academic achievement gap among children living in the lowest income families and communities”, Craft explained that Smart from the Start uses a strength based approach, acknowledging that all families and caregivers have strengths. Seeking to permanently develop successful generational cycles, Smart from the Start uses a two-generational framework in tandem with authentic community engagement to present an ecological and holistic approach to the work that they do. Craft noted that it was important to celebrate where we are and where we come from saying, “The change we seek must come from the community we serve.” Smart from the Start provides a one-stop shop, housing as many services possible for the community it serves, in the community it serves.

Last on the panel, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, associate professor of sociology at Saint Joseph’s University, presented on neighborhoods, parenting, and youth outcomes. Through exploration of Moving to Opportunity (MTO), a research demonstration that partners rental assistance with housing counseling to help low-income families move to low-poverty area, Clampet-Lundquist explained that social policy can interrupt negative intergenerational cycles, if not in the way it was first thought. While educational, employment, or welfare effects were not necessarily seen, health and mental health were impacted, showing that gains in neighborhoods matter. “Data indicates that they (low-income caregivers) need to be able to raise their kids in the same environments that the middle class does,” she said. This improvement in the qualities of neighborhoods is an investment in youth development.

Following the three short presentations was a question and answer session, moderated by Professor Ruth Paris who asked the first question, “You all mentioned in your presentations the importance of working in communities, how would you leverage your programs and findings in today’s political climate to do the work to interrupt those intergenerational cycles of poverty, and convince people that these practices are essential?” In their responses, the panel stressed focusing on cost savings and the ability to show that the work has a positive effect on the bottom line, framing the narrative, empowering the public, and developing partnership, especially with the families, saying “You cannot serve a child and help in their development in isolation from their family.”

The day concluded with two more panels, “The Build and Natural Environment” and “The Community Environment,” as well as another keynote address, “Setting an Urban Youth Agenda” by Mayor Michael Nutter, former Mayor of Philadelphia and David N. Dinkins Professor of Professional Practice in Urban and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

“Cities & Kids” is the first of a two-part series: Cities and Health Across the Life Course. The second, “Cities & Aging,” is scheduled for Spring 2018.