U.S. Programs

More than 36 million people in the United States wake up each morning to face another day of life in poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau reports. They face difficult choices daily: Will they pay the rent or the medical bills? Will they buy school supplies for their children or put gas in their car so they can get to work?

In 2008, poverty is defined as by the United States Department of Health and Human Services as a family of four living on less than $21,200 a year. Yet the affects of poverty are more than lack of income, manifesting themselves in poor health, high school drop-out rates, and even homelessness. Here in the United States:

• Every 41 seconds a baby is born without health insurance.1
• Every 14 seconds a high school student drops out. 1
• Every 29 seconds a child is arrested. 1
• Each year, more than 800,000 children and youth experience homelessness. 2

Working together, we can tackle the causes of poverty that tether youth and families to lives of need and hopelessness.

Equipping Families in Need

Our vision is to give every child the chance to thrive and experience life in all its fullness. World Vision’s work in the United States is designed to tackle the causes of poverty by equipping and empowering distressed youth and their families to access the resources and knowledge they need to build a brighter future.

World Vision serves in the United States to build sustainable transformation in under-resourced communities. In every community where struggling people live, heroes also reside. World Vision’s U.S. Programs works alongside these local heroes—pastors, teachers, business owners, students, and parents—as they learn to transform their neighborhoods. In this way, communities gain the knowledge, resources, and confidence to effect their own change, breaking the cycle of poverty.

Through partnerships in 15 major urban and rural communities across the United States, World Vision addresses needs here at home through three primary programs: Training and Capacity Building, Youth Empowerment, and Emergency Response and Disaster Relief.

Our goal is to help children and youth who are the most impacted by poverty as defined by economics, as well as:

• Lack of access to skills, services, resources and opportunities
• Lack of a safe and secure environment, including caring relationships
• Social and economic isolation and alienation (discrimination and oppression)
• Internalized oppression which leads to a loss of hope, self worth and dignity

To this end, in fiscal year 2007, 1.6 million children and adults received critical necessities valued at more than $50 million through World Vision’s U.S. Programs. More than 361,000 children and youth received academic support through one-to-one mentoring, tutoring, and essential school supplies.

About our leader:

Vice-President, Romanita Hairston, Biography.

Click here to see our 2008 Annual Review in pdf.

1 Children’s Defense Fund; March, 2008.

3 U.S. Department of Education, 2008.