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Sustainability means that a process or state can be maintained at a certain level for as long as is wanted. In the 21st century, it refers generally to how the Earth and humans can co-exist.

The study of ecology believes that sustainability is achieved through the balance of species and the resources within their environment. To maintain this equilibrium, available resources must not be depleted faster than resources are naturally generated.

Healthy ecosystems and environments are necessary to the survival of humans and other organisms. Ways of reducing negative human impact are environmentally-friendly chemical engineering, environmental resources management and environmental protection. Information is gained from green computing, green chemistry, earth science, environmental science and conservation biology. Ecological economics studies the fields of academic research that aim to address human economies and natural ecosystems.

Ways of living more sustainably can take many forms from reorganizing living conditions (e.g., ecovillages, eco-municipalities and sustainable cities), reappraising economic sectors ( permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture), or work practices (sustainable architecture), using science to develop new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy and sustainable fission and fusion power), or designing systems in a flexible and reversible manner, and adjusting individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources.

Despite the increased popularity of the use of the term "sustainability", the possibility that human societies will achieve environmental sustainability has been, and continues to be, questioned-in light of environmental degradation, climate change, overconsumption, population growth and societies' pursuit of unlimited economic growth in a closed system.

Environmental dimension

Healthy ecosystems provide vital goods and services to humans and other organisms. There are two major ways of reducing negative human impact and enhancing ecosystem services and the first of these is environmental management. This direct approach is based largely on information gained from earth science, environmental science and conservation biology.

Environmental management

At the global scale and in the broadest sense environmental management involves the oceans, freshwater systems, land and atmosphere, it can also be equally applied to any ecosystem from a tropical rainforest to a home garden.

Atmosphere

Management of the global atmosphere now involves assessment of all aspects of the carbon cycle to identify opportunities to address human-induced climate change and this has become a major focus of scientific research because of the potential catastrophic effects on biodiversity and human communities.

Other human impacts on the atmosphere include the air pollution in cities, the pollutants including toxic chemicals like nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter that produce photochemical smog and acid rain, and the chlorofluorocarbons that degrade the ozone layer.

Freshwater and oceans

Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface. Of this, 97.5% is the salty water of the oceans and only 2.5% freshwater, most of which is locked up in the Antarctic ice sheet. The remaining freshwater is found in glaciers, lakes, rivers, wetlands, the soil, aquifers and atmosphere. Due to the water cycle, fresh water supply is continually replenished by precipitation, however there is still a limited amount necessitating management of this resource.

Awareness of the global importance of preserving water for ecosystem services has only recently emerged as, during the 20th century, more than half the world's wetlands have been lost along with their valuable environmental services. Increasing urbanization pollutes clean water supplies and much of the world still does not have access to clean, safe water. Greater emphasis is now being placed on the improved management of blue (harvestable) and green (soil water available for plant use) water, and this applies at all scales of water management.

Ocean circulation patterns have a strong influence on climate and weather and, in turn, the food supply of both humans and other organisms. Scientists have warned of the possibility, under the influence of climate change, of a sudden alteration in circulation patterns of ocean currents that could drastically alter the climate in some regions of the globe. Ten per cent of the world's population - about 600 million people - live in low-lying areas vulnerable to sea level rise.

Loss of biodiversity stems largely from the habitat loss. Land use change is fundamental to the operations of the biosphere because alterations in the relative proportions of land dedicated to urbanisation, agriculture, forest, woodland, grassland and pasture have a marked effect on the global water, carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles and this can impact negatively on both natural and human systems. At the local human scale, major sustainability benefits accrue from sustainable parks and gardens and green cities.

Food is essential to life. Feeding more than six billion human bodies takes a heavy toll on the Earth's resources. Environmental problems associated with industrial agriculture and agribusiness are now being addressed through such movements as sustainable agriculture, organic farming and more sustainable business practices.

Management of human consumption

The underlying driver of direct human impacts on the environment is human consumption. This impact is reduced by not only consuming less but by also making the full cycle of production, use and disposal more sustainable.

Key resource categories relating to human needs are food, energy, materials and water.

The Sun's energy, stored by plants ( primary producers) during photosynthesis, passes through the food chain to other organisms to ultimately power all living processes.

Since the industrial revolution the concentrated energy of the Sun stored in fossilized plants as fossil fuels has been a major driver of technology which, in turn, has been the source of both economic and political power. In 2007 climate scientists of the IPCC concluded that there was at least a 90% probability that atmospheric increase in CO ₂ was human-induced, mostly as a result of fossil fuel emissions but, to a lesser extent from changes in land use. Stabilizing the world's climate will require high-income countries to reduce their emissions by 60-90%.

Reducing greenhouse emissions, is being tackled at all scales, ranging from tracking the passage of carbon through the carbon cycle to the commercialization of renewable energy, developing less carbon-hungry technology and transport systems and attempts by individuals to lead carbon neutral lifestyles by monitoring the fossil fuel use embodied in all the goods and services they use.

Water security and food security are inextricably linked. In the decade 1951-60 human water withdrawals were four times greater than the previous decade. This rapid increase resulted from scientific and technological developments impacting through the economy - especially the increase in irrigated land, growth in industrial and power sectors, and intensive dam construction on all continents. This altered the water cycle of rivers and lakes, affected their water quality and had a significant impact on the global water cycle.

Currently towards 35% of human water use is unsustainable, drawing on diminishing aquifers and reducing the flows of major rivers: this percentage is likely to increase if climate change impacts become more severe, populations increase, aquifers become progressively depleted and supplies become polluted and unsanitary.

Water efficiency is being improved on a global scale by increased demand management, improved infrastructure, improved water productivity of agriculture, minimising the water intensity (embodied water) of goods and services, addressing shortages in the non-industrialised world, concentrating food production in areas of high productivity, and planning for climate change. At the local level, people are becoming more self-sufficient by harvesting rainwater and reducing use of mains water.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) defines a "sustainable food system" as "one that provides healthy food to meet current food needs while maintaining healthy ecosystems that can also provide food for generations to come with minimal negative impact to the environment. A sustainable food system also encourages local production and distribution infrastructures and makes nutritious food available, accessible, and affordable to all. Further, it is humane and just, protecting farmers and other workers, consumers, and communities."

Concerns about the environmental impacts of agribusiness and the stark contrast between the obesity problems of the Western world and the poverty and food insecurity of the developing world have generated a strong movement towards healthy, sustainable eating as a major component of overall ethical consumerism. The environmental effects of different dietary patterns depend on many factors, including the proportion of animal and plant foods consumed and the method of food production.

A Mediterranean diet is recommended which is associated with health and longevity and is low in meat, rich in fruits and vegetables, low in added sugar and limited salt, and low in saturated fatty acids; the traditional source of fat in the Mediterranean is olive oil, rich in monounsaturated fat. The healthy rice-based Japanese diet is also high in carbohydrates and low in fat. Both diets are low in meat and saturated fats and high in legumes and other vegetables; they are associated with a low incidence of ailments and low environmental impact.

At the global level the environmental impact of agribusiness is being addressed through sustainable agriculture and organic farming. At the local level there are various movements working towards local food production, more productive use of urban wastelands and domestic gardens including permaculture, urban horticulture, local food, slow food, sustainable gardening, and organic gardening.

Sustainable seafood is seafood from either fished or farmed sources that can maintain or increase production in the future without jeopardizing the ecosystems from which it was acquired. The sustainable seafood movement has gained momentum as more people become aware about both overfishing and environmentally-destructive fishing methods.

Materials, toxic substances, waste

As global population and affluence has increased, so has the use of various materials increased in volume, diversity and distance transported. Included here are raw materials, minerals, synthetic chemicals (including hazardous substances), manufactured products, food, living organisms and waste. By 2050, humanity could consume an estimated 140 billion tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year (three times its current amount) unless the economic growth rate is decoupled from the rate of natural resource consumption. Developed countries' citizens consume an average of 16 tons of those four key resources per capita (ranging up to 40 or more tons per person in some developed countries with resource consumption levels far beyond what is likely sustainable.

Sustainable use of materials has targeted the idea of dematerialization, converting the linear path of materials (extraction, use, disposal in landfill) to a circular material flow that reuses materials as much as possible, much like the cycling and reuse of waste in nature. This approach is supported by product stewardship and the increasing use of material flow analysis at all levels, especially individual countries and the global economy. The use of sustainable biomaterials that come from renewable sources and that can be recycled is preferred to the use on non-renewables from a life cycle standpoint.

Synthetic chemical production has escalated following the stimulus it received during the second World War. Chemical production includes everything from herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers to domestic chemicals and hazardous substances. Apart from the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, chemicals of particular concern include: heavy metals, nuclear waste, chlorofluorocarbons, persistent organic pollutants and all harmful chemicals capable of bioaccumulation. Although most synthetic chemicals are harmless there needs to be rigorous testing of new chemicals, in all countries, for adverse environmental and health effects. International legislation has been established to deal with the global distribution and management of dangerous goods.

Every economic activity produces material that can be classified as waste. To reduce waste industry, business and government are now mimicking nature by turning the waste produced by industrial metabolism into resource. Dematerialization is being encouraged through the ideas of industrial ecology, ecodesign and ecolabelling. In addition to the well-established "reduce, reuse and recycle," shoppers are using their purchasing power for ethical consumerism.

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Changes in environmental conditions lead to coral bleaching and harm to biodiversity of fragile marine ecosystems.

In Spanish: Sostenibilidad para niños

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Let’s make a change: sustainability! - National Geographic Kids

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Learn all about sustainability and why moving towards a circular economy will protect our planet for generations to come!

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Sustainability for kids: fun ways to go green!

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Kids Environment Kids Health - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - Three great ways YOU can eliminate waste and protect your environment!

Waste, and how we choose to handle it, affects our world's environment-that's YOUR environment. The environment is everything around you including the air, water, land, plants, and man-made things. And since by now you probably know that you need a healthy environment for your own health and happiness, you can understand why effective waste management is so important to YOU and everyone else. The waste we create has to be carefully controlled to be sure that it does not harm your environment and your health.

What exactly is "waste?"

Waste is anything we throw away or get rid of, that doesn't get used.

How can you help?

You can help by learning about and practicing the three R's of waste management: Reduce, reuse, and recycle! Practicing all three of these activities every day is not only important for a healthy environment, but it can also be fun too. So let's take a minute right now to learn more about waste and waste management, so you can become a key player in making our world a safe and healthy place.

Other stuff you might like ...

Science & Scientists

What is science and who are scientists?

What's That Word

Scientific Dictionary

Not sure of what a word means?

Hazardous waste and chemicals are harmful to human health. They contain dangerous chemicals and can be a liquid, solid, or gas. Some of them can be found in your house or around you. Learn more about hazardous wastes.

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Waste, and how we choose to handle it, affects our world's environment-that's YOUR environment. The environment is everything around you including the air, water, land, plants, and man-made things.

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Understanding Homelessness for Kids - Blanchet House

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A guide for teaching kids about homelessness - what it means to be houseless, the causes of homelessness, and how to help.

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Parents and Kids Talk About Homelessness

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Homelessness means people who do not have a place to stay. The word "homelessness" also includes people who sleep in warming centers, homeless shelters, or in abandoned buildings, parking garages, or other places not meant for humans to live in. Homelessness occurs for many reasons. It may happen when people or households are unable to buy and/or maintain housing they can afford. International human rights law includes the right to housing.

Homeless people

In academic articles and government reports, these people are called "homeless people". You may hear different words to describe homelessness and homeless people. Some of these words apply to people who might not be homeless. Sometimes they are based upon stereotypes. For instance, in slang, a vagabond is someone who travels without the money necessary to stay in good hotels. Such a person may or may not have a home somewhere. Sometimes police reports use the word "transient" to describe people from out of town or who are passing through. Many times these words confuse the issues because someone just passing through might own a mansion somewhere or might not.

There are tough questions in sorting out homeless people even when trying to create programs and services to help them. Homeless counts are required by the government agencies that deal with homelessness. In the USA, for instance, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency requires a homeless "enumeration" count every two years. They classify "homeless" in a careful way and that way is very influential and a lot of other agencies and church groups copy it.

HUD definitions

Housing and Urban Development of the United States spreads information about what does and does not work when providing shelter for homeless people. That information about the things that seem to works is called "best practices". HUD defines homeless as 1. somebody who lacks a fixed, regular, and decent place to sleep at night or 2. somebody who sleeps at night in A.a supervised shelter (including welfare hotels, homeless shelters, warming centers and transitional housing) ; B.a place that provides a temporary residence for people waiting for space in a place like a hospital, jail or hospice; or C.a place not designed for human beings to sleep, such as parks or public streets.

A new focus: people who live outside

The "C" part of the HUD definition is now getting more attention. It is called "chronic homelessness". (HUD) defines a "chronically homeless" person as "an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition". There are other conditions to that definition. It has to be someone who has either been homeless for a year or more, or has been homeless four episodes times in the past three years."

People who study these things believe that the "chronic" homeless cost a lot more than the rest. A new approach is to seek information on who those folks are. They are using what is called a vulnerability index system. It was invented by a doctor in Boston who works with a New York organization called Common Ground. These "Vulnerability Index's" code for things like bad liver, kidney disease, HIV-AIDS, age and visits to the hospital.

In the sixteenth century in England, the government first tried to give housing to vagabonds instead of punishing them. In the eighteenth century, these houses were replaced by workhouses. These were later replaced by dormitory housing ("spikes"). By the early 1930's in England, there were 30,000 people living in these places.

In most countries, many towns and cities had an area where all the poor, transients, and afflicted lived, such as a "skid row". In smaller towns, there were hobos, who camped near train tracks and hopped onto trains from place to place. Many places where people were once allowed to loiter(such as churches, public libraries and public atriums) became more strict as the number of homeless people grew.

In the 1980s, in the United States, some new laws were made for the homeless as a result of the work of Congressman Stewart B. McKinney. In 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was enacted. Several organisations in some cities, such as New York and Boston, tried to help the growing number of homeless people in a new way.

Main causes

The main reasons for homelessness have been studied in many reports and studies. For example:

Health care

Health care for the homeless is a major public health challenge. Homeless people are more likely to suffer injuries and medical problems from their lifestyle on the street. Some have skin conditions from being out in the sun without sunscreen to protect themselves from UV radiation. It is hard to find places to wash up, and homeless people are exposed to extreme cold and hot sun. It is tough finding good food for many homeless people so they tend to suffer from medical conditions. This can include obesity if they eat a lot of poor quality food with empty calories. Homeless people also may have more severe dental problems than the general population due to lack of access to washrooms and in some cases excess intake of sweets, which may be the only food available. Diabetes and liver problems are not uncommon, as are diseases associated with cigarette smoking.

Vulnerability Index

The vulnerability index is a tool for finding out who among the street homeless population needs health care and housing the most.

The vulnerability index is from the work of Dr. Jim O'Connell of Boston's Healthcare for the Homeless. He was concerned about the causes of death of unsheltered homeless individuals living on the street. A national drive is underway by Common Ground to work with the HUD homeless count. Since communities are doing the count, he believes that is a good time to do the vulnerability index too. Its' people say that using it will help getting needy individuals off the street.

The vulnerability index has been tried out in a lot of other places not just the East Coast. These include New Mexico and Santa Monica

Developing and undeveloped countries

The number of homeless people worldwide has grown steadily in the past few years. In some Third World nations such as Brazil, India, Nigeria, and South Africa, homelessness is a very big problem, with millions of children living and working on the streets. Homelessness has also become a problem in China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan.

Assistance and resources

Main page: Homelessness services

Further information: List of homelessness organizations

Most countries provide a variety of services to assist homeless people. Provisions of food, shelter, and clothing and may be organized and run by community organizations, often with the help of volunteers, or by government departments. Assistance programs may be supported by government, charities, churches, and individual donors. However, not all homeless people can access these resources. In 1998, a study by Koegel and Schoeni of a homeless population in Los Angeles, California, found that a significant minority of homeless did not participate in government assistance programs, with high transaction costs being a likely contributing factor.

Social supports

While some homeless people are known to have a community with one another, providing each other various types of support, people who are not homeless also may provide them friendship, relational care, and other forms of assistance. Such social supports may occur through a formal process, such as under the auspices of a non-governmental organization, religious organization, or homeless ministry, or may be done on an individual basis.

Employment

The United States Department of Labor has sought to address one of the main causes of homelessness, a lack of meaningful and sustainable employment, through targeted training programs and increased access to employment opportunities that can help homeless people develop sustainable lifestyles. This has included the development of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which addresses homelessness on the federal level in addition to connecting homeless individuals to resources at the state level. All individuals who are in need of assistance are able, in theory, to access employment and training services under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), although this is contingent upon funding and program support by the government.

Income sources outside of regular employment

Waste management

Homeless people can also use waste management services to earn money. Some homeless people find returnable bottles and cans and bring them to recycling centers to earn money. They can sort out organic trash from other trash or separate out trash made of the same material (for example, different types of plastics, and different types of metal). In addition, rather than sorting waste at landfills, they can also collect litter found on/beside the road to earn an income.

Street newspapers

Street newspapers are newspapers or magazines sold by homeless or poor individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities, making them a tool for allowing homeless individuals to work.

The 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could provide new healthcare options for homeless people in the United States, particularly through the optional expansion of Medicaid. A 2013 Yale study indicated that a substantial proportion of the chronically homeless population in America would be able to obtain Medicaid coverage if states expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

In 1985, the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program was founded to assist the growing numbers of homeless living on the streets and in shelters in Boston and who were suffering from a lack of effective medical services. In 2004, Boston Health Care for the Homeless in conjunction with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council published a medical manual called The Health Care of Homeless Persons, edited by James J. O'Connell, M.D., specifically for the treatment of the homeless population. In June 2008 in Boston, the Jean Yawkey Place, a four-story, 7,214.2-square-metre (77,653 sq ft) building, was opened by the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. It is an entire full-service building on the Boston Medical Center campus dedicated to providing healthcare for homeless people. It also contains a long-term care facility, the Barbara McInnis House, which expanded to 104 beds and is the first and largest medical respite program for homeless people in the United States.

In Los Angeles, a collaboration between the Ostrow School of Dentistry of the University of Southern California and the Union Rescue Mission shelter offer homeless people in the Skid Row area free dental services.

Studies on the effects of intensive mental health interventions have demonstrated some improvements in housing stability and to be economically beneficial on cost-analysis.

Permanent supportive housing (PSH) interventions appear to have improvements in housing stability for people living with homelessness even in long-term.

Savings from housing homeless in the US

In 2013, a Central Florida Commission on Homelessness study indicated that the region spends $31,000 a year per homeless person to cover "salaries of law enforcement officers to arrest and transport homeless individuals - largely for nonviolent offenses such as trespassing, public intoxication or sleeping in parks - as well as the cost of jail stays, emergency room visits and hospitalization for medical and psychiatric issues. This did not include "money spent by nonprofit agencies to feed, clothe and sometimes shelter these individuals". In contrast, the report estimated the cost of permanent supportive housing at "$10,051 per person per year" and concluded that "[h]ousing even half of the region's chronically homeless population would save taxpayers $149 million over the next decade - even allowing for 10 percent to end up back on the streets again." This particular study followed 107 long-term-homeless residents living in Orange, Osceola or Seminole Counties. There are similar studies showing large financial savings in Charlotte and Southeastern Colorado from focusing on simply housing the homeless."

In general, housing interventions had mixed economic results on cost-analysis studies.

Innovative solutions

Los Angeles conducted a competition promoted by Mayor Eric Garcetti soliciting ideas from developers to use bond money more efficiently in building housing for the city's homeless population. The top five winners were announced on 1 February 2019 and the concepts included using assembly-ready molded polymer panels that can be put together with basic tools, prefabricated 5-story stack-able houses, erecting privately financed modular buildings on properties that do not require City Council approval, using bond money to convert residential garages into small apartments which are then dedicated to homeless rentals, and the redeveloping of Bungalow-court units, the small low-income iconic buildings that housed 7% of the city's population in the 1920s.

In the neighborhood of Westlake, Los Angeles, the city is funding the first transitionally homeless housing building using "Cargotecture", or "architecture built from repurposed shipping containers." The Hope on Alvarado micro-apartment building will consist of 4-stories of 84 containers stacked together like Lego bricks on top of a traditionally constructed ground floor. Completion is anticipated by the end of 2019.

Political action

Voting for elected officials is important for the homeless population to have a voice in the democratic process.

There are also many community organizations and social movements around the world which are taking action to reduce homelessness. They have sought to counteract the causes and reduce the consequences by starting initiatives that help homeless people transition to self-sufficiency. Social movements and initiatives tend to follow a grassroots, community-based model of organization - generally characterized by a loose, informal and decentralized structure, with an emphasis on radical protest politics. By contrast, an interest group aims to influence government policies by relying on more of a formal organizational structure. These groups share a common element: they are both made up of and run by a mix of allies of the homeless population and former or current members of the homeless population. Both grassroots groups and interest groups aim to break stereotyped images of homeless people as being weak and hapless, or defiant criminals, and to ensure that the voice of homeless people and their representatives is clearly heard by policymakers.

Organizing in homeless shelters

Homeless shelters can become grounds for community organization and the recruitment of homeless individuals into social movements for their own cause. Cooperation between the shelter and an elected representative from the homeless community at each shelter can serve as the backbone of this type of initiative. The representative presents and forwards problems raises concerns and provides new ideas to the director and staff of the shelters. Examples of possible problems are ways to deal with substance use disorders by certain shelter users, and resolution of interpersonal conflicts. SAND, the Danish National Organization for Homeless People, is one example of an organization that uses this empowerment approach. Issues reported at the homeless shelters are then addressed by SAND at the regional or national level. To open further dialogue, SAND organizes regional discussion forums where staff and leaders from the shelters, homeless representatives, and local authorities meet to discuss issues and good practices at the shelters.

Veteran specific

Main page: Homeless veterans in the United States

There are a number of homeless organizations that support homeless veterans, an issue most commonly seen in the United States.

Non-governmental organizations house or redirect homeless veterans to care facilities. Social Security Income/Social Security Disability Income, Access, Outreach, Recovery Program (SOAR) is a national project. It is designed to increase access to SSI/SSDI for eligible adults who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and have a mental illness or a co-occurring substance use disorder. Using a three-pronged approach of Strategic Planning, Training, and Technical Assistance (TA), the SOAR TA Center coordinates this effort at the state and community level.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Administration have a special Section 8 housing voucher program called VASH (Veterans Administration Supported Housing), or HUD-VASH, which gives out a certain number of Section 8 subsidized housing vouchers to eligible homeless and otherwise vulnerable US armed forces veterans. The HUD-VASH program has shown success in housing many homeless veterans. The support available to homeless veterans varies internationally, however. For example, in England, where there is a national right to housing, veterans are only prioritized by local authority homelessness teams if they are found to be vulnerable due to having served in the Armed Forces.

Under the Department of Labor, the Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) offers a variety of programs targeted at ending homelessness among veterans. The Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Program (HVRP) is the only national program that is exclusively focused on assisting veterans as they reenter the workforce. The VETS program also has an Incarcerated Veterans' Transition Program, as well as services that are unique to female Veterans. Mainstream programs initiated by the Department of Labor have included the Workforce Investment Act, One-Stop Career Centers, and a Community Voice Mail system that helps to connect homeless individuals around the United States with local resources. Targeted labor programs have included the Homeless Veterans' Reintegration Project, the Disability Program Navigator Initiative, efforts to end chronic homelessness through providing employment and housing projects, Job Corps, and the Veterans Workforce Investment Program (VWIP).

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In Spanish: Sinhogarismo para niños

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Introduction
Few social problems are as visible as the plight of the homeless. Once an invisible people who could easily be ignored, the homeless are now a common sight in cities, suburbs, and even some rural areas. There are men who roam the streets carrying what is left of their possessions in shopping bags or grocery carts. There are women curled up on benches, in stairwells, or under bridges. There are families, typically mothers and children, scrounging for food and shelter. Homelessness takes many forms, but most homeless people have one thing in common: poverty.

Scope and Causes
Homelessness exists in every country of the world. Because of a lack of reliable statistics, it is impossible to measure homelessness with great accuracy. The United Nations (UN) has estimated that 100 million people worldwide do not have a permanent place to live. In the United States, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issues a report on homelessness each year. In 2017 HUD found that 554,000 people were homeless on a single night that year. This figure does not give a complete picture, however, because the homeless population is constantly shifting. The number of people who experience homelessness at some point over the course of a year is much higher than the single-night figure. In 2015, for example, HUD found that nearly 1.5 million Americans were homeless for at least part of the year.

Homelessness has a number of causes, many of which are closely related. One major cause is a lack of affordable housing. Some people cannot afford rent or mortgage payments because they are unemployed. They may be unable to find work because of a struggling economy or because of physical or mental illness. The loss of a job can cause some families to join the ranks of the homeless for a period of days or weeks. Once another job is found, the family can usually afford shelter once more. Other homeless people have jobs but do not make enough to pay for housing, sometimes because the cost of living in their neighborhood has risen. People may also slip into homelessness after living through war, a natural disaster, or a personal hardship, such as domestic abuse.

Homelessness in the United States
The 2017 HUD report found that more than half of the homeless in the United States lived in one of five states: California, New York, Florida, Texas, or Washington. They were concentrated in urban areas, particularly in the largest cities. New York City and Los Angeles alone accounted for almost one-fourth of the country's homeless.

The HUD report described the homeless as either sheltered or unsheltered. Sheltered homeless spend the night in emergency shelters or in transitional, or temporary, housing. Unsheltered homeless sleep on the streets, in cars, in abandoned buildings, or in other places not meant for sleeping. The report found that about two-thirds of the homeless in the United States were sheltered and the rest were unsheltered.

About two-thirds of the homeless in 2017 were individuals living alone. The other third were people in families with children. Six out of 10 homeless people were male. About two out of 10 were children. Some groups experience homelessness at much higher rates than others. For example, 41 percent of the homeless in 2017 were African Americans, though they made up only 13 percent of the country's population overall. In addition, adults with disabilities are more than three times more likely to be homeless than adults without disabilities. Veterans have also suffered high rates of homelessness.

Helping the Homeless
The United Nations has defined access to housing as a human right. Therefore, it considers homelessness to be a human rights violation caused by unjust inequalities in income and wealth. The UN has called on governments throughout the world to do more to combat the problem.

Government responses to homelessness have varied. England passed a law in 1977 that required local authorities to house the homeless. However, the Homeless Persons Act promised assistance only to the homeless who were considered a "priority." This meant that homeless families with children often received help while homeless individuals were turned away. A new law passed in 2017 required local councils to house all of the homeless regardless of their priority status.

In the United States, the first major law to address homelessness was the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. It provided basic services for the homeless, with an emphasis on emergency services. By the early 2000s the government focused more on finding transitional or permanent housing for the homeless. It also funded programs aimed at preventing homelessness among youth. In addition to federal efforts, local governments and private groups have played a vital role in funding and running programs to help the homeless.

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Few social problems are as visible as the plight of the homeless. Once an invisible people who could easily be ignored, the homeless are now a common sight in cities,...

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In 1970, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, several hundred demonstrators marched past the Stonewall Inn. It is considered the first Gay Pride march. At first, Pride demonstrations focused only on participants being proud to declare their identity. However, by the 1980s, members of the LGBT community began to use the events to call for more rights.

Gay Pride, or Pride, is now an annual celebration of LGBT identity. In many places Pride takes place in June to remember the Stonewall riots. Pride typically involves a series of events, such as concerts and social events. It often concludes with a parade involving marchers from the LGBT community and its supporters and colorful floats. In cities such as Paris, London, and San Francisco, Pride events usually attract several hundred thousand to more than a million celebrants every year.

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In 1970, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, several hundred demonstrators marched past the Stonewall Inn. It is considered the first Gay Pride march. At first, Pride demonstrations focused only on participants being proud to declare their identity. However, by the 1980s, members of the LGBT community began to use the events to call for more rights.

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LGBTQ+ History - You and Your Identity | Twinkl Kids Tv

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LGBT is an acronym connected with human sexuality.

It is a word which has been used since the 1990s, and was a change from the previous acronym LGB or the group of words gay community, because many people in the LGBT community did not think that the group of words accurately described everyone it was referring to.

It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.

To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

Those who add intersex people to LGBT groups may use the extended initialism LGBTI. These two initialisms are sometimes combined to form the terms LGBTIQ  or LGBT+ to encompass spectrums of sexuality and gender. Other common variants also exist, such as LGBTQIA+, with the A standing for " asexual".

The acronyms have become more normal to use now and have been taken up by most gender identity-related community centres in America, the English-speaking countries and in other countries where the acronym means something in their languages, such as France and Argentina.

Related pages

Images for kids

LGBT publications, pride parades, and related events, such as this stage at Bologna Pride 2008 in Italy, increasingly drop the LGBT initialism instead of regularly adding new letters, and dealing with issues of placement of those letters within the new title.

People gathering at the Senate Square, Helsinki, right before the 2011 Helsinki Pride parade started

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LGBT is an acronym connected with human sexuality. It is a word which has been used since the 1990s, and was a change from the previous acronym LGB or the group of words gay community, because many people in the LGBT community did not think that the group of words accurately described everyone it was referring to.

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What is a refugee? (or a displaced person)

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In 1951, the United Nations (UN) law called Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, said a refugee was a person who is forced to leave their country due to natural disasters or war and conflict

owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.

In 1967 the Conventions' 1967 protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war and violence in their country. A person who is seeking to be recognized as a refugee is an asylum seeker. In the United States a recognized asylum seeker is known as an asylee.

A refugee is a person who has to leave his or her country. This can be because of different reasons:

It is no longer safe to stay, there might be a natural disaster such as flood or famine, war, or civil unrest

There might be persecutions going on.

The person is unable to sustain himself or herself economically.

The person might have been expelled

The person might have to leave for religious reasons

Images for kids

Refugees from Herzegovina, painting by Uroš Predić in 1889 made in the aftermath of the Herzegovina Uprising (1875-77)

For over 30 years, several tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees have been living in the region of Tindouf, Algeria, in the heart of the desert.

After challenging Queen Jezebel, Elijah takes refuge in a cave until the voice of God calls him in this 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld.

Pro-refugee protest in Melbourne, Australia, with a banner reading "No one is illegal" with a Circle A

In Spanish: Refugiado para niños

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Kids, refugees, questions: 'What is it like to have no home?'

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When people leave their country to seek refuge, or protection, in another country, they are called refugees. Sometimes governments force people to leave their country. Other...

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In Washington, D.C. and other American cities, people are protesting police violence against people of color. The protesters, and many others too, are upset that black people in particular continue to die in encounters with police.

Best-selling YA author Jason Reynolds has grappled with racism personally and in his writing. The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature also recently co-authored a book for young people on fighting racism: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.

We've asked Jason Reynolds to join Kojo For Kids to help us understand what has led to the tensions we've seen over the last week, and to talk about why racism persists and what we can do to build a less racist society.
This show is part of the "Kojo For Kids" series, a Kojo Nnamdi Show segment featuring guests of special interest to young listeners. Though Kojo has been on WAMU 88.5 for 20 years, this is the first time he has had the opportunity to reach out to an audience of kids, most of whom until recently had been in school during our live broadcast. We're excited to hear from our youngest listeners! Join us! Produced by Lauren Markoe

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Kojo For Kids: Jason Reynolds Talks About Racism And The Protests - The Kojo Nnamdi Show

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In Washington, D.C. and other American cities, people are protesting police violence against people of color. The protesters, and many others too, are upset that black people in particular continue to die in encounters with police. Best-selling YA author Jason Reynolds has grappled with racism personally and in his writing.

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In June 2020, Sesame Workshop began a study of how kids and families in the United States feel and talk about racism. Researchers questioned 147 families with children from ages 6 to 11. In January 2021, they checked in with the families again to see how their perspectives had changed.

The study, Coming Together: Family Reflections on Racism, will be released today. Sesame Workshop shared the results with TIME for Kids first. They show that most kids think people of different races are not treated fairly in the U.S. Many kids have witnessed an act of racism. And nearly half say they've experienced discrimination themselves.

"Racism has always been in our society," Sesame Workshop's Tanya Haider told TFK Kid Reporter Sophia Hou on June 3. Haider is Sesame's chief strategy officer and executive vice president of research and ventures. "We know it. We acknowledge it," she says. "But what happened last summer-and the protests that followed-really has brought it to attention."

On May 25, a man named George Floyd was killed by a police officer during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A bystander captured the event on her phone and shared the video on social media. It sparked anti-racism protests around the world. "The increased media coverage around what happened with George Floyd was causing kids to ask questions that they hadn't before-of their parents, of their teachers, of each other," Haider says.

In January 2021, when young survey participants were asked about the protests, there were fewer who felt sad or angry than in June 2020. And more kids felt hopeful. "I feel like the protests helped with making changes to racism," wrote one. "The future [feels] kind of promising," wrote another.

Haider didn't expect that 86% of kids surveyed would say that people in the U.S. aren't treated fairly because of their race. "I was surprised it was that high," she says. "That means nearly every kid, almost 9 out of 10, thought that people are treated unfairly on the basis of their skin."

But Haider sees a reason to be hopeful. "The good thing about that number is that kids are aware that people are treated unfairly," she says. "And perhaps they'll do something about it."

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In June 2020, Sesame Workshop began a study of how kids and families in the United States feel and talk about racism. Researchers questioned 147 families with children from ages 6 to 11. In January 2021, they checked in with...

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Colonization

Racism has a long history. Hundreds of years ago some European countries established colonies around the world. As they took control of the land, they also controlled the native people who already lived on the land. The people in power were usually white. They were prejudiced against the native peoples. That means that they looked down on them because the people looked different than they did and had different ways of living. The white rulers did not see the people of color as equals, so they felt that they could treat them as inferior.

The new rulers made the native people work for them and often forced the people to move from their homelands. The Native Americans in North America, Aboriginal peoples in Australia, and Africans throughout that continent were treated harshly. Many Africans were captured and forced into slavery. They were shipped to the Americas to work. The conditions on the ships were miserable, and many did not survive. Their journey is known as the Middle Passage.

In the Americas the owners of the enslaved Africans also saw the Africans as inferior. Because of that they treated the enslaved people harshly. The enslaved people were forced to work hard and live in terrible conditions. They were punished with beatings, and they could be sold at any time. If the enslaved people had family, they were often separated by being sold to separate owners. Enslaved people were not allowed to learn to read or write. They sometimes tried to rebel against their owners or to escape, but they were usually not successful.

Immigration

Sometimes racism happens when groups of people move to a new area. The people who live there already may feel like the new group is taking jobs away from them or harming them in some way. They may blame the new people for problems of their own.

This kind of racism happens today when people in the United States attack migrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. In Europe residents of many countries mistreat refugees, or people who move to the countries to escape problems in their own countries. Australia for many years had an official policy to keep non-whites from moving to the country. It was known as the White Australia policy. It was mainly meant to keep people from Asian countries out. In the United Kingdom many people from former colonies moved to the country beginning in the 1940s. They faced discrimination in many ways.

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Racism is when people are treated unfairly because of their skin color or background. It is a kind of discrimination, and it causes great harm to people. Racism takes many...

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A Kids Book About Racism by Jelani Memory

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Sesame Street: What is Racism? | #ComingTogether

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What is climate change? What could happen? Get all the facts you need to know.

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Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic

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We answer some of your biggest questions!

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Eat the Rainbow! | Nutrition Lesson for Kids

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TheLearningStation - Kids Songs and Nursery Rhymes

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Nutrition Song ♫ by The Learning Station

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Healthy eating in childhood and adolescence is important for proper growth and development and to prevent various health conditions. 1,2 The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 recommend that people aged 2 years or older follow a healthy eating pattern that includes the following ²:

A variety of fruits and vegetables.

Whole grains.

Fat-free and low-fat dairy products.

A variety of protein foods.

Oils.

These guidelines also recommend that individuals limit calories from solid fats (major sources of saturated and trans fatty acids) and added sugars, and reduce sodium intake. ² Unfortunately, most children and adolescents do not follow the recommendations set forth in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. ²⁻⁴

Healthy eating can help individuals achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, consume important nutrients, and reduce the risk of developing health conditions such as 1,2

High blood pressure.

Heart disease.

Type 2 diabetes.

Cancer.

Osteoporosis.

Iron deficiency.

Dental caries (cavities).

The US Department of Agriculture provides healthy eating plans through MyPlate.gov.

Schools are in a unique position to provide students with opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating behaviors.¹⁵

Eating a healthy breakfast is associated with improved cognitive function (especially memory), reduced absenteeism, and improved mood.¹⁶⁻¹⁸

Adequate hydration may also improve cognitive function in children and adolescents, which is important for learning.¹⁹⁻²³

Between 2001 and 2010, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages among children and adolescents decreased, but still accounts for 10% of total caloric intake.¹⁰

Between 2003 and 2010, total fruit intake and whole fruit intake among children and adolescents increased. However, most youth still do not meet fruit and vegetable recommendations.11,12

Empty calories from added sugars and solid fats contribute to 40% of daily calories for children and adolescents age 2-18 years-affecting the overall quality of their diets. Approximately half of these empty calories come from six sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk.4 Most youth do not consume the recommended amount of total water.¹³

1. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee: Advisory Report to the Secretary Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2015.

2. US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture. 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 8th Edition. December 2015. Available at http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/.

3. Krebs-Smith SM, Guenther PM, Subar AF, et al. Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations. Journal of Nutrition. 2010;140:1832-1838.

4. Reedy J, Krebs-Smith SM. Dietary Sources of Energy, Solid fats, and added sugars among children and adolescents in the united States. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2010;110:1477-1484.

5. Institute of Medicine. Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2004.

6. Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, et al. American Cancer Society guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention: Reducing the risk of cancer with healthy food choices and physical activity. A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 2006;56:254-281.

7. Kaiser LL, Townsend MS. Food insecurity among US children: Implications for nutrition and health. Topics in Clinical Nutrition. 2005;20:313-320.

8. Alaimo K, Olson CM, Frongillo EA. Food insufficiency and American school-aged children's cognitive, academic and psychosocial developments. Pediatrics ,2001;108:44-53.

9. Kleinman RE, Murphy JM, Little M, et al. Hunger in children in the United States: Potential behavioral and emotional correlates. Pediatrics, 1998;101:1-6.

10. Mesirow MA, Welsh JA. Changing beverage consumption patterns have resulted in fewer liquid calories in the diets of US children: National health and nutrition examination survey 2001-2010. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2015;115(4):559-66.

11. Kim SA, Moore LV, Galuska D, et al. Vital Signs: Fruit and vegetable intake among children-United States, 2003-2010. MMWR. 2014; 63(No. RR-31):671-6.

12. Drewnowski A, Rehm CD. Socioeconomic gradient in consumption of whole fruit and 100% fruit juice among US children and adults. Nutr J. 2015;14:3.

13. Drewnowski A, Rehm CD, Constant F. Water and beverage consumption among children age 4-13 years in the United States: Analyses of 2005-2010 NHANES data. Nutr J. 2013;12(1):85.

14. US Department of Agriculture. MyPlate.gov.

15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. School health guidelines to promote healthy eating and physical activity. MMWR. 2011;60(RR05):1-76.

16. Taras HL. Nutrition and student performance at school. Journal of School Health. 2005;75:199-213.

17. Rampersaud GC, Pereira MA, Girard BL, et al. Breakfast habits, nutritional status, body weight, and academic performance in children and adolescents. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2005;105:743-760.

18. Hoyland A, Dye L, Lawton CL. A systematic review of the effect of breakfast on the cognitive performance of children and adolescents. Nutrition Research Reviews. 2009;22:220-243.

19. Popkin BM, D'Anci KE, Rosenberg IH. Water, hydration, and health. Nutrition Reviews. 2010;68(8):439-458.

20. Kempton MJ, Ettinger U, Foster R, et al. Dehydration affects brain structure and function in healthy adolescents. Human Brain Mapping. 2011;32:71-79.

21. Edmonds CJ, Jeffes B. Does having a drink help you think? 6 to 7-year-old children show improvements in cognitive performance from baseline to test after having a drink of water. Appetite. 2009;53:469-472.

22. Edmonds CJ, Burford D. Should children drink more water? The effects of drinking water on cognition in children. Appetite. 2009;52:776-779.

23. Benton D, Burgess N. The effect of the consumption of water on the memory and attention of children. Appetite. 2009;53:143-146.

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centers for disease control and prevention

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Schools are in a unique position to provide students with opportunities to learn about and practice healthy eating behaviors.15 Eating a healthy breakfast is associated with improved cognitive function (especially memory), reduced absenteeism, and improved mood.

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The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate is a visual guide to help educate and encourage children to eat well and keep moving. At a glance, the graphic features examples of best-choice foods to inspire the selection of healthy meals and snacks, and it emphasizes physical activity as part of the equation for staying healthy.

Building a healthy and balanced diet

Eating a variety of foods keeps our meals interesting and flavorful. It's also the key to a healthy and balanced diet because each food has a unique mix of nutrients-both macronutrients ( carbohydrate, protein, and fat) and micronutrients ( vitamins and minerals). The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate provides a blueprint to help us make the best eating choices.

Along with filling half of our plate with colorful vegetables and fruits (and choosing them as snacks), split the other half between whole grains and healthy protein:

The more veggies - and the greater the variety - the better.

Potatoes and French fries don't count as vegetables because of their negative impact on blood sugar.

More on vegetables >

Eat plenty of fruits of all colors.

Choose whole fruits or sliced fruits (rather than fruit juices; limit fruit juice to one small glass per day).

Go for whole grains or foods made with minimally processed whole grains. The less processed the grains, the better.

Whole grains-whole wheat, brown rice, quinoa, and foods made with them, such as whole-grain pasta and 100% whole-wheat bread-have a gentler effect on blood sugar and insulin than white rice, bread, pizza crust, pasta, and other refined grains.

Choose beans and peas, nuts, seeds, and other plant-based healthy protein options, as well as fish, eggs, and poultry.

Limit red meat (beef, pork, lamb) and avoid processed meats (bacon, deli meats, hot dogs, sausages).

It's also important to remember that fat is a necessary part of our diet, and what matters most is the type of fat we eat. We should regularly choose foods with healthy unsaturated fats (such as fish, nuts, seeds, and healthy oils from plants), limit foods high in saturated fat (especially red meat), and avoid unhealthy trans fats (from partially hydrogenated oils):

Use healthy oils from plants like extra virgin olive, canola, corn, sunflower, and peanut oil in cooking, on salads and vegetables, and at the table.

Limit butter to occasional use.

Dairy foods are needed in smaller amounts than other foods on our plate:

Choose unflavored milk, plain yogurt, small amounts of cheese, and other unsweetened dairy foods.

Milk and other dairy products are a convenient source of calcium and vitamin D, but the optimal intake of dairy products has yet to be determined and the research is still developing. For children consuming little or no milk, ask a doctor about possible calcium and vitamin D supplementation.

Water should be the drink of choice with every meal and snack, as well as when we are active:

Water is the best choice for quenching our thirst. It's also sugar-free, and as easy to find as the nearest tap.

Limit juice-which can have as much sugar as soda-to one small glass per day, and avoid sugary drinks like sodas, fruit drinks, and sports drinks, which provide a lot of calories and virtually no other nutrients. Over time, drinking sugary drinks can lead to weight gain and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other problems.

Finally, just like choosing the right foods, incorporating physical activity into our day by staying active is part of the recipe for keeping healthy:

Trade inactive "sit-time" for "fit-time."

Children and adolescents should aim for at least one hour of physical activity per day, and they don't need fancy equipment or a gym-The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest choosing unstructured activities for children such as playing tug-of-war, or having fun using playground equipment.

Overall, the main message is to focus on diet quality.

The type of carbohydrate in the diet is more important than the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, because some sources of carbohydrate-like vegetables (other than potatoes), fruits, whole grains, and beans-are much healthier than sugar, potatoes, and foods made from white flour.

The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate does not include sugary drinks, sweets, and other junk foods. These are not everyday foods and should be eaten only rarely, if ever.

The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate encourages the use of healthy oils in place of other types of fat.

About the Kid's Healthy Eating Plate

The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate was created by nutrition experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, based on the best available science, to enhance the visual guidance provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPlate icon. The Kid's Plate reflects the same important messages as the Healthy Eating Plate, with a primary focus on diet quality, but is designed to further facilitate the teaching of healthy eating behaviors to children.

Kid's Healthy Eating Plate Terms of Use

We authorize permission to use the image of the Kid's Healthy Eating Plate in accordance with the following terms and conditions:

You must include the following credit line: "Copyright © 2015 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. For more information about The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/kids-healthy-eating-plate."

Your use of The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate is of a non-commercial nature.

Your use of The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate must comply with all applicable laws.

You may not modify the image or text in any way.

Harvard may revoke this permission at any time at its sole discretion. In the event that permission is revoked, you shall remove the image from any website or public space within no more than five business days.

Harvard strictly forbids any indication-either explicit or implied-that suggests or might cause others to believe that Harvard, the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, or The Nutrition Source website has endorsed any goods, services, individual, group, or organization of any kind. Therefore, you may not use the names "Harvard," "Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health," or "The Nutrition Source," or any Harvard-owned trademarks in connection with The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate without prior approval, in writing, except for reproducing the specific credit line for the image as set forth above.

You may not use The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate in any manner that could harm the reputation of Harvard.

Harvard disclaims all warranties of any kind (express, implied or otherwise) concerning The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Harvard University and its governing board members, officers, faculty members, students, employees and agents from and against all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses of every kind arising from or relating to your use of The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate.

Terms of Use

The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The Nutrition Source does not recommend or endorse any products.

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The Kid's Healthy Eating Plate is a visual guide to help educate and encourage children to eat well and keep moving. At a glance, the graphic features examples of best-choice foods to inspire the s...

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Poverty means not having enough money for basic needs such as food, drinking water, shelter, or toiletries. Many people in different countries live in poverty, especially in developing areas of West and Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and some parts of Asia.

There are different ways to measure poverty. The World Bank says that extreme poverty is when someone has less than US$1 a day to live on (that dollar is an ideal one). It has been changed to rule out certain effects such as inflation, meaning that prices of things rise higher than what a person is paid, and other price level differences. Moderate poverty is when people have to live on less than $2 a day. In the year 2001, 1.1 billion people were seen as extremely poor, and 2.7 billion were seen as moderately poor.

In the developed world this does not apply. There, many people are seen as the working poor. They have a job, but do not earn enough money for basic things such as food and a home. In most developed countries, people without jobs receive money from the government, but this is often less than what they need for a comfortable life.

There are different ways to tell if a country is rich or poor. The Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, and Human Development Index, or HDI, are two of those measures. Gross Domestic Product is the money made from trade from inside the country.

HDI, meaning the Human Development Index is a different matter. It is determined by life expectancy and adult literacy rates. Places in Africa like Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Mali are the poorest, with Sierra Leone having the lowest HDI ranking in the world.

Poverty is a hurdle in the way of a country's progress. One way of helping lower poverty is by educating poor people so that they can start contributing to a nation's economic development. Education teaches the poor about their rights and may show them the path to become an important part of the growth and expansion of the country. Vienna Declaration also tells this fact.

One of the most important things that is needed to make a country richer is for the Government to want to help poor people do better. Without this, it is hard for people to become better off.

Measuring poverty

Absolute poverty

Absolute poverty, often synonymous with 'extreme poverty' or 'abject poverty', refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. This set standard usually refers to "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." Having an income below the poverty line, which is defined as an income needed to purchase basic needs, is also referred to as primary proverty.

The "dollar a day" poverty line was first introduced in 1990 as a measure to meet such standards of living. For nations that do not use the US dollar as currency, "dollar a day" does not translate to living a day on the equivalent amount of local currency as determined by the exchange rate. Rather, it is determined by the purchasing power parity rate, which would look at how much local currency is needed to buy the same things that a dollar could buy in the United States. Usually, this would translate to having less local currency than if the exchange rate was used as the United States is a relatively more expensive country.

From 1993 through 2005, the World Bank defined absolute poverty as $1.08 a day on such a purchasing power parity basis, after adjusting for inflation to the 1993 US dollar and in 2008, it was updated as $1.25 a day (equivalent to $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices) and in 2015, it was updated as living on less than US$1.90 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day. Similarly, 'ultra-poverty' is defined by a 2007 report issued by International Food Policy Research Institute as living on less than 54 cents per day. The poverty line threshold of $1.90 per day, as set by the World Bank, is controversial. Each nation has its own threshold for absolute poverty line; in the United States, for example, the absolute poverty line was US$15.15 per day in 2010 (US$22,000 per year for a family of four), while in India it was US$1.0 per day and in China the absolute poverty line was US$0.55 per day, each on PPP basis in 2010. These different poverty lines make data comparison between each nation's official reports qualitatively difficult. Some scholars argue that the World Bank method sets the bar too high, others argue it is too low.

There is disagreement among experts as to what would be considered a realistic poverty rate with one considering it "an inaccurately measured and arbitrary cut off". Some contend that a higher poverty line is needed, such as a minimum of $7.40 or even $10 to $15 a day. They argue that these levels would better reflect the cost of basic needs and normal life expectancy.

One estimate places the true scale of poverty much higher than the World Bank, with an estimated 4.3 billion people (59% of the world's population) living with less than $5 a day and unable to meet basic needs adequately. Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, stated the World Bank's international poverty line of $1.90 a day is fundamentally flawed, and has allowed for "self congratulatory" triumphalism in the fight against extreme global poverty, which he asserts is "completely off track" and that nearly half of the global population, or 3.4 billion, lives on less than $5.50 a day, and this number has barely moved since 1990. Still others suggest that poverty line misleads as it measures everyone below the poverty line the same, when in reality someone living on $1.20 per day is in a different state of poverty than someone living on $0.20 per day.

Other measures of absolute poverty without using a certain dollar amount include the standard defined as receiving less than 80% of minimum caloric intake whilst spending more than 80% of income on food, sometimes called ultra-poverty.

Relative poverty

Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context. It is argued that the needs considered fundamental is not an objective measure and could change with the custom of society. For example, a person who cannot afford housing better than a small tent in an open field would be said to live in relative poverty if almost everyone else in that area lives in modern brick homes, but not if everyone else also lives in small tents in open fields (for example, in a nomadic tribe). Since richer nations would have lower levels of absolute poverty, relative poverty is considered the "most useful measure for ascertaining poverty rates in wealthy developed nations" and is the "most prominent and most-quoted of the EU social inclusion indicators".

Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. This is a calculation of the percentage of people whose family household income falls below the Poverty Line. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on "economic distance", a level of income set at 60% of the median household income. The United States federal government typically regulates this line to three times the cost of an adequate meal.

There are several other different income inequality metrics, for example, the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index.

Related pages

Images for kids

In Spanish: Pobreza para niños

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Introduction
U.S. Department of Agriculture; photo, Jack Schneider

People who are poor are said to be living in poverty. Poverty can be defined and measured in different ways. In general, however, people suffering from poverty do not have the money and possessions that are necessary to give them an adequate standard of living. Typically, poverty involves a lack of, or an insufficient amount of, the three primary physical needs-food, clothing, and shelter.

In the United States during 2012, any family of four with an annual cash income of less than $23,492 (before taxes) was considered poor. The dollar amount was called the poverty line, an economic measuring rod devised in 1964. The line was set at threetimes the amount needed to provide the cheapest nutritionally balanced diet. The poverty line is adjusted annually for inflation.

While the poverty line in the United States was more than $23,000, the median annual household income in Haiti was $2,735, in Indonesia $2,199, in Rwanda $1,101, and in Liberia $781. Any family in those countries with an income of $23,000 would be considered wealthy. During the Great Depression in the United States, when half the population was considered poor, a family with an income at the 2012 poverty line could easily afford to buy a house, a car, clothing, and food.

The severity of poverty varies depending on the economic vitality of the country in which it occurs. In more economically developed countries, such as Japan, Australia, and the countries of Europe and North America, there are many government services provided to alleviate poverty. In addition, the homeless of many cities can often find some shelter and a mission offering free meals. Less economically developed countries, however, have fewer resources to devote to helping the poor. The needy in these places may have an even more difficult experience because they cannot rely on public assistance.

Families below the poverty line in the United States

Types of Poverty
To those who are poor, poverty would seem to have no differences. But several kinds of poverty have been described. They are based on such factors as duration (how long the condition lasts) and distribution (how widespread it is). Each type of poverty is a response to different social or economic circumstances.

Cyclical Poverty
© Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com

Cyclical poverty may be widespread, but it lasts for a limited time. In developing countries, cyclical poverty typically involves food shortages caused by natural disasters such as floods or drought. In developed (or industrialized) countries, cyclical poverty is caused mainly by variations in the business cycle. The economies of these countries go through periods of prosperity and recession, commonly referred to as "boom and bust." When an economic slump occurs, as happened in 2007-09-and most seriously in the Great Depression of the 1930s-many workers lose their jobs. In 1935, for example, there were about 20 million people unemployed in the United States. When the economy revives, cyclical poverty tends to disappear.

Significant changes in industrial economies have led to what is called structural unemployment. Such loss of jobs results not so much from an economic slump as from technological innovations that change the structure of the economy. One example is automation, the process in which machines take over tasks that had been performed by people. Many workers find themselves with skills for which there are no jobs, while some jobs remain unfilled because workers with the proper skills cannot be found. Structural unemployment may last many years before workers can be retrained or move to a new labor market. Whole regions of some countries-such as coal-mining, steel-producing, and shipbuilding areas-have been hurt by changes in labor markets.

Collective Poverty
Collective poverty affects a large number of people for a long period of time. Because this type of poverty is persistent, it is also called permanent poverty. Collective poverty may be passed on from generation to generation, from parents to their children. People living in collective poverty typically suffer from poor health and have low life expectancies.

Collective poverty is common in large geographic regions where economic development is low. Whole countries or sections of the world can be classified as poor. Collective poverty affects most of Africa south of the Sahara. It is also widespread in parts of Asia, the Middle East, Central America, and South America. Within a country, too, there are often extensive pockets of poverty that endure for generations. Such regions include Appalachia in the eastern United States, the northern section of England, and southern Italy. Collective poverty can also be concentrated in sections of cities where economic and educational opportunities are limited.

Case Poverty
Case poverty involves individuals or families who are unable to support themselves even when the society around them is generally prospering. This type of poverty is often caused by an inability to work. People suffering from case poverty may, for example, be chronically ill or physically or emotionally disabled.

Reducing Poverty
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Marktucan/Dreamstime.com

The most effective way to reduce poverty is through economic development. In developing countries, efforts to address poverty may focus on expanding agriculture, industry, or both. Economic growth requires a larger labor force, giving more people the chance to earn enough money to lift themselves out of poverty. Such growth can be difficult to achieve, however. In the poorest countries, governments, like the people, are poverty stricken. They owe large sums of money that they have borrowed from richer countries. The interest they have to pay on these debts limits their ability to invest in economic development. In addition, the limited resources in these countries are often spread unevenly among the population. There is a wide gap between the many people who are poor and the few who are wealthy. Even if the economy improves, the gains may not lead to an improved standard of living for the poor. Problems with economic inequality can also occur in developed countries.

Developed countries have tried to deal with poverty by increasing the participation of the poor in the economy. For example, governments may encourage new industry and offer programs to improve the job skills of poor people. Most developed countries also have programs that try to limit the ill effects of economic downturns. They may provide payments to those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The goal of unemployment insurance is to prevent the recipients from falling into poverty before they can find work. Other welfare programs assist needy people who are not covered by unemployment insurance or other benefits. Such programs may help the poor buy food, find housing, or obtain health care.

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People who are poor are said to be living in poverty. Poverty can be defined and measured in different ways. In general, however, people suffering from poverty do not have...

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Stuff UNICEF Cares About: Water I UNICEF

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Children are naturally curious, even when facing difficult challenges.
The video All about Coronavirus: A Video for Kids and Their Families was created by the University of Michigan School of Public Health for children and their families to share what we know about the coronavirus and outline proven public health methods for personal and community protection.
Sharing basic scientific information with children can:

strengthen their resolve as they struggle with new, changing, and potentially scary realities,

inspire them to continue learning the facts about the epidemic,

encourage them to participate actively in helping slow the spread of the disease.

Watch the video now by clicking on the image below. The video includes subtitles in English (default), Albanian, Arabic, Chinese (simp), Chinese (trad), French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tagalog. To switch subtitle language, click on the settings (gear icon) and select the language of your choice.

Many thanks to our translators: Mentor Ferataj, Shaima Basuni, Theresa Peters, Nicole Millar, Kennedy Shuck, Samer Mahdy Ali, Abram Wagner, Mengdi Ji, Shu-Fang Shih, Guillemette de Couesnongle, Jasmine Becker, Karl-Georg Federhofer, Kashvi Gupta, Gabriela Chen, Fernanda Pires, Nardy Baeza Bickel, David Estrada, Irene Villarin Gonzaga, Vilma Michaud.

Media Inquiries

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All about Coronavirus: A Video for Kids and Their Families | University of Michigan School of Public Health

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Children are naturally curious, even when facing difficult challenges.The video All about Coronavirus: A Video for Kids and Their Families was created by the University of Michigan School of Public Health for children and their families to share what we know about the coronavirus and outline proven public health methods for personal and community protection.Sharing basic scientific information with children can: strengthen their resolve as they struggle with new, changing, and potentially scary realities, inspire them to continue learning the facts about the epidemic, encourage them to participate actively in helping slow the spread of the disease.

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PBS KIDS Talk About: The Covid-19 Pandemic | PBS KIDS Talk About Videos | PBS KIDS

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What are all the different ways the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives? Real kids and adults have honest conversations about navigating their fears, changes at school and friendships during the pandemic in this PBS KIDS Talk About video.

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We hear from kids around the country about how the coronavirus pandemic - the lockdown, the school shutdowns, the economic uncertainty - has made them feel.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The numbers are staggering, measured in lives and jobs lost, and there's no end in sight yet. Adults who can understand what's happening struggle to cope, but what if you are a kid? We'll be looking at the experiences of children today in the time of the great pandemic. Schools are closed, group activities canceled and contact with friends and extended family is limited to phones and screens. Here are some kids in their own words.

IZZY PEOPLES: Hi. My name is Izzy Peoples. I am 11 years old. I am in fourth grade, and I live in Atlanta, Ga. Honestly, I thought coronavirus was just, like, a random thing that people said in the hall before spring break. Like, don't get corona. But it has a lot of ups and downs. An up is I get to hang out with all my crazy animals. But a down is I, like, don't get to spend as much time as my friends.

HANA ABDUR-RAHMAN: Hi. My name is Hana Abdur-Rahman. I'm 12 years old. Even before this whole thing started, I was home-schooled, so I'm kind of used to it. My dad - he still has to work because he delivers babies, so I feel kind of worried sometimes. I feel like he'll bring it home and spread it to all of us.

ZARA LINNEMAN: I'm Zara. I'm 14 years old. I'm in eighth grade. My friends keep me sane. I miss seeing them, and I miss giving all of them hugs every day. And it's just been really hard. And, like, we can try and connect virtually, but it's really - it's not the same.

ALEX KETCHAM: My name is Alex Ketcham. I am 17 years old. I am a junior in high school. The first couple days, I was like, oh, nice, a vacation - a little, like, week-long vacation. So I have a brother with autism. He is a sophomore. And the whole process of going through e-learning and remote learning with him is completely different than me. My parents are both working full time, so a lot of the responsibility has come from me and my sister all pitching in, helping him out. He's a normal kid. He misses school, too, and I think this is hurting everybody. This is difficult on every single person, and I feel like this is just making everybody see how much we really need to value, like, when we are in instruction and in classes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's 17-year-old Alex Ketcham. We also heard from 14-year-old Zara Linneman, 12-year-old Hana Abdur-Rahman and 11-year-old Izzy Peoples.

Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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How The Pandemic Is Making Kids Feel, In Their Own Words

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We hear from kids around the country about how the coronavirus pandemic - the lockdown, the school shutdowns, the economic uncertainty - has made them feel. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: The numbers are staggering, measured in lives and jobs lost, and there's no end in sight yet.

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Introduction
A pandemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads among many people over a wide geographical area. It generally affects a significant proportion of the world's population, usually over the course of several months. The outbreak can affect many millions of people worldwide. Pandemics arise from epidemics, which are outbreaks of disease confined to one part of the world, such as a single country. Pandemics, especially those involving influenza (flu), sometimes occur in waves. After an initial wave with many people becoming infected, there may be a phase of decreased disease activity. After that, there may be another wave when many more people catch the disease.

How Pandemics Spread
Infectious diseases such as influenza can spread rapidly-sometimes in a matter of days-among people living in different areas of the world. Several factors can advance the spread of a disease. The virus or other microbe that causes the disease may become more infectious. If the disease is transmitted easily from person to person, it can spread quickly. Modern means of transportation, such as air travel, can quickly bring many people from distant parts of the world into contact, hastening the spread of the disease to all parts of the globe.

The majority of highly infectious illnesses that occur in humans are caused by diseases that first arise in animals. Various local health organizations around the world watch for any new infectious disease that may arise in animals in their area. If one emerges, the organizations alert the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO constantly monitors disease activity on a global scale through a network of centers located in countries worldwide. In the case of influenza, which is the disease that poses the greatest pandemic threat to humans, WHO has organized a pandemic preparedness plan that consists of six phases of pandemic alert. When WHO upgrades the level of a pandemic alert, especially at the higher, more serious levels, it serves as a signal to countries worldwide to implement the appropriate predetermined disease-control strategies.

Although pandemics typically happen over a relatively short time span, today some occurrences of infectious disease that have lasted many years can be considered pandemics. These diseases continue to infect a high percentage of the population, occur on a global scale, and can be transmitted between humans either directly or indirectly. An example of such a persistent modern pandemic is AIDS, which is caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) and is transmitted directly between humans. Another example is malaria. It is caused by parasites in the genus Plasmodium, which are transmitted from one human to another by mosquitoes that feed on the blood of infected humans.

Major Pandemics
Throughout history, pandemics of diseases such as cholera, plague, and influenza have played a major role in shaping human civilizations. Examples of significant historical pandemics include the plague pandemic of the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century AD and the Black Death, a plague pandemic that originated in China and spread across Europe in the 14th century. The Black Death killed perhaps 25 million people in Europe-as much as one-third of the continent's population. The influenza pandemic of 1918-19 swept through North America, Europe, Asia, and islands in the South Pacific, killing some 25 million people.

Researchers estimate that influenza pandemics occur roughly once every 50 years. However, the actual time between flu pandemics is sometimes shorter. For example, following the 1918-19 pandemic, there were two other 20th-century influenza pandemics: the 1957 Asian flu pandemic and the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic. The virus that caused the 1957 pandemic lasted until about the middle of 1958. It was also responsible for a series of epidemics that emerged annually until 1968, when the Hong Kong flu appeared. The Hong Kong flu pandemic, which lasted until 1969-70, caused between one million and four million deaths. The next influenza pandemic occurred in 2009, when a subtype of H1N1 virus spread across multiple regions of the world. Between March 2009 and mid-January 2010, more than 14,140 laboratory-confirmed H1N1 deaths had been reported worldwide.

In March 2020 WHO officials declared an ongoing global outbreak of a new coronavirus to be a pandemic. The virus was known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2). Infection with this virus produced an illness known as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 was characterized primarily by fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The outbreak began in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, when a patient with pneumonia of unknown cause was admitted to a local hospital. In the following weeks, the number of people infected with the new virus grew rapidly in Wuhan, and the disease spread to other regions of China. By early 2020 COVID-19 had reached Europe and the United States, carried there by travelers coming from affected regions. By the time the outbreak was declared a pandemic, cases of COVID-19 had been detected in numerous countries worldwide, including in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania.

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A pandemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that spreads among many people over a wide geographical area. It generally affects a significant proportion of the world's...

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Coronavirus (or, as doctors and scientists call it, COVID-19) has been part of everyone's life since mid-March 2020, when most schools, businesses, and communities quickly changed how they operated to prevent the spread of the virus. Because the disease infected a large number of people all over the world, experts call this a pandemic.

For over a year, many kids attended school at least partly from their houses; their parents might've worked from home, too. This was all to avoid catching the virus from other people outside the home.

Lots of people helped their neighbors throughout the pandemic. First responders, like healthcare workers, police officers, and firefighters, kept people healthy and safe; essential workers such as grocery store employees, delivery drivers, and postal workers worked in-person to make sure other folks had what they needed to live.

Nearly 190 million people in the world have been infected by COVID-19, and more than four million people have died. But the good news is that the number of people getting the virus in the United States is going way down, thanks to testing, vaccines, and other preventative measures, like wearing masks and social distancing.

Here are answers to some questions you might still have about coronavirus.

So ... what is COVID-19? And what's a "coronavirus?"

The term "coronavirus" actually refers to a family of viruses that causes many different types of diseases, including the common cold. COVID-19 is a "novel coronavirus," which means it's a new disease unfamiliar to scientists and doctors. Its name is actually a mash-up of three words: CO stands for "corona," which means "crown" in Latin, and the viruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface; VI stands for "virus"; and D is for "disease." The "19" comes from the year 2019, when the disease was first detected.

How did COVID-19 start?

Scientists don't know the exact origin of COVID -19, and they might never have all the answers. But they do know that some diseases start in animals before spreading to humans. These types of diseases are called zoonotic (pronounced zoh-uh-NAH-tik). Cows, bats, and camels are among the animals that have spread diseases to humans in the past. The COVID-19 disease is also zoonotic, with the first cases popping up in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The affected humans were all connected to a nearby market that sold live animals.

How does someone catch COVID-19?

COVID-19 can be transmitted by little droplets from coughs or sneezes, which is why doctors say unvaccinated people should wear masks when they're indoors or close to others. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there's no evidence that a dog, cat, or any other pet can transmit COVID-19. But more studies are needed to understand how COVID-19 could affect different types of animals.

How can I protect myself?

Kids older than 12 can now get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. For older kids who aren't vaccinated, as well as kids 11 and younger, research shows that taking small steps-like staying six feet (about two arm lengths) from others, wearing face masks that cover the mouth and nose, washing hands often, and seeing friends outside-can make a big difference in stopping the spread of the virus. (Vaccines for kids under 12 are expected to be available later in 2021.)

Learn how vaccines work and why they're so effective.

OK, but what happens if I do get it?

Most people-including kids- who catch COVID-19 get better, and their illness is usually mild. But if you do catch COVID-19, you might have a dry cough, a fever, and shortness of breath. But just like when you've had a cold, the best treatment is to stay in bed-and away from anyone who might catch it from you. (Like your grandparents! Older people are more at risk for catching and getting sick from COVID-19.) You might also not even know you have it, so keep washing your hands and wearing a mask, just in case. Masks work best when everyone wears one.

Researchers expect that as more people are vaccinated and become immune to COVID-19, the number of cases will continue to go down. Immunity to the virus means the body can fight it off and won't spread it to another person. When enough people are immune to COVID-19 so that the illness is no longer a serious threat, that's called herd immunity. Experts say that for herd immunity to work in a community, between 75 and 85 percent of people need to be vaccinated. Almost 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, depending on where you live: Some places are higher, and others are lower.

The majority of new cases in the United States are in unvaccinated people. They can also transmit the coronavirus to others, which is why the CDC recommends they still wear masks indoors and at crowded outdoor events.

What about school?

The latest guidelines from the CDC say that students and teachers who are fully vaccinated-meaning it's been two weeks since their second COVID-19 shot-can be in class without masks. For students too young to get the vaccine, the recommendation is to keep doing what you've been doing in school: wear masks and social distance. Scientists say that keeping just three feet indoors in school is enough to keep kids safe.

This story has been updated with new information about vaccines for children.

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1. Create a poster describing your issue & solution that includes a picture and 5 sentences to describe the issue and solution.

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2. Create a fake Instagram post (picture and 5 sentence caption) to describe the issue & your solution.

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Directions:
1. Choose 1 topic that is interesting to you. You will find 9 different columns. Use the links in that column to research your topic.
2. Come up with 1 or more ideas to help solve the problem.
3. Choose 1 of the choices in the last column to finish your project.

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Click here to view the Learning Objectives and the Learning Standards for this project!

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Click here to view the Learning Objectives and the Learning Standards for this project!

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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What is Pride Month? | Pride & LGBTQ+ Explained for Kids

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3. Create a Google Slides presentation about the issue (1 slides) and your solution (2 slides)

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Hello, my name is Zachary, I am eleven years old and I live in Los Angeles. Here, on my new podcast We The Children, we will be tackling hard topics, learning about different climate phenomena, and speaking with experts and leaders in the field of global warming solutions. I may not have all the answers, or be able to solve the worlds' problems, but I know I have to try. And I'm glad you're here to help. Remember, if we act together, we, the children, can inspire hope and create change for our climate.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, my name is Zachary, I am eleven years old and I live in Los Angeles. Here, on my new podcast We The Children, we will be tackling hard topics, learning about different climate phenomena, and speaking with experts and leaders in the field of global warming solutions. I may not have all the answers, or be able to solve the worlds' problems, but I know I have to try. And I'm glad you're here to help. Remember, if we act together, we, the children, can inspire hope and create change for our climate.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"How Trees Nurture Children's Growth"

"The episodes are thoughtfully curated, with a perfect balance of storytelling and educational content. It's a delightful podcast that inspires action."

"Children's Tales of Trees and Adventure"

"This podcast fosters a sense of hope and optimism. It showcases the potential of children as catalysts for positive change in our relationship with trees."

"Through the Eyes of Saplings: Discovering the Magic of Trees"

"I appreciate the diverse perspectives shared on this podcast. It highlights the universality of the bond between children and trees, transcending cultural boundaries."

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we the children - kids talk climate solutions

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‎We The Children - Kids Talk Climate Solutions on Apple Podcasts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hello, my name is Zachary, I am eleven years old and I live in Los Angeles. Here, on my new podcast We The Children, we will be tackling hard topics, learning about different climate phenomena, and speaking with experts and leaders in the field of global warming solutions.