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The Hidden Faces of Poverty is five-part series that continues a three-year examination by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram of the challenges and issues children and teens face in Maine. Reporter Barbara Walsh spent a year investigating the problem of poverty and talked to the children who face it. On this page is the original series that ran Dec.14-18, 2003, and stories that update the profiles and actions of Maine's leaders.
UPDATED COVERAGE
THE FIVE-DAY SERIES
Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram staff writer Barbara Walsh's original five-day series:
DAY 1:
The lives of impoverished children in Maine's poorest counties are largely unnoticed, even though Maine has one of the nation's highest poverty rates. Since 2002, the number of children on welfare rose by 30 percent. (Sunday, Dec. 14, 2003)
DAY 2:
Unable to find affordable housing, more families are knocking on shelter doors, requesting government assistance or raising children in homes that pose safety and health risks. (Monday, Dec. 15, 2003)
DAY 3:
Rural poverty in western, northern and Down East Maine may be largely invisible to the rest of the state. But whether they know it or not, Mainers everywhere are paying the price for the social services the state provides to poor people in those regions. (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003)
DAY 4:
Drug addiction is most intense in Maine's sparsely populated counties, claiming many young lives. (Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2003)
DAY 5:
As northern Maine counties suffer, many try to hang on and want to stay. Policymakers search for solutions. (Thursday, Dec. 18, 2003)
STATISTICS
Population Density
Maine's most sparsely populated counties have the highest percentage of individuals living in poverty. By contrast, Cumberland and York counties are the most densely populated counties. Each has only 8 percent of the population living in poverty, the lowest rate in the state.
Education
Maine has a high school graduation rate that is slightly higher than the national average but it lags behind in college graduates. (Source: Census 2000)
Increase in Assistance
These figures were provided by the Maine Department of Human Services. They show a significant rise - 70 percent in the state overall - in the number of children receiving welfare from February 2002 to August 2003.
Children in Poverty
Breakdown of children - ages 17 and younger - in poverty. (Source: Census 2000)
School Lunch Program
The federal school lunch program is a commonly used yardstick of poverty. The Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Source: Maine Dept. of Education)
Clients Treated for Opiate Abuse
OxyContin was introduced in 1995, joining the family of opiates that includes heroin, codeine and dilaudid. That year, 3 percent of the substance abuse treatment population in Maine was made up of opiate addicts. In 2002, 14.4 percent of the treatment population listed opiates as their primary addiciton. More recently the rate of growth has slowed in the state overall. From 2000 to 2001, the number of addicts in treatment actually decreased in Kennebec, York and Washington counties. (Source: Maine Office of Substance Abuse Treatment Data System)
HOW THE SERIES WAS DONE
Over a six-month period in 2003, reporter Barbara Walsh and photographer Fred J. Field traveled thousands of miles from Parsonfield to Cherryfield, from Caribou to Calais, talking with children and parents living in Maine's "forgotten" communities. Walsh spoke to more than 700 families, doctors, police officers, drug counselors, social workers, judges, housing and health advocates about children living in the state's rural towns. She reviewed more than 4,000 pages of state, federal documents and databases on the needs, wants and struggles of families living on the state's back roads and remote islands. Researcher Julia McCue assisted Walsh compiling data, preparing spread sheets and checking facts. Political reporters Paul Carrier in Augusta and Bart Jansen researched and wrote articles on government spending and support for the rural poor. Artist Alfred Wood developed the graphics. Copy Editor Don Coulter edited and designed the five-day series. Assistant Managing Editor Linda Fullerton served as project editor.
ABOUT THE JOURNALISTS
BARBARA WALSH is a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter working on special projects for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. Since joining the Press Herald in 1996, her projects include: "The Deadliest Drug: Maine's Addiction to Alcohol;" "On the Verge," chronicling challenges teenagers face; and "Castaway Children: Maine's Most Vulnerable Kids," about the lack of mental-health care for Maine children. Walsh has worked at newspapers in Massachusetts and Florida, and has won many national, state and regional awards. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in photography and journalism.
FRED J. FIELD joined the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram as a staff photographer in 2000. He graduated in 1980 from Syracuse University with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. Field has worked at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., The Kennebec Journal in Augusta and the Journal Tribune in Biddeford and has won state, regional and national awards for his photography.
JULIA McCUE has worked as a staff researcher with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram since 1995. She has worked as a freelance writer, and was a researcher at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. She also served as a seminar speaker and writer for Editorial Research Reports. McCue volunteers at Jump Start, an alternative sentencing program run by the South Portland Police Department.
CASTAWAY CHILDREN: Maine's Most Vulnerable Kids
Maine is known as a great place to raise children. But families that have children with mental illness often experience a different Maine — a place lacking enough support and care for families with sick children. Maine parents, as a result, take desperate measures to get treatment their children need. Young patients are shipped out of state, as far away as Florida, for round-the-clock care. In extreme cases, Maine parents legally abandon their children to the state in order to move up on a priority list for help. Staff writer Barbara Walsh explores the plight of Maine children with mental illness in a three-part series and updated coverage.
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Statistics | How to Help | How the Series Was Done | About the Journalists
MAKING THINGS BETTER
More than 100 Mainers - adults and children - have contacted the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram wanting to help the families written about in the "Castaway Children: Hidden Faces of Poverty" series. They have offered ideas and solutions on how to improve the lives of the state's impoverished children. Some have started fundraising campaigns to help individual children or agencies who work with struggling families. Join our online discussion to offer ideas and learn what others are doing and connect with them.
Photo Albums
Staff photos by Fred J. Field
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
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