For well over a year, NCoC’s Pandemic to Prosperity team has been hard at work focusing on the South as the region to lead the way in pandemic recovery. Today, we’re excited to release our fourth edition of Pandemic to Prosperity: South in partnership with Fair Count and Southern Economic Advancement Project. In previous reports, our team has found that the South needs a surge of support in order to beat the Covid pandemic and create the foundation for equitable recovery. State and local governments prioritizing projects for the American Rescue Plan can use these findings to target structural disparities that ultimately determine health outcomes — such as access to good jobs, quality education, safe/walkable neighborhoods, healthy foods, and quality medical care.
Key findings in the report:
- As of October 7, Southern states led in pediatric Covid case rates, and 9 of the 12 Southern states had some of the highest pediatric Covid case rates in the nation
- 3 in 10 households with young children (<5) had difficulty finding childcare in September. This caused more than 1 million people to leave a job, half a million to lose a job, and nearly 1.2 million were unable to look for work.
- 39% of Southern adults who are late on housing payments are afraid they will be evicted or foreclosed upon in the next 2 months.
Download the full report here. On Thursday, October 28, the National Conference on Citizenship, Fair Count, Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP) will host a webinar to discuss the latest publication of Pandemic to Prosperity: South — a timely and comprehensive overview of the Covid-related impacts on Southern states’ lives and livelihoods, governments, civic institutions, and overall well being. The webinar will also include new findings from a poll led by SEAP and Groundwork Collaborative.
Register here for the event. Thank you for your continued engagement with this work – please reach out to p2p@ncoc.org with any questions!