The image of poverty is not what you might think.

National Geographic travels to far-off corners of the world to capture images of the emaciated child with flies around his head, but poverty is not exotic and it’s not foreign; it’s right here at home.

NewsCenter 16’s Alana Greenfogel continues to investigate what the community does in response to poverty.

Those are prices that many families in St. Joseph County cannot afford. So how does the community respond to children in poverty through education and healthcare?

In the strictest of places, the St. Joe County Juvenile Justice Center, where rules are to be followed and orders go without question, there is one thing they hope will be broken: the cycle of poverty.

“The only way to break generational poverty in this society is to get a better education,” says Dr. Bill Bruinsma, with the St. Joe County Probate Court.

More drop-outs and less parental participation make it hard on area schools.

“This is a very critical issue,” says South Bend School Superintendent James Kapsa. “The students that are in that poverty level have a higher risk of dropping out.”

Kapsa continues saying, “Many schools are trying to improve parents’ participation, parent involvement.”

About half of the students in South Bend schools may starve if it weren’t for the school system’s free lunch program.

Here’s how it works: if three-quarters of the students at a school live in poverty, the school provides the meals.

“We can promise them a decent breakfast, a decent lunch, and if they stay after school, snacks would be available at well,” says Kapsa.

Out of South Bend’s 33 schools, 18 qualify for the free lunch program and another three schools will be joining soon.

“A lot of our parents that fall into that category right now look to us in order to end the problem that they have,” Kapsa explains.

The School Board is exploring alternative kinds of education, like a vocational school, enhancing its tutoring options and using creating teaching techniques, so the schools can give these kids who are living in poverty a little room to steal a base.

“Many times it puts them… having two strikes against them,” says Kapsa. “Coming in not being totally prepared, maybe having the resources, staying abreast of what is expected in a classroom. And that is a terrible disadvantage to put in front of any child.”

“I do believe that poverty has a lot to do with crime. And it goes back to trying to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak,” says Sergeant Eric Crittendon, a school resource officer. “Kids may not be able to afford, let’s say the Playstation. What are they going to do to get the Playstation?”

Healthcare is another problem.

“Here in St. Joseph County we’re really not doing very well,” says David Roos, part of Covering Kids and Families of Indiana.

And when Roos says the county is not doing well, it is not because healthcare resources aren’t here; people just don’t know about them.

One of those places is the Indiana Health Center.

“They provide very expansive services,” says Roos. “Their doors are open to basically anyone.”

It is one of three facilities that are paid for by the state.

“Our mission is really to serve the population that doesn’t have health insurance,” explains pediatrician Dr. Ziya Toper.

“They provide a sliding fee scale,” says Roos. “They provide Medicaid coverage, they provide Medicare coverage.”

In theory, every child, rich or poor, could have healthcare. But in reality, that isn’t the case.

Roos says, “We aren’t doing enough to help those children and help those families.”

Now, if you are not living in poverty and you can afford private healthcare, you are part of this too.

“I think many consumers don’t understand that, really, they are paying for it,” says Roos. “Even if you live in Granger and you get private health insurance coverage, that, in effect, because of the way the healthcare system works, you’ll actually be paying for some of the costs that is provided by our hospitals and our health clinics.”

Roos continues, “Are there more people uninsured in St. Joseph County than there were a year ago? Absolutely. Are we doing enough with the resources that are already available? The answer to that is clearly no.”

St. Joseph County actually has more healthcare facilities for poor families than most counties in the state, but one of the lowest number of children actually signed up with health insurance.

Tonight, Alana Greenfogel concludes our three-part series on poverty in our area by taking a look at what we all, as a community, can do about it.

To read Part 1 of the series, click here.