The most influential time in a child’s life is from birth until three years old, and the only people who can really be there are the parents.

Studies show that poor children spend 40-percent more time unsupervised than affluent children do, but what effects does that have later in life?

NewsCenter 16’s Alana Greenfogel continues her series on children in our area growing up in poverty, and ways to get out.

If one in five children in St. Joseph County lives in poverty now, trends tell us it is only going to get worse. But there are people in this community who are determined to prove the statistics wrong.

There are success stories in our community; the relentless determination and restless nights of those working to give our children a better future, starting with a teen doing it by himself.

Craig Green grew up living with a father who wasn’t always around.

“One day he took me to school and dropped me off and we didn’t see him for a couple weeks,” says Green. “He was never there, he always left.”

But even if a parent isn’t always around, children still learn from what they do.

Craig Green

“They teach us what not to do and what to do, and if they can do drugs then… we were doing all illegal stuff, you name it: smoking, drinking, stealing, selling, all that,” says Green.

Even as a fifth-grader, Green says he was unsupervised with his friends and smoking.

And he grew up, at times, in poverty.

“I had no money, I had nothing. There was a few days straight that me and Andre wouldn’t eat. We would go a few days straight without eating,” remembers Green. “And then when you get high, it doesn’t help none because you’ve got the munchies. So it’s like, dang. So you just smoke ’till you pass out, wake up the next day hopefully.”

But then Green woke up one day and realized he didn’t like the man he was becoming, and decided that’s not the kind of man he is going to be.

“I looked at it, and I was like, I’m starting off young like my dad did. He’s been in prison, he’s lost his family,” says Green. “When I got out, I decided I’m never going back.”

For over a year, Green has been out of trouble and living his dreams – joining the military and becoming a police officer.

“It ain’t worth it, it ain’t worth it at all,” says Green.

Tamika Johnson

Jennifer Warlick, who researches poverty, says, “We don’t do ourselves any favors if we neglect these children. We know that there are costs to society of having these poor children become poor adults. And we’d all be better if we could help the children out of poverty.”

“To go off and work two jobs and figure out a way to be present for your children in the home, so they feel loved and they feel nurtured, it takes heroes,” continues Warlick.

Tamika Johnson dropped out of high school in her junior year, and she told us about her mother.

“She wasn’t supporting me. She wasn’t backing me, saying ‘Hey, get your butt out of bed and go to school. Did you do your homework? You need to be home at a certain time.’ I didn’t have any of that so I felt like, she doesn’t care,” says Johnson.

Now, with daughters of her own, Johnson hopes they’ll be able to go to college.

Johnson has been working with a program at Notre Dame called the Center for Children and Families. Starla Ross coaches her there.

“I see that confidence, that they can be the parent that they really want to be,” says Ross.

Johnson agrees, saying, “Parents need to stop blaming teachers for the low test scores or their children not getting the grades that they think they should have. It starts at home.”

Johnson says to take a hard look around and realize the way to get out of poverty. “Let them know, ‘Hey, I’m doing this because I love you, not because I’m angry with you. This is all for love.’”

You may not recognize that your neighbor, your co-worker, or friend as living in poverty, but if you take one thing away from this report, we hope it is that poverty doesn’t have a “look.”

In St. Joseph County, one in five children is living in poverty; they may be sitting next to your child on the school bus, or batting against your kid in Little League, or they may even be your own children.

To read Part 1 of our series, click here.

To read Part 2, click here