Improve Early Childhood Options in Rural Illinois to Reduce Crime

By Cayson Frerichs, original article appeared on KHQA.com

Law enforcement representatives of the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids organization are working to provide more resources to rural communities in Illinois to support young kids and parents.

While many large metropolitan areas in the state have a wealth of resources to help feed, teach and mentor young kids, rural areas are beginning to feel the pressure of these limited resources in their communities.

"In the rural areas there are a lack of resources," said Macomb Chief of Police Jerel Jones. "We do have some community-based organizations that help in some of these areas, but we need more."

That's why law enforcement officials are calling for added funding for the Birth to Five program in Illinois, which helps get resources into communities for more quality childhood services.

Lori Longueville is the Illinois Birth to Five area six coordinator.

She said in some of the communities she's worked in, families haven't been able to get the help they need because the services were either far away or families were not able to leave work and get their child to them.

"We bring forth a blueprint for a unified early education system for our state," Longueville said. "But we also recognize the diversity of our state and understand there are different needs and different solutions that need to happen in different regions."

These types of opportunities at a young age could keep more children in their teenage years out of trouble and reduce the crime numbers in rural areas.

"When we see those retail thefts and burglaries on the rise, it's really answering a bigger question and us having to focus our resources on the root cause of this," Jones said.

Besides reduced crime, officials believe this could be another way to stop Illinois' population loss in rural areas, by improving the overall quality of life in small towns.