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The Hudson Valley Foundation for Youth Health, Inc.
services the New York counties of Ulster, Columbia,
Green, Delaware, and the Northern Ductchess towns of Red
Hook and Rhinebeck. This is a mainly rural area with
several medium size cities.
Ulster County is a larger county (1,127 sq. mi.)
with a population of 169,000 people. There is one city,
Kingston that has a population of 22,750 which is about
100 miles north of NYC. The county is about 93%
Caucasian, 5% African American and 4% Hispanic. In
Ulster county there is a large number of migrant and
transient workers employed in agriculture and tourism
industries. Ulster's median income is $34,033 but it's
per capita rests at under $15,000. Ulster County, and
specifically Kingston, is greatly affected by its
proximity to New York. The NYS Thruway provides a direct
drug line to Kingston, New Paltz and Ellenville. Youth
drug abuse has doubled in the past five years and
AIDS/STD infections are increasing at a dramatic pace.
8.6% of Ulster residents live below the poverty line.
The closure of IBM's plant in Kingston only compounded
matters when it laid off 7,100 people in 1994.
Columbia County is also mainly rural, with 9 out
of 10 people living in places with less than 2,500
people. The total population is 62,982 in this county of
654 sq. mi. The county lies 25 minutes south of Albany
and 2 hours north of NYC. The county has a 6% minority
population. The median income of $29,785 is far from the
per capita of about $14,000. 33% of the population makes
less than $20,000 and almost 10% live at or below the
poverty level. Hudson, the area's major city, suffers
from the same drug and sexually transmitted disease
problems as Kingston.
Greene County is located south of Albany, on the
west bank of the Hudson River. It is a small county with
a population of 44,739. 83.3 percent of these people
live in places with less than 2,500 people. The minority
population is about 7%. There is a small and decreasing
manufacturing economy with about 10.4% of the workforce
involved in manufacturing. 86.8% of the workforce in
1990 was involved in seasonal and tourism industries.
This results in a problematically seasonal nature of
employment. Over one third of the workforce commutes
outside the county.
Delaware County is another large and rural
county consisting of 1,460 sq. mi. The 1990 census
reported a 47,225 population with a population density
of 33 persons per mile. There are 17,646 households in
the county and 81% of the population lives in a family
setting with, on average, 3 people. The school districts
enroll about 9,000 students, grades K-12. Of these
almost 12% of the students show some disability, yet
there are precious few support systems in place.
Literacy Volunteers of Delaware County estimate that
about 25% of the adult population is functionally
illiterate.
The towns of Red Hook and Rhinebeck are located
in the northern Dutchess County. The neighboring towns
each lie on the west bank of the Hudson River and are
connected directly to Kingston, in Ulster County, by a
bridge in Rhinebeck. The towns encompass a total of 77
square miles and have a combined population of just over
17,000 people. Both towns are very rural and most of the
population leaves the towns to work. Local industry is
largely agricultural-based with some small businesses.
The median household incomes in Red Hook and Rhinebeck
are $38,716 and $37,235 respectively, but the per capita
income in the county (breakdown by town is not
available) in $22,173. Both towns are largely Caucasian.
Rhinebeck has a 3% African American population and Red
Hook has a 2.5% Asian population, while all other
minority groups make up about 1.5% in each town.
The Hudson Valley as a whole has many serious
problems. Levels of cigarette, marijuana, LSD, and other
substance use among area youth is on the rise. Fifth and
sixth graders are also showing disturbing increases in
their alcohol and inhalant use and 7th and 8th graders
are showing large increases of marijuana use. AIDS is
also a large problem in the area. Taken by itself, the
Mid-Hudson region has the fifth highest HIV infection
rate nation wide, with New York City in first place. In
fact, in the midwestern United States, blood from the
Mid-Hudson Valley is not accepted because of the high
rates of HIV and other diseases.
Geographically, the Hudson Valley lies between
New York City and Albany, and the problems of both of
these cities are quickly becoming problems for the
valley as well. The Hudson Valley area, however, does
not have the resources to combat the problems that the
cities do.
While there are several small hospitals in the
area, most serious, out-of-the-ordinary problems require
that people travel to NYC or Albany. What medical care
is available, is being threatened by financial
instability. Several area hospitals are in increasing
financial trouble, causing them to cut back on available
services.
Also of concern is the fact that the Valley does
not fall under a single governing entity. Instead
individual municipalities and counties must attempt to
deal with difficulties on their own. This causes
problems because the small governments are not equipped
to deal effectively with these issues. Large scale
programs are impossible for the small local governments
to institute because of lack of funding and of support.
In addition, state and federal money is becoming more
and more scarce. In order to address the deficiency of
public programs in the valley several small, independent
agencies and programs have been started. |
