Pastor’s Letter
Families in Bakersfield
With this article, we continue looking at what is happening in Bakersfield. This time lets start by talking about families. If I were to ask you about Bakersfield families, what comes to mind? Are they traditional? Do you think of married persons and two-parent families?
Bakersfield classifies as somewhat nontraditional in terms of the families who are here. Compared to national averages, it has a lower percentage of people who are married, more who are divorced or widowed,
and more who have never married. Even more noticeable is the nontraditional status of families with children. Fewer children (though still the majority) live in families where the adults are married couples. There are far more single parent families, that includes both single moms (29% instead of national averages of 23%) and single dads (9% instead of national overages of 7%).
While there are many healthy single-parent families, such families often experience a great deal of stress both from lower incomes and from one parent trying to do everything and being stretched thin. In Bakersfield, one of the contributing factors to the high rate of single-parents families is the high teenage pregnancy rate. That always contributes to higher rates of single parent families. It also contributes to more stresses within families as teens are often unready to take on parenting chores.
There are other issues adding to family stresses. Bakersfield has substantially more families than average living below the poverty line. As the cost of living here increases, so do the number of families affected. We can tell from who comes into the office that the higher cost of food and fuel is hurting many families. Most of those who come into the office talk about the children or grandchildren they are raising. We’ve talked with folk who are raising their grandchildren because their own children are traveling to other cities looking for work. There just isn’t enough work here to care for the whole family.
An additional stress for many families is the low educational level. Folk at First Congregational tend to be well educated. College is common. Graduate work is not rare. In Bakersfield, college educations are less
common. Almost half the population has a high school education or less. Nearly a third have less than a high school education. That lower education level stresses families in two ways. First it results in lower incomes and stretched family budgets. Second, more education often results in more coping skills.
All of these things come together to indicate that Bakersfield is a community with a very high level of social stress. There are lots of people here with lots of real concerns that affect them, their families, and their
futures.
*The difference between the demographics shown in the Kern Life magazine and those used in this article is that these are based on a five mile radius from the church while the magazine appears to be based on city borders.
– Rev. Elizabeth Steele
_ 07/28/08_