Stress of Poverty is Toxic to Our Children
A few weeks ago, I talked to Gov. Bill Haslam about toxic stress, brain development and epigenetics. Those may not have been my exact words, but in asking for the state's help to fight Memphis' intractable poverty, I was discussing them nonetheless. In the meeting in the governor's office in Nashville, I mapped out the city of Memphis' Blueprint for Prosperity, a 10-year plan to reduce Memphis' current 25.4 percent poverty rate to the state's rate of 16.5 percent.