By Tanner Kent

MANKATO — A research study released Tuesday on the social and emotional health of Mankato youth suggests the infrastructure that once earned national accolades is eroding.

Mankato and North Mankato have been included three times since 2005 in the 100 Best Communities for Young People as determined by the America’s Promise Alliance.

But the intent of the study, authored in collaboration between the Minnesota State University Department of Social Work, Mankato Area Healthy Youth and the Mankato YWCA, was to find out if the community was living up to that distinction.

“The findings,” said Paul Mackie, an MSU social work instructor and among the study’s authors, “were rather stark.”

Beginning in spring 2008, Mankato Area Healthy Youth began meeting with MSU instructors to craft a survey to determine the impact of state and federal aid reductions on local agencies that serve youth, beginning in 2002-03. Researchers collected responses from a dozen local agencies and then gathered local and state-level data on arrest rates, graduation rates and teen birth rates, among others.

According to the report, widespread reductions in client loads, staff and service programs have coincided with increases in unhealthy youth behavior.

For instance:

-- The arrest rate for serious crimes (robbery, rape, etc.) committed by Mankato youth has reached the highest level this decade after several years of steady decline.

-- The teen birth rate has been climbing since 2002.

-- The number of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch has increased to nearly a third of all children in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties.

-- The number of children in out-of-home placements in Blue Earth county exceeds state levels while Nicollet County now mirrors the state level.

And while authors cautioned against drawing a “causal connection” between noticeable decreases in funding level and increases in risky behaviors, MSU social work instructor Nancy Fitzsimons said it’s a connection “worth looking at.”

Fitzsimons, the study’s lead author, said funding for youth enrichment programs began drying up in 2003 during a state budget deficit similar to this year’s. Since then, she said, nearly every agency participating in the survey said budget cuts have affected their ability to provide services; most of them have reduced staff in response.

The report also noted that two of the participating agencies are now defunct.

“From 1996 to 2003, there were a lot of activities and efforts that are no longer active,” said Fitzsimons of a local movement that began in the early 1990s after a Minnesota Student Survey showed Mankato youth were using alcohol and drugs more frequently than those statewide.

“And this (research was completed) before the economic crisis. One can only imagine the challenges they face now.”

Of course, solutions are complex.

The report offers several recommendations, among them: invest in early childhood initiatives, focus on the highest-risk children and maintain programs long term.

State Rep. Kathy Brynaert, DFL-Mankato, attended Tuesday’s release of the report and acknowledged that few policymakers, locally and statewide, dispute the merits of youth enrichment. But, she said, funding needs to be consistent — even during economic crises.

“We have to figure out how we sustain that investment,” she said.

Several area nonprofit officials who also attended the news conference agreed that collaboration and shared services will play an important part in maintaining youth programs. But, they also cautioned that too much merging will only undermine the long-term goal.

“Nonprofits have always operated on shoestring budgets,” said Laura Bowman, director of the Greater Mankato Area United Way. “There is not much to cut to begin with. So, with mergers, you’re talking about cutting staff.”

Fitzsimons said she will repeat her research in two years. Without some kind of change, she said she expects those findings to be even more concerning.

“I don’t think we should be surprised if we don’t do anything differently,” she said. “We have the ability to do it. But we can’t expect someone else to do it.”