Yonkers, at a population of 196,086 people, is the fourth largest city in New York State and the largest city in Westchester County. Our organization's target population is those low-income individuals and families who reside in Yonkers. It is larger than any other municipality in Westchester, except Yonkers as a whole. This is the home to 81% of the city's Blacks and 81% of its Latinos. According to the 1993 report from the Community Planning Council of Yonkers, this city has one-third of the county's poor, the majority of whom reside here where we operate, the City's Southwest quadrant. Poverty in Westchester is highly correlate with race and ethnicity and female-headed household. Specifically in YCAP's target area, 20% of all families and 40% of all female-headed households live below the poverty level. The City of Yonkers in total has a median household at only 70% of the county wide level of $63,582. Our clients see far less than this. Such socio-economic factors have lead Westchester County to identify Yonkers as a target community "at risk" for poor academic performance.
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