1. Child advocates put ZIP code data to work
Coalition studies ZIP codes to help understand trouble
spots, develop area-specific solutions
ZIP code facts
• 37207 | 72 children placed into state custody in 2012 | ZIP code has led Nashville for years •
37115 | 45 in custody | Custody number nearly doubled 2011 to 2012 • 37206 | 39 in custody |
Children affected by incarcerated parents • 37211 | 38 in custody | Teen behavior problems
common 37208 | 37 in custody | More teens in custody than young children
Child advocates have a new way of pinpointing Nashville neighborhoods that have high rates of
child abuse and neglect.

2. And by also examining the reasons that children are removed from homes and placed into
protective state custody, they hope to bring new and improved parenting classes and programs
to those neighborhoods.
For the first time, data about abused children are being grouped by ZIP code, showing where
problems such as drug abuse, parental incarceration and truancy are concentrated. The
numbers, which also hint at how family strife strikes at children of different ages, have spurred
questions among the family service providers who want to analyze the data and confront
problems where they find them.
“The good news is that Nashville has a lot of providers,” said Nikki Swann, co-chairwoman of the
Parent Forward Coalition. “But are they in the right areas?”
Swann oversees foster care and in-home family programs for the nonprofit Youth Villages, one
of about a dozen agencies taking part. The agencies have two goals set by the Department of
Children’s Services: improve parenting education and reduce father absenteeism in Davidson
County.
Swann said the group wants to know whether parenting classes are lacking, or aren’t being
publicized, or if other hurdles, such as too few language translators, leave parents without
support.
Early findings have shown:
• Areas with the most children in custody are scattered across East, North and South Nashville,
typically in low-income areas;
• The 37207 ZIP code along Dickerson Pike has the most children in custody, and;
• The 37115 ZIP code, surrounding Madison, saw the largest increase in child custody numbers
between 2011 and 2012.
'We need to do something'
Although some numbers confirm what those on the front lines could have guessed, other
realizations have triggered action.
Early last year, after getting a glimpse at preliminary data, one member of the parent coalition
started free parenting classes in two underserved ZIP codes. Georgianna Hooker, a former DCS
employee who now heads up the nonprofit GParadigms, focuses on teaching parents of kids 10
and older — an underserved group, she said.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we need to be doing something for these families that have school-
aged children,’ ” Hooker said.
Teaching at the C. E. McGruder Family Resource Center (37208) and Friendship Missionary
Baptist Church (37207) in North Nashville, Hooker meets parents who struggle with proper
discipline for teens who act out. Some may have spanked their children. Others refused to pick
up teens from school detention or juvenile court after they got into trouble, a form of neglect
investigators mark as “abandonment.”
“They have lost temporary control,” Hooker said. “The lower income, they tend to be highly

3. stressed. And some may have additional issues, like alcohol and drugs, and many are single
parents.”
About four of five participants were ordered into classes by DCS. Others choose to attend.
In class, parents learn communication skills, walk through exercises to develop empathy with
their children and hear lessons about adolescent brain development.
Hooker pushes parents to be as honest as possible. She’ll ask: What about parenting do you like
least? Then they talk about those challenges. She shares personal stories, too, often opening
the floodgates for parents to speak about sensitive subjects.
Ripe for analysis
Hooker’s call to action was exactly what Jennifer Drake-Croft envisioned when she first sought
out the child abuse statistics more than a year ago.
Drake-Croft, director of parent education at the Exchange Club Family Center, said the numbers
were ripe for analysis, just waiting for someone to look closer. Plus, she said, DCS can gather
numbers quickly and by ZIP code, which stands out from other data sources.
“Just two years ago, not even, we had to rely on (statewide) Kids Count data to inform us what
was happening,” she said. “It’s always 2 years old, and it’s not localized.”
But by pairing the state’s own “big data” with local advocates who want to understand it, Drake-
Croft said families dealing with state custody cases could be healed and reunited faster.
Better yet, they might get help before touching the state system at all.
Reach Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @tgonzalez.