By Frank DeLoache Salisbury Post One out of every five North Carolina women 18 to 64 years old has no health insurance. More than 1,300 Rowan County women are 65 or older and live below the poverty level. In 2003, Rowan County's 911 center received 1,698 calls related to domestic violence. Even though the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, one state study said a family of four -- with both parents working -- really needs a "living wage" of $9.54 an hour in urban areas or $8.71 an hour in rural communities. In 2002, 281 Rowan County girls 10 to 19 years old became pregnant, and just 61 of those were married. Many different numbers but one group that feels all their effects: women. A group of Rowan County women -- and some men -- gathered in the fellowship hall of First United Methodist Church of Salisbury Thursday night to hear those numbers and to help set a statewide agenda for the concerns of women. Organizers called it a "community issues forum," but the official title was the Rowan County Women's Agenda Assembly, 2004. Thirty-four such gatherings are scheduled this year throughout the state, under the auspices of N.C. Women United, according to Judith Alcorn, who co-chaired the Rowan assembly with Dr. Elaine Stiller. Each assembly will report its priorities, and those priorities will be assimilated and brought to the N.C. General Assembly on May 19, 2005. The assemblies are organized every two years; this is the sixth assembly of Rowan County women since 1991. In Rowan, the American Association of University Women has been the driving force, Alcorn said. The meeting drew an apparently diverse group of women -- black and white, young, middle-aged and seniors. Alcorn said the group got support from Head Start, Livingstone College and several local service agencies that work on women's issues. For the 85 people who attended Tuesday's assembly, access to health care is clearly the top issue facing women. Carolyn Peck, director of Salisbury's Community Care Clinic, said that getting health care is "not only morally right but it is also economically right." If people can't stay healthy and don't have access to preventative care, they can't work and support themselves and add to the burden on the health care system, she said. The Community Care Clinic provides medical and dental care and medicine to people who don't have private health insurance but make too much to qualify for government health care programs. In the past nine months, for example, the clinic has dispensed more than $900,000 in free prescription medicine, Peck said. In order, the Rowan assembly ranked their next four priorities for women as: - Economic self-sufficiency. June Kimmel, who works for the N.C. Council for Women/Domestic Violence Commission, told the audience that one of the biggest issues before the legislature is pay equity for women. And advocates are focusing their efforts on equitable pay for women state employees. They feel that with so many employees, if the state addresses pay inequities, the change will have "ripple effects" through the rest of the economy. - Violence against women (and, in reality, children). Elizabeth Patton, director of the Family Crisis Council, which operates a shelter for abused women and children, said 100 women and 70 children have taken refuge there this year. "Violence does begin at home," Patton said. "That's where it's learned." - Adolescent and family services. Carolyn Ann Houpe, director of the Adolescent and Family Enrichment Program, said the community can be proud that the rate of teen pregnancy has dropped dramatically in the past decade. But she warned that teens continue to engage in "risky behavior" that may leave them with a disease if not pregnant. - Concerns for the aging. Sandra Wilkes, director of the Rowan County Department of Social Services, said the top concern of older adults is their ability to live independently in their own homes. That requires services such as in-home nursing care and knowing whom to go to for help. Wilkes encouraged her audience to participate in the county's ongoing Senior and Disabled Adult Planning Initiative, which is focusing on four areas: access to information, access to medical care, advocacy and housing. For more information about the Women's Agenda and N.C. Women United, go to that group's Web site, ncwu.org. Contact Frank DeLoache at 704-797-4245 or fdeloache@salisburypost.com.
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