Poverty pilot program unfunded, even as legislators seek to aid poor

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As a state Senate committee continues to study how best to measure and fight child poverty, a pilot program that would do just that is going unfunded.

Legislators passed a bill last year to set up a program on Charleston's West Side that would better organize the work of state agencies to improve the lives of at-risk kids. The state Department of Health and Human Resources is supposed to partner with a community organization to provide comprehensive, holistic programs to help poor children. The program would try to coordinate existing funding to cut waste and achieve better outcomes.