by Suzanne Dowling

Pick a grim statistic—poverty, infant deaths, poor education, births to single mothers, unemployment, gaps in health care—and you'll find the counties of Alabama's Black Belt at the top of each category.

Nowhere in the state do children and families face more hardship than in Alabama's Black Belt, where history, poverty and isolation have all contributed to low expectations and feelings of hopelessness.

And it is with these children and families that The University of Alabama is attempting to improve these statistics and give hope, especially in family-related areas such as child care/parenting, domestic violence, teen empowerment and health care availability.