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The past, present, and future of child advocacy will come together tonight in celebration at the Kennedy Center as part of our 40th Anniversary Celebration – Champions Changing the Odds for Children. We will celebrate the 40 years of vigilance and coalition work, which has helped enact laws and policies that have helped millions of children escape poverty and receive the health care, nutrition, Head Start and Early Head Start, child care, education, special education, family support services, adoption assistance, protections for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, and protections from gun violence.
The event will also celebrate young leaders and alums of the CDF Freedom Schools® program, the Beat the Odds® scholarship program, and the Young Advocate Leadership Training (YALT®) program who are making a difference in the lives of countless children across our nation. CDF’s on-the-ground education, youth development, training and leadership programs have touched the lives of more than 125,000 children and young adults and helped more than 800 low-income high school students go to college to realize their dreams.
Lastly, we are grateful and excited to honor Hillary Rodham Clinton who has been with us from the beginning. Hillary joined CDF as a young staff attorney right out of law school and knocked on doors to research and help prepare CDF’s first landmark report, Children Out of School in America – a major catalyst for the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She became a CDF board member and ultimately board chair until she became First Lady. Here’s an early look at part of our tribute video to her:
Join in the celebration. Sign our virtual e-card with your well wishes to Marian Wright Edelman, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the other champions for children who have come up through CDF’s ranks as young servant leaders. Check our website tomorrow for photos and video from the evening’s celebration. Follow the event live on Twitter tonight @ChildDefender beginning at 8 p.m. EST.
Doctors told Jaime Gonzalez’s parents that his birth defects were so severe he probably wouldn’t live to age one. When he did, doctors told them next that he’d probably never walk. He did that too—though it is still difficult even after a series of surgeries. Winning a Beat the Odds award, he said, helped with living expenses and shaped his medical goals. He attended a Young Advocate Leadership Training (YALT) at Haley Farm and got involved with CDF’s efforts to enroll children in Medicaid and CHIP by organizing a group of his premed classmates to put on health fairs to sign up children. This sparked his interest in public health, and he added a year to his education to get both an M.D. and a Masters in Public Health. He lost a year when his mother was shot while taking out the trash, and he saw her through two surgeries. He graduated in May. A columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News quoted the former Associate Dean, “I’d see him struggling to get across the campus to be on time for the next class and I’d think, ‘What an incredible kid.’” Read the rest of Jaime’s incredible story and 40 other deeply moving #CDF40 profiles of young people CDF has incubated over the years. Consider making a $40 donation in support of our campaign to change the odds for all children. Read and share their profiles. Support our work. Child Poverty Remains at Record High Although critical gains have been made for children over these past four decades, much remains to be done. U.S. Census Bureau data released earlier this month showed children remain the poorest age group in the country with a poverty rate 21 percent higher than before the Great Recession. “It is disgraceful that more than one out of five children are poor in our rich nation. Our challenge to ensure every child a level playing field is greater than ever with more than 16 million children, nearly five million under age five, living in poverty and families still struggling to recover from the recession. If we want to build a strong workforce and military and to stand for the basic tenets of justice for the most voiceless in our midst, we must end child poverty,” said CDF President Marian Wright Edelman. Download the new poverty data fact sheet. As our newsletter goes to press, the U.S. government is on the brink of a shutdown for the first time in nearly two decades as a small ideological faction of the House of Representatives holds hostage government funding in exchange for delaying full implementation of the health reform law – the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—for one year. Current government funding expires at midnight if it is not continued. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has made clear the Senate will not accept any attempts to force changes to the ACA through the 2014 funding bill and the Senate is expected to return a straight continuing funding resolution back to the House without the ACA provisions. All eyes will then turn to the House where a last minute vote on a “clean” funding bill, without the ACA measure, could avert a shutdown. A government shutdown will disrupt all but “essential” government services and will stall the ongoing economic recovery. While it is unclear what the resolution on the government shutdown will be today, it is clear that threats to our long-term economic growth and the well-being of children and vulnerable families who have already experienced so much suffering from budget cuts is very real. Investing in children now is critical to the long term health and security of our nation. Stay tuned to Children’s Budget Watch and tell your Members of Congress to “Be Careful What You Cut!”
Will you engage your House of Worship to protect children from gun violence and poverty by participating in the 22nd Annual Multi-Faith National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths® celebration weekend, “Beating Swords Into Plowshares: Ending the Violence of Guns and Child Poverty,” in October? The 2013 Children’s Sabbath will be observed across the nation October 18-20 and will focus on how we can end the violence of guns that takes a child or teen’s life every 3 hours and 15 minutes and the poverty suffered by 16.1 million children in the wealthiest nation on earth. Join thousands of people across the religious spectrum and nation who will come together during the Children’s Sabbath weekend to pray, worship, learn more, act, and a raise an irresistible moral and nonpartisan citizen voice demanding every one of our leaders protect children, teens, and adults from morally obscene gun violence and poverty. Download free, easy-to-use resources to plan and implement a Children’s Sabbath Celebration in your congregation or community. The most recent additions are the Multi-Faith Resources section and the Jewish Resources for Children’s Shabbat section. On October 1, the Children’s Defense Fund and the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University, with support from McDermott Will & Emory, will host a convening on early childhood development and learning in Washington, D.C.: “Investing Early in All Our Children Who Are America’s Future.” The convening, which will feature a conversation with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, will bring together a diverse group, leaders in K-12 education, higher education, criminal justice, child health, unions, and early childhood, as well as policy and political leaders. The goal is to link new networks with those already actively promoting early childhood investments in communities across the country. We will explore the benefits to our children and our economy from such investments, the benefits to diverse constituent groups, highlight states with quality early childhood systems in place, answer tough questions about the effectiveness of investments in early childhood and talk about how best to build public and political will for these investments. Follow the convening on Twitter tomorrow @ChildDefender. The Census Bureau released new data reflecting the significant progress we’ve made in covering children and bringing the number of uninsured children to historic lows. In 2012, nearly 7.2 million children under 19 were uninsured compared to 7.6 million children in 2011 – a decrease of 441,000. These gains are in large part due to the strong protections and coverage guarantees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). As we celebrate the good news, we must also vigorously recommit to ensuring every child in America access to comprehensive and affordable health coverage with 7.2 million uninsured children– 70 percent of whom are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP coverage but not enrolled. The good news is that we can rigorously reach out right now to all Medicaid and CHIP eligible children through our public schools, community, faith, and service institutions to ensure children survive and thrive right now. Please join us in this effort. |
