Monthly Newsletter - November 2013
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Dear Child Advocate,
What a year. We have so much to be grateful for but we are
most thankful for you. Thank you for your support, for taking action on behalf
of children and for sharing CDF’s publications, news releases, and policy
priorities with your friends, family and networks. Our 40th
Anniversary year has reached a crescendo as our work and children’s needs are
being heard loud and clear in Washington and around the dinner table — and it’s
all thanks to you.
As a token of our appreciation, we want to share our 40th
Anniversary Champions Changing the Odds for Children Campaign program book with
you. In it you will find stories of alums of CDF’s
on-the-ground education, youth development, training and leadership programs,
which 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 and pursue their
dreams. Enjoy the stories of CDF’s impact and please share the book with
others. Help us continue our work with a recurring
donation and join us on December 3rd for #GivingTuesday, a new
movement to create a national day of giving back to kick off the holiday giving
season.
Thanks to Champion Lawmakers
We are grateful for a bi-partisan group in Congress -- Senator
Tom Harkin (D-IA), Congressman George Miller (D-CA) and Congressman Richard Hanna
(R-NY) -- who stepped forward for our youngest children this month. They introduced
the Strong
Start for America’s Children Act (S.1697, H.R. 3461) which expands
critical access to high-quality early development and learning programs for
children birth through age five. CDF President Marian Wright Edelman said, “Offering
children birth through five a continuum of quality early childhood supports
will reduce poverty, level the playing field and strengthen our future
generations and workforce. It is the right thing to do and the smart thing to
do. We all need to contribute to make it happen. We all stand to benefit.” Now
it’s up to us to make sure the rest of Congress makes early childhood
investments a priority. Contact
your members of Congress today.
Thanks to Children Who Lead the Way
Children and youth from immigrant families living in the
U.S. came to Washington, D.C. this month to learn from and march alongside leaders
of the Civil Rights Movement. They raised their voices to demand that Congress take
action to fix the broken immigration system and keep their families together. Through
a partnership with the Center for Community Change, CDF helped train these children
and youth as they prepared to go to Capitol Hill. Listen
to their stories. Children showing courage is not new – it was little Ruby Bridges leading the way to
desegregating schools and the Birmingham Children’s March that opened the
nation’s eyes to the injustice of Jim Crow. “[The immigrant rights movement] is
just an extension of the Civil Rights Movement — it never ended. It’s going to
continue until we get what we want, which is comprehensive immigration reform,”
said Jenni Martinez, 16. Watch a powerful
video of young leaders confronting House Speaker John Boehner about what he
will do to keep children and their families together. Urge your members of
Congress to support immigration reform now that includes a pathway to
citizenship.
Thanks for the Food We Eat and the Courage to Help Others Eat
As we prepare our Thanksgiving feasts with friends and
family, let us not forget those who struggle to put food on the table. More
than 1 in 5 children in our wealthy country — 15.9 million — live in families
who don’t always know how they will get their next meal. The Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known
as food stamps, lifted 2.2 million children out of poverty last year. It’s a
lifeline for children in families struggling to afford the food they need. As
Congress considers a Farm Bill with more than $40 billion in cuts to SNAP,
let’s show our love and compassion by raising our voice against child hunger.
Tweet #SNAPWorks to your elected
officials, and spread the word by sharing this
infographic on Facebook.
Thank You for Your Voice
The congressional Budget Conference Committee
faces a December 13 deadline for an agreement on the 2014 federal budget. The
Committee is struggling for a compromise to replace part or all of sequestration,
the across-the-board automatic spending cuts, for the next two years.
We are deeply thankful for your voice in these budget battles. As the deadline approaches, we
must now redouble our call to end sequestration, and demand that Congress makes
responsible investments in children instead of abdicating leadership with
across-the-board cuts that hurt many children. In 2013, 57,000 children
were cut from Head Start and Early Head Start as a result of the sequestration budget
cuts. Any changes to sequestration must be done in a balanced way so defense
cuts are not lifted while critical investments in children continue to be cut. Additionally,
the few programs serving the most vulnerable that were exempted from
sequestration must remain exempt from cuts. CDF believes that any final budget
deal must ensure the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share
while protecting investments in children from cuts.
Tell your member of Congress to ‘Be Careful What
You Cut’! Send
a message to your representatives letting them know that you want them to
end sequestration and support investments in early childhood programs that will
benefit children and our nation’s economy.
Thanks for Careful Research that Highlights the State of America’s Children
Stay tuned and be prepared to close out
the year with action when we release our signature State of America’s Children report in early December. With child
poverty at record high levels, the state of America’s children is far from
where it needs to be and we will sound the alarm and call our nation to
action as the budget committee nears its deadline. We look forward to sharing our
new research on the state of our children with you, hope you will find it a
valuable tool for advocacy, and ask that you share it broadly with your friends
and networks.
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