Monthly Newsletter - April 2014

 

in this edition

Progress Report: Tune In Today at 10:30

Register Today for the CDF/ETS Symposium

Creating Change: Improving the Odds for America’s Children

CDF Freedom Schools® Program Coming to Nashville
CDF-Texas Celebrates 15 Years of Changing Children’s Lives!
Proctor Institute: New Speakers and May-Only Promotion

Progress Report: Tune In Today at 10:30

CDF President Marian Wright Edelman will testify before Chairman Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee’s hearing on “A Progress Report on the War on Poverty: Lessons from the Frontlines.” Earlier this month the House of Representatives passed the budget proposed by Chairman Ryan that would severely undercut the progress made since the War on Poverty was declared. The budget gets 69 percent of its cuts from programs that assist low-income children and families, while asking nothing from the wealthiest. It cuts tax rates for the richest Americans by taking food and other supports from children.

Mrs. Edelman was on the frontlines in Mississippi in 1964 shortly after President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty and CDF has stayed on the frontlines through our state offices which together cover 40 percent of the nation’s poor children. Hear Mrs. Edelman challenge committee members on both sides of the aisle to mount a long overdue, unwavering, and persistent war to prevent and eliminate child poverty and finish the task President Johnson and Dr. King began. Tune in to the live hearing beginning at 10:30 a.m. EST. Follow the action on Twitter @ChildDefender. Mrs. Edelman’s written statement will also be posted on CDF’s website after the hearing.


Register Today for the CDF/ETS Symposium

ETS-Teen-2014.jpg

We are excited to announce registration is open for our upcoming symposium, "Advancing Success for Black Men in College," co-sponsored by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). This final symposium in a four-part series on improving the outcomes for Black boys and young men will focus on the opportunities and challenges Black men ages 18–24 face in the college years. Panel discussions include access, remediation and retention; the affordability challenge; and strategies that work to advance success for vulnerable populations. Register today for this free event that will be held June 23rd in Washington, D.C.

The CDF/ETS symposia are another example of CDF’s long-standing commitment to promote initiatives for boys and men of color. Our work over nearly 25 years has included the Black Community Crusade for Children, the Cradle to Prison Pipeline® Campaign, CDF Freedom Schools® program, policy research and publications and programs for young leaders, like the Beat the Odds® scholarship and leadership development program and the Young Advocate Leadership Training (YALT®) program. Learn more about our activities for boys and men of color and get involved.


Creating Change: Improving the Odds for America’s Children

ETS-Teen-2014.jpg

The Children’s Defense Fund has always believed that “children do not come in pieces” and that children need comprehensive, integrated supports and services from birth through adulthood. How does America achieve this goal with the existing fragmented education and health and human services systems? A new Harvard Education Press book, Improving the Odds for America’s Children: Future Directions in Policy and Practice, dedicated to Marian Wright Edelman, and written by a group of scholars and leaders in child and family policy, highlights progress of the last 40 years, diagnoses current obstacles to progress and promotes key recommendations for child and family policy and practice going forward. Hillary Rodham Clinton says of the new book: “This important collection of ideas about how to improve the odds for America’s children should be required reading for policy makers across the country.” Order the book today. Watch the book release launch earlier this month at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Askwith Forum at which Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts makes a stirring case for investing in children.

Read Marian Wright Edelman’s Child Watch® column, The Seed Experiment, which makes the irrefutable case for providing all of America’s children with the basics. In this video, Arloc Sherman, senior researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and one of the contributors to Improving the Odds for America's Children, talks about the power of nutrition and other anti-poverty programs that meet the basic needs and help lift children out of poverty.


CDF Freedom Schools® Program Coming to Nashville

As we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer this year, we also celebrate the roots of the CDF Freedom Schools program. It started in Nashville, where college-age students from American Baptist College, Fisk University, and Tennessee State University were trained in nonviolent organizing by Dr. Jim Lawson before going to Mississippi to make a difference. The signature program in that summer of 1964 was Freedom Schools, designed to give Black children and teenagers a richer education experience than that offered them in Mississippi public schools. Courageous college students from across the country were paired with local members of the Black community to teach Black history and civic lessons along with reading, writing, math and science. The CDF Freedom Schools program, modeled after the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools, has served more than 100,000 children and trained more than 13,000 college-age Servant Leader Interns to deliver the Integrated Reading Curriculum and empower children to make a difference.

Now we are coming full circle. Earlier this month in Nashville, Marian Wright Edelman with our CDF Nashville Team announced two new CDF Freedom Schools that will serve mostly low-income children of color in Nashville this summer. These children, like the thousands of CDF Freedom Schools scholars around the country, will read good books about people who look like them and learn how they can make a difference in themselves, in their families, communities, country and world. Support the CDF Freedom Schools program today.


CDF-Texas Celebrates 15 Years of Changing Children’s Lives!

ETS-Teen-2014.jpg

Next week CDF-Texas will celebrate 15 years of making a difference for children in the Lone Star state with a Crystal Celebration to mark their 15th anniversary Beat the Odds® awards luncheon. Since 1999, CDF-Texas has awarded more than 125 scholarships to outstanding youths from the Dallas and Houston areas. Many recipients have gone on to pursue advanced degrees and positions of leadership in communities across the country. Watch former CDF-Texas Beat the Odds award recipient Sheehan Whelan explain how CDF’s investment in her education and development changed her life. Join us in congratulating CDF-Texas on their milestone year and make your donation today to support the important work of our southern-most state office in 2014 and beyond.


Proctor Institute: New Speakers and May-Only Promotion

We’re thrilled to announce exciting speakers and leaders for this year’s Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, July 14 – 18 at CDF Haley Farm.

New this year, each full day of the Institute, choose from three terrific Children’s Concerns options including:

  • Conversations with the Great Preachers: Dr. Emilie Townes (on Breaking the Fine Rain of Death), Bishop Minerva Carcano (on Immigration—Ministry and Movement-Building from the Margins), Ched Myers (on Restorative Justice), and Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr. (on Prophetic Preaching);
  • Organizing for Action Sessions: Gain inspiring, reality-tested, effective strategies from the dynamic team of organizers from Allentown, PA, in “Campaign for Change: Bringing Non-Violent, Direct Action Organizing Strategies from Haley Farm to Your Town” and from the powerful CDF Nashville team in “Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline and Ending Mass Incarceration”;
  • Policy and Action Planning Seminars: Get the latest policy information and practical strategies from experienced local leaders and CDF experts on Early Childhood Development, Health Coverage for Children, and Ending Gun Violence.

Every day begins with Morning Devotions with Dr. Otis Moss Jr. and Dr. Otis Moss III and then Bible Study with the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner and Dr. James Cone.

Special May-Only Promotion: The next 100 people who register for the Proctor Institute will receive an autographed copy of Thus Far On the Way: Toward a Theology of Child Advocacy by Dr. Lindner with a Foreword by Marian Wright Edelman. Thus Far On the Way is based on sermons and speeches delivered by Dr. Lindner during the first decade of the Proctor Institute and speaks powerfully to our current calling to faithful child advocacy. Don’t delay! Register now for the 20th year of the Proctor Institute, and receive your gift when you arrive at Haley Farm in July.

Forward to a friend | Visit our website | Unsubscribe

Powered By Blackbaud