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Marching Towards Change | February 2016
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CDF-New York to Host 2016 Beat the Odds® Awards Gala
Today New Yorkers will gather at
The Pierre at 6:00 p.m. to celebrate five inspiring high school seniors who
have overcome tremendous hardships to succeed academically and give back to
their community. Speakers include LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Roger Ferguson
and Marian Wright Edelman. The students receive a CDF Beat the Odds
scholarship and support through the college admissions process. Join us tonight
February 29th and help us salute these extraordinary young people
who are beating the odds stacked against them. Help us make their dreams come
true. Get
your tickets now.
If you cannot attend, please give as generously
as you can to support
the CDF-NY Beat the Odds scholarship and leadership development program
that has changed lives for decades.
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Children's Defense Fund-California 2016 Policy Agenda
Children’s Defense Fund–California, building on CDF's national agenda for children, released its
2016 Policy Agenda at a press conference at the state’s capitol
building on February 23. The agenda provides a roadmap of policy changes to end
child poverty for more than 2 million children, ensure educational equity,
provide access to health care, and transform justice systems for youth in
California. “Too many children in California — especially poor children,
children of color, and children with special needs — face odds stacked against
their success,” CDF-CA Executive Director Alex Johnson said. “We must come
together to fight for policies that lift children out of poverty, connect
families to quality health care, ensure fairness and equity in our schools and
build a juvenile justice system that focuses on prevention and rehabilitation.”
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Expanding Child Care for Infants and Toddlers
Senator Bob
Casey (D-PA) and Representatives Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Lois Frankel (D-FL)
introduced new legislation this month to increase access to high-quality child
care for low-income working families with young children. The need is great. In
2014 the annual cost of center-based child care for an infant was more
expensive than a year of in-state tuition at a public college in 28 states and
the District of Columbia. The Child Care Access to Resources for Early
Learning Act (Child C.A.R.E. Act) would provide significant new mandatory
funding to states to guarantee over the next 10 years all families with incomes
under 200 percent of poverty and children under age four can access affordable,
high-quality child care. Act now: Ask your Senators and Representative to
co-sponsor the Child C.A.R.E. Act (S.2539/H.R.4524) to ensure a strong start for
children in America’s hard-working low-income families.
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Ending Youth Incarceration
CDF is pleased to partner
with Youth First, a new national advocacy campaign launched February 23 to end the incarceration of
youths by closing youth prisons and investing in community-based alternatives
to incarceration and youth programs. Its campaign will ultimately focus on
15 states. On March 3rd, Youth First will release new public opinion
polling results concerning juvenile justice and the Youth Prison Inventory —a
first-of-its-kind graphic mapping tool— that will show where youths are being
incarcerated in the U.S. Please visit Youth First’s website and follow
@NoKidsInPrison to learn more
about the campaign, its goals and strategies, partners and resources and to see
how you can get involved in your state.
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In Loving Memory of Winifred Green
 We are sad to report the passing
of our longtime partner and CDF board member, Civil Rights activist, child
advocate and loyal friend Winifred Green on Saturday, February 6. She was one
of a handful of prominent White women who supported school desegregation and
keeping public schools open in Jackson, Mississippi in 1964. It cost her
alienation from many family members and friends which she told this way, “Once
my mother said to me, ‘What did we do wrong?’ I remember saying to her, ‘Granny
taught me, ‘Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in his sight,’
and I didn’t know that she didn’t really mean Black people.” To learn more read
Marian Wright Edelman’s powerful tribute.
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Please read Marian Wright Edelman's February Child Watch® Columns — which highlight Black history which is America's history — only the truth will set us free.
From Wiifred Green to Bryan Stevenson and Reverend Dr. William Barber II, the march towards justice continues.
The Third Reconstruction
The
Other Washington
Winifred
Green: An Unsung Warrior for Racial and Economic Justice
Leading
the March towards Criminal Justice
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Thank you for your continued support and
dedication to improving the lives of all children
in America.
We hope that you will remember
CDF, and all the children we serve, as you begin making your planned and
sustaining giving decisions for 2016. Please share our message and mission with
your family, friends and community, and encourage them to support
our work and join our
mailing list.
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