View this message on our website. |
|
SHARE: |
|
eNews | March 2015
|
|
California can #EndChildPoverty
California has the highest child poverty rate in the nation – more than
1 in 4 California children lives in poverty. We can – and must – end
child poverty in California. Our new report, Ending
Child Poverty: California, presents eight recommendations for how
California can reduce child poverty right now by investing in programs
that we know work. There is a growing consensus - including a recent
Sacramento Bee editorial highlighting CDF-CA recommendations - that
California cannot afford to continue letting a quarter of our children
grow up in poverty, harming their well-being and undermining their
future success. CDF-CA was invited to provide
testimony to two state budget committees on the impact of child
poverty and recommended solutions. Please join us in urging the state
to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, enact a state Earned Income
Tax Credit, increase basic needs assistance to extremely poor families,
and expand affordable child care, affordable housing and student
transportation for low-income families. Learn more about our
recommendations, and urge your legislators in Sacramento to take action
to end child poverty in California.Take
Action »
|
Help
Support Our Mission:
|
|
|
|
Now
accepting scholarship applications
Attention teachers, counselors, caseworkers, community leaders,
and caring adults: do you know an outstanding Los Angeles high
school sophomore who is succeeding despite overwhelming personal
challenges? We want to know them, too! From now until Friday, April
10th, we will be accepting your nominations for the Beat the Odds®
scholarship program. Now in its 25th year, the Beat the Odds program is
an annual academic and leadership scholarship awarded to outstanding
high school students who have overcome adversity to excel in school and
as leaders in their communities. Every year, we select 10 high school
sophomores in greater Los Angeles to participate in the program. Each
Beat the Odds honoree will have access to a suite of college
and career readiness opportunities for the duration of their high
school career and beyond - including up to $10,000 in scholarship
money, intensive SAT preparation, one-on-one college counseling,
internship placements, campus tours, and leadership development
workshops. Additionally, after one year in the program, five students
from the scholarship class will be handpicked to receive special
recognition at the annual Beat the Odds Gala and have their life
story made into a mini documentary by
professional filmmakers.
Learn More »
|
Rising
Up, Speaking Out
Earlier this year, we published a powerful and important new policy
brief that offers a glimmer of hope for all those concerned about the
welfare of children locked up in juvenile justice facilities. In
Rising
Up, Speaking Out: Youth Transforming Los Angeles County’s Juvenile
Justice System, five young people — in partnership with our
policy researchers — share their own unique experiences inside
probation camps and amplify key recommendations from an important UCLA
focus group study on how to improve conditions inside Los Angeles
County’s probation camps. The brief weighs in on the debate around what
works, what does not work, and what should be changed in juvenile
justice facilities, while bringing to light the voices, experiences and
ideas for change of those who have experienced the system.
Learn More »
|
From
South L.A. to Princeton
Congratulations are in order! Caylin Moore, 2011 Beat the Odds
honoree and junior at Marist College, was recently accepted into the
prestigious Public
Policy & International Affairs Junior Summer Institute. The
Junior Summer Institute is intensive seven-week summer program held at
Princeton University that prepares students for careers as policy
professionals, public administrators and other leadership roles in
public service. Before breaking barriers in college, Caylin was wowing
teachers and community leaders in his hometown of South Los Angeles with his intelligence, leadership
qualities, and resilience.
Watch his story »
|
Press Roundup
Advocates question children’s access to care
March 9, 2015 | California Health
Report
A year after California added nearly a million children to the
Medi-Cal program, advocates say the state is not doing enough to
ensure that all of those kids have access to doctors and other health
care providers.
[…]
Poor
need more than handouts
March 2, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee
For the third time, Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, is trying to pass
legislation removing the rule that denies extra benefits to women and
families who have a new child while receiving cash grants from the
California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program.
[…]
Movement to Restore Youth Begins by Ending Punitive Incarceration
Model
February 26, 2015 | Juvenile Justice Information
Exchange
To restore the dignity of youth in our juvenile justice system, the
Children’s Defense Fund-California (CDF-CA) is calling for an end to
the punitive incarceration model and a fundamental transformation in
how we treat youth.
[…]
Formerly Locked-Up LA Youth Tell How to Build a Better Juvenile
Justice System
February 6, 2015 | Witness L.A.
Los Angeles County is at a critical stage in reforming its juvenile
justice system, which is the largest in the nation. Juvenile crime is
down, and more kids than in the past are being given probation for
non-serious infractions, rather than being sent to locked facilities.
[…]
How to end child poverty for 60% of poor children and 72% of poor
Black children today
January 31, 2015 | Bay View
To restore the dignity of youth in our juvenile justice system, the
Children’s Defense Fund-California (CDF-CA) is calling for an end to
the punitive incarceration model and a fundamental transformation in
how we treat youth.
[…]
|
|
634 S. Spring Street, Suite 500C Los Angeles, CA 90014 | (213) 355-8787 405 14th Street, Suite 1012, Oakland, CA 94612 | (510) 663-3224
Children's Defense Fund - California © 2015. All rights reserved.
FOLLOW US:
|
|