Children's Defense Fund

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

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