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Children Can't Wait | March 2016
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Celebrate Women's History Month with Marian Wright Edelman
Join the Children’s Defense
Fund-California tonight at 6:00 p.m. at the California African-American History
Museum in Los Angeles for "Leveling the Playing Field for California’s
Children," an intergenerational conversation with women leaders. Held in
honor of Women's History Month, this special event will bring together CDF president,
Marian Wright Edelman, and Los Angeles’ most powerful activists for an open
dialogue about the crisis facing our children today – and what we can do about
it. You
can still register for this free event.
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Changing the Odds in Minnesota
Minnesota’s children continue to benefit from child advocates who stand
up and speak out for policies that improve their lives.
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Our Children Can't Wait
Children’s
Defense Fund-Minnesota (with the Kids Can’t Wait Coalition) is pushing the
legislature to support a strong start for children; ensuring affordable,
accessible child care for all families by fully funding the Basic Sliding Fee
Child Care Assistance Program and expanding the state Child and Dependent Care
Tax Credit. To make the case, Fallon advertising agency, CDF’s pro-bono partner
of 30 years, produced this moving video
featuring stories of Minnesotans with child care challenges. Nationwide, more
than 360,000 child care subsidy slots have been lost since 2006. Did you know that in many cities child care costs more than many parents pay for
rent?
Until Congress acts to significantly increase funding for the Child Care and Development Block
Grant (CCDBG), we applaud states like Minnesota for marching forward to change
the odds of success for children.
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They Beat the Odds
On
April 9, CDF-Minnesota will host a Beat the Odds® Awards Celebration to give $5,000
scholarships to six deserving high school students. For the
first time, the Pat Fallon Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a student
interested in the arts. The scholarship was established in honor of long-time
Children’s Defense Fund board member and co-founder of Fallon advertising
agency, Pat Fallon, who passed away last November. St. Paul City Council
President Russ Stark and Fallon co-founder, Fred Senn, will present to St. Paul
honoree Mela Nguyen. Minneapolis Mayor
Betsy Hodges will present to the Minneapolis winners: Christopher Oquist;
Domenic Johnson; Hennessey Carlbom; Sebastien Lannelongue; and Shamaria Jordan.
Special guest Governor Mark Dayton and Children’s Defense Fund president Marian
Wright Edelman will also speak. Tickets
are still available. If you are unable to attend, please donate to the
CDF-MN Beat the Odds program.
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Making a Difference through 2016 CDF Freedom Schools® Program
“I hope you will answer the call to rescue our
youth from hopelessness and despair and dead-end lives by starting a CDF
Freedom Schools® program in your community." – Marian
Wright Edelman
Studying
at Florida State University for a master’s degree in Exceptional Student
Education, Keely Smith spent the summer of 2014 as a CDF Freedom Schools
intern. She heard that call and immediately said sure, why not! Less than a
year later Keely was running a CDF
Freedom Schools site serving 50 children in a rural
community near her home in Tallahassee. Today, she is Co-Executive
Director of two sites that will serve 100 children this summer. She has helped
to create partnerships with Florida State University and Florida A&M University
to support the work: "I honestly could not imagine life without CDF Freedom Schools program. It has
made me a more joyful person and educator, and I know it has had the same
impact on my staff and our scholars. You can see it in our excitement for this
summer!"
P.S. Recently
married, Keely is now called Mrs. Norris by middle schoolers in her special
education classes. She is a shining example of servant leadership and of CDF’s
youth leadership development programs. Please donate to pay for the culturally
diverse, high-quality books we provide to our nearly 13,000 CDF Freedom Schools children.
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Early Bird Discount Ends April 3, 2016
Have you registered? The early bird registration discount
for the 2016 Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry: “Praying
with Our Feet: Pursuing Justice for Children from the Sanctuary to the Street”?
ends Sunday, April 3— there’s still time to register!
Checkout the lineup of Great Preachers and Teachers. Come and you will discover
strategies, skills and effective models to equip you in your faithful work to
end child poverty, dismantle the Cradle to Prison Pipeline™ and improve the
lives of all children. Join clergy,
seminarians, Christian educators, community organizers, young adult leaders and
other faith-based advocates in the intergenerational, interracial and
multi-ethnic conversation pursuing justice for our nation’s children. Register
today before the Early Bird Discount ends on April 3rd.
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Bright Futures: Improving Education and Transforming Outcomes for Girls of Color
Our
nation’s girls are graduating at higher rates from high school than boys, but not
girls of color. Data show girls of color graduate at lower rates than White
girls and boys — a disparity that has pervasive educational and economic
consequences. Find out what you can do to change the odds stacked against them.
Register today for the “Bright Futures: Improving Education and Transforming
Outcomes for Girls of Color,” a free symposium from Educational Testing
Services and Rutgers University-Camden April 14 and 15, featuring change makers
including CDF-California Executive Director Alex Johnson and CDF-New York Director of Youth Justice Elizabeth Powers. Space is limited.
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Welcome to CDF-New York, Naomi Post!
We are thrilled to announce that
Naomi Post will be joining us as the new Executive Director of CDF-New York on
April 18, 2016. She brings nearly 30 years of professional experience in
advocacy and community organizing; executive level policy work; budget
development and oversight and strategic planning. During her tenure at The
Atlantic Philanthropies, she was the Head of Community Based Programmes and
managed a portfolio of over $100 million in grants supporting community schools
and school based health centers in four diverse states. She led a child and
youth public/private advocacy effort to expand robust prevention programs,
including afterschool programs and research-based home visitation for
first-time mothers in Philadelphia and co-founded the Philadelphia Youth
Violence Reduction Partnership. Her decade-long tenure with the Philadelphia
Family Court reforming the juvenile justice system was recognized by the
Juvenile Court Judges Commission as the best community based program in the
State.
“I am thrilled to serve with the Children’s
Defense Fund, an organization I have long admired,” said Naomi, “I am eager to
continue to advance the hard-fought progress to level the playing field for all
of New York’s children.
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CDF President in the News
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of
Children’s Defense Fund, to visit Charleston – The Post and Courier (02/28/16)
Marian Wright Edelman,
founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, is a South Carolina native whose social
activism was first sparked by her childhood experiences growing up in
Bennettsville. Segregation ruled the day, but Edelman rejected it as illogical
and unfair, and that was when she was 5 years old. Today, she is 76 and an
esteemed matriarch of the civil rights movement. Read this excellent profile.
THE JOURNEY: “On Behalf of Children –
Marian Wright Edelman” – WHUR
96.3 (03/20/16) Marian Wright Edelman has dedicated her life to advocating
for the most vulnerable in our population. On this episode of The
Journey, Howard University President Wayne Frederick chats with the activist
who is founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund about her more than
five decades of work.
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Catch up on Marian Wright Edelman’s Child Watch® columns from March: Inequality in America. Guaranteed to stimulate, inform and inspire you to take action for social justice now.
The Moment We Have Waited For
Tick, Tock, Tick Tock: Flint’s Disposable
Poor Children
America, I Am You
America’s Back Door
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Thank you for your support and dedication to improving the lives of all children in America.
Please share our message and mission with your networks. Encourage your family, friends and neighbors to support our work or join our mailing list.
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