In This May 2007 Edition:
>> Mother's Day
>> Susie is Now is Spanish!
>> Children's Sabbaths Manual Now Available for Pre-Order
>> Unique Partnership Calls for Changes in Federal Child Welfare Law
>> Use Your Cell Phone to Support Paid Sick Leave
>> Just Released: New Data Book on Minnesota's Children >> Two Bills That Provide All CA Children Access to Health Insurance - New Survey Info >> Restoring Coverage to 200,000 Texas Children and Their Stories
Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!
 Earlier this month, we called upon CDF supporters to take action and contact their Members of Congress asking them to support the CDF endorsed All Healthy Children Act (HR 1688) — and boy, did you respond! CDF supporters gave a voice to the nine million uninsured children in America and in one week sent close to 3,500 emails to their Representatives! We can't thank you enough.
Your Representatives must be listening because the All Healthy Children Act (HR 1688) now has close to 50 co-sponsors! (Before Mother's Day it had 14.) Keep up the good work and continue to make your voice heard!
If you were not able to join CDF supporters in taking action during our Mother's Day Call to Action, it's not too late. We still have a long fight in front of us. Send an email to your Members of Congress today and let them know that health insurance for all children is important to you.
Want to do more? You can:
- Tell your friends to join you in taking action — send them an eCard!
- Make a Donation — our generous support allows the Children's Defense Fund to work on behalf of America's children.
- Learn more about who the nine million uninsured children are and read some real stories of children and families living without health insurance.
ElectSusie.com en Español
Did you know that 3.5 million children without health coverage in America — over 38 percent — are Latino, making them the largest uninsured group in the United States?
 The Elect Susie campaign has responded by launching a Spanish-language section of the Elect Susie website, allowing Spanish-speaking visitors to view the campaign message and sign the petition supporting health coverage for all children.
Join us in helping Susie be a voice for all children in American who need health coverage — no matter what language that voice may be.
More news from the Elect Susie campaign: Susie's website continues to grow in popularity — it was recently selected as a top pick by both Yahoo and YouTube!
Want to help spread the word of Susie's campaign even further? You can:
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Pre-Order Your Interfaith National Observance of Children's Sabbaths® Manual Today!
 This year's Children's Sabbaths Manual will be available in June. My Boat Is So Small: Creating a Harbor of Hope and Health Care for All Children - National Observance of Children's Sabbaths® Manual, Vol. 16 is a useful guide for strengthening your efforts for children throughout the year and during the Interfaith National Observance of Children's Sabbaths® Celebration (Oct. 19-21), is now available for pre-order.
This easy-to-use guide provides worship materials for Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Bahá'í, and other faith traditions, resources for an interfaith gathering, bulletin inserts, and ideas for hands-on service and advocacy efforts. This year's manual focuses on how we can create a safe harbor of hope and health care for all our nation's children, including the nine million children in America without health insurance and the poor and minority children facing risks and disadvantages that often pull them into the "cradle to prison pipeline."
Get more information and place your pre-order today.
Also, don’t forget to register for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry being held July 16-20, 2007 at Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee!
Unique Partnership Calls on Congress for Renewed Commitment to Protect Children
 CDF, in a unique partnership with organizations representing human services directors, public child welfare directors, private children and family service agencies, unions representing child welfare workers, and advocates for children called upon the Congress last week to join in a renewed commitment to protect the Nation's children. The partnership released a statement and recommendations that highlighted comprehensive changes needed in federal law (pdf) to help states prevent child abuse and neglect, protect and care for many more abused and neglected children, promote permanent families for more children, support a high quality workforce, and do more to increase accountability for outcomes for our most vulnerable children and families. In addition to CDF, other original supporters include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, American Public Human Services Association, Catholic Charities USA, Center for Law and Social Policy, Child Welfare League of America, National Child Abuse Coalition, and Voices for America's Children.
Join us in supporting changes in federal child welfare law to better protect children and ensure them nurturing families -- add your organization's name as a supporter of the comprehensive recommendations (pdf). For further information, call 202-662-3568.
Join the Ms. Foundation for Women's Mobile Action Network and Make Your Voice Heard!
 Did you know that almost half of the nation's workers in the private sector and 79 percent of low-income workers do not have paid sick days?
The Healthy Families Act, just introduced in Congress, aims to change that reality. The act seeks to ensure that all working Americans are able to address their own health needs and the health needs of their families by requiring employers to provide a minimum level of paid sick leave including leave for family care.
You can now let your Representatives know you support this important bill (and that they should, too) by using your cell phone. Just text FAIR to 30644 and you'll join the Ms. Foundation for Women's Mobile Action Network. Members of the Mobile Action Network will then receive a text message with Congress's phone number embedded in it; from there, you'll only be a few clicks away from urging your congressmembers to support this important bill.
CDF Minnesota Releases KIDS COUNT Report, Presses State to Cover More Kids
 Earlier this month, CDF Minnesota successfully launched its annual KIDS COUNT data book that provides a statistical profile of Minnesota's children and suggestions for action on their behalf. This year's data book, Seven Basic Needs, focuses on needs that all children share, regardless of their age, race/ethnicity, family status, or which Minnesota community they live in.
In conjunction with the data book's release, CDF Minnesota launched a series of “KIDS COUNT Coffee” meetings (that's CDF Minnesota's Norma Bourland at left) in communities across the state to help highlight the state's steep rise in child poverty and its growing number of uninsured children, which now stands at nearly 80,000. In response to CDF-led efforts, the State Legislature in late May passed legislation to cover more than 30,000 of these children.
Covering All California Children in the Context of Broader Health Care Reform
 As the summer heats up, health reform is the number one issue on the minds of policy makers in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have repeatedly and publicly expressed their commitment to making "covering all children" a cornerstone of their health reform packages. To further that goal, CDF-California, as a member of the 100% Campaign, is sponsoring two identical bills — AB 1 and SB 32 — to outline how best to cover all children and serve as the model of children's health policies in the context of the larger, comprehensive health care reform movement. Learn more about how these two bills would finish the job of providing all of California's children access to health insurance. (The actual text of the bills can also be found online at Leg Info.)
What's more, a recent statewide survey (pdf) conducted for The California Endowment has found that California voters define health care coverage for all children as a top priority, while citing overwhelming support for broader health care reform. Eighty-two percent of registered voters argue that all children should be covered; and when they are provided a more detailed description of how this can happen — including a description of the costs involved — support remains very high; 73 percent support the plan.
Efforts to Restore Coverage to 200,000 Texas Children Passes House, Now Moves to Senate
 CDF-Texas has led efforts in the Texas Legislature to restore coverage to 200,000 children dropped from the Texas SCHIP program since state budget cuts took effect in 2003. Critical to the campaign has been CDF's report, In Harm's Way: True Stories of Uninsured Texas Children (pdf), which profiles 27 children across the state who have lost SCHIP coverage. House Bill 109 to restore Texas SCHIP passed by a landslide in the Texas House in early April.
CDF is now working to pass legislation through the Texas Senate.
To get involved, visit cdftexas.org or contact CDF Texas at 1-877-664-4080. 
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