Healthy Child Campaign Update: Help Keep the Momentum Going!

Thanks to all of you who participated in our Father's Day Call to Action earlier this month by writing letters to the editor of your local newspapers. Your letters served as a great way to spread the word to your local communities about the crisis of the nine million uninsured children in America — and that there is a solution.

Our Healthy Child Campaign is continuing to pick up steam — more than 1,100 organizations have endorsed the campaign and 58 Members of Congress have co-sponsored the All Healthy Children Act! This momentum is crucial as we enter an important stage in the legislative process. In the next few weeks, your Senators will have a special opportunity to vote to expand State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funding to cover all children. Learn more about how ordinary Americans are struggling to get and keep health care coverage for their children in these new videos and then take action by sending an email to your Senators letting them know that they must ensure all children are guaranteed comprehensive coverage through a simplified health care system this year.

Issue of Uninsured Children Coming to a Movie Theatre (and TV) Near You

Michael Moore's new documentary, SiCKO, is a powerful indictment of how America's health care industry puts profits over curing people and contributes to a national crisis in which 45 million are uninsured, including nine million children. The film is full of real people with horror stories about the lengths to which insurance companies, hospital chains, HMOs and pharmaceutical firms will go to avoid paying for health care. By contrast, Moore goes inside the health care systems in Britain, France, Canada, and Cuba, where no child or adult is denied care for reasons such as: they have a preexisting condition or it's just too expensive. SiCKO opens across the country this Friday (June 29th) and is a "must see." This courageous film should begin a national dialogue on how we can begin to solve our health care crisis, starting with children.

ABC World News has just completed a four-part series of stories on the crisis of the nine million children in America, highlighting the various barriers that keep families from being able to get and keep health insurance for their children. You can view videos of the series, plus an interview with CDF President Marian Wright Edelman:

• "Some Kids Die in Insurance Gap" (June 3)
• "Children's Defense Fund's Take" (June 3)
• "Red Tape and Bureaucracy in Health Care" (June 10)
• "Kids Go Uninsured as Politicians Argue" (June 17)

CDF Freedom School's "Music in the Movement"

Earlier this month, CDF staff and volunteers helped put on the largest and most successful National Training that CDF Freedom Schools has ever had, training more than 1,000 servant leader interns and site coordinators for 124 Freedom Schools sites across the country to serve more than 8,500 children. CDF Freedom Schools^SM programs provide critical summer and after-school enrichment through a model curriculum that supports children and families around five essential components: high quality academic enrichment, parent and family involvement, civic engagement and social action, intergenerational leadership development, and nutrition, health and mental health.

This year's theme for training was "Music in the Movement" and highlighted the social organizing and educating power of music, both from a historical standpoint and in terms of the political organizing power. Each servant leader intern attended music therapy workshops led by certified music therapists to learn how to integrate music therapy into their respective CDF Freedom Schools program as a teaching tool for their children.

The week-long training also featured incredible speakers and presenters including civil rights activists Charlie Cobb and Hollis Watkins, hip hop pioneer Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC, two-time Grammy Award winner Miri Ben-Ari, five-time Grammy Award winner Kirk Franklin, and critically acclaimed hip hop artist Talib Kweli.

You can learn more about the CDF Freedom Schools program on our website or stop by our booth at the ESSENCE Music Festival, July 5-7, in New Orleans.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Answer Questions on Domestic Issues

Last night, the Democratic Forum of the All-American Presidential Forums on PBS (moderated by Tavis Smiley) was held at Howard University in Washington, DC. All eight Democratic presidential candidates were in attendance and answered questions on domestic issues including education, healthcare, and the economy.

Watch the forum, share your views, and learn more about the issues and candidates at pbs.org.

The Republican Forum will be help on Thursday, September 27.

CDF President Marian Wright Edelman Visits the City Club of Cleveland!

Earlier this month, Children's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman visited the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio, to address area lawyers and child advocates. In her speech, Mrs. Edelman stressed the importance of "intervening early in the lives of our nation's youth in order to save them from delinquent behavior and prison cells.”

Listen to Mrs. Edelman's address yourself! Visit CDF-Ohio's website for a link to a podcast of her City Club address.

Catch the Spirit! Register for the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry

It's not too late to register for the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry held at CDF's Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, from July 16-20. Days are filled with great preaching, singing, theological reflection on our work for justice on behalf of children and those who are poor, informative sessions on children's needs, and workshops that will equip you with new skills and models to take back to your congregation and community to make an even bigger difference for children.

Don't miss this inspiring week. You will leave renewed in spirit, energized by new ideas, equipped with new strategies, and connected to others who share your heart for improving the lives of children that God has entrusted to our care.