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Give Hope to a Child | November 2015
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“Every child needs a dream. Dr. King had a dream and our
nation has a dream we must continue to struggle to honor for every child and
adult in America.” --
Marian Wright Edelman
Help Change Outcomes for Children in Ohio This #GivingTuesday Our CDF-Ohio team in the
Buckeye State has been working hard as we change our corner of the world for
the better. Your donation on #GivingTuesday will support all the children we serve, including our five exceptional 2015
CDF-OH Beat the Odds® scholarship winners, and the more than 1,000 scholars who
had the CDF Freedom Schools® experience in 25 program sites across the state
last summer. Your support will help our efforts to move forward policies to promote
the well-being of Ohio’s children, from reducing infant mortality and childhood
hunger to reforming exclusionary school discipline practices and improving
access to age-appropriate health care.
Please consider CDF-OH in your
#GivingTuesday plans. Your generous support will bring awareness to issues that
hurt Ohio’s children, and allows CDF-OH to provide in-depth and comprehensive research
within our region to help improve the well-being of all children in Ohio’s rural, urban and Appalachian areas.
Look for our new report soon
on the state of child well-being in Appalachian Ohio, the first comprehensive
since 2001. Please help a child today, and make a difference for our state and
our country’s tomorrow.
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In Loving Memory
We are grateful for decades of service from two former members of the CDF Board of Directors who died this month. They will be deeply missed. Laura Chasin was on CDF’s board from 1981 through 1991, and never wavered in her support of our mission. Pat Fallon joined CDF’s board in 2008 after nearly two decades of partnering with CDF on major media campaigns to make a difference in children’s lives. He played a major role in CDF-Minnesota’s Beat the Odds® program and was with us in Washington, D.C. earlier this month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of our Beat the Odds scholarship and leadership development program at the Newseum.
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Laura Chasin
Longtime friend of children, Laura Chasin dedicated her life to the service of others. She founded the Public Conversations Project of Watertown, MA, a non-profit organization promoting constructive dialogue on issues involving clashing values, world-views, and identities, such as sexual orientation, immigration, gun safety, and religious tolerance. Mrs. Chasin devoted herself to improving outcomes for the most vulnerable people in our country. She was a Life Trustee of Spelman College and served on numerous Boards including the James Jackson Putnam Children's Center of Roxbury, the Conflict Management Group, the Institute for Faith and Politics, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Her service to children and families will be greatly missed.
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Laura Chasin
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Pat Fallon
Our loyal friend Pat Fallon was devoted to improving the lives of children. His passion and cutting edge agency's creative ideas for furthering the future-defining Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission was unwavering. His agency's brilliant award-winning campaigns cut to the heart and mind and provided distinctive, moving images of voiceless, voteless children our nation can continue to ignore at its peril. Pat and his wonderful colleagues at Fallon Worldwide gave children left behind voice and visibility. Countless children have a fairer chance in life as a result. We are grateful for his service and leadership.
You can make a donation to the Children’s Defense Fund to honor and continue Pat Fallon’s legacy.
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Pat Fallon
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Making Their Dreams Come True
On
November 5th, the Children’s Defense Fund honored five
extraordinary high school seniors from the greater metropolitan area of
Washington, D.C., with Beat the Odds® awards. Each winner received a $10,000
scholarship, laptop computer, guidance through the college admissions process
and CDF leadership training. Watch and be inspired by the stories of overcoming
adversity, including poverty, to excel academically and give back with the help
of at least one caring adult.
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25 Years of Changing Outcomes
We
are grateful to award-winning actress and CDF board member, Jurnee
Smollett-Bell and Emmy Award-winning journalist Byron Pitts, co-anchor of ABC’s
Nightline, for co-hosting the
celebration. Notable presenters included Donna Shalala, former CDF Board
Chair and President of the Clinton Foundation; Rev. Dr. Bernard Richardson,
Dean of the Chapel at Howard University; and Romulus Johnson, CDF Beat the Odds®
alumni from the first ceremony 25 years ago in Los Angeles. We are grateful for child advocates
like you who support the CDF Beat the Odds program.
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Celebrating Extraordinary Young People in Los Angeles
On
December 3rd join CDF-CA for the 25th Annual Beat the
Odds® Awards Celebration at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. The
night will celebrate the resilience of five high seniors in the greater Los
Angeles area who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership and aspire
to go to college. Don’t miss your chance —along with Marian Wright Edelman, many
celebrities,
public officials and change-makers in Los Angeles— to celebrate this year’s
winners and hear their stories. Visit us online
for tickets and more information.
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Help Improve Working Family Tax Credits When Congress returns from
Thanksgiving recess, the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees are
expected to extend or make permanent corporate tax credits. Urge your members to make permanent important
improvements in tax credits for working families – the Earned income Tax Credit
(EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) – if tax credits for wealthy corporations and
businesses are made permanent or extended. If critical improvements of the EITC
and CTC are left to expire, more than 50 million American, including 25 million
children, stand to lose a critical piece of their family budgets – making it
harder for those already struggling to make ends meet.
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The
EITC and CTC are among our nation’s most effective anti-poverty tools—lifting
about 9.4 million people, including 5 million children, out of poverty each
year.
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A single
mother with two children working full time at the minimum wage (meaning just
$14,500) would lose her entire child tax credit of $1,725.
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16.4
million Americans, including 8 million children, would either be pushed into
poverty or thrust more deeply into poverty.
Making improvements to both
tax credits is a critical step forward in ending child poverty. Children in
families who benefit from these credits see long terms gains – they are
healthier, do better in school, and are more likely to go to college and to
earn more as adults.
Speak up today and urge Congress to
make permanent improvements in tax credits for working families.
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Help Increase Child Care Funding
This month CDF joined others celebrating the
one-year anniversary of the bipartisan reauthorization of the Child Care and
Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act. In November 2014, CDF applauded the
broad bi-partisan Congressional support for important improvements in health
and safety and other quality improvements in child care programs receiving
federally-supported subsidies. The Department of Health and Human Services then
moved quickly to identify quality improvements needed in states. Despite
this long overdue and much-needed reauthorization, funding for CCDBG is at an
eleven year low and today there are more than 360,000 fewer child care
subsidies than in 2006. Congressional action is needed now.
Please
contact your Senators and Representative today and ask them to urge
Appropriations Committee members to increase funding for the Child Care and
Development Block Grant for 2016 so more children can access quality child
care.
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National Adoption Month “Makaylah was adopted
through the DC Foster Care System. Even though the circumstances were traumatic,
it was such a pleasure to be part of a team – from her social worker to her
guardian ad litem and judges. Everyone acted with her best interest at heart. For
anyone considering adoption, know that the rewards are great and the sacrifices
are well supported.” – Deidre L, new
adoptive parent.
As National Adoption Month ends today, this is a
time to recognize the critical role adoptive families play in ensuring caring, permanent
families for children and to renew efforts to promote adoption for children in
foster care. There are nearly 108,000
children in foster care across the country waiting to be adopted. All
children, like Makaylah, deserve a safe, stable family. To learn more about
becoming an adoptive parent or how you can support adoptive families and
children in foster care check out the Children’s Bureau’s webpage on National Adoption Month.
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This month, Marian Wright Edelman’s Child Watch® columns brought light to how we can better serve all children. From coping with crisis and building awareness of voter suppression to facing the 'ugly truths' from our past and opening our hearts to protect children domestically and abroad. In this season of giving, we must give more to ensure our children succeed.
A Prayer of Thanksgiving to the God of all Children in America and the World
Ugly Truths It's Way Past Time for America to Face
Revising the Undemocratic 'Map of Shame'
Helping Children Cope with Crisis
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Thank you for your support and dedication to improving the lives of all children in America.
We hope that you will remember CDF, and all the children we serve, this #GivingTuesday. For only $10.37 you can give hope to a child in need. Please share our message and mission with your networks. Encourage your family, friends and neighbors to support our work this #GivingTuesday or join our mailing list.
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