 |
| |
Help Us Make 2016 a Bright Year for Children
|
|
Season's Greetings!
Our
Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio team has been working hard as we change our corner
of the world for the better. Your end of year donation 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 generous support
will move forward policies to promote the well-being of Ohio’s children, from
reducing infant mortality and childhood hunger to reforming ineffective school
discipline practices and improving access to health care.
Please
consider Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio in your charitable giving plan. Your
generous support will bring awareness to issues that hurt Ohio’s children, and
allow 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 one since 2001.
As 2015 comes to a close,
and we prepare for the new year, please make a tax-deductible donation to
Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio in support of our work to help ensure Ohio’s
children have a safe and healthy childhood and a successful passage to
adulthood. Remember, each dollar you give can help make the future of Ohio’s
children brighter!
Click on DONATE NOW
or send a check, payable to Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio, to:
395 E. Broad St., Suite
330, Columbus, OH 43215
|
|
|
Welcome Michael Corey, Children's Defense Fund-Ohio Policy Analyst!
 In
October, Michael Corey joined Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio after working for
the past three years as a healthcare attorney at a large Columbus-based law
firm. With a general healthcare practice, Michael represented large and small
healthcare systems and associations on a wide range of issues, including the
drafting of an amicus brief to the Ohio Supreme Court advocating for Medicaid
expansion. Michael has also served as a Legal Fellow in the Washington D.C.
office of a U.S. Senator, and has held positions with the Kirwan Institute at The Ohio State
University, the Children’s
Hunger Alliance, and the Ohio Board
of Regents. A Columbus native, Michael is a graduate of Duke University,
and holds an M.A. from Ohio State’s School of Education Policy &
Leadership, and a J.D. from Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, where he served
as Executive Editor of the Ohio State Law
Journal. We are delighted to have
his expertise focused on the needs of Ohio's children!
|
|
|
 Ohio's Appalachian Children Focus of 2016 Report
Did you know that nearly 1 in 5 Ohio
children live in one of the 32 counties considered part of the state's Appalachian
region? Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio and our regional based partners
are excited to announce the upcoming release of a new report focused on child
well-being in this part of Ohio. In addition to providing data on wide range of
topics, the report will make specific recommendations to address the unique
needs of children in the region. Look for the report’s release during the first
quarter of 2016.
|
|
|
Truancy Reforms Emphasize Intervention, Avoiding Juvenile Detention
Throughout our efforts to reform
school discipline policies, a theme has emerged: We want to keep children out of
the juvenile justice system and in school. Revising truancy and school discipline laws, which currently
permit school districts to submit children to juvenile court without requiring
intervention measures, are a relatively easy way to prevent scores of children from entering
the juvenile justice system. With legislation having been introduced this week
in the Ohio House, and on the cusp of being introduced in the Ohio Senate, Children’s
Defense Fund-Ohio is working with our partners on the Ohio
Juvenile Justice Alliance to write common-sense truancy laws that would go
as far as possible in preventing truant children from ending up in juvenile
court.
|
|
|
Upcoming Policy Brief: The Urgency of Combating Early Childhood Hunger
 It
is now wholly agreed. High quality early childhood care and education is essential
to the fight against poverty. With 25% of our children in Ohio food insecure,
we know that fighting early childhood hunger is critical to a child’s
future success. Our upcoming policy series will highlight the extent of early
childhood hunger, the myriad negative effects it has on development, health,
and education. The brief also explores the availability of one federal program—the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)—to
help combat early childhood hunger.
|
|
|
Support for Hardworking Ohio Families Through Permanent Tax Credits
Children’s
Defense Fund-Ohio along with our advocacy partners urge Congress to make
permanent the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit
improvements of 2008-09, which would ensure continued stability for Ohio’s hard
working families. Congress has an opportunity to act this fall to protect these
critical provisions before they expire, and to avoid plunging 172,000 Ohio
children into poverty. The provisions that are set to expire have three primary
benefits: (1) They reduce the marriage penalty that some two-earner families
face in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); (2) They increase the EITC for
families with more than two children to reflect their higher living costs; and
(3) They ensure the Child Tax Credit’s (CTC) pro-work incentive is not lost for
very low-wage workers. Together, these tax credits are among the nation’s
strongest tools to promote work over dependency, and they effectively help
working families escape poverty and become self-sufficient. In our state, more
than 400,000 working families—with 778,000 children—earn these tax credits and
use the income to pay for a range of goods and services that keep them working,
from child care to car repairs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
