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Keep Moving Forward for America's Children | January 2018
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Good News First
It finally happened! On
Monday, January 22nd, Congress passed and the President signed into law a three
week spending bill that reopened the government and included a six-year
extension of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
after 114 days of partisan politicking. This funding helps ensure stability for
CHIP meaning parents of the 8.9 million children who benefit from
CHIP’s high-quality, child-appropriate affordable health coverage can
finally breathe a sigh of relief. Your calls, emails, and tweets to
Congress over the last several months helped make this possible. As we
celebrate this victory for children, we are also urging Congress to seize the
unique, time-limited opportunity to extend CHIP funding for even longer — an
additional four years (for a total of 10) – which the Congressional Budget
Office says will save $6 billion that can then help pay for other critical
services.
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Bad News Second
The bad news is that the
three week spending bill that must be completed by February 8th left many other children, youths and young adults behind,
letting the pressures on them continue to grow. The failure to come to
agreement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program leaves
nearly 800,000 young adults who came to America as children with their parents,
and some of them with children now, at risk of deportation to countries they
don’t know at all. Legislative action on DACA and other help for Dreamers is
needed now. Many other children and families continue to be negatively
impacted because of inaction on funding for the Maternal and Infant Early
Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) and the Community Health Center
Program that serves millions of children and families; and the failure to
provide post hurricane relief to those continuing to struggle in Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, Texas and Florida. This long overdue help for children,
youths and young adults does not have to wait three weeks.
Tell
your Members of Congress to urge the House and Senate Leadership to act now and not leave
children, youths and young adults behind.
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The State of
America’s Children® 2017 Demands Action Now in 2018!
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The Children’s Defense Fund’s new report
The State of America’s Children® 2017 details the immoral, costly, and
preventable poverty, homelessness, hunger, health problems, poor education, and
violence plaguing children who are America’s responsibility and future. The
U.S. has 73.6 million children. Nearly 1 in 5 are poor—more than 13.2 million.
It is a national disgrace that children are the poorest Americans and the
younger they are the poorer they are. Children of color, who will be a majority
of our children by 2020, are disproportionately poor. The
report highlights the threats facing children day-to-day and moment-to-moment.
It describes how, despite our great wealth, the
U.S. lags behind other industrialized nations in investing in children and
consistently ranks among the worst on key child outcomes. The plight of America's children by the
end of 2017 requires us to take action and move forward on their
behalf in 2018. While we build on what we know works to improve
the odds for our children, we must use these facts to fight all efforts to unravel
the safety net that has been laboriously woven over the past 50 years. The
State of America’s Children® 2017 is a critical tool for everyone who cares
about whether children are treated fairly and the well-being of our nation’s
future. Download
The State of America’s Children® 2017 and a volume of one-page
factsheets summarizing children’s status in your individual states, the
District of Columbia, and nationwide. You can also use
our interactive map to see how children fare in your state.
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Change the Odds for Children in New York
On Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York will
host its annual Beat the Odds® Gala at the Pierre Hotel in New York
City. Join Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman and
other special guests to honor five New York City high school youths in
recognition of their academic achievement despite overwhelming
challenges. Congratulations to Zyiel Baughan, Ashlyn Cruz, Omar Newman,
Chinomso Keslyn Ononiwu, and Amy Pantoja.
At the gala, CDF-New York will present
its Children's Champion Award to three recipients: Kathryn Chenault,
patron of the arts and education; Service Employees International
Union (SEIU); and Stan Smith, tennis champion and fashion
icon. The event supports CDF-New York’s
advocacy and programmatic work, which includes health care coverage, youth
justice, immigration, income security, and youth leadership development. Tickets
are still available. Learn more about the
event and ways to volunteer.
Since 1995, the Beat the Odds scholarship
and servant leadership program has supported hundreds of youths across the
country. CDF holds awards events in California, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, and Washington,
D.C. not only to celebrate the scholarship recipients, but to inspire
community leaders and citizens to help all children who are struggling to
overcome adversity.
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A Dream for Today’s America
“My dream for today’s world is to eliminate poverty
and for every human being to have equal access to education and health care… I
want all of our top government officials to take poverty, failing schools, and
health care seriously. The way to do this is through political action and
voting.” A 5th grader, Tchanori Kone
answers a question “What is your dream for today’s world?” and gives us a
vision for the America that we can be – one that teaches and reinforces core
values like inclusivity, civility, nonviolence, and tolerance.
Listen to her powerful voice and join us in recognizing the ten-year-old
CDF Freedom
Schools® program scholar. For the past three summers, Tchanori has been
attending HYPE Freedom School in Houston. There, her mother shared
with us, she has been encouraged to make a difference in her community and the
world. Tchanori is one of 860 children served in 16 CDF Freedom Schools sites in Texas in 2017. Learn more about CDF Freedom Schools
program in Texas.
Honor
Tchanori’s dream by using your political
power to create an America without poverty in which everyone has access to
education and health care. If you are not registered to vote yet, get up and register today to
make your voice heard, and follow CDF’s Action Alerts by signing up
here.
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You Made a Difference
Thanks to YOU the Children’s Defense
Fund was able to exceed our $750,000 matching gift challenge in November and
December. That was made possible only because of the generosity of people like
you! As a result, the impact of every gift during that time doubled!
This time of year when we think of our
goals and hopes for the new year, but it is also the time we focus on the more
mundane things like completing our taxes. If you need information or
verification of your donations to CDF during 2017, please let us know. You can
reach us by email at donations@childrensdefense.org or leave us a message by phone at
202-662-3654.
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