Children's Defense Fund-Louisiana

The Children's Defense Fund has had a long standing relationship with child advocates in Louisiana through the work of CDF-Southern Regional Office located in Jackson, Mississippi. This relationship has seen cooperative endeavors on child health, child welfare, youth development and juvenile justice. Child advocates in Louisiana were among those who attended the CDF Stand for Children Rally in 1996 at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in support of the State Child Health Insurance Program. They have been partners on calls to action at the state level on child care, education reform, the closing of juvenile facilities that more enslaved than rehabilitated the young people they housed. It is with this history of ongoing commitment to Louisiana that CDF within hours after Hurricane Katrina hit contacted its network of advocates and pressed them into action to assist those in need, particularly the children.

One of the first tasks after the storm undertaken by CDF-SRO was to help reunite children and their families. With the assistance of the Red Cross and other agencies CDF reunited families and quickly learned the gravity of the storm required more. With assistance of a grant from the W.J. Kellogg Foundation, CDF-SRO opened a Katrina Resource and Referral office in New Orleans with staff housed in Houston, and Jackson, Mississippi. The purpose of this office was to not only connect families who had lost contact with one another but to connect the families to resources that could aid in their recovery. Several thousand families were served through this office. The success of this effort has led to the establishment of CDF-Louisiana that offers a full complement of field services on behalf of children and families including the operation of a CDF Freedom Schools site.

PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES
Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps
Children's Defense Fund Early Education Support Initiative (CDF EE SI)
Beat the Odds^® Program
CDF Freedom Schools^® Program
Health Coverage for All Children Campaign
Cradle to Prison Pipeline^® Campaign

EVENTS

Programs & Initiatives

Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps

CDF-SRO and CDF-LA developed a region-wide Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corp, consisting of local Leadership Corps in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and the city of Jackson and the Gulf Coast region in Mississippi. This two year initiative is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps (KCLC) is made up of persons who have critical, practical knowledge and experience in every discipline, including citizen participants from evacuee communities. These Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps will commission research necessary to inform their deliberations on recovery and rebuilding, talk to the best minds in the key subject areas around the country, review program delivery models, and engage the broader citizen community in the development and vetting of a comprehensive citizen's recovery plan. Once a plan is in place, the Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps will engage communication and policy making strategies to ensure that citizen's voices are heard and that the strategic plan they develop becomes a key guiding document supported by the general population and valued by the political leadership.

Learn more about the Katrina Citizen's Leadership Corps (.pdf) and the needs that have been identified by organizations working with evacuee populations, researchers, and practitioners as requiring the most immediate action.

The KCLC sought to highlight and offer strategic solutions to the maze of problems and issues confronting displaced families and children as they try to make their way home. The KCLC released an exhaustive report, What It Takes to Rebuild a Village After a Disaster: Stories from Internally Displaced Children and Families of Hurricane Katrina and Their Lessons for Our Nation, on their findings at a press conference in New Orleans on July 2009.

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Children's Defense Fund Early Education Support Initiative (CDF EE SI)

CDF EE SI, a three-year initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a school readiness initiative designed to assure a seamless transition into school for children in eight schools operating in New Orleans' four school reform management systems: the Recovery School District (RDS), the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), the Algiers Charter School Association (ACSA) and Independent Charters Schools. The mission of the CDF EE SI is to create replicable, integrated, aligned, family-focused learning communities so that children master skills and receive the cognitive, physical, family and community support necessary for school success.

The eight target schools are:

For more information, please contact: Lead Site Coordinator Judy Horsey at jhorsey@childrensdefense.org or 504-309-2376.

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Beat the Odds^® Program

The Beat the Odds scholarship program was started by CDF in 1990 to affirm the success of young people who are overcoming tremendous obstacles in their lives while working hard, demonstrating academic excellence, and giving back to their communities. Beat the Odds recipients continue to be leaders in their schools and mentors to those in need in the community, while developing academic skills necessary to pursue a college education. Since 1990, CDF has encouraged hundreds of honorees to become professionals in their chosen fields, advocates on behalf of children, and champions of perseverance and social justice.

Learn more about this year's Louisiana Beat the Odds scholarship recipients that were honored at an awards breakfast on May 29, 2008 and save the date for the 2009 Beat the Odds awards event, May 28, 2009 in New Orleans.

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CDF Freedom Schools^® Program

CDF-LA works with community sponsors, parents, young adults and caring community leaders to forge a new vision for working with and educating children through the CDF Freedom Schools program.

The CDF Freedom Schools program provides 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.

Learn more about the CDF Freedom Schools program and find a Louisiana CDF Freedom Schools site near you.

For more information about the Louisiana CDF Freedom Schools program, please contact Sheliska Julian at (504) 309-2376.

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Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

Today, nine million children are uninsured in the U.S. 127,000 children are uninsured in Louisiana alone. And the crisis is getting worse.

It is morally indefensible for the United States, the wealthiest nation in the world, not to ensure that every child and pregnant woman has access to affordable, seamless, comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services. CDF's Health Coverage for All Children Campaign works to do just that.

CDF-LA along with other CDF state offices helped mobilized more than 1,200 national, state and local organizations—representing over 60 million people—to support the Health Coverage for All Children Campaign. This effort led to child advocates sending tens of thousands of emails to their Members of Congress asking them to address the child health coverage crisis immediately. Thanks to these efforts, CDF and its supporters helped place this issue on the front burner and made sure Congress knew that the public overwhelmingly supports providing health coverage to all of America's children. CDF-LA also distributed Louisiana State Children’s Health Insurance Program applications and information on other health care services available in the community and participated in community forums to share information on the Health Coverage for All Children Campaign. The Mobile Medical Health van participated in community events providing health screenings, education, and immunizations to citizens. Learn more about CDF's Health Coverage for All Children Campaign.

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Cradle to Prison Pipeline^® Campaign

CDF's Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign is a national call to action to stop the funneling of tens of thousands of youth, predominantly minorities, down life paths that often lead to arrest, conviction, incarceration and, in some cases, death. Race and poverty are the major factors underpinning the Pipeline. CDF-LA works to address these issues locally to help keep children out of the Pipeline—to not only will improve the lives of children, but strengthen our communities.

Learn more about our 2009 Cradle To Prison Pipeline Louisiana Summit.

Learn more about the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign and what actions you can take in your community.

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Events

CDF Early Education Support Initiative Principal's Meeting - January 22, 2009

Release of the Katrina Citizens Leadership Corp Report - January 29, 2009

CDF Freedom School Social Action Day - "Health Care for All Children" - February 7, 2009, Louisiana State Capitol

Beat the Odds Awards Event - Save the Date - May 28, 2009, New Orleans, LA

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