Children's Defense Fund: Children's Defense Fund

One in Three Children in Mississippi Grow up in Poverty

CDF's Southern Regional Office opened in Jackson, Mississippi in January 1995 and works in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Children's Defense Fund grew out of the civil rights movement in these southern states, where slavery, segregation, and poverty have diminished the opportunities for generations of children and call for a special effort to put right.

Today, Mississippi ranks 50^th among states in many measures of child welfare per pupil expenditures, percentage of children who are poor, percentage of babies born at low birth weight and infant mortality with many of the other southern states not far behind.

In the past 13 years, CDF/SRO has:

Built a network of religious and community organizations, children's advocates, youth leaders and public officials across the South.
Worked with black caucuses in southern states on their states' legislation to implement the new national welfare reform law the Personal Responsibility Act of 1996 - in ways that were more supportive and less punitive to families.
Did the same in 1999 when states were implementing their block grants for welfare funds coming from the federal government.
Helped formed a network of child care providers who serve low income working families. This group, the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative, is actively involved in making better quality child care more accessible to Mississippi's poor children.
Helped develop state-based Children's Health Insurance Programs in southern states following the passage of the federal Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CDF and its partners increased the number of Mississippi children enrolled in CHIP from less than 700 to more than 60,000 in four years. This CHIP outreach effort also produced a surge in the number of children enrolled in Medicaid.
Worked with legislative leaders to ensure that the Mississippi Adequate Education Program is fully funded and to secure additional funding for the state's "at risk" students.
Secured resources to open a New Orleans office in November 1995, following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to work with affected families and children.

CDF President Marian Wright Edelman Releases New Book

Written as a series of letters to her grandchildren, to our leaders, to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to all of us, Mrs. Edelman's new book, The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation, takes a hard look at what's been done, and what's still left to do to make this world fit for children everywhere.

With the passion and conviction that have made her our leading child advocate, she calls upon us all to stand up for the future of America, to examine what lessons we can learn from our past and out present to realize a just and peaceful world vision for our children and grandchildren, and for future generations.

Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute - Register Today!

The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry provides five days of spiritual renewal, continuing education, inter-generational movement-building workshops, and networking as Christians from across the denominational spectrum explore how their Christian faith calls them into ministries of child advocacy and guides, shapes, and sustains them in their work with and for children. Learn more about the Proctor Institute and how you can register.

The National Observance of Children's Sabbaths^® Manual

This multi-faith resource for year-round child advocacy serves as a guide for you and your faith community to engage in child and family advocacy work. The manual includes resources for worship services, education programs, direct service activities, and social justice initiatives for your congregation, organization or community. Learn more and order your copy today.

Katrina Relief and Referral Effort

To help children displaced and traumatized by Katrina and Rita, CDF-SRO offers referral services for displaced families, set up after-school CDF Freedom Schools^® programs in Mississippi, Arkansas and New Orleans, made sure displaced children got toys for Christmas, distributed coats and school uniforms and supplies, and helped to rebuild child care centers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Learn more about CDF-SRO's Katrina Relief and Referral Efforts (PDF).

Mississippi Legislative Priorities

CDF-SRO maintains a lobbyist in Jackson and advocates for policies to help disadvantaged children. Our 2008 state legislative priorities include increased funding for public schools and "at risk" students, implementation of early childhood education programs, better access to quality health care, a more progressive tax system that eliminates the burdensome tax on groceries, and reform of the state's dysfunctional child welfare and foster care system.

Learn more about CDF-SRO's Mississippi legislative priorities (PDF).

Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

With more than 100,000 uninsured children in Mississippi, CDF-SRO actively participates in the national Health Coverage for All Children Campaign launched by the Children's Defense Fund in 2007 that calls guaranteeing every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage. CDF-SRO also helps Mississippi families apply for CHIP/Medicaid.

Learn more about CDF-SRO's work on the the Health Coverage for All Children Campaign (PDF).

Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids: SPARK

SPARK Mississippi SPARK is a national initiative of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to help communities unite resources to better prepare children for entering school. CDF-SRO is the grantee for SPARK Mississippi, a $5 million initiative that targets over 1,000 Mississippi children ages 3 to 8 who are vulnerable to poor achievement.

Download Full Details (PDF)

Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Social and Economic Justice

SRBWI SRBWI organizes, trains and nurtures women in 77 impoverished rural counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to incubate businesses, build networks of leaders and advocate for public policies that help families and communities. Its Young Women's Leadership Program brings 85 young women and their mentors to a five day leadership training and career development institute each summer on the campus of Tougaloo College, a historically Black college near Jackson, Mississippi. Mayors' Commissions on Human Rights, led by black women mayors in six towns in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, receive training in public policy advocacy to change the debilitating conditions in their communities that trap them and their children in poverty. SRBWI's approach to lifting women out of poverty is Asset and Economic Development building skills, cooperative networks, and small local and regional businesses rather than relying on traditional economic development practices, such as attracting industry, that have left many rural women behind.