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Pages tagged "News Article"


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Fund foster care

January 14, 2015

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Bruce Lesley

It's encouraging that Wisconsin is making progress on child abuse ("Annual report finds fewer Wisconsin child abuse deaths in 2013," Jan. 5). But accelerating progress requires action in Washington as well as Madison.

The biggest federal child abuse and neglect funding source is restricted to offsetting states' foster care costs. That shrinking funding stream covers less than half of foster children today, and it's projected to drop 45% by 2024. States tap other social services funding to cover the shortfall, but that just shifts resources from one set of kids and families to another. Worse yet, today's federal funding system shortchanges prevention efforts that help parents manage mental health, substance abuse, financial distress and other factors that contribute to abuse and neglect...

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Protection against child abuse is Washington's problem, too

January 11, 2015

Billings Gazette

By Bruce Lesley

Montana has important work to do on child abuse and neglect ("Let's strengthen Montana's child safety net," Jan. 4). But progress requires action in Washington, too.

The biggest federal child abuse and neglect funding source is restricted to offsetting states' foster care costs. That shrinking funding stream covers less than half of foster children today, and it's projected to drop 45 percent by 2024. States tap other social services funding to cover the shortfall, but that just shifts resources from one set of kids to another...

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Here's what Eric Cantor didn't say

January 09, 2015

CNBC

By Bruce Lesley

Former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor did something in his Monday commentary ("Here's what Congress needs to do in 2015") most politicians never do: put children first. His observation that 8,053,000 children will be born during this Congress is a powerful reminder about the consequences of congressional action or inaction. Those consequences aren't just measured in news cycles dominated, elections won, and legislatures controlled. They're measured in children's lives.

What's missing from Congressman Cantor's commentary is the sweeping range of issues before Congress with the potential to fundamentally impact America's children. But, using data from the nonpartisan Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center, that's a picture we can paint...

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Clock Is Ticking For Programs That Support Illinois Parents

December 18, 2014

Progress Illinois

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The clock is ticking on federal funding that helps struggling parents with young children.

The Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program will expire in March unless Congress takes action. A coalition of 750 organizations, including 36 in Illinois, has sent a letter asking that the program continue as it has for decades...

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Congress should prioritize children's health spending

December 09, 2014

The Oregonian

By David Sarasohn

As the new Congress imagines endless imaginative new ways to gut the Affordable Care Act, there's another major federal health care program that everybody likes, that's been particularly important to Oregon, and that hangs on a funding stream that runs out next year.

Congress, of course, seems in no hurry to get to it...

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Sen. Wyden’s bill will help foster children build better lives

December 06, 2014

The Register-Guard

By Bruce Lesley

With all the big-money lobbyists on Capitol Hill, it’s sometimes hard to find a public servant who’s looking out for the little guy. But this year, Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden spent a lot of time and energy looking out for the littlest of us all: children.

Wyden shepherded through Congress important legislation that will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, including more than 9,500 in Oregon every year, scarred by abuse or neglect. Foster children have faced trauma most of us cannot imagine and no child should have to endure. Worse yet, they are often victimized again — in too many cases by sex traffickers who see them as easy prey, and more often by a system working so hard to protect their safety that it quietly robs them of their childhood...

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Advocacy Groups Fighting to Maintain Funding for Home Visiting Programs

December 04, 2014

The $400 million allotted to the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program will end in March, unless Congress acts during the lame-duck session or in the early days of the new congress, says a group of more than 750 groups hoping to preserve the funding.

The program known as MIECHV was established in 2010 with an initial $1.5 billion budget and in March 2014, funding was extended for an additional year. It is administered through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and supports state and local programs to address issues such as school readiness, maternal health, and positive parenting. As the name suggests, these services are provided in a family's home, with the idea that the early support will pay dividends later. The Nurse-Family Partnership, based in Denver and operating in 35 states, andHome Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), which operates out of Little Rock, Ark. and serves children and families in 21 states and the District of Columbia, are two example of programs funded through MIECHV...


Featured Post

Hundreds of Orgs Ask for Extension of Federal Program for Young Mothers

December 04, 2014

The Chronicle of Social Change

By John Kelly

Senate and House leadership received a letter today, signed by 750 organizations and local politicians, urging them to maintain a federal program meant to assist struggling young mothers and mothers-to-be.

The Home Visiting Coalition asked leaders in the letter to fund the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program at its current level of $400 million “in the lame duck session or as one of the first acts of the 114th Congress before the MIECHV program funding expires in March 2015...

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Politico Pulse

December 04, 2014

Politico Pulse

By Paige Winfield Cunningham

Funding for the federal Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program will end in March without action by Congress. First Focus Campaign for Children headed up a letter being sent to congressional leaders today urging them to extend the funding and citing evidence that home visiting improves the health and development of young children. It’s signed by more than 700 organizations nationwide including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. The letter: http://politico.pro/1zljdMH

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Congress should tackle children’s issues

December 04, 2014

The Denver Post

By Bruce Lesley

Re: “Here’s what the new Congress should do,” Nov. 25 guest commentary.

Writers Hank Brown and Barry Jackson are right: Voters care about children’s futures. But Brown and Jackson’s policy agenda ignores children entirely.

What’s worse is that nearly every debate they mention — taxes, regulation, immigration reform, welfare reform, the federal budget, health care — matters for Colorado children. On health care, their exclusive focus on Obamacare ignores that federal funding will soon expire for Child Health Plan Plus, a bipartisan health plan that covers more than 125,000 Colorado kids...

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