Earlier this year, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange published a story with an encouraging headline: “Juvenile prison populations reach all-time lows”. At a time when our nation seems to be taking many steps backward, this headline initially gave me a thrill of hope that progress is still possible. However, that headline only tells us part of the story.
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Children’s Defense Fund is working for a future where our children play freely in parks, walk safely to bus stops, and learn in schools [...]
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“It's time for our leaders to put aside partisanship and work toward a full federal budget”
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Many of us are familiar with old sayings like, “Children should be seen and not heard,” or “Stay in a child’s place.” While it may be easy to recall these sayings from our own childhoods, each confers something of a secondary status upon children in our families, our communities, and our nation.
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As we find inspiration in history, we are challenged to make progress for young people in the present.
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In more than 120 planned events from coast to coast, thousands of CDF Freedom Schools Scholars pushed for more gun violence prevention efforts as they told the world: #YouthArentBulletproof.
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The passing of this bipartisan bill comes at a pivotal time when families nationwide, regardless of racial, economic, and social background, are rising out of unforeseen, unprecedented, and unpredictable circumstances.
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Continued reliance on institutional placements puts our nation’s children—especially Black children—at risk of lasting harm to their health, development, and well-being. Congress must prioritize effective community-led, family-focused, youth-centered programs to ensure young people have the resources and supports they need to thrive within their families and communities.
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Foster youth are on the cusp of a crisis in the middle of a pandemic. If our representatives in Washington D.C. don’t act fast, thousands of foster youth will age out of foster care on October 1st, and many more will lose a lifeline to flexible cash assistance that young people like me fought for. We need Congress to pass legislation that extends the protections included in the Supporting Foster Youth and Families Through the Pandemic Act immediately.
Read MoreWith growing research on the harms of institutional placements and continued calls to action from young people who experienced these placements, we must ensure young people impacted by the child welfare system have the resources they need to thrive with their relatives or in a family-like setting.
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