In 2021, We Worked Together to Protect Children and Families

The past year has reminded us what really matters: keeping our children, families, and communities safe. As we reflect on what we’ve heard and plan how we will respond in the year ahead, I want to thank you for standing with us in the fight for America’s children through another turbulent year. Take a look at what you’ve helped accomplish in 2021:

Across the country • In California • In Minnesota  • In New York  • In Ohio • In the Southern Region • In Texas

• Nationally, we worked with Congress and the federal government to advocate for federal policies that improve children’s lives. We also advocated at the state level, pushing for policy reforms through our six state offices that collectively represent nearly 40 percent of all children living in poverty in America.
• The CDF Freedom Schools® program, which reaches more than 12,000 children every year, helps them to excel today and make a difference tomorrow. Because our CDF Freedom Schools program sites are staffed primarily by Black and brown college students, we’re building two generations of change-makers at the same time.

• Secured nearly $3 billion to bring more health, mental health, trauma-informed care, and social services into schools
• Successfully advocated for the creation of the California’s Office of Youth and Community Restoration to transform youth justice
• Achieved a long-time goal to increase cash assistance for families with California’s first-in-the-nation guaranteed income program, which prioritizes foster youth and pregnant people
• Helped push for greater local oversight of education inequities affecting incarcerated students in Los Angeles County
  

• CDF Freedom Schools® engaged 1,300 scholars at 15 sites in the Twin Cities metro area with joyful, culturally relevant programs
• Our online Bridge to Benefits tool connected over 20,000 families to resources that help support family economic stability
• CDF-MN and our partners successfully fought for more than $500 million in federal funding for critically needed child care programs in Minnesota
  

• Passed legislation raising the minimum age for arrest and prosecution from 7 to 12, keeping younger children out of the juvenile justice system
• Successfully fought for legislation that requires New York to prioritize poor children in the state budget and commit to cutting child poverty in half by 2030
• Fought for passage of a bill that will make school drinking water safer for children by imposing stronger lead testing standards
• Provided eight resilient high school seniors with college readiness, youth leadership development, and advocacy training through our Beat the Odds program

• Celebrated four decades working on behalf of Ohio’s children
• Helped secure creation of a Foster Youth Bill of Rights and expanded evidence-based home visitation programs for children under 5 in the child welfare system to support health and wellness
• Succeeded in increasing eligibility for publicly funded child care and expanding postpartum care for parents from 60 days to 12 months of coverage
• Secured $250 million to expand broadband access to families throughout the state
• Advocated for Ohio’s new school funding model, the Fair Schools Funding Plan, to support student success across the state regardless of zip code
  

The Southern Region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi

• Spearheaded a public education campaign to connect families with life-saving resources made available by the American Rescue Plan Act
• Released our Truthful Eyes report, which details how we must improve Mississippi schools to close equity gaps and prepare our children for the future economy
• Fought to expand broadband access to families and resources for school facilities in rural communities across the South
• Worked to build Early Learning systems-based alignment between child care, Head Start, and public schools

• Successfully fought for the White House to increase the number of refugees allowed into the U.S.
• Fought back against harmful voter suppression legislation, ultimately leading to the removal of several egregious provisions of the eventual law
• Organized a national coalition to demand a fix for the Medicaid coverage gap, including support from nearly 400 organizations
• Released “From Guards to Guardians,” our report calling for healthy community alternatives to immigrant detention