365 Days of Impact: How you’re helping children reach their full potential

365 Days of Impact: How you’re helping children reach their full potential2022-02-08T11:44:01-05:00

The past year continued to be a challenging one, especially for marginalized families and communities in the United States. With your support, the Children’s Defense Fund fought tirelessly against the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on children and against deeply rooted racism that harms Black and brown families every day. Take a moment to see what you made possible in 2021.

 Responding to COVID-19

  • Expanded the Child Tax Credit. Our advocacy on the Child Tax Credit (CTC) helped direct a monthly payment of $300/$350 per month to more than 60 million children this year. After months of advocacy, the American Rescue Plan included an historic one-year expansion of the CTC to the 23 million children—disproportionately Black and Latino children—who previously did not qualify because their families make too little. This expansion lifted 3.4 million children out of poverty in September 2021 alone and has decreased food hardship.
  • Secured an unprecedented level of new funding for federal housing assistance. In collaboration with our coalition, CDF won a dramatic expansion of Federal housing assistance beginning with the emergency rental assistance included in the December 2020 COVID-relief bill, as well as the American Rescue Plan, which provided nearly $50 billion in resources for renters and families experiencing homelessness, which helped millions of families who were struggling to pay their rent remain stably housed.
  • Led more than 600 national, state, and local organizations to help children and families in the child welfare system navigate effectively through the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Continued our expanded public education and outreach efforts to make sure families are aware how to access life-saving resources. Working with our state offices, we distributed information in English and Spanish to reach families across the country.
We came here for a better life. We thought that would be good. We got put down, we got picked back up again. And now...COVID-19 put us back down again.

Gabrielle Brown, Servant Leader Intern, Central Gulf Coast’s Global CDF Freedom Schools site

Economic and Racial Justice

  • Expanded healthy school meals and expanded SNAP for children and families. In collaboration with our coalition, CDF successfully won an extension and increase of SNAP benefits. The extension helps nearly 1 in 5 children with food assistance, provide an additional $880 million in WIC funding for four months of increased benefits to approximately 6 million young children and families through perinatal and postnatal care, and extends the successful Pandemic-EBT (debit card) program that has fed millions of children during the pandemic.
  • Supported implementation of policies to help keep children safely with their families and avoid the often traumatic experience of entering foster care. 
  • In January, CDF filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in opposition to the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. CDF called upon the Biden administration to end the misuse of Title 42 public health restrictions at the Border, which forces families to make the impossible choice to send their children across the Border alone, separating families as parents and caregivers are desperate to keep their children safe.
We came here for a better life. We thought that would be good. We got put down, we got picked back up again. And now...COVID-19 put us back down again.

James Hook, Spokane, WA (The Spokesman-Review, May 9, 2020)

 
 

The fight for children happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that’s particularly true as we face such an uncertain future. With your support, we will continue fighting nonstop to make sure our children’s voices are heard in the halls of power and their needs are met with urgency.

 
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Equipping Advocates to Fight for Justice

  • Brought together more than 1,000 faith leaders, seminarians, and activists to be challenged, connected, and inspired to advocate for children at our virtual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry.
  • Equipped the next generation of children’s advocates of color who are pushing our nation to fulfill its promise of equality.
  • Encouraged voters to amplify the voices of children—particularly Black children and children from other marginalized communities—at the polls with comprehensive voter resources and voter registration efforts.
The recent atrocities in our country highlight the need for CDF Freedom Schools more than ever. The program is an incredible combination of impressive academic achievement, while also giving students voice and agency.

Emily Uhlhorn, Mill Valley (CA) School District trustee

 Unlocking Children’s Potential Through Learning

  • In the midst of a pandemic, CDF Freedom Schools® programs partnered with 94 organizations across the country to serve over 7,200 children at 152 program sites in 75 cities and 26 states (including Washington, D.C.).
  • CDF Freedom Schools® programs successfully protected children from the negative impact of COVID-19. Eighty one percent of scholars improved or maintained their reading skills over the course of the six-week program and avoided the two-month summer learning loss suffered by children who do not have access to summer enrichment. Children were also provided with social and emotional support to overcome the interruption of daily life and the lack of in-person social interaction.
  • Continued to provide high-quality, culturally responsive academic enrichment through our CDF Freedom Schools® program for children across the country, 68 percent of whom are Black.
  • In 2021, CDF introduced a special STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) module in select CDF Freedom Schools® sites, with the goal of developing the next generation of leaders in STEM and introducing Black children to the wide world of possibilities in STEM careers.
  • Trained hundreds of college-aged young people in an intergenerational model of leadership.
 
 

The fight for children happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that’s particularly true as we face such an uncertain future. With your support, we will continue fighting nonstop to make sure our children’s voices are heard in the halls of power and their needs are met with urgency.

 
Donate Now