Voices for America's Children - nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy for better child policy » Child Welfare

Help Hungry Children This Holiday

Bill Bentley — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:06:49 +0000

As many of us sit down to hearty Thanksgiving meals this holiday, and look across the table and give thanks for many things including our well-fed children, please remember that one in four children in America is struggling with hunger.

Congress is now considering legislation that can help millions of families put food on the table. Tell Congress to pass the child nutrition bill next week.

The State of Child Welfare in Pennsylvannia

Casey_Labrack — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:10:25 +0000

Voices member Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children today released a new report, “The State of Child Welfare.” It includes comprehensive data on how Pennsylvannia’s child welfare system is performing in all 67 counties. It includes the number of first-time entries and re-entries into foster care; type of placement including group homes and institutions; and adoption rates and length of stay in foster care.

The good news is that most of the state is safely reducing the number of children in foster care. Check out the whole report here.

Image and belonging: important to youngsters, but ingrained in alcohol ads

George Askew — Tue, 18 May 2010 18:22:36 +0000

Alcohol advertisers have always sought to create an alternate reality for their products. With the advent of online social spaces, they literally have created these alternate realities, full of color and far from parental supervision. Utilizing Facebook, web forums, and the techniques of online social games, these advertisers are in the places that your children already are or typically seek out.

Today I helped introduce the findings of a new study on the digital marketing of alcohol (Voices trustee Lori Dorfman, of Berkeley Media Studies Group, collaborated on the report). As both a child advocate and a practicing pediatrician, I was concerned to learn how little is done to keep young audiences from alcohol ads.

Read the report to learn more about the state-of-the-art of digital ads and how we can protect young people from alcohol ad targeting.

Lend your voice to juvenile justice reform

Joanna Shoffner Scott — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:39:29 +0000

You can make a more dramatic impact on a person’s life the younger you reach out to them. We believe that in a lot of issues, like education and health. But crime prevention might be the best example of the idea of “get ‘em young.”

Youth who have been previously tried as adults are, on average, 34 percent more likely to commit crimes than youth put in the juvenile justice system. This and a body of other research shows that making an effort to get troubled children onto a better path pays off, preventing adult crime and reducing juvenile recidivism.

Click here to support juvenile justice reform with a message to your member of Congress.

State Budget Cuts Threaten Child Welfare Programs

Bill Bentley — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In part one of a two part report, NPR examines how state budget cuts are hurting services for child abuse and child welfare across the nation. Those working in child services say that although budgets are shrinking, the need is only growing.

Lone senator gives up obstruction of unemployment benefits

Bill Bentley — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A single senator who had placed a hold on an extension of unemployment benefits has capitulated after five days. The senator cited concerns about fiscal responsibility in blocking the bipartisan, but a million people could have lost their sole source of income had the stand off continued.

Toxic metal found in children’s toys from China

Bill Bentley — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Barred from using lead in products, some Chinese manufacturers of American children’s toys have substituted the carcinogenic metal cadmium. U.S. product safety authorities have launched an investigation.