| | Voices for Illinois Children Newsletter
From Voices President Tasha Green Cruzat | | August 27, 2018 We are heading towards Labor Day but it has been a very busy summer for Voices. Senior staff traveled to Salt Lake City for a gathering of participants in the Partnership for America’s Children to reflect on the work we’ve done here in Illinois and to learn about the work of our partners in other states. We were able to hear about the best advocating practices from around the country and discuss new methods on how to expand our reach. The Partnership for America’s Children is a wonderful collaborative that allows Voices to connect with like-minded advocates from across the country and provides our organization with fantastic data sets. We are proud to be a member of this important team and will continue to work with the Partnership to better the lives of children in Illinois and throughout the United States. | | Visit to Washington D.C. Voices is also proud to be a part of the Alliance for Early Success. Alliance members gathered in Washington D.C. in July to hear updates on key federal programs such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, and funding for home visiting programs. | | | | This year’s conference also focused on the important issue of the upcoming 2020 census. Proposed changes to the census by the Trump Administration concern us and our fellow advocates. If these changes were to be implemented, there is a great risk of undercounting vulnerable populations throughout Illinois and the rest of the country. This would lead to a loss of critical federal funding for areas such as Pre-K education and child-welfare programs. The Alliance meeting also took a look at the issue of immigration and the continuing crisis of child and family separations. Our fellow Early Success partners in border states demonstrated how serious the negative physical and emotional tolls were on these children and the cost this policy is placing on taxpayers. Voices staff were also able to meet with members of the Illinois Congressional delegation to brief them on the recently release national KIDS COUNT Report. All the members who were shown the report agree that being placed 22nd overall in child well-being is far from acceptable for Illinois. They pledged to work with Voices to advocate for increased federal and state resources to help move Illinois further towards our goal of being the state that is the best place in the United States to raise children. We are grateful for their continued support and hard-work in the nation’s capital. | | Springfield KIDS COUNT Presentation On August 7th, Voices staff presented the findings of the 2018 National KIDS COUNT report to a group of child advocates in Springfield. During the presentation, staff reviewed the overall numbers for Illinois in areas of child well-being including education, economic security, health and housing. They then looked at similar factors for Sangamon County to measure how they compared to the overall state averages. Like the rest of Illinois, the county faces challenges when it comes to the well-being of its children. According to the most recent available data, more than 20% of Sangamon County children live in poverty. Approximately 55% of the county’s African-American children live below the poverty line despite being only less than 20% of the county’s overall child population. While only being around 3% of the child-population, 38% of Latino children in Sangamon County live in poverty. Sangamon County also has a higher percentage of low-birth weight babies than the state average. Sangamon County is fortunate that there are many people in their community working on improving these conditions for children in their county and Voices will continue to work with these individuals and groups so that the children of Sangamon County can grow up in a healthy and thriving community. | | Children’s Health Collaborative The Illinois Collaborative for Children’s Health Policy held its kick-off meeting in July at Loyola University. Voices is proud to be one of the Collaborative’s founding members (along with the Ounce of Prevention, Lurie Children’s Hospital, EverThrive Illinois, Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation). We established the collaborative to work on advancing solutions based on evidence and best practices to improve children’s health across Illinois. Alongside our partner organizations, Voices will continue looking at how to improve access to health care for children, infant mortality rates, violence related health concerns and improving children’s emotional health. | | Profile: Imani Pitman This month we profile Imani Pitman who is working on an internship with Voices. Imani is an Oak Park native and a student at the University of Illinois working on her graduate degree in social work. Originally, a business major, Imani changed her educational track to social work after volunteering for the Boys and Girls club in Champaign. She plans to enroll in a doctoral program with the hopes of becoming a professor. Imani has been a tremendous addition to our team and we are grateful for her hard work and are excited to continuing working with her throughout the remainder of 2018. | | | | | | | Voices for Illinois Children
125 S. Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60603
312-456-0600
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