Children's Defense Fund

The Children's Defense Fund - Member of the Board of Directors

Mission:

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. The organization champions policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education, and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority.

The Children's Defense Fund's Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Policy Initiatives - Immediate Priorities for All Children:

In the richest nation on earth, nearly nine million children still are without health coverage and 13.3 million live in poverty - 5.8 million of them in extreme poverty. Through CDF's policy activities we are working to secure the future by investing in every child by supporting these six priorities for children:

End Child Poverty
Ensure Every Child and Pregnant Woman Access to Affordable, Seamless, Comprehensive Health and Mental Health Coverage and Services
Provide High Quality Early Childhood Development Programs for All
Ensure Every Child Can Read at Grade Level by Fourth Grade and Guarantee Quality Education through High School Graduation
Protect Children from Abuse and Neglect and Connect Them to Caring Permanent Families
Stop the Criminalization of Children at Increasingly Younger Ages and Invest in Prevention and Early Intervention

For more information on CDF's Policy Initiatives, please click here.

CDF Advocacy Campaigns:

Through our campaigns, our advocacy efforts continuously challenge our nation's elected officials to develop, fund and enact fair policy for children, mothers and families.

Cradle to Prison Pipeline® Campaign

CDF's Cradle to Prison Pipeline® Campaign is a national call to action to stop the funneling of tens of thousands of youth, predominantly minorities, down life paths that often lead to arrest, conviction, incarceration and, in some cases, death. Race and poverty are the major factors underpinning the Pipeline. For more information on the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign, please click here.

Healthy Coverage for All Children Campaign

Nearly nine million children in America are uninsured-that's one in nine. The majority of uninsured children live in two-parent families; almost 90 percent have one working parent; and almost 90 percent are U.S. citizens. Healthy children are tomorrow's graduates and our nation's future workforce -- which is why it is crucial to ensure children have health coverage and get the care they need to maximize healthy development and reach their full potential in life. For more information on Healthy Coverage for All Children Campaign, please click here.

Katrina's Children Campaign

It is a national scandal that many children are stil plagued by the trauma of their horrific experiences of survival in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. In March 2007, the Children's Defense Fund issued, Katrina's Children: Still Waiting, an update of the 2006 report, Katrina's Children: A Call to Conscience and Action. Katrina's Children: Still Waiting reported:

About 100,000 children still do not live where they did when the hurricane struck;
Only 55 public schools in New Orleans were open as of December 2006, 43 percent of the pre-Katrina number;
Before the hurricane, there were 3,200 physicians in Orleans Parish and surrounding parishes; CDF's report found only about 1,200 physicians there now.

For more information on Katrina's Children Campaign, please click here.