Children's Defense Fund
Encyclopedia
The Children's Defense Fund is an American child advocacy and research group, founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.-Early years:...

. Its motto Leave No Child Behind reflects its mission to advocate on behalf of children. The organization is supported by private donations.

About

Founded in 1973, The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit advocacy organization that works to ensure a level playing field for all children. CDF works with individuals, communities and policy makers to enact, fund and implement public policy and promote successful programs that lift children out of poverty, protect them from abuse and neglect, ensure access to health care and quality education, and provide a moral and spiritual foundation to help them succeed with the support of caring adults and communities. The Children's Defense Fund is supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations and does not take government funds.

The Children's Defense Fund believes that every step taken to improve the lives of children improves the lives of all of us. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves and also facilitates youth leadership programs designed to attract, equip and mobilize the next generation of youth as child advocates

The principal public policy initiative is summarized by CDF's advocacy of the "Dodd-Miller Act to Leave No Child Behind (S. 448/H.R. 936)" bill, introduced in Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 in 2001. This differs only slightly from the No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a United States Act of Congress concerning the education of children in public schools.NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office...

. (George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 used this phrase, trademarked by the CDF, http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0513-04.htm in his Presidential campaign despite objections from CDF.)

The CDF bill's provisions would, according to the organization [1]:
  • prepare every child for school through full funding of quality childcare, Head Start and Early Head Start, and new investments in universal preschool education programs
  • lift every child from poverty by 2010
  • ensure that every child and parent has health insurance as a first step toward universal coverage
  • end child hunger through the expansion of food programs, living wages, tax credits, and family supports
  • make sure every child can read by fourth grade and can graduate from high school able to succeed at work and in life
  • provide every child safe, quality after-school and summer programs to learn, serve, work, and stay out of trouble
  • ensure every child decent affordable housing
  • protect all children from neglect, abuse, and other violence and ensure them the care they need
  • ensure families leaving welfare the supports required to be successful in the workplace, including healthcare, childcare, education, and training

History

CDF grew out of the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

 under the leadership of Marian Wright Edelman who remains its President. CDF traces its heritage to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his Poor People’s Campaign that fought for social and economic justice for all in the 1960s.

Mrs. Edelman—a graduate of Spelman College
Spelman College
Spelman College is a four-year liberal arts women's college located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The college is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman was the first historically black female...

 and Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...

—witnessed abject poverty first-hand in the Mississippi Delta
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. The region has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth" because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history...

 and worked with Dr. King and Senator Robert Kennedy in the 1960s to help the millions of poor people in America. Mrs. Edelman then moved to Washington, D.C., and founded CDF to continue Dr. King’s call for justice for the poor and to ensure a level playing field for all children in America.

CDF is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has offices in several states around the country: California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. CDF programs operate in 24 states and the National Outreach staff also works on the ground and with partners in all 50 states.

Since its founding, CDF has helped pass several critical pieces of legislation, like the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities...

) and the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act and programs involving issues of disabled children, early childhood education, health care and child welfare; ran several public awareness campaigns including the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign and the gun violence
Gun violence
Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may or may not include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or...

 prevention campaign. CDF has also published a number of reports, including the State of America’s Children, educating the public on the issues facing children.

Youth Leadership

CDF works to ensure that today's children become healthy and productive adults that grow into the next generation of leaders. CDF has several programs that help children succeed in school, celebrate youth who have overcome personal obstacles, and train young adults to become child advocates.

CDF's Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC)http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/black-community-crusade-for-children-II/ led to the creation of the CDF Freedom Schools program http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/freedom-schools/ in 1995, offering children enrichment through a reading curriculum that seeks to foster a love of learning and to empower children to make a difference in their families, communities and the nation. In the summer of 2007, CDF Freedom Schools sponsor partners served over 8,300 children in 61 cities and 25 states (and D.C.), including over 1,750 children in the Gulf Coast Region (AL,LA,MS,TX). Since 1995, over 64,000 children and families have been reached through the CDF Freedom Schools program experience.

The Children's Defense Fund Beat the Odds program http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/youth-development-leadership/beat-the-odds/ each year provides students around the country with partial college scholarships. Founded in 1990, the Beat the Odds program has awarded hundreds of scholarships to high school students who have overcome adversity in their lives and gone on to achieve academic excellence and give back to their communities.

The Children's Defense Fund Youth Advocacy Leadership Training (YALT)http://www.childrensdefense.org/programs-campaigns/youth-development-leadership/yalt/ program helps young people who are committed to social justice and the welfare of all children develop into the next generation of leaders. Each year, the YALT program provides hundreds of young adults an opportunity to connect with other young leaders, community organizers and child advocates from around the country to learn new advocacy skills, models and strategies that can be implemented in their communities back home and on their college campuses.

Health care

CDF works to ensure access to affordable, seamless, comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services for all children and pregnant mothers. In 2007, CDF mobilized more than 1,200 national, state and local organizations—representing over 60 million people—to support a campaign to ensure health coverage for all children. This effort led to child advocates sending tens of thousands of emails to their Members of Congress asking them to address the child health coverage crisis immediately.

End Child Poverty

CDF works with individuals, communities and policymakers to enact, fund and implement legislation that helps lift children and their families out of poverty. CDF also works with other organizations to help families identify tax credits and federal and state government benefits for which they’re eligible and to provide them with free tax preparation assistance, enabling them to keep more of their hard-earned money and reduce poverty. In 2006, CDF and its partners helped families save approximately $11.6 million in tax preparation fees alone and helped get almost $170 million back into the pockets of working 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 male minorities, down life paths that often lead to arrest, conviction, incarceration and, in some cases, death. The campaign was launched in 2007 at a two-day summit in Washington, D.C., at which we releases our America's Cradle to Prison Pipeline report. Since then Texas, California and others have or are planning follow-up state level activities to address this crisis.

Idol Gives Back

In 2008, FOX Television Network selected CDF to be featured on and benefit from the "Idol Gives Back" fundraising event. CDF Board Member Reese Witherspoon highlighted CDF's work for children during the April 9, 2008 broadcast.

Key people

Academy Award Winning actress, Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...

 serves on the Board of Directors at CDF. She first learned about CDF while reading a book by its President Marian Wright Edelman entitled, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, during a road trip from Nashville to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

. She later reread the book, decided she wanted to be part of CDF's work and called CDF to get involved. Since then Ms. Witherspoon has regularly participated in fundraising events and contributed financially, including donating all of the proceeds from sales of the Legally Blonde Barbie Dolls to CDF. Every year she has met with each of the Beat the Odds scholarship winners in California. Ms. Witherspoon has served on CDF's Board since 2006 and was instrumental in organizing a CDF-sponsored visit to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to reach out to the children traumatized by the storm and help them receive the physical and mental support needed to heal. She also helped launch the first of 13 New Orleans CDF Freedom Schools sites and personally funded two.

Susie Flynn Campaign

The CDF sponsored a nine-year-old girl for the 2008 Presidential Election, on the platform that nine-million American children lack Health Insurance. Her message, featured in various blogs and articles, is that people need to focus on this issue. The CDF sponsors Susie's message to pass a current bill in the United States House of Representatives that would provide such Health Insurance coverage to the kids who lack it, and will even cover pregnant woman for a while after giving birth.

Gun control

The CDF wrote an amicus brief in the District of Columbia v. Heller
District of Columbia v. Heller
District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 , was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes in federal enclaves, such as...

case, urging the US Supreme Court to uphold the District of Columbia's handgun ban.
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