We Make Kids Count!

• More at-risk children will have access to preschool.
• More youth in foster care will have permanent family connections.
• More low-income working families will have access to quality, reliable child care.
• Children in immigrant families will have access to the services and supports they need to succeed.
• NoVA stakeholders and advocates will have the data, expert analyses and policy options they need to champion initiatives that benefit the region’s children.

PLANS AND PRIORITIES FOR THE YEAR(S) AHEAD

Influencing Foster Care Policy by Educating Policymakers, Empowering Families, and Amplifying the Voices of Youth in Foster Care

• Expand Medicaid Benefits to youth ages 18, 19, and 20 with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level who were receiving foster care services on their 18th birthday.
• Expand support services to families to prevent foster care placement.
• Expand support for relative caregivers (Kinship Care).

Improving the Quality of Early Childhood Programs

• Provide the leadership to bring early childhood entities and coalitions together to agree on and then advocate collectively for consensus early childhood legislative and budget priorities.
• Coordinate and host an Early Childhood/School Readiness leadership summit.
• Offer legislative advocacy training sessions in locations around the state and co-sponsor local organizing sessions to recruit and mobilize grassroots and grasstops support for proposed legislation.
• Advocate for the establishment of a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), a research-based tool for measuring and promoting the quality of early childhood programs.

Impacting Children’s Policies From the Top: Voices’ Electoral Work

• Voices will join Every Child Matters in a non-partisan, nationwide event, "Step Up for Kids Day," by coordinating a rally in Virginia on September 16, 2008. The event will be held on the steps of the capitol building in Richmond. Similar events will be held on the capitol steps of all 50 states to draw public attention to issues affecting America's children such as poverty, health care, juvenile incarceration, early care and education, and foster care.
• During the first hundred days of the new federal administration, Voices will distribute information about SCHIP reauthorization to Virginia’s representatives in Congress. Voices will also organize two “call in” days for advocates to tell their federal legislators how important health care for ALL children is.   
• Voices will work with each gubernatorial candidate's key policy staffers to ensure that each candidate will understand the issues affecting children in Virginia and will include a critical children’s policy issue in their campaign platform.

Ensuring That the Complex and Diverse Needs of Children in Northern Virginia Are Met

• Use Voices’ Kids Count expertise to access the wealth of child-related data available in NoVA localities, summarize and synthesize this data and paint a statistical “portrait” of children who live in NoVA communities.
• Continue in a leadership role in advocating for the needs of children in immigrant families.

Voices' Core Expertise

Data and Research: Our Kids Count data system is Virginia’s most relied-upon source of information on the status of children. Using multiple indicators of the well-being of children, we publish research briefs spotlighting key trends and risk factors. Our free online system puts the latest data in the hands of elected officials, government leaders, funders, program administrators, community leaders and citizens.

Inspiring Action: Working with others, we create powerful coalitions that push for needed policy changes. By acting together, with one voice, we inspire the public and hold our leaders accountable to support policy initiatives that improve the lives of children in Virginia.

Policy Solutions: We study scientific research and initiatives in other states to find state-of-the-art policy options. In collaboration with partners and other stakeholders, we evaluate these options and propose policy initiatives tailored to Virginia. Voices is the source for objective, non-partisan policy analysis and recommendations.

Public Awareness: We bring key issues and emerging problems in child well-being to the attention of the public and our leaders. Using multiple communication approaches including our widespread electronic alert network, we publicize these issues to ensure that problems are widely recognized and the public and decision makers are ready to support needed changes.

We Make A Difference.

Our recent achievements benefit thousands of children.

• Our Working Families Child Care Coalition (26 organizations) successfully advocated for a $12M increase in child care subsidies for low-income working parents. At least 2,600 additional children will now be served; their parents will be able to stay employed, off welfare, and on the path to self-sufficiency.
• In partnership with the Virginia Poverty Law Center, our leadership helped the First Lady’s For Keeps initiative successfully promote legislation to reform the foster care system. As a result, 8,000 children in foster care now have a better chance to establish permanent family ties and successfully transition to productive adulthood.
• Voices co-led, with JustChildren, the coalition supporting expansion of the Virginia Preschool Initiative. An additional 7,000 low-income four year olds will now have access to quality preschool. They will enter kindergarten ready to succeed, have fewer grade retentions or special education placements, and eventually have higher graduation rates and lower rates of crime and welfare enrollment.