NORTHERN VIRGINIA INITIATIVE

The Northern Virginia office of Voices for Virginia's Children was established in 2006 to focus on the particular needs of children in Northern Virginia. The goal of the office is to raise the particular concerns of children in Northern Virginia to a statewide audience and to increase the total power of those advocating for children in the Commonwealth. We accomplish this by:

• Identifying key issues that particularly affect children in Northern Virginia and building awareness about those issues.
• Working with the Richmond advocacy staff to adequately represent the needs of children who live in Northern Virginia at the state level.
• Participating in and coordinating local advocacy networks to influence legislative decisions.

NEWS

Voices for Virginia’s Children recently received a $50,000 grant to help carry on its work in Northern Virginia. Voices is one of six, area nonprofits sharing $300,000 in grant money awarded by the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative.

The Connection Newspapers featured Voices in a recent article highlighting the award .

SUCCESSES

During 2009, Voices' overall successes had an impact on a number of children in Northern Virginia.

• Voices persuaded legislators to preserve these recent advances in child and family issues in spite of large budget cuts:

  Child Care Subsidies: A 2008 $12M increase in child care subsidies for low-income working parents that enabled 800 additional children in NoVA to receive child care. 

  Foster Care: 2008 reforms to the foster care system that give 800 children in foster care in NoVA a better chance to establish permanent family ties and transition to productive adulthood.

  Virginia Preschool Initiative: A 2008 investment of $23M so that an additional 2,000 low-income four year olds in NoVA have access to quality preschool.

• Voices led a statewide coalition to inform legislators about the negative impact of closing state-run child psychiatric inpatient facilities before appropriate community-based options were in place. In response, funding for the facilities was restored.
• Voices' staff visited members of Virginia’s Congressional delegation to provide information about SCHIP Reauthorization and the Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

FUTURE WORK

Voices' Northern Virginia and KIDS COUNT directors are gathering the wealth of child-related data available in NoVA localities, to summarize and synthesize the data and paint two statistical “portraits” of children who live in NoVA communities. One is a "self-portrait" using data from youth health risk behavior surveys administered to students in the Northern Virginia localities. The "self-portrait" will be available in May.

The second portrait uses KIDS COUNT and other data collected on indicators of child well-being in the Northern Virginia localities. This report will be avaialble later in 2009.

These reports will help policy makers and decision makers develop policies and programs that meet the needs of the diverse group of children living in Northern Virginia and take full advantage of their strengths, assets, and potential contributions to the community.

To learn more about the Northern Virginia Initiative, please contact:

Kathy May
Director of Voices' Northern Virginia Office
703-277-7748