What a joy and pleasure it was to be joined by our partners, family and community leaders, and our legislators at the Lifting Children & Families Out of Poverty Legislative Briefing! Our community came together in the State Capitol to make our voices heard. We’re ready to take action on the issues facing Californians living in poverty in 2023.
We know that poverty is a policy choice. We also know the solutions to end it.
Thank you to Senator Nancy Skinner, Civil Rights Leader Dolores Huerta and all who spoke for your show of support and powerful words. Take a look at the full list of speakers below. We value our leaders who prioritize support for ALL California children!
“People don’t appreciate that families are living on the edge, and the toxic stress that poverty places on them and their children and families. It is imperative we prioritize ending poverty even in a year when we may be in deficit.”
Senator Nancy Skinner
“We cannot continue to brag about what a great state we are, if we don’t share the wealth. We need to bring the money back to the people who create it. My question to you all is, ‘Are you ready to do the work?’”
Dolores Huerta
Our coalition is ready for action in 2023. We will continue to lift each other up and push for policies that lift children and families out of poverty for good!
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Thank you to our speakers!
Senator Nancy Skinner
Civil Rights Leader, Dolores Huerta
Gia Mclean, Parent Voices
Maritza De León, Parent Voices
Josefina Ramirez Notsinneh, Children Now
Tiffany Whiten, California State Council of SEIU
Mayra Alvarez, The Children’s Partnership
Itzúl Gutierrez, California Association of Food Banks
Joel Campos, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County
Alexis Castro, California Immigrant Policy Center
Mónica Lazo, Golden State Opportunity
Mandy Nand, United Ways of California
ChristopherSanchez, Western Center on Law & Poverty
Calling all families, allies and advocates! As the new year approaches, we renew our commitment to the Expanded Child Tax Credit. The expanded CTC cut child poverty by 50% in 2021. We need this important resource for our families!
Together we encourage California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla, as well as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to renew the Expanded Child Tax Credit. Poverty is a policy choice and tax credits liberate families. Let’s choose solutions that lift California kids out of poverty and help families NOW.
Forward together. No going back!
Take action now with 3 simple clicks on Twitter:
Retweet / click to tweet: CA data urging Sens. Feinstein & Padilla to renew the Expanded CTC
Retweet / click to tweet: Nat’l data urging Speaker Pelosi & GOP Leader McCarthy to renew
We’re ready to work together. We’re ready to get amazing things done. The financial outlook for the year looks tough. But our 170+ organizations are committed to action.
Together, our coalition can
Lift all children out of deep poverty
Create a more meaningful California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC)
Renew the Expanded Child Tax Credit
Get rate increases & critical support for child care providers and families
Invest in community cradle-to-career networks
Implement HOPE Accounts so vulnerable youth have hope for the future
“Forward Together. No Going Back.” is a nod to the fact that in financially tough times, across-the-board cuts to programs (austerity cuts) don’t work. In fact, they’re devastating for families. We’re notgoing back to the across-the-board cuts of the Great Recession.
We’re charting a new path. In lean times, we can make sure the most vulnerable Californians are protected. This is how we fight racism, xenophobia, and oppression in California.
We imagine a future where all our children are: Nourished. Respected. Secure. Valued. Free.
It IS possible. We will achieve this bright future together.
Image: A day after the mass killing of children in Uvalde, and 11 days after the racist killing of 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo, the George Floyd memorial offers a place for collective grief in Minneapolis, two years after his killing
At GRACE and End Child Poverty CA we are mothers, siblings, daughters. We’re hurting. We reached out to our founders, the Daughters of Charity, for a healing prayer. Thoughts and prayers are nothing without action. We’re committed to continued action for justice so that all our children are safe, nourished, valued, healthy, and free.
God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all people and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred, and who justify killing.
God of understanding, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the tragedies wrought by violence, we seek your light and guidance as we confront such terrible events.
We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to the many children and adults whose lives have been senselessly taken.
Heal, too, the pain of grieving families and all who have lost loved ones to gun violence and all violence motivated by racial or religious hatred. Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign among nations and in the hearts of all.
The 170+ End Child Poverty CA Coalition members are united in 2022! Together we’re supporting $10 Billion to Fight Poverty. Our plan is ambitious and absolutely achievable. In a state as rich and abundant as California, every child should be valued and free. Info and tools below.
Fund and create more community networks. We need community-led pandemic recovery, and cradle to career networks empower families through a child’s whole life. (AB 2517 – Bonta, TOOLKIT)
On Friday March 25, the California Cradle to Career Coalition was in Oakland! With our momentum, we are going to pass the It Takes A Village Act (AB 2517, Bonta)! Our bold bill author Assemblymember Mia Bonta gathered Oakland leaders. We turned out community-based organizations, community leaders, families, and promotoras (community outreach workers). The goal: get the community-led recovery the money it needs! Fund Promise Neighborhoods! Fund Cradle to Career Networks! Let our communities lead the way. We can pass the It Takes A Village Act, Assembly Bill 2517!
During the event, the energy was contagious. There wasn’t a frown to be found. The love for our families and communities poured with dedication, laughter, warm hugs of embrace and gratification.
The work that has been done, and the continued work these organizations and community relationships are still doing was coloring the entire space!
“It Takes A Village” Day of Action just goes to show we aren’t slowing down, we’re just getting started, TOGETHER!
Collaboration and change were brought to the event!
You can read more about what is being said about the event here!
Note: Assembly Bill 2517, championed by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, will establish a grant program to provide funding to organizations that provide services to children and families from before birth through college and career.
End Child Poverty CA has made it our mission to get REAL about taxes this year. Taxes can be overwhelming & scary. But they don’t have to be. There are tons of free resources. Tax credits can get you thousands of dollars back. There are even options for people without social security numbers to file and get money back. Resources below.
Watch our “La Carcacha” tax season music video on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok.
If you miss the deadline of April 18, 2022, it’s okay.
If you don’t owe money in taxes, you can file through October 15, 2022. There’s no penalty. And you can still get your tax credits money.
If you do owe money or think you will owe money, file for a free extension that will give you until October 2022. If you don’t file an extension, you can still file and pay a penalty, but still get your tax credits money.
Tax season is complicated, stressful and overwhelming, but with the help of familiar faces and spaces where the people care about you, it can be easy!
Let’s face it, we’ve all gone to those agencies, who really want you in and out and just sign here.
There are agencies who want to educate the community so we can all rise above the anxieties around taxes! Let’s learn together and share where we have found those amazon agencies this tax year or prior!
Download these easy-to-read tax credit outreach tools! We made them for promotoras and community outreach workers. These simple decision trees can help families get over the very real fear and anxiety of filing taxes. Find English, Spanish, and Chinese below. This project is a collaboration with Parent Voices CA.
Let’s get our communities the money they earned and deserve!
ALL OF US TOGETHER: Read on about how Assembly member Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), along with cosponsors GRACE, End Child Poverty California, and the Cradle to Career Coalition, are empowering community-based networks with the funding they need to join forces in the fight against poverty.
She says, “I am proud to coauthor the ‘It Takes a Village Act’. I have seen firsthand the benefits of this evidenced based approach to support coordinated community services.”
This beginning of the new year was launched the It Takes a Village Act bill and budget proposal earlier today. It Takes a Village would implement a place-based approach that centers on the needs of children and families in communities across California and ensure access to a quality continuum of wraparound services from cradle-to-career.
Assembly member Mia Bonta Launched “It Takes a Village Act” with GRACE, End Child Poverty California, and the Cradle to Career Coalition
Assembly member Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), along with cosponsors GRACE, End Child Poverty California, and the Cradle to Career Coalition, virtually launched the It Takes a Village Act bill and budget proposal earlier today.
It Takes a Village would implement a place-based approach that centers on the needs of children and families in communities across California, and ensure access to a quality continuum of wraparound services from cradle-to-career. The legislation will be introduced later this week. “The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted that communities with coordinated, place-based initiatives and service delivery are more resilient. Whether the next challenge California faces is due to climate change, a new infectious disease or economic recession, this proposal will make evidence-based investments in communities up and down the state. In light of another historic surplus, California must rebuild with coordinated neighborhood and regional services that can usher in a more vibrant and equitable future for all Californians,” said Assistant Speaker pro Tempore Bonta.
Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes (D-San Bernardino) added, “Neighborhood-based programs, like the Community Action Partnership and Growing Inland Achievement in my district, have a demonstrated track record of helping children and families thrive. Combined with other programs, like Promise Neighborhoods and our Cradle 2 Career systems, they have the power to create real change for California families. But all too often, these networks lack the funding they need to coordinate their services for the greatest level of impact. This is why I am proud to be Principal Coauthor to Assemblymember Bonta’s ‘It Takes a Village Act,’ a bill that will strengthen our communities by creating partnerships and increasing communication across California’s regional networks. By establishing this grant program, Assemblymember
Bonta is empowering community-based networks with the funding they need to join forces in the fight against poverty.”
“I am proud to coauthor the ‘It Takes a Village Act’. I have seen firsthand the benefits of this evidenced based approach to support coordinated community services. Hayward Promise Neighborhood features a family education program for preschool to college, student success coaches in partnership with CSU East Bay, and healthy food access through the Alameda County Community Food Bank,” said Assembly member Bill Quirk (D-Hayward).
Shimica Gaskins, spokesperson for the CA Cradle to Career Coalition, said, “Promise Neighborhoods and Cradle to Career regional networks provide data-driven solutions to ensure that children and families receive the resources that they need. Both programs braid cross-sector resources, leverage community partnerships, and work towards systemic change by tackling the racial and economic inequities in our communities. We are proud that Assemblymember Mia Bonta is sponsoring the It Takes A Village Act to support and expand these critical programs.”
OUR FUTURE TO LOOK FORWARD TO: There are important efforts moving ahead in the Senate. GRACE/End Child Poverty in California (ECPCA), and Liberation in a Generation talk about the Hope, Opportunity, Perseverance, and Empowerment (HOPE) for Children Act of 2022 (or SB 854). Read about the efforts being done and what this Act entails for our families, our community, and the future that we all deserve. Learn about why: “Baby bonds” aim to close the racial wealth gap and break cycles of intergenerational poverty by ensuring everyone has access to capital they can use to establish long-term financial stability. Scroll to read or read more here.
Senator Susan Rubio’s Bill Champions Young Child Tax Credit Expansion
January 20, 2022
SACRAMENTO, CA – Building off her efforts in 2021, Senator Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, today introduced a bill expanding the eligibility for the child tax credit, which will help struggling families and reduce poverty.
SB 860 expands the eligibility of the Young Child Tax Credit (YCTC) from $1 earning to $0 to include in-home caregivers without paid work. Senator Rubio introduced a similar bill, SB 691, last year. Governor Gavin Newsom’s January proposed budget highlighted the need for this expansion.
“The child tax credit is one of the most effective tools for reducing poverty and supporting struggling families, and my bill, SB 860, will expand eligibility for this program,” said Senator Rubio. “Removing this unnecessary work requirement allows for an equitable distribution of financial resources to those who need it the most. I look forward to working with my colleagues, stakeholders and Governor Newsom on this issue.”
“We are proud to support Senator Rubio’s bill to expand the Young Child Tax Credit (YCTC) to include households that do not earn income. Governor Newsom’s budget included this idea because it’s both smart and the right thing to do. Providing for the basic needs of young children grows more expensive every year and we have a historic budget surplus that can be invested in better outcomes for low-income families,” said Amy Everitt, President of Golden State Opportunity. “Regardless of their yearly earnings, parents of young children already have the hardest–and most important–job in America and deserve the same level of support as other working parents. This tax credit of up to $1,000 for each child under 6 would go a long way to helping struggling parents support their families.”
“The Young Child Tax Credit is a game-changer for families. Last year, UWCA and the CalEITC Coalition were proud to sponsor legislation authored by Senator Rubio to remove the $1 earning requirement. And now, as we reintroduce this legislation, it is truly exciting to see the Governor’s budget proposal reflect our priorities as we move into the new year,” said Pete Manzo, President and CEO of United Ways of California. “We know from our Real Cost Measure report that over half of families with children under 6 in California struggle financially, so the more we can do for these families, the better. We applaud Senator Rubio and Governor Newsom for their leadership on this issue.”
“In 2019, the Young Child Tax Credit became one of California’s most important tools to end deep child poverty,” said Shimica Gaskins, President & CEO at GRACE/End Child Poverty in California. “We should continue to optimize the YCTC to close the racial wealth divide and ensure families can meet their basic needs. This legislation builds on the Governor’s budget proposal by ensuring the full young child tax credit reaches children and families. We applaud Senator Rubio for leading this fight in the Legislature.”
