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2020 Wins for the End Child Poverty California Movement

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We want to share End Child Poverty California movement wins from the most recent California budget.

In spite of the fact that this continues to be an incredibly difficult year, we are moving forward together. We’re proud to work with such a phenomenal group of partners, parents and advocates. We believe ALL our children deserve to be healthy, housed and fed.

On June 29, 2020, California’s newest state budget was finalized. For the first time ever, undocumented families are included in the poverty-fighting CalEITC cash-back tax credit.

This means money going directly to working families who have been left out of economic relief and necessary income supports during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know this money will be used in local communities. We know it will support some of our most vulnerable undocumented families who urgently need money for food, bills, and health care.

End Child Poverty California quote box: For the first time ever, undocumented families with young children are included in the poverty-fighting CalEITC cash-back tax credit

The CalEITC tax credit change applies to undocumented families who have children under six, and who file taxes using an Individual Tax Identification Number. These families don’t have Social Security Numbers, but they pay taxes. The change also includes the $1,000 Young Child Tax Credit for any family with children under six earning $1 or more. These changes go into effect next year. For the first time, ALL California families with young children who file taxes and make less than about $30,000 per year will be eligible for these life-saving credits.

We will continue working hard alongside our partners and the CalEITC Coalition and the Safety Net For All Coalition (a network of over 125 organizations) so that more California families can be included in immediate and ongoing relief.

And there is more good news: Both of our End Child Poverty California Senate bills passed out of the State Senate with bipartisan support!

Senate Bill 1103: Workforce Support Services for Californians (Authored by Sen. Melissa Hurtado)

Many promising youth and community members haven’t been able to complete career training programs that lead to higher wage jobs and a path out of poverty, due to the daily challenges of living in poverty. These include lack of child care, commutes of two- to three-hours each way, and the need to work multiple low-wage jobs to support their families while going to training. 

End Child Poverty California Senate Bill 1103 quote from Alma Moreno of Sanger: Many of us have wanted to go back to school but the lack of child care and support makes it very difficult. It’s very difficult to take night classes when you don’t have transportation or resources. We would like to have a brighter future and fight child poverty in California. On behalf of the California Farmworkers Foundation, we strongly support SB 1103.

SB 1103 by Senator Melissa Hurtado (D – Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare Counties) creates the High Roads Workforce Training Program that addresses the issues that stop people from graduating. This is an important commitment to families and brighter futures. SB 1103 is particularly important to California’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

Read Alicia’s and Lesly’s stories about why SB 1103 is so important.

Senate Bill 1409: CalEITC Tax Credit Auto-filing Pilot for Families with Low Incomes (Authored by Senator Anna Caballero)

We know that many families earn so little that they are not required to file taxes, yet they are eligible for the CalEITC tax credit and Young Child Tax Credit that would help them with stability and basic necessities. 

SB 1409 authored by Senator Caballero (D – Salinas Valley and parts of the Central Valley) seeks to develop efficiencies in tax filing, so that families can directly receive their CA EITC  and other tax benefits.  Research has shown that as much as $2 Billion State and Federal Tax Credits are left unclaimed.  This bill would cut through bureaucracy and would create methods for direct payments to families.

End Child Poverty California Senate Bill 1409 quote from Senator Anna Caballero: Many of California’s most economically fragile households do not receive CalEITC because they may be unaware they qualify for this critical tax credit or simply do not file a tax return because they earn too little.

This crisis has had an outsized impact on our families in poverty and together we can make sure we change the way we support and create opportunities for families. Looking forward to sharing more good news in support of children and families soon.

More California budget news and analysis from partners:

Join Our L.A. 2020 Campaign Launch with Dolores Huerta & Senator Holly Mitchell

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End Child Poverty California 2020 Los Angeles Launch image

NOTE LOCATION UPDATE: St. John’s Well Child and Family Center (Rolland Curtis), 1060 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Let’s celebrate 2019’s End Child Poverty California wins, and get the Plan passed in FULL in 2020! Our families work hard every day. The time to end extreme child poverty is NOW.

Join us on Friday, February 21, 2020, at 10 a.m. to launch our Los Angeles Community Campaign. ==> Click to Register

The Los Angeles launch and press conference will feature civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, Senator Holly Mitchell, and others. In collaboration with the Dolores Huerta Foundation, we’re proud to announce the primary sponsors for this event are St. John’s Well Child and Family Center and Crystal Stairs.

LOCATION: St. John’s Well Child and Family Center (Rolland Curtis), 1060 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Find Out More and Register for the L.A. 2020 Launch

Join us at 10 a.m. for snacks and welcome. The press conference will start at 10:30 a.m. and will be followed by neighborhood community outreach. This is a free event.

Help make the L.A. 2020 Launch great:

==> Share the Facebook event page, and mark that you’re interested and/or coming:

==> RSVP and share the Information and registration page.

==> Sign the 2020 petition to our leaders.

==> Retweet and comment on the Twitter event announcement.

==> Download and print flyers to put up:

End Child Poverty CA 2020 Los Angeles Launch Flyers (English and Spanish)Download

The End Child Poverty in California campaign is sponsored by GRACE (Gather, Respect, Advocate, Change, Engage) and the End Child Poverty Institute to end extreme child poverty and reduce overall child poverty in California. In close partnership with the Dolores Huerta Foundation, we are working to increase support and community engagement across the state. We invite you to be part of the movement to address the highest child poverty rate in the nation by implementing simple solutions to a complex issue. Read our 2020 priorities.

End Child Poverty CA Movement 2021 Priorities

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Child poverty is not a fact of nature. Together, we’ll make sure ALL our children are healthy, fed, and housed.

Before the pandemic we had approximately 2 million children in poverty and 450,000 childrenin extreme poverty. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation for families working hard toget ahead. In 2019 the state budget invested $4.8 Billion in End Child Poverty Plan recommendations and preserved and built on them in 2020. We still have much work to do.

#EndChildPovertyCA 2021 Movement Priorities

  1. Coordination of Services: Continue to improve the cost-effectiveness of programs that support families, focusing on community-based, collaborative, research-based solutions.
  2. Child Care: Improve access and availability to childcare and address the childcare crisisas exacerbated by the Pandemicby adequately meeting the business needs of child careproviders. Child care is a lifeline to keep parents working and families stable.
  3. Housing: Increase overall housing availability and reduce evictions so that children and families don’t face the trauma and stress of homelessness, exacerbated by the pandemic recession.
  4. Health Care: Strengthen and expand community based and school-based health careclinics to meet families where they are so that they can get the care they need. Within anequity framework provide COVID vaccines in high needs communities and ensure healthaccess for ALL families and children irregardless of immigration status.
  5. Safety Net: Continue to expand on the CAEITC the Young Child Tax Credit. Supportefforts to expand Pandemic EBT sothat families can feed their families, during thiseconomic crisis. Increase cash policies so that families can meet basic needs (i.e.,increase SSI payments, UI for ITIN filers, etc.…) 

Download a printable version of the 2021 #EndChildPovertyCA Priorities

End Child Poverty California 2021 Movement PrioritiesDownload

The End Child Poverty in California campaign is sponsored by GRACE (Gather, Respect, Advocate, Change, Engage) and the End Child Poverty Institute to end extreme child poverty and reduce overall child poverty in California.  In close partnership with the Dolores Huerta Foundation, we are working to increase support and community engagement across the state. We invite you to be part of the movement to address the highest child poverty rate in the nation by implementing simple solutions to a complex issue. 

Help Us Reach 1,500 Signatures!

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In January, California legislators got a visit from parents, children, and #EndChildPovertyCA partners who came to Sacramento with a simple message: We have the solutions to end extreme child poverty — now we need the political champions to join our movement.

Add your voice to ours: Sign our petition TODAY to tell our legislators this is the year to end extreme child poverty in California — and help us reach our NEW 1,500-signature goal!
Parents, children, and partners at the #Together4Kids2020 advocacy event in Sacramento where we sent the message that ALL our kids should be healthy, fed, & housed
In Sacramento, Parent Voices California parent Monique Rosas reminded legislators that California’s child poverty rate isn’t a failure of people — it’s a result of divestment in public systems for communities and families. “Not being able to afford childcare or housing has a lot to do with the broken system, not the people,” she said. “We will continue to fight until our children are housed, fed, and supported in love.” 

We have a chance to repair that broken system this year, and support among our elected leaders is growing. The Governor’s budget already includes three of our five legislative priorities for 2020: These are wins you helped achieve! And now, we’re going all in to tell legislators that it’s time to pass all five.

Will you sign our petition TODAY to help us reach our NEW 1,500-signature goal?
We are so grateful to our partner, the California Alternative Payment Program Association, for organizing #Together4Kids2020, and to dozens of partners like Children Now, California Association of Food Banks, Parent Voices California, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Hayward Promise Neighborhood, Alameda County Community Food Bank, and MORE who showed up with their voices and their signs!

California is the richest place in the nation, with more millionaires and billionaires than any other state. Ending extreme child poverty here isn’t a pipe dream. It’s something we can and will achieve — with the help of our legislators, our partners, and you.

In Solidarity,
Jackie Thu-Huong Wong
Vice President of Policy and Advocacy
End Child Poverty CA

Giving Tuesday: Powering Our Movement

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It’s the season of giving, and we’d like you to think about your gifts. The voices, donations, and talents of our community — big or small — make this movement strong. And everyone has something to give as we build a California where all children are fed, healthy, and housed. 

2019 has been a powerful year for the End Child Poverty CA movement.

Thousands of you made our movement a huge success this year.

➡️ You spoke up for the End Child Poverty Plan.

➡️ You showed up in Chula Vista, LA, Pomona, Weedpatch, Fresno, Salinas, Oakland, and Sacramento.

➡️ You shared your stories in front of crowds of hundreds of people, in your communities and educated legislators and other officials. 

Throughout the year, the powerful testimonies of parents cut through the politics to make the needs of our communities clear. Your stories stick with us — stories like the one from Ana, who spoke on behalf or our partner Mission Promise Neighborhood. Her words continue to inspire us:

“[I’ve learned] not to keep my voice within myself but speak it out to share my knowledge so other families can advocate for their children, because we are all advocates. We just need to… speak up and say, ‘This is what I need for my children, and all of the children.’”

Community members like Ana are building momentum to power this movement in 2020. Will you chip in to power it, too?

Donate any amount

$10

$25

$50

$100

Together in 2020, we’re going to…

  • Make sure the Child Tax Credit is expanded to help children and families in extreme poverty have adequate food, housing and other essentials. It’s the most potent piece of #ThePlan to END extreme child poverty in our state.
  • Partner with civil rights leader Dolres Huerta, co-founder of the United Farmworkers and founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation to build a grassroots army of Californians mobilized to end child poverty in our state for good. On-the-ground community teams will serve as local action hubs to free our families from the cycle of poverty. 
  • Organize events and rallies around the state. We’re going to remind our leaders that child poverty is a moral and political choice — not an inevitability — and we’re serious about ending it.
  • Expand our network so that we’re impossible to ignore. We’re more than tripling the number of partners and community members involved to #PassThePlan and end extreme poverty for 450,000 California children. 

Will you chip in to help us achieve our goals? Every dollar makes a difference.

We’re filled with gratitude this holiday season — and we’re also aware that there are a lot of expenses this time of year. If you can’t donate right now, please forward this email to one or two people to let them know that there’s a place for them in our growing movement to END extreme poverty for our children.

For the last forty years I’ve been involved with serving youth caught in the juvenile justice system and foster care, helping to overcome educational disadvantage and to provide desperately needed healthcare. We can end the abject poverty that so often leads to these human crisis and enormous state costs. For children in abject poverty, in and out of homelessness, their needs can’t wait. Please join us.

With gratitude,

Conway Collis
President and CEO
GRACE

End Child Poverty CA is a movement to build a bright future for ALL California kids and free our families from the cycle of poverty. If someone forwarded you this email, sign up here to get updates from End Child Poverty CA. 

What a difference a year makes!

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This time last year, the Lifting Children Out of Poverty Task Force released California’s first-ever End Child Poverty Plan. For change-makers across the state, “Pass the Plan” became a rallying call to the governor and legislative leaders to make ending extreme child poverty a top priority — and they showed that they cared.   

The plan will END extreme child poverty in California and cut overall child poverty in half. It’s bold, and it took a year of teamwork, research, and engagement to produce.  

California is the only state with a plan to end extreme child poverty. Together, we’re going to make it a reality.

⇒ Take our short survey to tell us why you’re involved!

Watch faith leaders speak at last December’s #PassthePlan release rally:

This is your plan: You helped fight for it by sharing news with your network, showing up in Sacramento and all over the state, and believing in the mission. Because of our hard work together…

  • The California legislature passed key recommendations from the plan this year. 
  • Almost $5 billion in End Child Poverty Plan investments were adopted in the state budget.
  • More than 60 organizations and 47,000 Californians have become involved to #EndChildPovertyCA — and more are joining every day.

We are incredibly grateful to you and our community. We’re sharing our gratitude now through the start of 2020, and we want to hear from you.

⇒ Take a few minutes to tell us why you’re with us.

We look forward to sharing some of your answers alongside ours on Giving Tuesday and throughout December.

With deep gratitude,

Conway, Jackie, Cristina, and the End Child Poverty CA team

¡Qué diferencia hace en un año!

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Para este tiempo el año pasado, el Grupo de Trabajo para Sacar a los Niños y a las Familias de la Pobreza lanzó el  primer Plan para Terminar con la Pobreza Infantil de California. Para creadores de cambio en el estado, “Pass the Plan” se convirtió en nuestro llamado al gobernador y líderes legislativos para que el tema de terminar con la pobreza infantil extrema fuera una prioridad – y ellos revelaron que era importante. 

El plan pondrá FIN a la pobreza infantil extrema en California y reducirá la pobreza infantil por mitad. El plan es audaz, y tomó meses de trabajo en equipo, investigación y compromiso para producirlo.

California es el único estado con un plan para acabar con la pobreza infantil extrema. Juntos vamos a hacerlo realidad. 

⇒ ¡Responde a nuestra breve encuesta para decirnos por qué estás involucrado!

Este es su plan :  Usted nos ayudó a combatir — compartiendo noticias con sus conocidos, presentándose en Sacramento y en todo el estado, y sobre todo creyendo en la misión. 

Debido a nuestro esfuerzo y trabajo juntos:

  •  Las legislaturas de California aprobaron recomendaciones claves del plan de este año.
  • Se aprobaron casi $5 billones en inversiones del Plan para terminar con  la pobreza infantil en el presupuesto estatal.
  • Más de 600 socios y 47,000 Californianos se han involucrado en #EndChildPovertyCA, y cada día se unen más.

Estamos increíblemente agradecidos con usted y nuestra comunidad. Estamos compartiendo nuestra gratitud desde ahora hasta el principio del 2020, y queremos saber su opinión.

⇒ Tóme unos minutos para decirnos por qué está apoyándonos.

Esperamos compartir algunas de sus respuestas junto con las nuestras en Giving Tuesday y durante diciembre.

Con profunda gratitud,

Conway, Jackie, Cristina y el equipo de Terminar con la Pobreza Infantil CA

End Child Poverty CA Coalition 2019-2020 Budget Wins

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The final California state budget allocates almost $5 billion toward investments called for in the State Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force’s End Child Poverty Plan.

State legislation created the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force to develop an anti-poverty plan that was released just before the new governor and legislature took their oaths of office in January. The End Child Poverty in California Coalition of 50+ partners rallied people, organizations and elected officials to adopt the Task Force’s End Child Poverty Plan, which would end deep child poverty in just four years when fully implemented. The End Child Poverty Plan would also reduce overall child poverty by 50 percent over the next decade.

As a result, the final state budget includes unprecedented investments to address deep child poverty. Furthermore, several pieces of legislation and budget proposals have been introduced to implement the comprehensive End Child Poverty Plan.

“This budget represents an unprecedented strategic investment to address poverty and inequality in California. Make no mistake, however — this is a down payment. Fully funding the Task Force’s plan would end deep child poverty in California in four years, and our campaign will keep working with our elected officials and all Californians to do just that. Thank you to the Governor and the Legislature with leaders on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum for their unprecedented action to help kids and families,” said Conway Collis, co-chair of the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force, and CEO of GRACE and End Child Poverty in California.

450,000 California children live in deep child poverty. If concentrated as a population, those children would comprise the state’s eighth largest city — larger than Oakland, twice as large as San Bernardino, and just smaller than Long Beach. When fully realized, savings generated by lifting these children from poverty would total $12 billion annually, on an ongoing basis, representing a dramatic return on investment.

“We could not have done this without the broad-based coalition of anti-poverty advocates, faith-based organizations, non-profits, education advocates, business and labor who worked tirelessly to build support for this important victory. This budget is a reflection of the beginning of a sea change, with ending child poverty in California, as the Governor has stated, his North Star.  We have more to do, but this is a significant step in the right direction and we are looking forward to continuing our work with this coalition, the legislature and the Governor,” said Jackie Thu-Huong Wong, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at GRACE and End Child Poverty in California.

California has the highest number of children and highest percentage of children living in poverty of any state in the nation — almost 2 million children, who represent one out of every five California kids. Deep poverty is defined as families living at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty line, or less than about $12,500 for a family of four. In addition, 204,000 California children experience homelessness.

Infographic: Key End Child Poverty CA Coalition Budget Wins

Additional CA Budget Information & Reactions

  • State budget analysis from our coalition partner Western Center on Law & Poverty: click here.
  • Budget statement from CalEITC4Me on the California Earned Income Tax Credit expansion: click here.
  • Statement on child care wins from our coalition partners Parent Voices & Child Care Law Center: click here.
  • Article in Vox on the CalEITC expansion in California and its national relevance: click here.
  • Additional information on the End Child Poverty Plan: click here.
    LA Times story on the release of the End Child Poverty Plan: click here.

ACTION: Get Loud for Child Care & Foster Youth

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Child care and strong support for foster youth are two pieces of the End Child Poverty Plan facing upcoming hearings. (See below for good news about support for foster youth!)

The power of the End Child Poverty Plan is in its comprehensive approach. It tackles many factors that push families into poverty or keep them there. There’s no magic bullet. Get involved and stay involved: share this post and tweet or share to Facebook in support of the End Child Poverty Plan Legislation.

CHILD CARE: BUDGET HEARING + AB 194 

ASSEMBLY BUDGET HEARING 3/26

TWEET THIS

We support expansion of #childcare for CA families. Parents are losing jobs because they can’t get care. Our families can’t wait. @AsmKevinMcCarty @Bill_Brough @J_GallagherAD3 @AsmMoniqueLimon @AsmJoseMedina @AsmMuratsuchi @AsmPatODonnell @PhilTing @JayObernolte #EndChildPoverty

CLICK TO RETWEET: https://twitter.com/EndChildPovCA/status/1110554014142197768

AB 194, Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes (D- San Bernardino) 

AB 194 will dramatically expand access to child care through a $1B investment, which is long overdue. Your tweets and social shares let our leaders know there’s deep support for expanding child care access and affordability.

TWEET THIS

Without child care, parents can’t work to provide for their families. Parents need affordable, reliable care. We support #AB194 (@AsmReyes47) to expand #childcare for CA families. #EndChildPoverty @AD26Mathis @AsmStevenChoi68 @laurafriedman43 @AsmMikeGipson @BMaienschein

Click to tweet: https://ctt.ac/bXm5Y

***

Child care is life-changing. Without it, parents can’t go to school to build their careers. We support #AB194 (@AsmReyes47) to expand #childcare for CA families. @AD26Mathis @AsmStevenChoi68 @laurafriedman43 @AsmMikeGipson @BMaienschein #EndChildPoverty #PassThePlan

Click to tweet: https://ctt.ac/yJOW4

SUPPORTS FOR FOSTER YOUTH: AB 531

Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale)

Foster youth experience homelessness and housing instability at much higher rates than their peers. In one survey, over 35% of youth experienced homelessness while enrolled in extended foster care. California has expanded its transitional-age programs for foster youth aged 18-24 in recent years. Now we need to fulfill our promise to support them with AB 531: increased access to safe, stable housing.

GOOD NEWS: AB 531 will be adopted unanimously. Help us say THANK YOU to the members of the Assembly Human Services Committee. 

TWEET THIS

CA made a promise to #fosteryouth. THANK YOU @AsmReyes47 @AD26Mathis @AsmStevenChoi68 @laurafriedman43 @AsmMikeGipson @BMaienschein for helping keep it. #AB531 provides transitional housing support for foster youth as they become adults. #EndChildPoverty #PassThePlan

Click to tweet: https://ctt.ac/6yeET

 

 

 

End Child Poverty Plan: The Power of Promise Neighborhoods

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End Child Poverty in California/GRACE visit to Mission Promise Neighborhood/MEDA in San Francisco, 2019

The End Child Poverty Plan offers California a groundbreaking path to end deep child poverty for 450,000 kids and cut overall child poverty in half. Expanding California’s successful Promise Neighborhoods network is a key part of the plan.

What’s a Promise Neighborhood?

Promise Neighborhoods are powerful, family-centered networks rooted in communities. They use the power of collective impact–many programs and services working together–to support families in neighborhoods facing intense economic pressures. Promise Neighborhoods create easy entry points for services and break down red tape. They work to improve kids’ lives “from cradle to college to career,” focusing on the whole child, the whole family, and the whole community.

Promise Neighborhoods are:

  • Results driven
  • Place based (located in one specific geographic area, allowing for community strength)
  • Community powered
  • Equity focused

California currently has five Promise Neighborhoods (including our End Child Poverty in California partners Hayward Promise, Mission Promise, and YPI), and more are needed. This year Senator Ben Allen (D-Los Angeles) introduced Senate Bill 686, the California Promise Neighborhoods Act of 2019, that would expand this successful, community-centered model to more neighborhoods.

Find out more:

  1. Click here to find out more about SB 686.
  2. See a map of all Promise Neighborhoods from the California Promise Network.
  3. Read about the incredible impact of one Promise Neighborhood in the blog post below by our partners at the Mission Promise Neighborhood and MEDA (Mission Economic Development Agency) in San Francisco.

2019: THE MISSION AND BEYOND, FOR ALL CALIFORNIA KIDS

Photo from MEDA blog. Read the full, original blog post here. 

[…]

Our numbers [at Mission Promise Neighborhood] spoke for themselves. Over the six-plus years of our initiative, we used a shared case-management tool to connect 2,744 families with 5,590 different program referrals, ranging from housing and tenants’ rights to job readiness and health care. We were a collaborative of 20 community organizations, aligning our efforts to provide wraparound services to our students and families to work toward common goals. We broke through silos and shared data along the way. Together, we held ourselves accountable to turning the curve on community indicators.

MPN saw the following outcomes in our schools and with our partners:

  • Latino graduation rates increased from 63 percent to 88 percent
  • African American graduation rates increased from 46 percent to 93 percent
  • Ninety-four percent of elementary school families feel a sense belonging at their schools
  • Rate at which students change schools mid-year decreased from 13.9 percent to 7.9 percent
  • Eighty percent of all Latino 4-year olds in the Mission are now enrolled in preschool
  • Social emotional development scores for 3-year-olds jumped from 24 percent to 82 percent

These outcomes are even more impressive when you take into account the extreme pressures our families are experiencing: unprecedented levels of housing displacement, growing income inequality, all coupled with a national political climate translating to an assault on our community. Our collective work of providing families with coordinated access to mental health services, legal representation, asset building, housing services and more has helped MPN stabilize the Mission by using schools and affordable housing as community anchors.

The U.S. Department of Education grant is an affirmation of the work our partners have done. Our second iteration of MPN is focused on aligning with the City of San Francisco and its School District’s Beacon Initiative, expanding from four to nine schools in the Mission District, increasing our presence at early learning centers, developing parent leaders and reaching out to Family Child Care providers to give their families access to our network of supports. We estimate that we will now be serving approximately 8,000 children and their families in the Mission. With our collective-impact approach, MPN is on pace to have the scale of the solution match the scale of the challenge.

Joining with other Promise Neighborhoods
Other Promise Neighborhoods across the state have seen similar outcomes. Together, the five Promise Neighborhoods in California created a network called CPNN.  The results from the CPNN network, informed the development of a statewide plan to end child poverty. This plan includes a recommendation for the investment by the State of California into a total of 20 Promise Neighborhoods at $5 million per neighborhood, complemented by increased spending on child care, CalWORKS and much more. The plan estimates that the combination of these factors will result in benefits to state and local governments of more than $12 billion annually.

The plan lays out the seven unique characteristics of Promise Neighborhoods:

  1. Cradle-to-college-to-career continuum to move families out of poverty
  2. Place-based to focus on high-need geographies
  3. Collective impact: collaborate with partners to provide solutions at scale
  4. Align funding streams to achieve shared outcomes
  5. Results-driven, with a focus on population-level results
  6. Equity-focused and explicit in addressing disparities
  7. Community powered to address local needs and build on local strengths

Data sharing, collaboration, accountable to results, good for the economy: Promise Neighborhoods are the embodiment of what we call “good government.” MEDA will be calling for these pilot initiatives to move beyond being simply boutique operations and for them to become the normal way that government delivers services….

One community is not waiting for the State to approve funding for Promise Neighborhoods; instead, it is taking the lead in using its current budget to create Promise Neighborhoods. San Diego County has approved $4 million for a pilot Promise Neighborhood based on the success of its existing Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood. If the pilot is also successful, the plan is to create even more Promise Neighborhoods throughout that county.

Closer to home — and based on  the success of San Francisco’s Promise Neighborhood in the Mission District — we believe it’s time for the City and County of San Francisco to begin asking itself if other neighborhoods in the City would benefit from a Promise Neighborhood, particularly during this time of widening income inequality and displacement of working-class families and people of color.

From School Board to Mayor, State Superintendent of Schools to Governor, all the way to the House of Representatives, we are seeing inspiring new leaders take the reins of government. As they highlight the need for a more just society, now is the time for bold equity initiatives based on proven models. Perhaps 2020 will put us on pace to end child poverty.

After all, much can happen in a year!

***

Read more about the End Child Poverty Plan strategies here. Join in by signing on to the campaign for updates.

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