California has invested billions to lift children and families out of poverty. As the state looks to its next decade, advocates say California must not lose sight of its moral compass and north star agenda to end child poverty.

On October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, End Child Poverty California is celebrating nearly a decade of organizing, advocacy, and policy victories that have helped move California closer to ending child poverty—and calling on the state to make ending child poverty a permanent north star for its future.

The milestone comes nearly a decade after California took a historic step toward ending child poverty with the passage of AB 1520, the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act, in 2017. The legislation established the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force, which developed the End Child Poverty Plan, a comprehensive roadmap containing 43 evidence-based recommendations to reduce and ultimately end child poverty statewide.

Since then, families, young people, grassroots leaders, community organizations, advocates, and policymakers across California have helped advance full or partial progress on all 43 recommendations. Together, that progress has helped secure billions of dollars in public investments designed to strengthen economic security, food access, health care, child care, housing stability, educational opportunity, and long-term wealth for California’s children and families.

“Today we can reflect on the change that can happen when like-minded groups and people stand shoulder to shoulder to fight for California’s children. The meaningful  investments and public policy accomplishments that this coalition has tirelessly sought, and that many California policymakers embraced, have helped feed children during summer months, invested in their futures, and helped begin to tilt wealth inequality in the right direction,” said Shimica Gaskins, President & CEO of End Child Poverty California. “But as we face political headwinds and federal social safety net rollbacks, we cannot rest now. We will continue to work together to ensure that all children are healthy, nourished and secure.”

October 17 is a day to celebrate and recognize the grassroots leaders and communities who made this progress possible while highlighting what California can accomplish when children and families are placed at the center of public policy.

Among the coalition’s significant achievements over the past decade are:

• Reducing deep child poverty through increased CalWORKs grants, including lifting grants above 50 percent of the federal poverty level for most households;
• Establishing universal school meals for California students and implementing SUN Bucks, providing critical food assistance to children during the summer;
• Creating HOPE Accounts, California’s first and the nation’s largest state Baby Bonds program, to help build long-term financial security for children and youth;
• Reimagining CalWORKs through landmark reforms toward an anti-racist, trauma-informed, and family-centered program;
• Expanding community schools and place-based partnerships, including sustained state investment in Promise Neighborhoods;
• Making historic progress toward universal child care, including investments to better compensate child care providers and enable providers to collectively bargain;
• Creating the California Young Child Tax Credit and Foster Youth Tax Credit and expanding refundable state tax credits to ITIN holders;
• Launching state-funded Guaranteed Income programs, demonstrating California’s leadership in direct economic support for families;
• Advancing higher wages across fast food, health care, and other sectors to strengthen pathways out of poverty; and
• Making significant progress toward Health and Food for All, expanding access to essential health care and nutrition supports.

These victories were not achieved by any one organization or policy leader. They were built through years of organizing by families and communities, coalition advocacy, research, legislative leadership, and the determination of Californians who have insisted that poverty is not inevitable. 

California has demonstrated that bold public policy can change children’s lives. The next decade must be defined by the same ambition—ensuring that investments in children and families are protected, strengthened, and expanded until every child has the opportunity to thrive.

As California enters its next chapter, End Child Poverty California is calling on policymakers, gubernatorial candidates, and communities across the state to build on this legacy by responding with an IMAGINE blueprint that restores faith in our democratic process and hope for the children and families who call the Golden State home. 

The coalition’s vision is rooted in a simple premise: California should be a place where every child and family can be Secure, Nourished, Respected, Valued, and Free.

About End Child Poverty California

The End Child Poverty California coalition is a growing coalition of 178 anti-poverty organizations, allies, and advocates fighting for the resources and strategies to ensure ALL children can be healthy, housed and fed. where we vision a liberated future, free from systemic racism and poverty, in which all children experience childhoods of abundance, dignity, love, and opportunities to thrive.