Children Now

Are You Pro-Kid®? Support The Children’s Movement of California ®!

In the Bay Area, one of the most affluent regions in the country, tens of thousands of kids lack the basic building blocks of success, including high-quality early learning experiences, rigorous and enriching K-12 academics, and access to critical health care services.  Kids in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco face extreme income inequality, with over 93,000 kids living in poverty. Some families have access to many high-quality services and opportunities, while others have absolutely nothing. For example, nearly half of all 3- and 4-year-olds in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties aren’t attending preschool, over a third of 7th grade students in San Francisco County are not proficient in math, and in San Benito County nearly half of foster youth have not visited a doctor in a year. These outcomes are unacceptable.

Everyone cares about kids, so why aren’t our kids doing better? The answer is that the strong support for children’s well-being has been too diffuse to have a powerful impact on public policymaking, which is the fastest, most efficient way to improve children’s lives.

There are literally thousands of organizations in the Bay Area that care about the wellbeing of children in our community. Current efforts and support for kids have been far too disjointed to have the impact they should on state and local policymaking. The Children’s Movement model is a game changer.

The Children’s Movement harnesses the massive public support that exists for children, by working with all the organizations and individuals who want to make kids our state’s #1 priority. The Movement has been the voice for kids in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco when there was no one else to speak for them.

So far, over 300 Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito and San Francisco organizations have already joined the Movement and are making a real impact in our community. The Movement currently represents a grassroots network of 1,500 (and counting) business, education, parent, civil rights, faith- and community-based organizations, as well as thousands of individuals. All these Pro-Kid® supporters can be effectively mobilized to represent children’s interests across a variety of important policy issues.

Last year Children Now and Movement members encouraged state leadership to do the right thing and expand health coverage to all children, regardless of immigration status, increase funding for quality early childhood programs, ensured the state’s new education standards are on track in California,  and helped to triple former foster youth enrollment  in health coverage. With your support, The Movement can do more.

By making a tax-deductible contribution, you can help make an impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Silicon Valley and San Francisco kids.

And don’t forget to join The Children’s Movement! It’s easy and free to join, and simply means you’ll be publicly identified as “Pro-Kid” and wanting children prioritized in policymaking. Join today at http://prokid.info/cn-join.