Great News! The Speaker’s bill, H.B. 5360 – An Act Concerning Children in the Recession passed in the House Tuesday night by a 137-7 vote. Of the 7 no votes, one was a Democrat, Rep. Shawn Johnston. Many Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the bill. The fact that Republicans voted in favor of this bill is significant and shows widespread recognition of the importance to protect children from the ravaging impact of the recession.
The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote. The session ends May 5 so it is imperative that H.B. 5360 comes up for a vote in the Senate as quickly as possible!
Take Action!
Call your Senator and ask that H.B. 5360 be taken up on the Senate floor for a vote. Ask your Senator to talk with Senate Leadership about the critical importance of passing this bill in the Senate. If you have time, calling Senate President Don Williams and Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney would be very helpful!
Senate Democrats: 860-240-8600 or 800-842-1420
Senate Republicans: 860-240-8800 or 800-842-1421
Background and Summary of the Bill
In response to the deep recession, Speaker of the House Chris Donovan created a Task Force on Children in the Recession. The Task Force is co-chaired by Representatives Diana Urban and Karen Jarmoc; both have worked very hard and provided compelling arguments tonight on the House Floor.
The Task Force has met frequently since January to listen to experts on issues such as child care, nutrition, housing, health care, and education and job training. The Task Force held public hearings around the state to hear from Connecticut’s residents who are struggling to make ends meet in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Based on the findings, H.B. 5360 was drafted and heard before three committees. It passed in the Select Committee on Children, 9-3, on a party line vote. The bill passed in the Human Services Committee 13-6, with one Democrat Rep. Shawn Johnston in opposition. It then passed out of the Appropriations Committee, 37-13, on a party line vote.
The bill does many things that will help children and families. Below are highlights of components of the bill:
- Establishes a Leadership Team as a subcommittee of the state’s Child Poverty and Prevention Council to coordinate and implement an “emergency response” that mitigates the long-term impact of the recession on children;
- Requires DSS to develop a plan for comprehensive state services with client-friendly timelines and a streamlined reapplication requirement;
- Requires DSS to provide 30-day notice to providers and parents about a change ineligibility criteria under the Care 4 Kids program;
- Makes attending a two- of four-year degree program an approved work activity under the TANF program after the unemployment rate exceeds 8 percent for the preceding three months;
- Requires SDE to implement a child nutrition outreach program to increase participation in the School Breakfast Program, federal Summer Food Service Program, and the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program;
- Requires DSS to maximize federal funding through the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund;
- Requires DSS, in consultation with DCF, SDE, DHE and DECD, to impede homelessness of children in crisis;
- Requires DPH, in consultation with SDE and DSS, to reduce the incidence of low birth-weight babies;
- Requires DSS, SDE, and DPH to annually complete a Results-Based Accountability report card indicating progress in implementing provisions of the bill.
Act Now!
Support children's advocacy. Contact your Senator and urge for passage of H.B. 5360 in the Senate!
Senate Democrats: 860-240-8600 or 800-842-1420
Senate Republicans: 860-240-8800 or 800-842-1421
Inspire Change, is a call to action for all of us to change the way we think about the prevention of child abuse and neglect and focus on actions that protect children right from the start, so child abuse and neglect never occur.
April is National Child Abuse Prevention month. We are asking you to make a choice to join us in finding the spirit and strength to end the cycle of child abuse in Connecticut. We are asking all our faith-based partners to join each other and us in offering a special prayer during your services the second weekend in April.
Our appeal is that, together the members of all 240 plus faith communities in covenants with Covenant to Care for Children be given the strength to end the cycle of child abuse; that we be given the wisdom to support the children and their families in ways that make them stronger and healthier; that our legislators open their hearts and minds to the plight of the most helpless of our citizens; that everyone in Connecticut open their eyes and spirits to see the vulnerability of our children.
Imagine the power of more than 240 faith communities offering a single prayer to end child abuse!”
Visit the Child Assault Prevention Training Page to download and use our 2010 resource materials to help build awareness >>
As you know, there is currently a national debate about healthcare reform taking place across the country. This is an important debate and one that nonprofits must participate in. Healthcare reform is too important of an issue for both our employees and consumers, who cannot afford for us to be silent.
Please take a moment to read this recent article from the New York Times - Nonprofit Groups Upset at Exclusion From Health Bills. Tim Delaney, President and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, is quoted discussing meetings that members had with federal lawmakers in Washington, DC recently (which CT Nonprofits' Executive Director Ron Cretaro and Public Policy Director Liza Andrews participated in) where congressional staff were consistently alluding to the fact that they never really "thought about nonprofits as employers before." This is a problem that puts nonprofit providers at serious risk of being excluded from the final piece of legislation.
Last week, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) released a modified chairman's mark of health reform legislation that would extend eligibility for small business tax credits to 501(c)(3) tax-exempt employers by permitting nonprofits to apply modified credits to certain payroll taxes. There also appears to be movement in the House with some members circulating a letter asking for support among colleagues to include nonprofits in the health reform package.
Postive steps are taking place and we must continue our advocacy. We need to ensure a strong and unified voice that is heard clearly by our elected officials! As Michael Weeks from the Massachusetts Providers Council recently noted, "Collectively, we should be compelled to inject ourselves into the debate. Ethically, to do nothing is to do harm."
Please take a moment to send your U.S. Senator and Representative an email asking them to include nonprofits in their efforts around healthcare reform.
Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/ctnonprofits36794157.aspx
Caryl Hallberg, Executive Director
challberg@covenanttocare.org
www.covenanttocare.org
Covenant to Care for Children, Inc
120 Mountain Ave.
Bloomfield, CT 06002-5003
860-243-1806 phone
860-243-0100 fax
@covnant2care
@fulfilment
www.myspace.com/covenanttocare
September 11, 2009
The CT budget was voted on and passed by the legislature and they listened to your concerns about funding for Covenant to Care for Children. Our line item remains in the budget. We will never know if a Rell signed budget would have included CCC but we were not on the list of line item vetoes the Governor had planned.
We heard from many of the legislators you contacted and many of you sent us the replies you received from them. The support and understanding was there in almost every reply and we had some strong advocates in the legislative body on both sides of the political spectrum.
This would not have happened without you speaking up. It was your actions and repeated calls, emails and letters that made the difference. You heard our plea and got active, you organized and you did outreach within your community and circle of friends.
I know you must have gotten tired of hearing from me, asking again and again for your action but it was all about you. Your elected representatives really do listen. Bringing your voice to the conversation by expressing your thoughts clearly and politely works miracles.
You did it - and we thank you, and on behalf of the tens of thousands of children we serve each year, I thank you. I also thank you at a very personal level for your understanding, support and amazing effort.
My promise to you is that I will keep talking to our elected leadership, explaining who our volunteers and supporters are and the amazing benefits you provide to the children of Connecticut. I promise that with your continued support CCC will find a way to provide for every child that comes to us in need, that we will together change the present and the future for the better.
Thank you – you did it.
August 20, 2009 - 02:15 pm
The children we serve cannot get what they need from any other source. The social workers that make requests to us are not just from DCF but from nonprofits throughout the state of Connecticut.
We have already approached last year’s epic levels of need for back-to-school uniforms and the requests just keep coming.
School is two weeks away and we have around 300 outstanding requests for backpacks stuffed with school supplies!
If your civic, faith, or business group is looking for a service project please consider the bookbag project – you’ll find the list of bag contents on our webpage
www.covenanttocare.org/backpacks.shtml
Please if you are doing or have done a bookbag project get the finished product to our Bloomfield office as soon as possible!
If you could help support the back-to-school effort with a cash donation this is the moment. We will need to augment the bags produced by our volunteers with bags we purchase and fill with school supplies. The cost of one school outfit is $50.00. Please make an immediate donation to help us with this effort.
Last year school had been in session two weeks before we had gotten every child into school with the right clothes and supplies. Our children can’t wait for the adult issues of budgets and economic downturns to be resolved. Their needs are immediate and critical to their tomorrow.
Please help. Thank you so very much.
August 20, 2009 - 1:45 pm
Connecticut is one of two states still without a budget. Over this very long period of budget planning we have asked you to write or call your state legislator, the CT political leadership, and Governor Rell’s office. We must ask you to do another push of emails and phone calls. Please do not hesitate! Focus on the Governor’s office please so they understand the situation but do not forget the leaders of the Democratic Caucus and the Republican Caucus. Your voice can make the difference for 27,000 children. I know you are weary of this message, I promise you I am weary of sending it to you with this call for action, but it is the only way we can communicate the importance of what we do and the support behind it. Please email or call right now!
The Office of Fiscal Analysis has confirmed that the Appropriations Committee is still recommending funding in the amount of $166K for Covenant to Care for Children. This still represents a $6.80 return on every dollar the state provides CCC. It still represents a $39 million dollar savings to the state because so much of what we do allows families to stay together or reunite; we remove the children from the state rolls.
The Governor, however, has continued her proposal to eliminate funding to Covenant to Care for Children.
I cannot say where negotiations stand now and whether or not Democrats are agreeing to any cuts above what they proposed in July (of which CCC were not included). We must keep the pressure on legislators to continue funding CCC and on the Governor expressing your disappointment that she has chosen not to fund CCC and what that means for our community and those we serve.
Please visit our website (see links below) to learn more and to communicate with the legislative leaders, Rell’s office and your representatives. We are already approaching last year's back-to-school clothes requests and if you remember those requests increased 1500% last year. We have around 300 outstanding requests for back-to school backpacks. Please do not wait another moment, take action now and spread the word so others take action.
We will succeed in this only if we have your help! The children cannot wait.
May 29, 2009 - 11:00 AM
Covenant to Care for Children has been cut from this budget, see page 35. Timing is very tight. Please mobilize again to all legislators. Please write letters to the editor and contact all media with whom you have a personal relationship. You will be receiving our email blasts with information detailing our contributions to the state of Connecticut and its children. Please use these as your talking points. Please ask everyone you know to help with this effort. The only way we will stay in the budget is if we can show the support of the people.
See Details of Budget Proposal
Email addresses for legislators can be found at the following links:
Senate
House
Governor M. Jodi Rell
Executive Office of the Governor
State Capitol
210 Capitol Avenue Hartford, Connecticut 06106
Telephone
Greater Hartford Area: 860-566-4840
Toll Free: 800-406-1527
TDD: 860-524-7397
E-Mail
Suggested Text to Email Legislators
Here is a recent letter of support.
Here are other sample letters of support.
Please feel free to use as your own or modify.
Dear Representative/Senator _______________:
Covenant to Care for Children (CCC) is a non-profit that serves abused and underprivileged children in the state, by providing such essential items as beds and clothing to respond their most basic and essential needs.
I am writing to voice my opposition to Governor Rell's most recent budget proposal, which call for the elimination of CCC as a DCF budget line item. While I understand that a number of difficult and painful decisions must be made in order to balance the budget in these troubled economic times, I implore you to oppose this particular budget cut, which will harm one of our neediest and most helpless populations of citizens -- children.
CCC's DCF contract accounts for roughly 40% of its operating budget and pays the salaries of the program coordinators for CCC's Adopt a Social Worker program, which allows donations from the general public to go toward the goods and services for the over 25,000 children served every year by CCC. Moreover, the state funds CCC receives represent a sound investment of our tax dollars, since for every dollar received from the state, CCC is able to return $6.80 in goods and services to the children of Connecticut.
Please support CCC and oppose the elimination of its state funding.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Name and Address
May 2009
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CCC is a 21 year old statewide nonprofit agency.
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Our total budget is $930,080 for FY 09 (July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009).
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CCC has 13 staff positions: 12 full-time, one part-time.
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Statistics are for FY 08, unless otherwise noted.
247 faith and community based organizations and businesses have covenants or are doing special projects through CCC.
1900 faith and community based organizations, and businesses are on our mailing list.
We serve the entire state of Connecticut.
FY 08, 25,000 children statewide received basic necessities through CCC's network of faith and community based organizations, volunteers, individual donors and businesses.
FY 08, 64% of children served were on DCF caseload. In the first two quarters of FY 09, the percentage has increased to 79%.
2567 active volunteers statewide.
FY 08, CCC received $272,727 from DCF and provided donated goods and services totaling $1,855,099 to children and families.
For each $1 received from the state, $6.80 was returned to the state in goods and services.
Adopt A Social Worker - Faith-based organizations adopt a DCF caseworker and sign a covenant to provide the material goods needed by the children and caregivers in the social worker's caseload. In FY 08, 23,738 children were served by this program. This program has four full-time staff people.
Critical Goods Delivery Program responds to the needs of families who are at risk of losing their children or who are being reunified with their children. In FY08, 360 children were served in this program. Donations of beds, cribs, and other household items are picked up and delivered to families to satisfy the requirements for getting back or keeping their children. The program has one full time staff person.
Crisis Food Support Program (in partnership with Asylum Hill Congregational Church) is a program for delivering fresh and staple foods for one-time emergencies in families with children in Hartford. 200 children and 123 adults received assistance in FY 08.
Mentoring Program - a best practices one-on-one mentoring program, faith-based organizations act as host sites for the program and provide volunteers who coordinate the program. In FY 08, 21 teenagers were matched with mentors in our Reach One Youth Project. This program is critical for teens who have no positive role models, are without familial connections, and are at risk or of becoming pregnant or who have a child.
My Mentor and Me Project provides mentors for children who have an incarcerated parent. In FY 08, 27 youth were matched with mentors.
Children's Enrichment Fund responds to unusual requests for children and youth. Social workers can request these funds to cover needs of children that are not met by State Government departments, other agencies, or our other CCC programs. Examples are camp experiences, haircuts, lessons, tutoring, special books, or other aids. More than 500 children are served each year by this program.
Please help us assure Covenant to Care for Children's ability to meet the most basic needs of Connecticut's children by supporting the ongoing level of funding through the DCF budget.
Thank you,
Caryl Hallberg, Executive Director
Covenant to Care for Children, Inc.
April 29, 2009
With the season changing and headlines in the news focused on health and safety, I thought I would take this time as an opportunity to talk about preparedness and prevention of emergencies.
Below are links to some files called “potty posters” developed in California by an innovative team of disaster preparedness folk, CARD of Alameda.
The Potty Training Initiative (also known as the Captive Audience Program) spreads skills and awareness by placing simple posters wherever people spend time. Please feel free to reproduce and post these posters for your faith-based organization, school or business. I recommend lamination or putting them inside a plastic sleeve to prolong their useful life. Suggested placements are inside restroom stall doors, above sinks, or in waiting rooms. You could also include them in your mailings to clients and volunteers. To learn more about emergency preparedness made simple visit www.cardcanhelp.org.
I have also attached a basic emergency kit list to use in preparing your family. Don’t forget special needs for pets and children.
Let’s all of us take this first 10 days of May to make sure we are doing our part to prepare for emergencies and check our habits to ensure everyone’s health and safety for the coming year.
The best way for us to serve our children is to begin by keeping ourselves healthy and safe and teaching our children good habits.
Disaster Supply List (pdf)
Flu Poster (pdf)
Sneeze Poster (pdf)
Wash Hands Poster (pdf)
March 11, 2009
According to Anne Mitchell, President of Early Childhood Research, it will take three to five years after it is over for a child to recover from the effects of the current economic depression. Before the budget crisis and the economic failures 1 in 10 children in Connecticut lived below the poverty line.
Everyone concerned with child welfare and education is in conversation, but I worry that our children are not able to wait for DC leadership to be in place, for CT government to come to agreement, or for school systems to succeed or nonprofits to expand their programs.
There is a lot to hope for in the stimulus plan and I urge you to look at Senator Dodd’s Resource Guide to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We here in Connecticut have opportunities if we act with awareness and strategy.
Covenant to Care for Children is actively monitoring these conversations and where we can we are participating. We will do all we can to advocate for Results Based Accountability, strategic thinking, and programs and spending that maximize the positive impact on our children.
Meanwhile we will keep saying “yes” to our children as requests for their basic needs come to us. Our wonderful volunteers and donors will continue to make it possible.
As we move through these difficult times I am keeping my eyes open for child abuse prevention activities and tools parents, caregivers and mentors can use to minimize the fear of the future we may collectively communicate to our children. It is crucial as we celebrate April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month that we understand that the added economic stressors we are all feeling contribute to the possibility of child abuse and neglect. We must offer respite and support to our friends and neighbors whenever possible to help each other through and to protect our children.
We, as adults, need to learn to monitor our speech and the impact of messaging regarding the economy that our children experience. Please visit www.aap.org/disasters/economy.cfm for a wonderful tool in working with your kids during this time.
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