Cara Baldari Vice President, Family Economics, Housing and Homelessness
Cara Baldari is the Vice President of Family Economics, Housing, and Homelessness at First Focus on Children. She has been with First Focus since 2011 and in this role, she leads the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, of which First Focus is a founding member.
In 2016 she helped to secure federal appropriations funding for a landmark consensus study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, released in February 2019.
Through her work, she advocates for a cross-sector set of investments to end child poverty and homelessness, including cash assistance, income supports, homeless assistance, and more.
Cara received a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and daughter.
Fact Sheet: U.S. Child Poverty Has Significantly Increased
Cara Baldari | September 18, 2023 |
On September 12, 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the United States saw a significant increase in child poverty, with 12.4 percent of …
Issue Brief: Why Children Need a National Renter Tax Credit
Cara Baldari, Michelle Dallafior | August 25, 2023 |
Background Children in households that receive housing vouchers or other forms of rental assistance benefit in a variety of ways. For example, vouchers reduce …
Congress Must Protect TANF in debt ceiling talks
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | May 16, 2023 |
Extensive research shows that tax credits and cash transfers influence positive parent-child interactions, improve child development outcomes, and have a bigger impact than any …
Policy Brief: The Harmful Consequences of Work Requirements and Other Obstacles to Services for Children and Families
Abbie Malloy, Abuko Estrada, Averi Pakulis, Cara Baldari, Michelle Dallafior | April 4, 2023 |
Each year, federal programs provide children with affordable health care, nutritious food, stable housing, and early childhood education. These programs not only lift millions …
30 years after FMLA, children & families need more
Averi Pakulis, Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | February 3, 2023 |
Thirty years ago, Congress passed, and the president signed into law, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which enabled some workers, for the …
Let’s ensure no child in the U.S. goes hungry and that every child has a safe and stable place to live
Cara Baldari, Olivia Gomez (Former Staff), First Focus Campaign for Children | November 15, 2022 |
This week marks Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, a time for action toward the goal of ensuring that no child in the U.S. goes …
Keeping up with progress: How the U.S. can follow the world’s lead on child poverty
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | November 7, 2022 |
The United States has historically had a higher level of child poverty than many other wealthy countries because we have failed to invest in …
Policy Brief: The Biden Administration Public Charge Regulation —What does it mean for children in immigrant families?
Cara Baldari, Miriam Abaya (Former Staff), Olivia Gomez (Former Staff) | October 26, 2022 |
Approximately 1-in-4 children in the United States has an immigrant parent, and children of immigrants are the fastest-growing group of children in the United …
How Congress can reduce economic hardship & stabilize families now
Aubrey Edwards-Luce, Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | October 19, 2022 |
We learned recently that improvements to the Child Tax Credit enacted in 2021 through the American Rescue Plan Act nearly cut our child poverty …
U.S. Child Poverty in 2021
Cara Baldari | September 21, 2022 |
On September 13, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the United States saw the lowest child poverty rate on record, with 5.2% of …