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.
Watch: Child poverty experts outline successful strategies
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | April 12, 2022 |
Earlier today, the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, GRACE & End Child Poverty California campaign, and the First Focus Campaign for Children hosted a …
Watch: A Conversation on Child & Youth Homelessness
Cara Baldari | March 24, 2022 |
Child and youth homelessness has been on the rise even before the pandemic. Pre-COVID, an estimated 1-in-41 school-age children were homeless, while young children — those under …
One year ago, we proved that we know how to end child poverty — we can’t stop now.
Aubrey Edwards-Luce, Cara Baldari, Michelle Dallafior | March 24, 2022 |
2021 was a landmark year for reducing child poverty in the United States. One-year improvements to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) included in the …
What’s at stake for kids if Congress doesn’t pass Build Back Better
Aubrey Edwards-Luce, Averi Pakulis, Cara Baldari, Carrie Fitzgerald, Conor Sasner, Elaine Dalpiaz, Haley Winter, Kathy Sacco, Michelle Dallafior, Miriam Abaya, Olivia Gomez, First Focus Campaign for Children | December 22, 2021 |
As negotiations have stalled and the fate of the Build Back Better Act hangs in the balance, children stand to lose access to monthly …
What Congress can do about hunger & homelessness this holiday season
Cara Baldari, Olivia Gomez, First Focus Campaign for Children | November 22, 2021 |
Heading into Thanksgiving, the negative economic reverberations of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be strongest for families with children who were already struggling to …
Build Back Better package is part of a larger fight to end child poverty in America
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | October 26, 2021 |
For the first time in generations, we are on the precipice of making serious and long-term progress to reduce our stubbornly high rate of …
Letter: Inform states of the vacatur of the 2019 Public Charge Final Rule
Cara Baldari, Miriam Abaya | September 30, 2021 |
On September 30th, First Focus on Children sent a letter to Secretary Fudge asking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to …
Fact Sheet: Child Poverty in the Wake of COVID-19
Cara Baldari | September 23, 2021 |
On September 14, 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau released national child poverty estimates for 2020, including both the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and the …
TANF turns 25: let’s maximize its reach to children in need
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children | August 17, 2021 |
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which before the recent expansion of the Child Tax …
Biden & Congress must support the nearly 4 million families with children facing housing instability
Cara Baldari, First Focus Campaign for Children, Micaela McConnell | July 22, 2021 |
Housing should be a fundamental right for all children and families in the United States — not a privilege. Yet, the economic and public …