Over the last year, First Focus has been hard at work making children and families the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. Below is the list of our most popular resources for child advocates, policy makers, and the media in 2014. See the top 10 resources of our partners at First Focus Campaign for Children.
1. Protecting Migrant Children Fleeing from Central America (Fact sheet): This fact sheet provides an overview of the unprecedented number children fleeing their home countries for the United States, the reasons for their mass migration, what happens to the children when they reach the border, efforts by our government to address the crisis, and our recommendations to ensure the safety and well-being of vulnerable children migrants.
2. 1,200 Organizations’ Letter to Congress: Act Now to Fund CHIP (Letter): 1,200 leading national, state, tribal, and local organizations concerned about the health and well-being of America’s children and pregnant women, wrote to Congressional leaders urging them to take action to provide continued funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
3. Children’s Budget 2014 (Reference book): Our signature publication, Children’s Budget 2014 is an annual and detailed guide to the 180 federal investments in children. These include traditional “children’s” initiatives, like education and child abuse and neglect prevention. They also include other investments that improve the lives of kids, like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps). Our presentation from the book’s corresponding Budget Summit is also available.
4. Rural Children Increasingly Rely on Medicaid and State Child Health Insurance Programs for Health Insurance (Report): This analysis shows that children in rural communities are more likely than their urban counterparts to get health care through the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.
5. Poverty and Child Neglect: What we Know and What we Need to Do (Blog post): Part of our blog series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, this post explores poverty as the single best predictor of child maltreatment and strategies aimed at helping lift families out of poverty and reduce risk for entry (or re-entry) into the child welfare system.
6. Detention: No Place for Children or Families (Blog post): Our Wendy Cervantes’ personal experience travelling to Artesia, New Mexico, to see for herself the conditions of immigrant families experiencing family detention. Mothers and their children were being hidden away and held in inappropriate detention facilities without access to adequate services, medical care, or legal counsel.
7. Why CHIP is Still Critical for Kids (Fact sheet): This paper highlights the Children’s Health Insurance Program’s (CHIP) role in reducing the numbers of uninsured children in America and discusses how CHIP fits into the reformed Affordable Care Act health care system.
8. The President’s 2015 Budget: A New Initiative to Improve Behavioral Health Outcomes for Foster Youth (Blog post): A blog post on the President’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal on new initiatives important to children, including one specifically aimed at improving behavioral health outcomes for foster children.
9. Comparing Affordability and Benefits Between CHIP and Qualified Health Plans in 35 States: Which Coverage is Best for Kids? (Fact sheet): This fact sheet summarizes a Wakely Consulting Group actuarial analysis comparing the coverage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act’s qualified health plans in 35 states. Almost without exception, CHIP is more affordable for families with significantly lower cost-sharing and it provides more comprehensive benefits for children, especially children with special health care needs.
10. The President’s 2015 Budget (Fact sheet): This analysis of President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget, highlighting notable increases, cuts, and new initiatives.