A theologian friend shared the story of taking her car to a Jiffy Lube for servicing. Not having anything to read, she picked up a manual on the coffee table about boating. A chapter on the rules for what happens when boats encounter one another on the open sea described...

In these challenging economic times, when so many are struggling to keep their heads above water, life is toughest for children in broken families at the low end of the income scale. Yet despite struggling to live under the worst conditions, there are extraordinary young people who draw upon their...

Thanksgiving is a time when many Americans pause to be grateful for all we have. In the current economic downturn when the gap between rich and poor is at the highest level since the Great Depression and the unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, millions of our neighbors, including many families...

On November 4, 2009, about 4,000 babies in strollers, young children, parents, youths, teachers, child care providers, doctors, and grandparents rallied and strolled all around our U.S. Capitol. We told Congress that millions of children must not be left worse off after health reform and that the effective and cost-effective...

Pending health reform bills would make millions of children worse off after health reform than they are now. This must not happen. The House bill eliminates the successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 2013 and would move millions of children who had been in CHIP to a completely new,...

What is a child's life worth? What is a child's health worth? What is a child's spirit, battered by preventable suffering and chronic disease, worth? What are a child's hope and ability to learn worth? What are the true values of the world's richest nation that is so spiritually poor...

In 1931, Grace Abbott, the Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, gave a speech about her long and frustrating workdays in our nation's capital trying to advocate for children's needs. She said she felt all alone standing with her baby carriage on the sidewalk watching a great traffic jam moving...

For many people of faith who care about children's needs, the third weekend of October is a special celebration. Each year, on this weekend, thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques and temples across the country hold special worship services, education programs and advocacy activities to engage people of faith in the...

McKinsey & Company is one of the leading management consulting companies in the world, so when they turn their attention to analyzing a problem, people listen. Recently, McKinsey's Social Sector Office has been studying a crisis affecting America's children that has enormous repercussions for our nation. In April, they released...

I'm deeply disturbed that after a decade of decline, the number of firearm deaths among children and youths has increased for the second year in a row. Our 2009 "Protect Children, Not Guns" report released in September reveals that almost nine children and teens die from gunfire every day--one child...

Two-year-old Case Hogan is a bright, happy child with a sunshine smile who is in a desperate race against a degenerative disease that is causing the gradual deterioration of his body. A medical diagnosis revealed that Case has Hunters Syndrome, also known as MPS II. This rare, incurable genetic disorder...

In April 2005, a group of scholars at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services published a policy brief on "National Security and U.S. Child Health Policy: The Origins and Continuing Role of Medicaid and EPSDT." (.pdf) The Department of Health Policy chair, Dr. Sara...

Nationally, one in three Black boys and one in six Latino boys born in 2001 are at risk of going to prison during their lifetimes. Although boys are more than five times as likely to be incarcerated as girls, the number of girls in the juvenile justice system is significant...

"Dear President Obama: My name is Jade Windon, 7th grade student at McDonogh 42 Charter School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. President, I write to you expressing how many of our lives continue to be affected today by the storm that happened almost four years ago. Hurricane Katrina devastated the...

In June, Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy released "The Economic Impact of Uninsured Children on America," a new report whose bottom line is that extending health insurance coverage to all children in the United States would be relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of...

As a child, Devante Johnson's future seemed to be full of promise. He made excellent grades in school and was a help around the house. His mother, Tamika Scott, worked hard, managing to raise three boys while pursuing a career, buying a house and completing a college degree. Mrs. Scott...

In all of the recent debate over who deserves access to health care in our wealthy country, one often forgotten fact is that this is one more area where black children and other children of color have always been left behind. Of the nine million uninsured children in America, minority...

Eleven-year-old Ronald has just finished the fourth grade at his New Orleans elementary school. During the school year he was enrolled in an after-school Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools^® program, which seeks to help children fall in love with reading, increase their self-esteem, and develop more positive attitudes...

As legislators on Capitol Hill make crucial decisions right now to reform America's broken health care system, thousands of children across the country raised their voices demanding health coverage for all children during the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® annual National Day of Social Action. A summer literacy enrichment...

As Congress drafts legislation to reform America's health care system, our senators and representatives must consider the impact of the unjust lottery of geography on children like Carlos Sanchez (not his real name). For five years, Carlos, 15, received pediatric care at the Upper Cardozo Health Center, one of the...