A shared endeavor: Mid-session update for kids and youth
The journey of childhood is a shared one, occurring across multiple contexts and over the course of many years. Each child’s lived experience plays out against a larger tapestry of values, systems, and structures that in turn translate into the kind of investment (or disinvestment) that propels or limits their ability to thrive. In this landscape, Voices builds our engagement around an awareness that real systems change cannot be driven by strength alone. We recognize that our advocacy is part of a chorus of individuals, families, and communities working toward an equitable and just future for children and youth. And although the scale of need in this moment may be significant, by choosing to approach our individual efforts as elements of an interconnected whole, the scale of change we can effect becomes amplified.
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Report: Vermont Ranks Fourth in Child Well-Being, but Inaccessible, Unaffordable Child Care Pushes Parents to the Breaking Point
Vermont ranks fourth in child well-being, according to the 2023 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent household data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing how children and families are faring. Despite the fourth place ranking, the report also shows that our country’s lack of affordable and accessible child care short-changes children and causes parents in Vermont to change or even quit their jobs, while those who can find care are paying dearly for it. These child care challenges cost the American economy billions of dollars a year and stymie women professionally.
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VT Leg Wrap-up: child well-being at the close of the session
When it comes to creating structures that center and support impacted communities, the path we choose to take is frequently as important as where we end up. This session created enormous opportunities for child and family well-being in Vermont. In this moment, there are many reasons to celebrate. At the same time, much remains uncertain–from the bills that have passed, to the impact of the legislative path taken to get here, and ultimately whether we will be able to come together to address the needs of the nearly 600 children in our state at risk of becoming unhoused and find a path forward. We also are taking this moment to attend to what has not happened- the larger gaps that remain for children and families, and the work that lies ahead for advocates and champions of child, youth, and family well-being in Vermont.
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Reach Up(Date) 2024: Real Change For Children Experiencing Extreme Poverty
Child poverty is a policy choice. Income support programs like Reach Up can be powerful anti-poverty tools, but if they are not adequately funded, they can hold families in poverty, which we know is harmful to children. Reach Up is difficult to explain and even more difficult to navigate. As a result, the level of extreme deprivation perpetuated by its underfunding frequently remains obscured. This update is intended to support champions like you in seeing through these complex systems in order to better understand the daily reality of families in Vermont, and we hope you’ll take a few minutes to join us.
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Cash Matters.
Reach Up cash assistance. Direct cash transfers for former foster youth. State Child Tax Credit. If you are sensing a theme throughout our recent lunchtime discussions, that’s because there is one. Cash matters. Every family needs the ability to make decisions about their own needs, and on a foundational level this means access to resources, which are frequently most effective for families when they arrive in the form of cash.
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Time for a doughnut? Children's economic security and the KIDS COUNT Data Book rankings
The information in this year’s KIDS COUNT Data Book is important because even without the benefit of data from the last two years, our lens on child well-being in Vermont is shaped by what has happened since. The inequities that exist today did not emerge overnight, they have been with us all along.
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Report shows mental health crisis among children in Vermont despite high ranking for child well-being
Vermont ranks 5th in child well-being, according to the 2022 KIDS COUNT® Data Book. However, children in Vermont and across America are in the midst of a mental health crisis, struggling with anxiety and depression at unprecedented levels.
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Journeying through histories of Community Schools
While the implementation of community schools as a strategy to combat inequity may be fairly new in Vermont, their long history in the United States offers a starting point to critically examine what the movement might have in store for us here. Check out Part 2 of our Education Equity Series!
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Ed Equity Series: Moving toward equity through Community Schools
We believe there exists a strong commitment to confronting and dismantling inequities, making connections between existing education policies, and building together public schools where every young person has what they need to learn and thrive. For us, the community schools framework is a comprehensive strategy within which to do so.
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2022 Legislative Wrap Up: Important progress for kids and families
Alternately exciting, frustrating, overwhelming, and hopeful, this session left us with a lot to reflect on as an organization. As the session comes to a close, we are acknowledging the elements that were transformational, and those that were clearly not sustainable, for both legislators and advocates alike.
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On Funding Vermont's Social Safety Net for Children and Families and Why It Matters
Our goal at Voices is to help transform systems that perpetuate inequity and direct resources where they can do the most good. Income support programs like Reach Up can be powerful anti-poverty tools, but if they are not adequately funded, they can serve to hold families in a state of hardship that we know is harmful to children.
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Mid-Session Legislative Roundup
Now that the dust from crossover has settled, we’re taking stock of where things stand as we consider the work that lies ahead for the duration of the session and beyond. In addition to reviewing the progress and content of each bill, we’ve included opportunities to improve the equity of each. Join our efforts by reading these important updates about our work and ways to make change happen for kids and families.
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The expanded Child Tax Credit: A game-changing investment for kids and families
Today, advance payments of the Child Tax Credit will start to arrive for most families with children across the country. This game-changing investment allocates money to those who need it the most, a step that fixes a persistent gap in the previous version of the Child Tax Credit and has the potential to cut child poverty in this country in half.
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2021 KIDS COUNT Data Book release shows progress for kids in Vermont, but racial disparities remain
Thanks to gradual improvements in economic well-being and health, Vermont was in a strong position to support children and youth leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, but work is still needed to ensure a path toward an equitable recovery. According to the 2021 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, Vermont ranked fourth among states for overall child well-being, a slight improvement from the year previous and a reflection of the state’s commitment to progressing toward a comprehensive social safety net.
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2021 Legislative Review
When it comes to supporting the lives of children and youth in Vermont, there are real reasons to celebrate. What follows is a rundown of policy priorities and emergent issues for Voices advocacy that either passed or made some amount of meaningful progress during the 2021 legislative session.
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Voices Spring Legislative Update
Voices has been busy this session in the legislature. Whether we’re advocating for an Office of Child, Youth, and Family Advocate, weighing in on unemployment benefits for families with kids, or helping to center equity in the Community Schools bill, we’re always fighting to ensure that the needs of kids and families are heard and reflected in Vermont policy. Read on for important updates about our work and ways for you to get involved.
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‘Essential business’ means meeting the needs of all Vermonters by Amy Brady
When a group of business lobbyists captures the headline of one of Vermont’s publications just before the session directing the Legislature to operate in a certain way – we should all pause. It is true that we need an economy that works for the people — one that meets basic needs. This cannot happen solely with economic recovery. It requires economic reform.
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Voices 2021 Legislative Priorities: Crossover Update
The crossover deadline in the legislature is typically the last day for a bill to be voted on and passed by the chamber in which it is introduced in order for it to continue on and be considered by the opposite legislative body, although exemptions can be made. Although crossover is a meaningful point in the legislative process, passage out of a chamber doesn't guarantee that a bill will make it into law. It is also a time for advocates to take stock of the progress of our legislative priorities and consider the work that lies ahead for the duration of the session and beyond.
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Ignore this line: Looking beyond the Official Poverty Rate
In 1964, a government economist named Mollie Orshansky multiplied the estimated cost of a household’s most basic food budget (per USDA estimates) by 3 (having noticed that most households were spending about three times the cost of food on their overall expenses) and the Federal Poverty Threshold was created. Despite the many changes that have shifted the economic landscape in the past 58 or so years, this is still how we calculate the Official Poverty Rate. It’s a longstanding approach, with good data continuity, but with very little basis in reality anymore.
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Statement on the violence at the U.S. Capitol
Last week, a violent mob of armed insurrectionists attempted to overtake the U.S. Capitol and overturn the lawful results of the presidential election. The aggressive white terrorism at the core of this act, rooted in a history of oppressive violence and white supremacy as old as our country, has been intentionally cultivated at the highest levels of our government over the past 4 years. Read our full statement.
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