In the spirit of holiday gift-giving, we’re proud to share some of the gifts we’ve delivered to Pennsylvania children and teens.

Our years of advocating for school funding are paying off as students in the lowest wealth districts are seeing their achievement levels rise. The state has allocated an additional $600 million investment in public schools  -most of which is going the schools with the greatest need.

Our work around lead poisoning prevention – we run the largest coalition in the state tackling this issue – has resulted in seven new communities passing stringent local ordinances to prevent kids from being poisoned by lead in their homes.

We were recruited by national and local organizations to chair a new statewide juvenile justice coalition to advance state legislation to help keep kids out of the system and reduce the rate of incarceration of these vulnerable youth.

We made dramatic progress on getting kids the mental health they need in school through Healing Centered Engagement, a program first introduced to the school district at our Big Thing conference last year. Sixteen high schools throughout the city have adopted the trauma healing, empowerment program, creating a powerful eco-system with behavioral health and out of school providers to address the very real needs of our kids.

Because you support Children First, your name goes on each one of these presents to children and teens. Your donation gave us the resources to deliver real policy change so every young person is healthy, happy, and successful. 

Thank you in advance for your generous support and for your consideration this year. You can donate online at www.childrenfirstpa.org/donate. 

From all de us a Children First, we wish you un safe y happy holiday!