Build Common Ground with Us – Dec 22, 2022

Dec 22, 2022

We Build Common Ground and Get Uncommon Results

These days it seems that all politicians do is attack each other and little gets done.

At Children First, we find common ground to get UNCOMMON RESULTS.

You can read all about the uncommon results we achieved this year in our recent Annual Report, but here are the highlights:

LARGEST INCREASE in funding for public schools ever
BIGGEST BUMP in state funding for pre-k ever
HISTORIC state-funded wage increase for child care staff
AMBITIOUS state law passed to improve reading instruction
CRITICALLY NEEDED funding to protect children from lead poisoning

We didn’t do it alone.

We are proud to work with parents and students who rely on Children First’s unrelenting efforts to improve children’s lives. They are front and center in our work, sharing their real-life experiences to make the case for urgent action.

Here’s what Cintia, a parent of three young children, told her lawmakers,

“If we want to save our democracy, the state must invest in the schools that educate my children, so they have a stake in preserving it!”

The powerful message that Cintia and other parents delivered with the help of Children First broke through.

The state legislature invested nearly $1.2 billion for our kids.

That sounds like a lot but still too many children languish in underfunded schools, start school without pre-k, and still thousands more cannot get the health care they need.

Next year we need to do much more, and we hope we can count on your continued support to make that happen.

Our big wins happen because we have supporters like you who make it possible for us to not take “no” for an answer. We are able to use every tool at our disposal to get both Republicans and Democrats to line up behind proven solutions that make the lives of children better.

Please donate $25, $50 or even $100 today to support our work to build common ground…and make sure we get even more uncommon results in the year ahead.

Tell Governor-elect Shapiro that children’s earliest years must be a priority in his new administration, like perinatal care, home visiting, child care, pre-k, and children’s health.
Sign the petition here.

In every month of 2022, more than 75% of parents looking for child care reported difficulty finding any kind of care while more than half of providers struggled to retain and recruit staff, according to new national data.

Children, parents, teens, the economy are all still reeling from COVID.

Join Children First and United Way of Bucks County as we host a panel of Bucks County leaders and discuss what must happen to start the recovery.

The School District of Philadelphia will
give a prize to every third grader who
reads 20 books in the next 20 weeks.“Literacy is the foundation of all
learning, which is why proficient
reading by the end of third grade is so
critical,” Superintendent Tony Watlington said.