Meet Jalen and his mother Avril.

Jalen was poisoned by lead at the age of 12. 

It’s shameful that forty years after lead-based paint was banished from store shelves, lead’s toxic legacy lives on poisoning thousands of children, like Jalen, in Philadelphia.

That’s why we’re so proud that Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously for the ordinance PCCY championed to require that every rental unit in Philadelphia be certified as lead safe. This will make a real impact on preventing childhood lead poisoning. It was a tough fight and a huge victory that we can add to our 40-year history of wins for kids!

Our work goes beyond protecting children; we nurture them. We put arts teachers in our schools, convince lawmakers to increase funding for high-quality child care and PreK, and work with partners across the state to demand that our schools are adequately funded.

In our social media series, “Why PCCY”, Dr. Mark Goldstein said it best… “I can’t think of any organization in the state that has had a better impact on the lives of children.  I am happy to put my resources where they do the most good.”

#Giving星期二 at PCCY means our wins for kids continue because our successes are directly related to your support.  We put every dollar you donate to work building powerful coalitions that make wins like these possible:

• PCCY worked with more than 3,500 children in schools across the city that we funded through our 毕加索计划.
• 2,500 kids were able to see a doctor, get glasses or critically needed dental care through our 给孩子看视日 和 Smile Day programs and our 服务热线.
• PCCY helped win $25 million in new state PreK funds through our PreK for PA Campaign paving the way for more than 2,500 youngsters to start school ready to learn!
• Our PA学校的工作 coalition persuaded lawmakers to add $220 million for public schools across the Commonwealth.

What you may not know is that we don’t accept any funds from government sources so we can speak frankly and powerfully for children.  We do this work because children matter, and we need your continued support to achieve these and other goals.

On this #Giving星期二, or any day, please donate to PCCY at www.childrenfirstpa.org/donate.

Your gift will help us rev up our engines and fight for more kids like Jalen.