Sharing Web Resources

Throughout the past week, I have been focusing on the Children’s Defense Fund website, at http://www.childrensdefense.org// . The focus of this organization is to ensure that all children are provided with a great start to life and to strive for equity for all children. Their mission, according to the website, states

"The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.” (Children's Defense Fund, 2011)

The organizations current focus is on policies that support the following.

• End child poverty;
• Guarantee every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services;
• Protect every child from abuse and neglect and connect them to caring permanent families;
• Provide high quality early childhood care and development programs for all children;
• Ensure every child can read at grade level by fourth grade and guarantee quality education through high school graduation; and
• Stop the criminalization of children at increasingly younger ages and invest in prevention and early intervention. (Children's Defense Fund, 2011)

It was difficult for me to pick one that was of particular interest, as all have such relevance to the field of early childhood. What I did enjoy, was that the website provided a brief overview of each of their most urgent missions, complete with statistics. I was amazed to learn just how many children, 8.1million children are uninsured and well over 500,000 pregnant women.
Additionally, I found the article, Homeless children: The Hard Times Generation, a news story about homeless children, focusing on a family living not more than 2 hours from me. The article was very heart wrenching, as the interviewed family, and other children openly discussed living in cars, their hunger, and their embarrassment. (CBS Interactive, 2011) The article definitely inspired me to investigate further, not only for additional information on the trend in my state, but is being done and can be done.

CBS Interactive. (2011, March 6). Homeless children: the hard times generation. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from 60 Minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Children's Defense Fund. (2011). About Us. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from Children's Defense Fund: http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/