Sharing Web Resources

The name of the organization that I selected is: Children’s Defense Fund found at the following link:

http://www.childrensdefense.org/index-1.html

The focus of this organization is to advocate nationwide for the health and safety of all children.  It is a non-profit organization that began 40 years ago.  The organization works with developing policies and programs that will help children who are involved in situations of poverty and abuse/neglect.  These programs ensure that children have access to quality education, health care, and a moral/spiritual foundation.  Although the Children’s Defense Fund deals with issues for all children, its main focus is on poverty-stricken, minority, or those with disabilities. 

One story that caught my eye from the monthly newsletter was about a program entitled “Freedom Schools”.  This program is dedicated to providing children with summer and after-school enrichment programs that will make them more motivated for learning.  Its focus is around an integrated reading program that is theme based and very hands on.  Each day is filled with a breakfast and a lunch so that the children are properly nourished and ready to learn.  They also provide connections to resources within the community with field trips.  They have afternoon activities such as music, dance, and culturally rich activities related to the theme.  This program sounds as if it provides a nice summer learning experience for kids where they are actively engaged in their learning. 

An issue/trend that caught my eye from the website, was an Article called “Keeping Families Together Initiative”.  The focus of this program is to keep children safe within their families while providing permanent housing and case management.  The article stressed how many families dealing with low-income situations are not able to properly care for their children.  Childcare services then get involved and the children are either taken out of the home and away from the parents, or are left in the home in an unhealthy environment.  The goal of this program is to create supportive housing for these families where they can be safe but also stay together and have resources available to them to help with the things they may need.  These communities help to decrease the amount of foster placements and institutional placements by keeping the families together and providing the parents with the tools necessary to provide what their children need.  The focus of this program is on the children because it wants to provide opportunities for the children to form positive social relationships while still being able to be actively involved in their education.  It provides options for parents and children that they currently do not have. 

I was not able to locate much recent information on demographics and diversity on this website yet.  The most current article I could find in regards to this topic was in 2008.  The information that I learned from this article was very interesting.  It was related to demographics then.  I learned that in 2008 minority children were actually the majority in 6 states plus the District of Columbia and in 33 states, the annual childcare cost for a preschooler is more than the annual tuition at a 4 year public college.  It also told me that every 33 seconds a child is born into poverty and that African American and Latino children are 3x as likely to be poor as white children.  From our reading this week we learned that American will soon be a place where the minorities will be the majorities and so cultural diversity is something that will affect all of our lives at some point in time.  I am going to keep searching on the website to see what more I can dig up about cultural diversity that isn’t quite so old, I know there has to be more…