Heading into a budget season with a $500 million surplus, we call on the District’s leaders to build a budget that puts children and youth first.

We co-authored this opinion editorial published by the DC Line with our colleagues at the Children's Law Center, School Justice Project, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, PAVE, DC Alliance of Youth Advocates and Georgetown Juvenile Justice Initiative to urge Mayor Bowser to make three necessary investments for all of our children.

I'm so pleased to announce Rachel Metz as DC Action's Research and Data Manager. In this role, Rachel works to collect, analyze, and share data that can help advocates understand and address issues facing DC's kids and youth, particularly kids and youth of color. She produces the DC KIDS COUNT suite of publications and online data center, DC Action’s interactive data tools, as well as translating the national KIDS COUNT press releases, annual reports, and other publications into the DC context.

I'm thrilled to welcome Hanh Truong as our Communications Intern. She is a senior at the University of California Irvine majoring in Literary Journalism with a minor in Humanities and Law. Hanh has also been tutoring elementary school students and helping them to build confidence in themselves and their academic ability.

To learn more about the new Birth to Three law, click here. To follow updates and get action alerts, click HERE to Sign Up!

I'm pleased to welcome Ty Jones Cox to our DC Action team! Ty will work to rebuild our Family Economic Security policy agenda, particularly around strengthening the safety net for children and youth in the District.

As a Policy Consultant, she works with national and state policy leaders to identify opportunities to test new strategies to reduce enrollment barriers and obstacles for low-income families. Ty is an experienced and mission-driven legal and policy professional with over 15 years of experience working to end poverty and inequality.

I'm pleased to welcome Nisa Hussain to our DC Action team. Nisa brings her maternal and child health background and her skills in program coordination and workforce development to her role as Program Associate. She will help to advance the goals of the city’s Home Visiting Council, which DC Action for Children chairs, as well as support our early childhood campaigns.

DC Action for Children joins the membership of the Partnership for America’s Children, a national network of state and local child advocacy organizations working to improve policies affecting children and youth at the local, state, and national level.

Children Living in High-Poverty, Low-Opportunity Neighborhoods highlights that although the number of children living in areas of concentrated poverty (census tracts with overall poverty rates of 30% or more) fell as the nation recovered from the Great Recession, the total remains far too high: more than 8.5 million, or 12%, of all kids. Here in the District of Columbia, 25 percent of children and youth live in high poverty areas.

The Board of Directors of DC Action for Children are pleased to announce the appointment of Kimberly Perry as the new Executive Director. 

DC Action's data and policy advocacy is needed more than ever before. Our team of experts partner with the community to share critical needs with policymakers and shape future policies that provide opportunity for our young people and their families.