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Founded | 1984 |
---|---|
Dissolved | June 2013 |
Type | Child Advocacy |
Location | |
Area served | United States |
Members | 60 |
Key people | Tamara Copeland, president (1996 - 2006) William Bentley, CEO (since 2007) Deborah Stein, federal policy director Joe Theissen, vice president |
Revenue | $2,723,275 (in 2009) |
Website | http://www.voices.org |
Formerly known as the National Association of Child Advocates (renamed in 2003) |
Voices for America's Children(Voices) was a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Washington, DC. Voices was a U.S. nonpartisan, national organization that advocated for the well-being of children at the federal, state and local levels of government. It addresses areas such as early childhood education, health, juvenile justice, child welfare, tax and budget decisions. [1] It was renamed from National Association of Child Advocates in 2003.
Voices for America's Children officially closed its doors in June 2013, although groups of former members continue their work at the state and local level. [2]
Voices for America's Children began when child advocates from the US met for the first time in 1981 and formed the National Association of State-based Child Advocacy Organization (ACA) in 1984. In 2003, ACA changed its name to Voices for America's Children.
In 1996 the National Association of Child Advocates established its annual Florette Angel Memorial Child Advocacy Award in memory of Florette Angel and her efforts to improve the lives of West Virginia children. [3]
In 2004, the organization prepared and published a report named “Early Learning Left Out: An Examination of Public Investments in Education and Development by Child Age". [4] The report was based on a comprehensive analysis of public investments in education and child development. It covered three age groups - early years (0-5), school age (6-18) and college age (19-23) - across 12 states. [5] The report was updated the following year [6] and then again in 2010. [7]
Voices for America's Children received two grants from Atlantic Philanthropies, a $1.8 million grant in 2006 [8] and a $3 million three-year-grant in 2008. [9]
In 2011, after reviewing ten Republican candidates' debates and campaign websites, [10] Voices found that only 2.2% of the debates referenced children-related issues. [11]
In 2012 Voices sent letters to Democratic candidate President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney urging them to clarify their stance on child and family issues and to formally seek the advice of child advocates. [12]
In 2013 Voices was dissolved after a vote by the board of trustees. In September of the same year President Obama appointed William Bentley, former CEO of Voices, to head Family and Youth Services Bureau. [13]
Voices had 62 member organizations in 46 states of the US, as well as in The US Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia (DC).. A member was defined as an organization that belonged to the Voices network and was a nonprofit organization that is either: a provider coalition with an advocacy component to its overall agenda; or the state or community affiliate of a national single-issue child advocacy organization; or a state or community-based organization focused primarily on public awareness, resource or referral or direct services, with child advocacy as part of its mission; or a KIDS COUNT grantee without child advocacy as any component of its agenda.
Financial backing is provided by membership fees and grants from the following foundations: [14]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported as of 2020 to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $69 billion in assets. On his 43rd birthday, Bill Gates gave the foundation $1 billion. The primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S. Key individuals of the foundation include Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Warren Buffett, chief executive officer Mark Suzman, and Michael Larson.
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Tides Foundation is an American public charity and fiscal sponsor working to advance progressive causes and policy initiatives in areas such as the environment, health care, labor issues, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights and human rights. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976. Through donor advised funds, Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. It manages two centers in San Francisco and New York that offer collaborative spaces for social ventures and other nonprofits.
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to advance consumer interests through research, education and advocacy.
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The Atlantic Philanthropies(AP) was a private foundation created in 1982 by Irish-American businessman Chuck Feeney. The Atlantic Philanthropies focused its giving on health, social, and politically left-leaning public policy causes in Australia, Bermuda, Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam. It was among the largest foreign charitable donors in each of the countries in which it operated, and was the single largest funder of programs that encouraged the civic engagement of older people and of comprehensive immigration reform in the United States. With the single largest advocacy grant ever made by a foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies committed $27 million to win passage of the Affordable Care Act in the United States. About half of the Atlantic Philanthropies' grants were made in donations that allow lobbying.
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The California Community Foundation(CCF) is a philanthropic organization located in Los Angeles, California. Foundation Center, an independent nonprofit organization, ranks it among the top 100 foundations in the nation by asset size and total giving. Among all community foundations, CCF is 5th by total giving and 7th by asset size, as of the fiscal year that ended 6/30/12.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a liberal or progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. The Brennan Center advocates for public policy positions including raising the minimum wage, opposing voter ID laws, and calling for public funding of elections. The organization opposed the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by nonprofits.
Global Action for Children (GAC) was a highly effective nonpartisan coalition dedicated to improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world active from 2004 - 2010.
The youth rights movement seeks to grant the rights to young people that are traditionally reserved for adults, due to having reached a specific age or sufficient maturity. This is closely akin to the notion of evolving capacities within the children's rights movement, but the youth rights movement differs from the children's rights movement in that the latter places emphasis on the welfare and protection of children through the actions and decisions of adults, while the youth rights movement seeks to grant youth the liberty to make their own decisions autonomously in the ways adults are permitted to, or to lower the legal minimum ages at which such rights are acquired, such as the age of majority and the voting age.
The Afterschool Alliance is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization in the United States whose mission is "to ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality afterschool programs." It uses communications and advocacy strategies to increase public and private investments in afterschool programs. The Alliance serves as both a central resource center for afterschool programs, as well as a public advocate. The Afterschool Alliance has more than 25,000 afterschool program partners and its publications reach more than 65,000 interested individuals every month.
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a political advocacy group of more than 1,000 organizations that joined together in 2008 in a successful effort to promote legislation to reform the United States health care system and extend medical benefits to most of the population that is currently uninsured. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, and HCAN was credited with being a "major contributor" to its passage. After enactment of the law, HCAN shifted its activities to defending the law from opposition attacks and advocating for the law before Congress and state regulatory agencies.
The Alliance for Early Success is a 50-state early-childhood advocacy nonprofit that provides connections, expertise, technical assistance, and targeted investments to help state policy advocates achieve pro-child state policies. Because many of the programs that contribute to early childhood development and success are administered by states, the Alliance focuses on connecting, equipping, and funding state advocates who push for policy that improves and scales early childhood success.
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