New York Times: “The Decade of Lost Children” Charles M. Blow discusses the devastating impact of the recession on children in particular, citing a recent report by the Children’s Defense Fund. The number of American children living in poverty has increased by 4 million since 2000, with 2008 to 2009 showing the greatest increase in [...]

After a prolonged and divisive debate, lawmakers in Washington have passed a budget deal that projects a grim future for social services and job creation. Thanks to obstinate Members of Congress on the far-right, the deal focuses entirely on budget cuts while steering clear of viable revenue options like the elimination of tax breaks for [...]

City Limits: “Remember Poverty? Anyone? Anyone?” Reporter Neil DeMause addresses the reasons why meaningful discussions about poverty are left out of political debates. His contribution to the July issue of City Limits includes profiles of real New Yorkers living in poverty and the daily struggles that they face. New York Times: “Children’s Services Leader Leaving After [...]

Gotham Gazette: “Bloomberg Poverty Policies Cut the Public, Boost the Private”. The Gotham Gazette addresses Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial, anti-poverty program, the “Social Innovation Fund Learning Network”. Begun in 2006, this program conducts various anti-poverty initiatives, including the particularly controversial “conditional cash transfer program”, that are privately funded and function outside of the normal regulations and reviews [...]

As a new feature on our blog, we will be providing weekly updates with stories in the media that are relevant for our work — stories about poverty and policy, legislation impacting children and adolescents, access to education and childcare, and more. Please stay tuned for future posts! City Limits: “The Poor Have Numbers. Do [...]

On Friday night, Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn presented the final New York City Budget for Fiscal Year 2012. The announcement comes at the end of a long and contentious struggle between advocates and city officials over drastic cuts to social services when revenue options, like the extension of the millionaires tax, [...]

This Thursday, thousands of New Yorkers are coming together to oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s cuts to social services and to protest policies that benefit New York’s banks at the expense of its children, elderly, and other vulnerable residents. The “May 12 Coalition”, a dynamic group of advocates, organizers, unions, and community members from across the city, [...]

Mayor Bloomberg has childcare on the chopping block in this year’s budget.  As of now, 17,000 children will be forced out of their childcare programs, a cut more devastating than any since the 1970s.  The time for action is now, and that is why advocates, services providers, and religious institutions have formed the “Emergency Coalition [...]

Mayor Bloomberg has recently announced that nearly 17,000 children will lose their child care by September of 2011. This is the most devastating and drastic cut since the 1970s.  His proposal also includes tripling the weekly parent co-pay paid for child care services.  For low-income working parents, child care means that they can keep their [...]

The New York Women’s Foundation has released a report detailing the ways in which the City and State budgets specifically and disproportionately hurt women and their children. This analysis is significant because women’s social and economic  circumstances are unique is many ways. Women have a higher probability of being a low-wage worker and facing a [...]