A Campaign to Build a Better Future for All New Jersey Children
Make Kids Count NJ is aimed at raising politician's awareness of key children’s issues and ensuring that children are a top political and policy priority. We want our state leaders to know that New Jersey voters care about kids. The Association for Children of New Jersey sponsors the campaign, which uses e-mail advocacy to give voters a direct line to key state leaders, informing them about the most pressing issues facing New Jersey's families.
Following is a description of the campaign’s three top goals.
CAMPAIGN GOALS
All New Jersey children will start school healthy and ready to learn.
Children grow most from birth to six. Studies prove investments in early care and education reap benefits for children and taxpayers. Early care means affordable child care, quality preschool and adequate health care, as well as providing parents with needed supports.
Many families are unable to give their children a good start in life. To give our youngest citizens a strong, healthy start, leading to success in school and in life, we must ensure:
- All 3- and 4-year-old children have access to quality preschool.
- All children from birth to six benefit from a comprehensive, high-quality system of early care and education, coordinated at the highest level of government.
- All children have access to health care, both physical and mental.
- All children and mothers receive preventive care – prenatal care, immunizations, lead screening and early intervention.
All families will be able to support and care for their children.
New Jersey families need to earn almost $40,000 a year just to make ends meet. Thousands of working parents –in the cities, suburbs and rural areas – lack this level of income, often forcing parents to choose between paying the rent and feeding their children.
That hurts kids. A hungry child cannot grow into a good student. Instead of mastering the alphabet, a homeless child will worry about where he will sleep that night. To help kids, we have to support working families in three key ways:
- Provide programs that support family sufficiency – child care, nutrition, housing, health care and paid family leave
- Help working parents accumulate assets – savings accounts, houses, businesses – building family stability and expanding New Jersey’s tax base.
- Change state tax policies to be fair for all working families.
All children will be free from abuse or neglect, living in safe, permanent homes and be supported to grow into productive adults.
Abused and neglected children are the most vulnerable of our citizens. When a child is hurt by those who are supposed to love and protect him, the state must step in. The state must also help parents before they hurt their children. When children must be removed from their families, the state, in essence, becomes the parent. Until a child can go back home or move into a permanent, adoptive family, the state must be a vigilant parent. An effective child welfare system will:
- Keep all children safe from abuse or neglect.
- Provide preventive and treatment services so all families can protect and care for their children.
- Safeguard children in out-of-home placement and ensure they are well-cared for in all respects.
- Make foster care temporary, with children returning to their own families or moving into adoptive ones, whenever possible.
- Provide troubled youth with preventive and treatment options to keep them out of detention.
- As Make Kids Count NJ progresses, we will target specific policies and initiatives that can help us achieve the goal of building a better future for all New Jersey children. Please join us.
The Association for Children of New Jersey is a statewide independent, non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of New Jersey’s children and families.
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