Protect Our Children Protect Our Future

We are a coalition with one goal – protecting the lives and futures of California’s most vulnerable children.

Children who have been abused and neglected, and are depending on their communities to speak for them and invest in their futures.

We believe that by investing in these children now, we ensure a brighter future not only for them but also a more prosperous future for California.

Safe homes. Loving families. The basics like clothing, beds, medical care. Tutoring and life skills training to succeed as adults. Every child needs these. Foster children depend on the state to ensure they receive these essential basics. Unfortunately, foster children in California are going without these necessities because of recent budget cuts.

We are a coalition acting as one voice for the thousands of abused and neglected children without a voice. We are mounting this campaign to educate our Governor, lawmakers and the public on the significant effect such services have in the lives of children. Our coalition urges the Governor and the Legislature to restore the $133 million cut made to child welfare services in the Governor’s 2009-10 budget veto, and to protect abused and neglected children from paying the price for further budget cuts.

The Alliance for Children’s Rights; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO; California Alliance for Child and Family Services; California State Association of Counties; California State PTA; California Youth Connection; Child Abuse Prevention Center; Children’s Advocacy Institute; Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles; County Welfare Directors Association of California; John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes; Laborers’ Local 777; Laborers’ Local 792; National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter; Regional Council of Rural Counties; SEIU; Urban Counties Caucus; Youth Law Center