NEWSBYMARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

A few months ago a group of earnest and determined stockholders traveled together by bus from Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend a shareholders’ meeting for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country. The group included ex-offenders who now each hold one share of stock in the same prison company that once held them captive, and they attended the meeting in the hopes of sharing their perspective on how the privatized prison industry can better serve society by rehabilitating inmates, rather than just serving its own profits by perpetuating the prison cycle.

The group, part of Washington, D.C.’s Church of the Saviour, is named Strength to Love, after the title of one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon collections. Members explain their mission this way:

“The privatized, for-profit prison industry is particularly plagued by a conflict of interest at its core: On the one hand, the industry is responsible to its shareholders to make money, and its income is determined by how many beds are filled. On the other hand, its civil responsibility to the inmates and to the whole of society is to help incarcerated people become their intended selves, and to prepare them to succeed upon release. It is well established that services and programs like job training and education serve to lower the occurrence of re-offense. But it is better for the company’s bottom line to minimize staff and services, let the inmates succeed or fail on their own terms, and reap the financial benefits of strict sentencing laws and high rates of recidivism. It is this experience of exploitation, frequently referred to as a modern day form of slavery, that many members of Strength to Love have personally experienced, and which we have been called to dismantle.”

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

How does a child endure unspeakable hardship and still manage to succeed? What does it mean to save rather than give up on a child? When you read the stories of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)’s Beat the Odds® award recipients, you’ll find the answers. Too often we hear about teens getting into trouble, dropping out of school, getting involved with drugs, crime, and gangs, or becoming parents too soon. Yet thousands of children overcome tremendous obstacles like these and poverty, homelessness, hunger, abuse and neglect by adults, parental incarceration, and more every day. Each year, CDF takes time to honor some of these inspiring high school students through our Beat the Odds scholarship program. We provide them with scholarships up to $10,000, a laptop computer, and, most importantly, recognition of what they’re doing: beating the odds.

Twenty years ago, the first Children’s Defense Fund Beat the Odds awards event was held in Los Angeles. Today, we celebrate resilient young people in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas, New York, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. More than 600 young people who have persevered despite family breakdown, homelessness, parental incarceration, drug and alcohol addiction, neglect and abuse have been honored and been able to go on to college and become productive citizens. Some of them are now doctors, lawyers, teachers, Peace Corps volunteers, and responsible parents. They are living proof that no one should ever give up on a child.

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

"It's dinner time in America. But for 1 in 4 children, you'd never know it."

The ad with the simple image of an empty plate is meant to catch your eye — especially if you come across it in the November issue of a favorite magazine, tucked among the tips for a traditional Thanksgiving feast. It's part of a campaign by Share Our Strength, a national non-profit organization that fights childhood hunger. As they say below the picture: "Dinner time is when families gather to share their day and create memories. But for nearly 17 million children, dinner time can be the cruelest part of the day. Right here in the United States, almost 1 in 4 children don't know when they will have their next meal."

Thanksgiving is a season to celebrate plenty, and a day when many families sit down to tables overflowing with favorite foods to give thanks for all they have been blessed with. For many people, Thanksgiving dinner is the largest meal of the year — and by the time they've finished that last piece of pie, their stomachs are so full they'll be physically uncomfortable. But the canned food drives and other pleas for donations this month are a quiet reminder that for too many families, Thanksgiving will be like any other meal: not a time of plenty but a time of want.

Share Our Strength notes that 50.1 million Americans aren't able to regularly put enough nutritious food on the table, and that food insecurity, which includes "running out of food without money to buy more, cutting portion sizes or skipping meals, and not feeding children in the family because there isn't money for food," exists in almost 15 percent of all U.S. households. Almost 70 percent of food insecure families live above the poverty line. These numbers aren't just statistics. They reflect the reality many of us are already seeing in our own homes, neighborhoods or communities right now, as families who were blessed enough to be able to contribute to those canned food drives during past Thanksgivings are today joining the lines of those in need.

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

As the economic downturn lingers, a striking characteristic is just how widespread its impact still is. Recent reports state that more Americans are now living in poverty in the suburbs than in cities — a trend that has increased dramatically during the recession. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of families who once donated to food pantries or other organizations serving the poor who now need to turn to these same places for help themselves. As more Americans experience economic uncertainty, the face of poverty in our nation today is changing. The harmful threats from the current recession which are leaving so many families newly desperate and at wits end are not new for millions of chronically poor children.

A recent study (pdf) by scholars at the Urban Institute focused on the dangerous effects of "persistent poverty" so many children experience. It notes that nearly half of all children born into poverty will be persistently poor, meaning they will be poor for at least half of their childhoods. The risk of persistent poverty is especially great for black children, who are more likely to be born poor: 40 percent of black children are poor at birth, compared to eight percent of white children. Black children are seven times more likely than white children to be persistently poor; more than two-thirds of black children who are poor at birth will be poor for at least half of their childhoods.

Being born into poverty and living in persistent poverty put children at tremendous risk, and the cumulative effects often mean especially negative outcomes. Being born poor is a significant predictor of adult as well as child poverty: the same study reports that while just four percent of children born into non-poor families end up spending at least half their early adult years in poverty, 21 percent of children born poor will spend a significant amount of their early adulthood in poverty. These children have a range of worse adult outcomes than children born into higher-income families. Children who are born poor and live in persistent poverty are more likely to drop out of high school, experience teen pregnancy and have unstable employment as young adults. Every year children spend living in poverty further erodes their future potential. The deck is stacked against them before they've taken their first breath.

The problem of bullying in our nation’s schools has been in the headlines again, in large part because of a heartbreaking series of recent tragedies: children and youths who took their lives after they were bullied or harassed because their peers believed they were gay. We need to immediately send a clear message to all our children that bullying and harassment for this or any other reason is simply not acceptable. At the same time, we need to make sure that every child knows she or he is a gift from God and feels loved and accepted and valued the way they are.

President Obama was one of the thousands of people who recently chose to record a video statement for the “It Gets Better” Project, started in September by journalist Dan Savage who is collecting and posting messages of hope and encouragement to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths who might be experiencing harassment or bullying or feeling isolated and desperate right now. The President said, “We’ve got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage – that it’s some inevitable part of growing up. It’s not. We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. And to every young person out there, you need to know that if you’re in trouble, there are caring adults who can help . . . You are not alone. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t do anything to deserve being bullied. And there is a whole world waiting for you, filled with possibilities. There are people out there who love you and care about you just the way you are . . . The other thing you need to know is, things will get better.” 

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

As we enter into the home stretch of another election season, many pundits have been asking whether a lack of "enthusiasm" might keep some voters home. Questions about which voters are most "motivated" and "excited" seem to come up every election cycle. But any voter who isn't enthusiastic about the ability to place a vote and have a say in these midterm elections for local, state and national leaders is shirking her responsibility and wasting a huge opportunity others have struggled and died for.

Those of us who participated in and lived through the civil rights movement know firsthand that the right to vote is something black Americans were fighting and dying for not very long ago. Many of them could not have imagined — as Robert Kennedy correctly predicted — that within a generation we would have our first black president. One hundred years ago American women were still marching and fighting for equal voting rights that hadn't yet been guaranteed in the 19th Amendment. In places around the world others are still struggling and sacrificing for a freedom too many Americans now take for granted.

We have a responsibility to those who could not vote and those who still can't — including children — to make our own votes count. As I told my sons in what became The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours: use your political power for others less fortunate. Vote and hold those you vote for accountable. We get the political leaders we deserve. America's children and future are too important to leave to politicians elected by just a few of the loudest mouths backed by the powerful interests, who do not have to reveal their names, who seek to turn the clock of racial and social progress backwards.

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Across the country, thousands of people of faith came together over the weekend to advocate for children in need through National Observance of Children's Sabbaths® celebrations. This annual celebration, held every third weekend in October, provides a time for faith communities to strengthen their existing efforts for children, discover new opportunities and respond to the Divine mandate to nurture, protect and advocate for all children.

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) sponsors the Children's Sabbath with the assistance ofa multi-faith advisory committee and the endorsement of hundreds of denominations and religious organizations. Every year, CDF compiles a multi-faith resource manual that guides the Children's Sabbath celebrations and the communities' year-round child and family advocacy work.

The theme of the 2010 Children's Sabbath is "Blessed to Be a Blessing." Through worship, prayer and actions, faith communities are affirming children as the primary blessing God has given us and committing together to working to end child poverty. In Genesis, God says to Abram (later renamed Abraham), "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." The central fulfillment of God's promised blessing was children, grandchildren and countless generations to follow. Just as God did with Abram, He invites us to consider how we will be a blessing.

It's a central idea in many faith traditions that all with which we have been blessed — families, resources, skills, talent, energy, vision, commitment — is not intended for our self-gratification or hoarding, but is meant to be used to bless others. As our nation reels from the financial downturn driven by the greed of the few heedless of the needs of the many, the tendency for many people is to hold tight to what they have, circle the wagons and take care of their "own," with the narrowest definition of who one's "own" includes. But we are called to do just the opposite. Last year saw the largest increase in child poverty in five decades — a larger increase than for any other age group. More than 15.5 million children, more than one in five, are now poor. We desperately need to answer that call.

As America’s children headed back to school in September, President Obama delivered a televised back-to-school address to the nation’s students from the Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia, an acclaimed public magnet school for fifth through twelfth graders. He spoke about the importance of hard work—a lesson his own mother was quick to drill into him as soon as she sensed his effort level in high school was starting to hit a slump.

Passing along the lesson he learned, the President told the students, “Nobody gets to write your destiny but you. Your future is in your hands. Your life is what you make of it. And nothing—absolutely nothing—is beyond your reach, so long as you’re willing to dream big, so long as you’re willing to work hard. So long as you’re willing to stay focused on your education, there is not a single thing that any of you cannot accomplish.”

He continued to stress the importance of education, telling them that “Nothing is going to have as great an impact on your success in life as your education, how you’re doing in school ... The farther you go in school, the farther you’re going to go in life. And at a time when other countries are competing with us like never before, when students around the world in Beijing, China, or Bangalore, India, are working harder than ever, and doing better than ever, your success in school is not just going to determine your success, it’s going to determine America’s success in the 21st century. So you’ve got an obligation to yourselves, and America has an obligation to you, to make sure you’re getting the best education possible. And making sure you get that kind of education is going to take all of us working hard and all of us working hand in hand.”

Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

Recently-released U.S. Census Bureau data confirmed our worst fears about the impact of this deep recession. Nearly four million more Americans fell into poverty in 2009: 44 million, or one in seven of us, are unable to meet our basic needs. Worst of all, children, our most vulnerable group, experienced the steepest rise in poverty and the largest single-year increase since the 1960s.

After dropping 24 percent between 1992 and 2000, the number of children in poverty increased by more than one-third between 2000 and 2009. An additional 1.4 million children swelled the ranks of poor children to 15.5 million children — more than one in five children. This almost 10 percent increase in child poverty over 2008 is shameful, disturbing and threatening news for millions of our nation's children – unless our nation addresses their human emergency needs.

Our youngest children are most at risk of being poor, at the very same time that their brains are rapidly developing and attention to their developmental needs is so important. More than five million children under age five are poor, and 2.4 million live in extreme poverty.

Children of color continue to suffer disproportionately. Black and Hispanic children are about three times as likely to be poor as white non-Hispanic children. In 2009, more than one in three black children (four million) and one in three Hispanic children (5.6 million), compared to more than one in ten white non-Hispanic children (4.9 million), lived in poverty. Race still matters a lot.

Marian Wright Edelman is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change.

As a new academic year starts, children around the country are going back to school and settling into new classes. Meanwhile, parents, educators, policy experts, and politicians are gearing up again to monitor and measure student learning—and preparing to ask the hard questions about whether or not the children in their care are getting the best possible education. Hard questions sometimes elicit hard answers, and often it is the students themselves who know the answers better than the adults in charge. But we seldom ask the students, and when they do speak up, we rarely pay attention to what they have to say. Last spring, Justin Hudson, a student who knows the questions and answers well, spoke up about equity in education. We all need to listen to Justin’s words.

Justin was a senior at Hunter College High School in New York City, and he had been chosen to deliver the graduation speech for his class. Hunter is a public school for grades 7-12 that has a national reputation for excellence and sends a quarter of its graduates on to Ivy League schools--a figure many private schools would envy. But Hunter’s students don’t resemble the student body at most of the city’s other public schools. They are considered intellectually gifted based on the results of an admission test written by the school’s teachers, and, as the New York Times recently noted, there are very few minority students at Hunter: while Hunter’s entering seventh grade class last year was 3% Black and 1% Hispanic, 70% of the students in the public school system as a whole are Black and Hispanic. Justin, who is Black and Hispanic himself, chose to address this obvious disparity in his speech—and this eighteen-year-old’s observations eloquently sum up one of the most urgent debates in education today.