Over the past several months and since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all adjusting to our new normal, be it transitioning to working from home, making new decisions to ensure the well-being and success of our kids in school or child care, or debating whether it is safe to go to the grocery store, let alone go on a family vacation.
As we continue to face these unprecedented challenges, the health and well-being of all Pennsylvanians remains at the forefront of our minds. Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (PPC) is the voice for children in our state, working over the past 30 years to ensure better outcomes for all children and their families. Our aim is simple: we look to the data on child well-being in Pennsylvania to formulate state and federal policy recommendations, and then advance data-driven advocacy campaigns to ensure those recommendations become a reality in Harrisburg or in Washington.
Please make a gift to support our efforts over the next few months as we pivot and adjust our strategies advocating for policies to help kids in this new normal.
PPC’s supporters, staff and state policymakers are already seeing success from our work. This spring we advocated for and won $125 million in stimulus funds from the state legislature for child care as part of the annual budget process. This win was desperately needed to support early learning programs hit hard by the pandemic and played a key role in enabling parents to return to work and reinvigorating our economy.
Our work is far from over – the state budget enacted in June only funds most programs for five months, meaning come November, it will be crucial to ensure key services are not cut or jeopardized due to legislative inactivity. Our staff, board and partners are already working hard to identify the key issues at hand and ensure we have the data to back up where the needs are greatest right now, while continuing to keep our eye on the long-term needs of all children. We have much more to do and with your help, we can make an impact.
Kids and families need our help now more than ever. Through our advocacy and your support of PPC we can ensure there is no interruption in learning and that there are resources to help students access technology for remote learning; ensure young children have a high-quality child care center to attend so that their parents can work and they can thrive during the most important time developmentally in their lives; ensure safe and secure homes free from abuse and neglect when the stress on caregivers is at an all-time high; and ensure access to health insurance and appropriate care to provide for critical things like immunizations and well-child care visits.
As you know, PPC does not accept government funding, so that we are independent in our efforts to promote the policies that best benefit kids in our state. As a result of this and our work over the past 30 years, we are a trusted source of information on both sides of the aisle.
Thank you for your commitment to Pennsylvania’s kids – your support now helps to ensure the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t set them off path for the future.