The Children's Defense Fund: 30 years of action

This year the Children's Defense Fund of the United States is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Rosemary Link looks at the history of this pioneering children's organisation.

It is not enough to write the cheque, turn up occasionally to lobby, and turn a kind eye to the fundraiser. As Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), reminds us through the example of her own life and now through the enduring history of this organisation, the wellbeing of all our children rests with all of us. Every child, including those experiencing poverty, needs our support, inspiration, acceptance and encouragement. In an era that sanctions families in receipt of 'welfare' (income maintenance), it is often forgotten who the majority of recipients of welfare are: in 1997 the statistics included 2.3 million lone parents, 1.1 married parents and 7.8 million children.[Footnote 1] There are strong parallels between the USA and the UK in the legislation and in the use of the term 'welfare'. In neither country does 'welfare' refer to the wellbeing of all members of our society.

The CDF organisation is currently based in Washington, with 13 state and local offices. It is less well known to British readers than the Child Poverty Action Group, but it is widely acknowledged in America as the most influential lobbying and social justice voice for young people and their families. The CDF data-book, Kids Count, and research-based initiatives such as The State of America's Children Yearbook and Congressional Scorecards are widely used by social services, politicians and educators. A brief review of CDF's history, role and initiatives may help us to appreciate current dangers and future challenges to children's wellbeing. It is also timely to speculate on future challenges, including CDF's potential role in supporting the United Nations' focus on sustainable social and economic development. We can see the results of limiting access to health, education and shelter in the UNICEF's stark Progress of Nations Reports (www.unicef.org) and this work echoes the social exclusion of children in America.

The energy behind the CDF's commitment to the most vulnerable members of society comes from many people across the United States, but its constant inspiration and role model is Mrs Edelman. In her vivid portrait of mentors supporting her early work she states:

I do what I do because my parents did what they did… in their tireless work to educate, to promote peaceful co-existence and to stem racism.[Footnote 2]

She also comments on the community surrounding her and on whose shoulders we have all been lifted:

I have always wanted to be half as good, half as brave, half as faithful as the great women of my childhood… [Footnote 3]

In this way she acknowledges those who carried her to public service and invites us to consider our own private and public sense of vocation.

The CDF was established at a time of acute unrest and discrimination at the close of the Vietnam War. The central feature of the Johnson administration's 'war on poverty', the Head Start programme for young children, was being questioned and funding cancelled. Those opposed to funding people in poverty (and in states such as Mississippi, especially African-American children) were putting every roadblock they could think of in the way of Head Start organisers. According to the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM): 'segregationist politicians, white racists, and the Ku Klux Klan have launched strong attacks against CDGM' and the Head Start programmes the group operated.[Footnote 4] When federal funding of Head Start was threatened in the early 1970s many people came to its support. The Congressional Record for 1968 states:

For the first time in history money, food, medicine and employment reached Mississippi families. People who before had been terribly wounded and unbelieving began, many of them, to stir and take hope. But almost from the beginning, the effectiveness of Mississippi's Head Start programs, not to mention their resources, has been in constant danger.[Footnote 5]

The programme continued to be threatened and the CDF became a key player in educating the legislators and public about its effectiveness. In 1973, the year the CDF began, there was even a congressional plan to phase out Head Start. The country was distracted, however, by Nixon's resignation in 1974. By 1977 new research demonstrated the effectiveness of the programme and the budget increased significantly at the beginning of Jimmy Carter's presidency in 1977. Throughout the 1980s, in the face of decreased funding for welfare generally, organisations such as the CDF kept the agenda before Congress. In 1991, CDF informed legislators:

We are in danger of becoming two nations: one of first world privilege and another of third world deprivation, struggling against increasing odds to peacefully co-exist as a beleaguered middle class barely holds on.[Footnote 6]

This could just as well have been written in 2003. Discrimination against people in poverty still prevails but in the more disguised form of 'family values' and personal responsibility. The majority of adult recipients of welfare are women, particularly women of colour, who are far more likely to be in the part-time labour force than men.[Footnote 7] Cynicism, extreme wealth, a discrediting of 'liberal' views and a faltering economy are again putting the most vulnerable out of work. In this context, the people who inspired Mrs Edelman are the role models for us today.

Most people 'are unaware that there are still over 11 million poor children and 9 million uninsured children in the US.'

In the new millennium questions about the future leadership of the United States of America are eclipsed by fears of terrorism and war.[Footnote 8] Nevertheless the CDF brought presidential candidates together early in their 2004 campaigns to hear their policies on those falling below the poverty line ($18,400 or £12,000 per year for a family of four). While the US news is full of debate on tax cuts for the wealthiest 5 per cent of Americans, the CDF keeps the needs of children persistently in the public eye with its publications, national and local campaigns and advocacy. The British journalist Will Hutton has referred to a spectacular gap between the rich and the poor in the UK;[Footnote 9] it is even more spectacular in the US. Marian Wright Edelman writes that a key aim of her organisation is to 'provide a persistent presence' and to educate legislators and the public. Most people 'are unaware that there are still over 11 million poor children and 9 million uninsured children in the US.' [Footnote 10] This same lack of awareness of poverty exists in the UK. In celebrating the CDF's work we can increase our knowledge of the variety of strategies employed to reduce child poverty and of the parallels between, and insights for future, work worldwide.

Thus, since 1973 the CDF has been lobbying for the rights and wellbeing of children, disseminating research, keeping the public informed and most importantly not letting children fall off the legislative agenda. The organisation is wholly independent of government funding and receives support from a variety of foundations, corporations and individuals. It remains inspired by the courage of civil rights leaders of the 1960s and 1970s, including Dr Howard Zinn, Rev Mays, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Soprano Marian Anderson. Marian Wright Edelman writes in the aftermath of the assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King and Senator Edward Kennedy: 'My belief that I and others could do more' became the driving force behind the organisation. The CDF mission is a clear one, to:

Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.[Footnote 11]

Yet the task is not simple. As explained by Edelman:

The US is flunking the Bonhoeffer test…the test that states that the morality of a society is how it treats its children.[Footnote 12]

In a country of extreme wealth and vitality, there are too may children without health insurance, adequate shelter, adequate nutrition and adult supervision. These problems are what researchers Weissbourd and Banes have called 'the quiet problems of childhood'[Footnote 13] and they are too easily ignored in times of national defensiveness and war on terrorism. The CDF provides startling statistics for a country where the gross domestic product ranks sixth in the world:

• An American child is reported abused or neglected every 11 seconds; 581,000 children are in our foster care system.
• An American child is born into poverty every 43 seconds; one in five children is poor during the first three years of life – the time of greatest brain development.
• An American child is born without health insurance every minute; 90 per cent of our nine million uninsured children live in working families.
• An American child or teen is killed by gunfire every 2 hours and 40 minutes – nine every day; 87,000 children and teens have been killed by guns since 1979. It is safer to be an on-duty law enforcement officer than a child under 10 in America.[Footnote 14]

Despite these statistics the CDF never gives up. It fulfils its primary role of advocacy for children through many channels and constant, relentless hard work. Examples of its initiatives include: legislative action; research; congressional testimony; publications; on-line information; celebrations; training of volunteer advocates; and, through its Action Council, a non-partisan congressional scorecard book, How Well do your Members of Congress Protect Children? This scorecard idea could be applied just as effectively to the UK parliament. The tendency to cut budgets for the most vulnerable, and pass judgement on the poor through welfare reforms which penalise mothers with young children is as prevalent in the UK as it is in the US.

An American child is killed by gunfire every 2 hours and 40 minutes

A key policy in recent years has been the focus on what it means to 'Leave No Child Behind'. This visionary legislation has entered the statute books as the Dodd-Miller Act, which, as Edelman writes:

…we spent over a year developing after consultation with many groups and leaders across the spectrum of child, family, and community concerns.[Footnote 15]

It addresses the needs of the whole child in families and communities and is far more extensive than the educational testing-based 'No Child Left Behind' legislation of the Bush administration in 2002, particularly addressing issues of health and income. There is a constant tension in the US between federal initiatives, such as the welfare reform legislation, and local implementation. States are required to submit plans and reports in order to receive matching federal funding and their take up varies significantly. In several key states the CDF has established powerful tools for enhancing take-up of funds and keeping a watchful eye on local legislators. For example, in Minnesota there is a new website which functions in a similar way to CPAG's Welfare Benefits Handbook, providing a clear assessment of eligibility:

Low-income working families can learn about eligibility information for several programs in one stop, thanks to a newly launched website. CDF Minnesota, together with the University of Minnesota, recently launched www.coveringallfamilies.org, featuring an assessment tool to assist families determine their eligibility for seven different public programs. The effort is an unprecedented attempt in Minnesota to aggregate common eligibility questions for public health care, childcare, school meals, tax credit programs… [Footnote 16]

The CDF national offices in Washington concentrate on federal policy, congressional testimony, research and facilitating meetings for state voices to be heard, while the individual state offices focus on local political and community impact. Just as Minnesota has its exciting website, the CDF has honored the tradition of 'Wednesdays in Mississippi' with a reunion of participants from the civil rights days of the 1960s. As then, legislators travel from Washington to Mississippi to learn about poverty and racism first hand. On a recent Wednesday many of us received the following message from Diane Benjamin, CDF Minnesota:

The Bush administration's promises to 'Leave No Child Behind' are mocked by tax and budget deeds that leave millions of children but no millionaires behind. On Wednesday, March 19th, 2003, the CDF is asking everyone in America who is concerned about children to call their US Senators and Representatives. Learn more by clicking here (http://www.cdfactioncouncil.org).

In similarly creative work each year, thousands of young advocates are trained in Tennessee at the CDF-Haley Farm and people crucial in the lives of children, including Juvenile Court judges and community organisers, are brought together for dialogue and legislative updates. There is also a very successful 'Beat the Odds' campaign in many cities, which celebrates young people for their resilience and educational achievements, and several state CDF offices have launched campaigns to support increased health coverage for children.

Thus, the reach of CDF work is broad and deep, but it is a long march to achieve basic wellbeing for children living in poverty. However, through its inspired leadership, fearless tackling of the status quo and constant resolve, the Children's Defense Fund of the United States of America has made sure that the needs of children are never forgotten. Its visionary policy development and practical programmes have stimulated local and national action for children. Its determination in tough times is an inspiration for all who work in concert with it. Thank you, Marian Wright Edelman, and colleagues nationwide, for the 30 years of dedicated work and for your future commitment to the children of the world. We celebrate you and wish you continued courage to 'Leave No Child Behind'. We can all indeed 'do more'.

Rosemary J Link is Professor of Social Work at Augsburg College, Minnesota

Footnotes
1. Minnesota Department of Human Services [back to text]
2. M Edelman, Lanterns: a memoir of mentors, Beacon Press, 1999, p3 [back to text]
3. See note 2, pxv [back to text]
4. Ad Hoc Committee to Save the Children of Mississippi 1968 in V Finkelson, Evaluating Head Start: an historical review of program goals and factors which impact program evaluation, MSW thesis, Lindell Library, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, 1994 [back to text]
5. Honorable W F Ryan, Congressional Record E2285, 1968 in V Finkelson, Evaluating Head Start: an historical review of program goals and factors which impact program evaluation, MSW thesis, Lindell Library, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, 1994 [back to text]
6. CDF, 1991 [back to text]
7. R Link and A Bibus, When Children Pay: US welfare reform and its implications for UK policy, CPAG, 2000 [back to text]
8. Time, 2003 [back to text]
9.W Hutton, The Observer, 2 August 1998 [back to text]
10. Edelman, 2001 [back to text]
11. CDF, Annual Report 2001 [back to text]
12. See note 11 [back to text]
13. M Bane and R Weissbourd, 'Welfare Reform and Children', Stanford Law and Policy Review, Vol. 9:1, 1998 [back to text]
14. See note 11, p6 [back to text]
15. See note 10 [back to text]
16. A Child's Voice Congressional Update, CDF Minnesota, November 2002, p2 [back to text]

Poverty 116, Autumn 2003