Voices for Virginia's Children

Our work, day in and day out, focuses on pursuing these desired outcomes.
• All children enter school ready to learn.
• All children and youth in need of behavioral health care have rapid access to a consistent array of services, regardless of funding source or where they live in Virginia.
• Babies and young children in Virginia who are at-risk of developing mental health problems are identified and provided two-generation interventions (parent and child).
• All children and their families gain access to high quality, affordable health care to eliminate health disparities and create a healthier future for children and families in the Commonwealth.
• Children and youth involved in or at risk of involvement in the foster care system will have safe, stable, and healthy living situations with permanent family connections, and have opportunities to achieve educational and employment goals.
• Youth involved in or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system stay connected to families, education, and community, and have access to meaningful, evidence-informed treatment and consequences that reduce recidivism.
• Families with children who are economically disadvantaged will have the tools and support necessary to improve their level of economic self-sufficiency.
• Children who experience trauma will be given the support and services that foster resilience.

In realizing our mission for Virginia's children, we serve three main constituencies: policymakers, partner organizations, and citizens.

#1 Policymakers:
• We educate policymakers through objective data about the well-being of children, including disparities in well-being across geographic, age, and racial/ethnic groups, as well as our analysis of research, best practices and policies.
• We advocate directly with policymakers in both parties to change public policy.

#2 Partner organizations:
• We learn from these partners, typically child-serving organizations, about how policy decisions are affecting kids and families on the ground and the need for change.
• We bring together diverse coalitions of organizations interested in achieving similar outcomes for children and working collaboratively, educating them about opportunities for advocacy involvement and training on providing meaningful input.

#3 Citizens:
• We educate Virginia citizens about the data regarding child well-being, best practices to improve that well-being, and strategies for advocacy in order to build public support for better policies.
• We mobilize citizens to act on behalf of Virginia's children through our outreach activities.
• Within this constituency, we often reach out to youth and families personally affected by the policy issues on which we work to gain their perspective about problems and help them take action.

Voices for Virginia's Children, is the only nonprofit, statewide, non-partisan organization that champions public policies that improve the lives of Virginia's 1.9 million children.

Particular strengths for accomplishing our mission include:

Impressive, 25-year track record of policy achievements
Strong, non-partisan reputation for policy expertise on key issues
Diverse, highly capable staff and volunteers
Positive relationships with policymakers and partners
Wealth of data on child well-being tracked through our Kids Count Data Center
Increasingly diversified funding
Strong financial systems
Frequently updated website, accessible on all devices

Examples of how Voices has made an impact recently:

Serving as a neutral convener of early childhood organizations, Voices and its Early Childhood Policy Network have successfully won new state investments in evidence-based early childhood programs that improve outcomes for young children and their parents—particularly those who are economically disadvantaged: the state's 2018 budget includes a $35 million increase in funding for early childhood initiatives over the 2012 state budget.

For years, Voices has served as the leading organization in the Commonwealth fighting for better access to mental health care for the 1 in 5 children who live with mental health conditions. Because of our advocacy since 2011, Virginia has dedicated new state resources – which now total $8.2 million a year – for community-based crisis response services for children and for faster access to child psychiatry.

Alarmed that more than 500 youth each year “age out" of foster care without permanent family connections – a circumstance that usually leads to extremely poor life outcomes – Voices worked for three years to build a bipartisan team of supporters that fought for the creation of “Fostering Futures," a program that provides housing, legal support, case management, and other services to youth aging out of the foster care system.

Looking to the future, we realize that we must continue to push for improved policies in all of these areas. Despite significant progress, data tells us that certain groups of children are still being left behind. For example:

1 in every 3 children are economically disadvantaged, meaning they live in families that struggle to meet basic needs – food, housing, utilities, child care, and transportation.

Only 35% of economically disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool compared to 55% of their higher income peers.

75,000 youth ages 12 -17 report suffering from at least one major depressive episode in the past year, yet Virginia is ranked 49th in the nation (almost worst) for the rate of youth with major depression who did not receive mental health services.

3 out of every 5 kids who enter the foster care system return to family (either their families of origin or other relatives). However, approximately 500 youth each year “age out" without returning to family or being adopted.

Voices for Virginia's Children will continue to push for improvements on these issues so that all children in the Commonwealth can grow up in a safe and stable environment that allows them to thrive.