Campaign for Children

Tweet  

The Campaign for Children was formed in March 2012. UNH was proud to be part of this partnership between the Emergency Coalition to Save Child Care and the NYC Youth Alliance to fight against the Mayor's proposal to implement devastating cuts to both child care and after-school programs in his FY 2013 budget. His preliminary budget, coupled with changes from the EarlyLearn NYC and Out-of-school Time (OST) RFPs, 14,900 child care slots would have been lost and after-school capacity would have been slashed by 50%. These cuts, in addition to previous years of budget cuts, would have resulted in 90,000 fewer children having access to child care and after-school programs than in 2009. 

Despite a campaign victory in the FY 2013 budget, funding for these programs in FY 2014 is again in jeopardy. On January 29, 2013, Mayor Bloomberg released his final Preliminary Budget for 2014. His budget fails to maintain the one-year funding restored by the City Council in 2012, it proposes additional cuts to both child care and after-school systems. Again, there are proposed cuts of over $135 million to these programs, possibly resulting in program loss for over 47,000 children and youth.

Please support UNH's advocacy efforts by donating to our 2013 Spring Appeal today! Click to learn more. 

2012 Success

In 2012, United Neighborhood Houses and the Campaign for Children applauded the City Council for negotiating a FY 2013 budget with Mayor Bloomberg that restored cuts to child care and after school programs. Nearly $100 million of cuts to child care and $50 million to Out-of-School Time were restored, meaning that there will be at least another year of essential programming and support for children and youth across the City. 

The Campaign collected nearly 60,000 signed letters and petitions and held countless rallies on City Hall steps, with enormous participation from service providers, advocacy organizations, and elected officials. Thank you to all of the parents and children who shared their stories, and others who made this Campaign a success. 

Visit Campaign for Children's website to hear more stories. Want to get involved? Download the Campaign for Children Grassroots Toolkit for fact sheets, a social media guide, a petition to print out, and more.