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Advancing Racial Equity in the 2021 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children

Earlier this week, Kentucky Youth Advocates and our partners across the state announced the release of the 2021 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children state policy and budget priorities.  As our commonwealth works to overcome the “dual pandemics” of COVID-19 and systemic racism, the Blueprint’s common voice and common vision—that of a brighter future for Kentucky kids and their families—are more important than ever.   All priorities on the 2021 policy agenda all meet three criteria: grounded in data, have some expectation of feasibility in the 2021 [...]

By |2020-12-10T17:43:49-05:00December 10th, 2020|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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Medicaid & Supporting Youth in Foster Care

Kentucky’s youth in foster care are a vulnerable population who need access to comprehensive health coverage. Youth in foster care and who have aged out of foster care have disproportionately high rates of serious physical, mental, and behavioral health issues. They are more likely to have health issues that affect their day-to-day functioning and more likely to need psychological and substance abuse counseling. Many youth formerly in foster care live at or below the poverty [...]

By |2020-12-10T14:10:45-05:00December 10th, 2020|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Health|
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Announcing the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children 2021 Policy Priorities

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org Announcing the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children 2021 Policy Priorities Louisville, KY – Today, Kentucky Youth Advocates and partners from across the commonwealth are launching the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children’s 2021 policy and budget priorities. The Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children is a coalition of non-profit, public, and private organizations that stands on three pillars: thriving communities launch strong families, strong families launch successful kids, and successful kids launch a prosperous future for [...]

By |2020-12-10T17:42:29-05:00December 9th, 2020|Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, News Room, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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OP-ED: Latinx Families Hit Especially Hard by COVID, But There is a Silver Lining

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier Journal November 19, 2020. By Karina Barillas Karina Barillas, La Casita Center COVID-19 has brought the health of Kentuckians into focus and reminded us that we face a collective challenge to staying healthy and accessing the health care we need. The pandemic affects us all, but affects us differently, depending on resources, meaningful access to services and information, and privilege or knowledge about navigating health [...]

By |2020-11-23T14:06:52-05:00November 23rd, 2020|Blog, Economic Security, Health, Race Equity|
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OP-ED: Let’s Flip the Destiny for Kentucky Kids

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier Journal November 19, 2020.  Jyoti Arora in You Came Like Hope asserts, “it takes only a moment for the destiny to flip over.” The haunting message emanating from the 2020 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book is that far too many boys and girls in the Commonwealth had their destiny flip the moment they were born. Because of the zip code in which they live. Because of [...]

By |2020-11-19T17:29:24-05:00November 19th, 2020|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Kids Count, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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2020 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book: A Look at the Impacts of the “Dual Pandemics” on Kentucky Children and Families

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org   2020 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book: A Look at the Impacts of the “Dual Pandemics” on Kentucky Children and Families Featuring the latest county-level data for key measure of child well-being Louisville, KY – The 2020 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book examines the impacts of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racial injustice on children and families with data disaggregated by race/ethnicity. The 30th edition of this [...]

By |2020-11-16T21:35:54-05:00November 17th, 2020|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Kids Count, News Room, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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Kentucky Youth Advocates Collaborates with Aetna Better Health of Kentucky to Reinvent Serving Youth in Kentucky’s Child Welfare System

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org Louisville, KY – Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) today announced a collaboration with Aetna Better Health of Kentucky (Aetna), a CVS Health company, to reinvent care for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable children and youth. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services selected Aetna to serve as the single statewide Managed Care Organization (MCO) to oversee and coordinate services for the new Supporting Kentucky Youth program, also known as SKY. [...]

By |2020-11-10T09:57:48-05:00November 10th, 2020|Child Welfare & Safety, Health, News Room|
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Self-Care Is More Than Deep Breathing, Essential Oils, and Chocolate

By Kayce Dallas, MSSW Intern at Kentucky Youth Advocates “Self-care is giving the world the best of you instead of giving the world the rest of you." The first thing my mom asks when I call and complain to her how stressed I am is, “did you take time for yourself today?” I often forget how important it is to take care of myself. I am a full-time student getting my masters degree in Social [...]

By |2020-11-05T14:00:36-05:00November 5th, 2020|Blog, Health|
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Open Enrollment 2021 is Here!

The 2021 open enrollment period for health insurance began November 2, 2020 and goes through December 15th. Let’s make sure everyone who is eligible signs up for the health insurance they need to stay healthy. Medicaid and the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program (KCHIP) provides free or low-cost health coverage to low-income Kentucky families, pregnant women, and children in foster care. This coverage will provide Kentuckians the access to receive routine health care services and [...]

By |2020-11-12T08:57:14-05:00November 4th, 2020|Blog, Health, Medicaid|
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Congress, “Pay Attention to the Road” and Invest in Kids NOW!

The actress Andie MacDowell observes what we all know. She suggests, “We've become such a multitasking society that just paying attention to the road doesn't seem to be that important anymore. I have to remind my kids all the time that that's what you're supposed to be doing in the car.” MacDowell’s assertion is surely true when it comes to parents and paying attention to the road of home life. In this pandemic, working remotely, [...]

By |2020-10-01T14:15:25-04:00September 30th, 2020|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health|
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