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Statement on Passage of Senate Bill 148 by the Kentucky Senate

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates LOUISVILLE, KY – Today, the Kentucky Senate passed Senate Bill 148, sponsored by Senator Danny Carroll, as an important step to strengthen local options for families seeking regulated home-based family child care. Kentucky has experienced a dramatic decline in the number of family child care home providers over the last decade, often due to burdensome planning and zoning requirements on [...]

By |2021-02-24T15:18:07-05:00February 24th, 2021|Economic Security, Education, News Room|
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2021 Bills to Watch that Seek to Advance Race Equity for Kids

As our commonwealth works to overcome the “dual pandemics” of COVID-19 and systemic racism, Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children have a common vision of a brighter future for every Kentucky kid and their family. We are counting on legislative leaders to prioritize policies that advance race equity and address systemic racism in the current and future legislative sessions. We previously shared our commitment to ensure all policies within the 2021 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children policy agenda [...]

By |2021-02-18T14:26:41-05:00February 18th, 2021|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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Thank You to Our 2020 Census Champions Awardees

We love giving awards to decision makers who have stepped up for kids. This year during Children's Advocacy Week, in addition to the usual Champions for Children awards given to legislators who prioritized kids during last year’s General Assembly, we also gave 2020 Census Champions awards to those in state government who went above and beyond to promote a fair and complete 2020 Census count of the commonwealth. Going into 2020, I thought the [...]

By |2021-02-16T15:21:05-05:00February 16th, 2021|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Kids Count, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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Help Is On The Way for Child Care Providers: What’s Coming and How To Get It

Help is finally on the way for Kentucky’s struggling child care sector. We know that it continues to be a rough environment for child care providers  and their employees -- similar to other small businesses that rely on face-to-face interaction. The struggles of the pandemic continue to impact child care as much as, or perhaps even more than, ever before. In late December 2020 the U.S. Congress passed and the President signed into law a [...]

By |2021-02-12T11:27:14-05:00February 11th, 2021|Blog, Economic Security, Education|
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Statement on Passage of Senate Bill 148 by the Senate Health and Welfare

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates LOUISVILLE, KY – Now more than ever, we know that parents rely on safe, affordable child care to be able to work. Even before the pandemic, Kentucky parents lacked child care options, especially families of color and those in rural parts of the state. Today, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed Senate Bill 148, sponsored by Senator Danny Carroll, [...]

By |2021-02-10T10:29:53-05:00February 10th, 2021|Economic Security, Education, News Room|
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Gov. Beshear and Leadership from the Kentucky House and Senate Join Hundreds of Youth and Advocates for Virtual Rally for Kentucky Kids

CONTACT: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org Louisville, KY – Hundreds of youth advocates from across Kentucky are virtually convening this week for Children’s Advocacy Week. They are urging elected leaders to support the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, a unified agenda for child advocates across the state. Today, in place of the gathering in the Capitol Rotunda, advocates and state leaders tuned into the first virtual Rally for Kentucky Kids. "Today, youth, social workers, faith leaders, teachers, pediatricians, child care providers, community leaders, [...]

By |2021-02-02T11:01:06-05:00February 2nd, 2021|Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, News Room, Race Equity, Youth Justice|
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Children’s Advocacy Week is Here! 3 Action Steps for You

It’s time, advocates! Children’s Advocacy Week is upon us. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and momentum to address systemic racism in Kentucky, your advocacy is more important than ever. Here are three action steps you need to take during—and in preparation for—Children’s Advocacy Week: 1. Check out the Children’s Advocacy Week schedule and build your personal schedule in our new app. Monday, February 1 11 AM EST – Kick-Off Event with comments from Senator David Givens 12 PM [...]

By |2021-01-29T11:05:14-05:00January 28th, 2021|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Youth Justice|
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Getting Down to Business: Growing Child Care to Grow Our Local Communities

If these uncertain times have taught Kentuckians anything, it is to value the essential services that so many of us took for granted. We might have never stopped to imagine a day without toilet paper or cleaning supplies, but we quickly realized the importance of our grocery workers when they filled their shelves. We might have never known what a blessing good health is until we depended upon our doctors and nurses to care for [...]

By |2021-02-17T08:36:35-05:00January 21st, 2021|Blog, Economic Security, Education|
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OP-ED: Synergy Can Be a Game Changer in Frankfort for Kentucky Kids

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in The Courier Journal on January 15, 2021. Oxpeckers and zebras. Oxpeckers are small African birds which count on zebras as their key nutritional sources, eating the ticks that cluster on zebras. And zebras? Well, they depend on oxpeckers as pest control agents. The oxpeckers also make a hissing sound whenever they sense a threat, acting as the zebras’ early warning security system to escape to safer locales [...]

By |2021-01-15T13:26:08-05:00January 15th, 2021|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Medicaid, Race Equity|
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2021 State Budget Update and Call to Action

The legislature has been in session since January 5th and during this time the Governor has shared his budget proposal and the Kentucky House of Representatives filed a continuation version of the budget to expedite the process within this short legislative session. A continuation budget is exactly what it sounds like – how can we maintain, or continue, the state budget that was developed in 2020 into 2021. The Kentucky House and Senate have both [...]

By |2021-01-14T18:40:16-05:00January 14th, 2021|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Medicaid, Race Equity|
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