Forging Ahead: 2020 General Assembly Carries On

Today’s Kentucky is very different from last week’s Kentucky. Social distancing and the measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are affecting the daily life of every Kentuckian—and the 2020 General Assembly. As of now, the legislature is moving forward on the passage of bills and the state’s biennial budget. Kentucky Youth Advocates, along with many other partners across the state, are continuing to track the progress of bills and work with [...]

One More Lesson from the Pandemic: How the Census Provides for the Most Vulnerable Among Us

By Terry Brooks, Kevin Middleton, and Jill Seyfred The coronavirus pandemic has provided a number of lessons for us as individuals, as community members, and as a country. We’ve learned serious lessons like what social distancing is and how to practice it, as well as lighter lessons like how much toilet paper our families use in a month. Another lesson that has become increasingly clear to us: how much the decennial census permeates the institutions, [...]

Count All Kentucky Kids in the 2020 Census

The 2020 census is here! The census is a once in a decade opportunity to count every person—adults, children, and babies—living in the United States. The population data gathered during the census count is used for everything from funding allocations for critical programs that serve kids and families to drawing voting districts and planning locations for new schools, hospitals, and retail centers. Most children benefit from at least one of the hundreds of federal programs [...]

Guest Post: Early Childhood Educators Have an Important Role to Play in the 2020 Census

This blog was originally posted by the Count All Kids Campaign in partnership with the National Association for the Education of Young Children. This spring, early childhood educators can help secure crucial funding and reduce inequities for the next decade when they work to count all young children in the 2020 Census. When all young children are counted, their communities then get their fair share of over 800 billion dollars a year in federal funding [...]

Fast Facts to Fight the General Assembly Fatigue

Advocates, are you feeling tired as we enter the second half of this year’s General Assembly? Do you wonder if your voice really makes a difference? Are you lacking inspiration to continue calling your representative for another 20+ days? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, this is the blog for you! We are just over a month past Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol, and while we knew that day had some [...]

Statement on SB 87 Passing Kentucky Senate

Contact: Mara Powell 502-895-8167 *122 mpowell@kyyouth.org Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates An efficient and effective youth justice system holds kids accountable, helps them grow up to become contributing members of their community, and increases public safety. While Kentucky has made strides in improving the youth justice system, critical opportunities still persist. And the Kentucky Senate took an important step today to continue progress. We applaud Senator Whitney Westerfield for [...]

By |2020-02-05T15:26:40-05:00February 5th, 2020|News Room, Youth Justice|

Statement on SB 87 Passing Senate Judiciary Committee

Contact: Mara Powell 502-895-8167 *122 mpowell@kyyouth.org Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates Kentucky is a leader in youth justice system reforms in many ways, but there are some practices still in use that we now know do not achieve the best outcomes for kids or communities. Just as a bicycle works best when it uses the right gear for the terrain, our juvenile justice system should use different responses for [...]

By |2020-01-30T10:21:52-05:00January 30th, 2020|News Room, Youth Justice|

5 Best Moments from the 2020 Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol

Last week’s Children’s Advocacy Day has already made an impact in Frankfort. State leaders, from legislators to the Governor, are abuzz with what they heard from advocates.  If you joined us on January 23rd, be sure to fill out this short survey so we can make next year's Children's Advocacy Day at the Capitol even better!  The day was too big to summarize in this blog post, so here are the 5 moments we thought were [...]

Governor Beshear, Lt. Governor Coleman, President Stivers, Speaker Osborne, and Other Elected Leaders Join Hundreds of Youth and Advocates for the 16th Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol

Contact: Mara Powell mpowell@kyyouth.org 502-895-8167 *122 FRANKFORT, KY – Hundreds of Kentuckians from across the Commonwealth, including dozens of children and youth, are convening in Frankfort today for the 16th annual Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol. They are urging elected leaders to support the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, a unified agenda for child advocates across the state. “Today, youth, social workers, faith leaders, teachers, pediatricians, child care providers, community leaders, and many others unite to ask our state [...]

Crafting A State Budget for Kids in 2020

Currently, our state lawmakers are working hard to craft and pass a two-year state budget that would fund the state Cabinets that provide child protection, child care, education, health services, and more. Governor Andy Beshear will present his proposed Executive Branch Budget for the Commonwealth of Kentucky during the Budget Address on Tuesday, January 28th. In the weeks following, the Kentucky House and Senate will work on their version of the budget and resolve differences [...]

Go to Top