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Five Minutes, Your Feedback, and Brighter Futures for Kentucky Kids

We at Kentucky Youth Advocates believe that Kentucky can become the best place in America to be young and that we should settle for nothing less. Over the past several legislative sessions, the Kentucky General Assembly and state government have taken significant steps to improve the lives of children in the Commonwealth, and we are excited about those wins for kids. Yet, we still have a long way to go until all children in Kentucky [...]

By |2018-06-14T10:11:49-04:00June 14th, 2018|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Youth Justice|
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Protecting Girls who have Experienced Abuse: Stopping the Pipeline to Prison

By Cortney Downs, Kentucky Youth Advocates intern Violence against women and girls is nothing new.  Statistics show that females between the ages of 16 and 24 experience dating violence at rates three times higher than the national average, and more than 80% of all sexual assault victims under the age of 18 are girls.  What is often overlooked is that many of these girls fall into something called the abuse to prison pipeline; where the [...]

By |2018-08-01T12:30:22-04:00May 9th, 2018|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Health, Youth Justice|
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Champions Stepping Up for Kentucky Kids

At the 14th annual Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol, hundreds of advocates and youth gathered in the Rotunda to celebrate wins for Kentucky kids in the 2017 legislative session and to rally in support of priorities on the 2018 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children agenda. Kids win when leaders step up for them and the General Assembly took action in 2017 on a number of Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children legislative priorities. Because of those [...]

By |2018-04-03T10:46:49-04:00February 16th, 2018|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education, Justice, Youth Justice|
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Advocates Gather in Frankfort for Children’s Advocacy Day

Hundreds of Kentuckians from across the Commonwealth, including over 150 children and youth, convened in Frankfort today for the 14th annual Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol. They urged elected leaders to support the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children, a unified agenda for child advocates across the state. “Today, youth, faith leaders, teachers, social works, pediatricians, elected leaders, and many others unite to ask our leaders to make Kentucky children a priority during the 2018 legislative session and [...]

By |2018-01-19T09:44:49-05:00January 18th, 2018|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Kids Count, Youth Justice|
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2018 Kentucky State Budget: the Governor’s Proposal

The real takeaway from tonight’s address from Governor Matt Bevin is a question: What kind of commonwealth do we want to be? Is it one in which needed protections for kids are absent and a rising tide of poverty is pervasive? A place where families struggle to stay together and early investments for kids fall to the wayside? Or will we as a commonwealth move towards an environment in which current challenges do not cloud a brighter [...]

By |2018-01-16T21:43:25-05:00January 16th, 2018|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, Youth Justice|
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Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks on Governor Bevin’s State of the Commonwealth and Budget Address

Contact: Mara Powell 502-895-8167 *122 mpowell@kyyouth.org Statement by Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates The real takeaway from tonight’s address from Governor Matt Bevin is a question: What kind of commonwealth do we want to be? Is it one in which needed protections for kids are absent and a rising tide of poverty is pervasive? A place where families struggle to stay together and early investments for kids fall to the wayside? Or will [...]

By |2018-01-16T20:47:07-05:00January 16th, 2018|Economic Security, Education, Health, Justice, News Room, Youth Justice|
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Gifts for Kentucky Kids? Pragmatism and Guts

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Courier Journal on December 22, 2017.  In Tom Loftus’ recent piece, “… Matt Bevin Reaches His Defining Moment as Governor,” we saw a Christmas miracle. Governor Bevin and Representative Jim Wayne, certainly no political doppelgangers, agreed about the imperative of revenue enhancements. The governor wisely — and bravely — proclaimed, “You can’t cut your way into everything. You can’t.” It’s not as if Kentucky has not tried the [...]

By |2017-12-28T17:03:20-05:00December 28th, 2017|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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Get Ready, Get Set: Children’s Advocacy Day and the Advocate Checklist

COMING SOON: THE 2018 KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY In less than a month, on January 2nd, the 2018 Kentucky General Assembly will begin. In just over a month, more than 1,000 advocates—teachers, social workers, youth, judges, and more—will pack the Capitol rotunda in Frankfort and ask our leaders to prioritize kids in their decisions. Join those advocates at the 14th annual Children’s Advocacy Day at the Capitol on Thursday, January 18th! Learn more and register to [...]

By |2017-12-14T10:42:30-05:00December 13th, 2017|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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Announcing the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children 2018 Priorities

The Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children stands on three cornerstones: Thriving communities launch strong families. Strong families launch successful kids. Successful kids launch a prosperous future for Kentucky. We’re launching the 2018 Blueprint policy priorities with partners from across the state with those three cornerstones in mind. We invite you to learn more about the Blueprint priorities and how to get involved. Check out the 2018 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children policy priorities. Read the fact sheets for [...]

By |2017-12-07T10:39:34-05:00December 7th, 2017|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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Moving Forward for Kids: Investments in Our Future

In the 2017 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book, we are introducing a more holistic approach to measuring how children are faring in each Kentucky county. The County Data Book offers the latest data on 17 measures of child well-being, showing whether outcomes for children have improved, worsened, or stayed the same over a five-year period. It also calculates how many children would be impacted if Kentucky was able to make just a 10 percent [...]

By |2017-11-14T09:56:48-05:00November 14th, 2017|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Kids Count, Youth Justice|
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