ACTION ALERTS!

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss updates relating to child nutrition and access to food, including summer EBT, federal investments, and more. Thank you to our panelists: Karena Cash, Advocacy Coordinator with Feeding Kentucky; Leigh Dixon, Community Support Advisor Kentucky Department for Community-Based Services; and Michael Halligan, [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual forum, we discuss the 2021 national KIDS COUNT Data Book, which was recently co-released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Kentucky Youth Advocates. We review Kentucky data included in the book and discuss federal and state recommendations to improve child well-being and ensure [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss young children with special needs, including early identification of special needs and how communities, service providers, and policymakers can support these kids and their families. A special thank you to our panelists: Ivy Alexander, Executive Director of CHFS Office for [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss how school districts are developing their trauma-informed plans, what needs to be included, and how plans will be implemented. As a result of 2019's Senate Bill 1, the School Safety and Resiliency Act, each local board of education must develop [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss teens in foster care and the importance of fostering teens. Thank you to our panelists: Christa Bell, Director of the DCBS Division of Protection and Permanency; Eltuan Dawson, member of True Up and former foster youth; Kelly Pullen, Executive Director of [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss caring for, and working with, kids and youth who have experienced trauma of any kind, including the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic and racialized trauma. Thank you to our panelists: Samantha Behmke, Head Start Behavior Intervention Specialist with Ohio Valley [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss supporting youth aging out of foster care in Kentucky. Thank you to our panelists, including Nikki Thornton, Executive Director of True Up; Paula Garner, President and CEO of Maryhurst; and Cynthia Schepers, a young adult who aged out of foster [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discuss updates on the state of child care in Kentucky. Topics include how the American Rescue Plan funds will be spent, update on Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) enrollment and outreach efforts, the plan for staffed family child care networks, and [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, Dr. Terry Brooks discusses child abuse prevention efforts and supporting Kentucky kids and their families with Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander. We also hear remarks from Governor Andy Beshear and Keith Inman, president of Kosair Charities, which [...]

This week on our Advocate Virtual Forum, we discussed the behavioral health landscape for Kentucky kids and their families, including new Louisville-based qualitative research about barriers to kids receiving high quality care and potential solutions to those barriers. Thank you to our panelists from across the state who shared [...]