Children's Defense Fund in America

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Fights to Pull Families Out of Poverty

Jul 24, 2007 Sandra Williams

Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative helps break the poverty cycle by supporting preventative measures for minorities, poor and disabled children.

The Children's Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure children get a fair, healthy, moral and safe head start. They do this by providing support for families and communities with a voice for children who cannot speak for themselves. CDF is a private non-profit organization that has been operating since 1973.

Their focus is more specifically on minorities, poor and disabled children. These children are more disadvantaged and vulnerable to premature death, imprisonment and inadequate health care.

One of CDF’s successful programs in the United States is called “Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative”. They work to break this cycle by preventative measures such as:

Helping pull families out of poverty. Poverty is one of the largest contributors to children leading marginalized lives. A disproportionate number of minority children are living in poverty. These children are at more risk for abuse, neglect, delinquency, violence and academic failure.

Statistics on poverty in the U.S.

More than 1 in 3 black children live in poverty

Nearly 1 in 3 Native American children live in poverty

Nearly 1 in 3 Latino children live in poverty

1 in 10 white

1 in 10 Asian

Poor children are less likely to have access to appropriate health care. Nine million children in the United States have no medical insurance. Of those nine million, 87% have a working parent. Black children are almost twice as likely to be uninsured while Latino children are three times as likely to have inadequate prenatal care.

One result of having inadequate prenatal care can be a lower birth weight, which could possibly contribute to academic difficulties as well as behavior problems.

Early childhood education and development programs like Head Start are encouraged through the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Initiative. The higher the quality of education is for children, the lower the levels are for juvenile delinquency so the results are fewer arrests and a higher likelihood of graduating.

One of Cradle to Prison Pipeline's goals is to increase access to mental health care. Poor children are less likely to receive appropriate mental health services. Up to three quarters of incarcerated youths have mental health disorders and one in five have a severe disorder. More black youths are incarcerated than whites and they are less likely to obtain proper mental health care.

Protecting children from violence: Minorities are more likely to be killed by gunfire in the United States. In 2003, 2,827 children died from firearm injuries. 1,052 of them were black, 707 white, 427 Hispanic, 39 Asian and 24 were native.

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. She was the first black woman to be admitted to the Mississippi bar and graduated from Spelman College and Yale Law School. In 1968 she became counsel for Martin Luther KIng's Poor People's Campaign. She's received numerous degrees and awards including Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship.

You can help support the Children’s Defense Fund movement by joining, contributing a donation or purchasing a t-shirt.

"No person has the right to rain on your dreams." Marian Wright Edelman

Sources: The Children's Defense Fund: The voice for all children in America

The copyright of the article Children's Defense Fund in America in Poverty/World Development is owned by Sandra Williams. Permission to republish Children's Defense Fund in America in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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