With fall around the corner, we’ve just begun our 2024-2025 program year here at CCC. As we say goodbye to summer, we’re looking ahead with renewed commitment to our priorities and mission as we prepare for new legislative sessions and budget discussions at both the state and city levels. We are confident in the solutions we champion to truly and positively impact child well-being and are ready for the advocacy work that lies ahead.

What’s Been Done Recently?

By the final state and city budgets for Fiscal Year 2025 in the spring and summer respectively, CCC’s efforts, with the help of dedicated advocates, supporters, and partners, influenced and protected investments that play a critical role in the everyday lives of children, youth, and families. This included restoring city investments that prioritize access to 3-K and Pre-K, baselined investments for significant city programs like CityFHEPS, millions in restorations to Education programs that were slated to expire with the end of federal COVID-19 relief funding, and more. At the state level, this included increased funding for anti-hunger programs, securing millions for a one-year supplemental tax credit to those eligible for the Empire State Child Credit, and a new requirement that commercial insurance plans reimburse for outpatient behavioral health services at the same level as Medicaid, to name a few. You will be able to read more about our accomplishments in our Annual Report later this fall. Achieving these substantial wins is worth celebrating, but more must be done to address continued issues overwhelming families across New York and to enhance existing programs that can help.

What’s Happening Now?

While troubling headlines persist, so does our work to address fundamental needs of children and families. Most recently, a New York Times article was published that speaks to our mission—a guest essay from the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, dissecting the high levels of stress parents increasingly find themselves under titled, “Parents Are at Their Wits’ End. We Can Do Better.” CCC knows well that parental stress is directly tied to the policies our legislators chose to (or not to) implement for child well-being. This is precisely why our work centers on policies and investments that address economic security and positively impact health, housing, education, and safety. As the Surgeon General states, “a recent study by the American Psychological Association revealed that 48% of parents say most days their stress is completely overwhelming… They are navigating traditional hardships of parenting — worrying about money and safety, struggling to get enough sleep — as well as new stressors, including omnipresent screens, a youth mental health crisis and widespread fear about the future.”

Though parental stress in not a new phenomenon, what has become novel is the pervasive impact of overlapping affordability issues and crises touching nearly every household in New York. For instance, evictions are spiking as NYC rents hit an all-time high this summer; as we address the child care crisis in both the city and upstate, providers continue to grapple with poverty wages at high rates–within the child care industry, the median wage last year was $32,900, compared with a statewide median of $54,300 for all workers while 12% of child care workers in New York State fall below the poverty line; and, as the poverty rate remains higher in New York than the national average, one in four children in New York City are experiencing food insecurity.  As we face this reality, CCC is at the forefront of campaigns and coalitions dedicated to addressing these issues head on. Each year our priorities move the needle on improving well-being for children and families and this program year promises to expand this work further.

What’s Our Plan for the Program Year?

Throughout the 2024-2025 program year, CCC’s teams will continue to develop targeted products in response to our ongoing research and data, the Fiscal Year 2025 budgets and related legislation, and in support of advancing our priorities in Fiscal Year 2026. These products, a collaboration between the teams that make up the three pillars of our work, will aim to address community and family resource needs, assess the impact of services with recommendations for improvements, and ensure that our elected leaders prioritize community access to important city and state benefits and supports. We are also continuing to work with partners and elected leaders to address issues with enrollment and outreach in the 3-K system in NYC, advance legislation that addresses food insecurity, including supporting free school meals for all and SNAP benefit expansion, elevating service improvement recommendations for housing assistance, and pushing for Raise the Age funding to finally reach NYC’s youth communities, to name a few examples.

Here’s just a small taste of what’s coming down the pipeline from now until next summer:

• A policy brief assessing the impact of Universal Basic Income pilot programs
• Policy guidance on advancing operational solutions for issues impacting the Early Childhood Education and youth services systems (such as enrollment and outreach)
• An assessment of unmet need for children on Medicaid as it relates to mental and behavioral health
• A series of webinars detailing key findings from Keeping Track of NYC’s Children 2024 and how it impacts policy recommendations
• A youth-led advocacy platform product that will highlight key investments that youth want to see prioritized (determined by statewide listening sessions of young people ages 14-22)
• A new Index on Child and Family Well-being in New York State
• An interactive, citywide map of apartment buildings with open lead paint violations
• AND, so much more from CCC and in collaboration with partners and coalitions!

Our tenure as an organization whose mission encompasses a holistic approach to child and family well-being through policy, legislation, and investments backed by both qualitative and quantitative research, allows us the unique ability to impact change across issue areas each year. We hope reading this will inspire you to stick with us through another program year filled with rallies, testimonies, budget assessments, research products, and more and keep you motivated to stand with us when it’s time to make our voices heard.

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