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Michigan’s Children is a tireless advocate for children and families, and provides the tools youths, families and communities need to become advocates on their own behalf. Our largest projects and programs include:
Budget Watch
Central to Michigan’s Children work at the state Capitol is Budget Watch, one of our longest-running projects. With funding from The Skillman Foundation, the project is aimed at increasing public awareness of the nature and scope of public investments in children and families in Michigan, and increasing civic involvement in budget decision-making by analyzing public spending and providing frequent written reports detailing the impact of state budget proposals and decisions on children and families through publications, electronic alerts and online.
To read our Budget Basics reports, click here.
Early Childhood Action Network
In 2010, Michigan's Children is partnering with the national Birth to Five
Policy Alliance and several Michigan organizations to take advantage of
a unique opportunity to change the state's economic course by
prioritizing investments in early childhood when the foundation is set
for a lifetime of learning. Michigan's Children will be fighting to protect funding
for early childhood programs, educating legislative candidates on the
value of these investments and building support for early childhood
programs.
To read more about this campaign, click here.
Dropout Prevention and Recovery
One of Michigan’s Children’s top priorities is to ensure that all Michigan children are ready for post-secondary education, work and life. With funding from the C.S. Mott Foundation, Michigan’s Children works with policymakers, communities and youths to identify and remove barriers to education through a variety of means, including youth forums connecting policy makers with youths struggling in school and the programs that are helping them, a statewide summit joining more than 500 interested parties to develop solutions and partnerships, issue papers and fact sheets, work with media, and direct contact with legislators and other policymakers at the local, state and national levels.
To read more about this project, click here.
Federal Advocacy
Michigan’s Children works with national advocacy group First Focus to increase the visibility of children’s issues in federal elections and on federal issues such as health reform, educatin and ensuring that children are a priority in the federal budget. In the 2008 elections, Michigan’s Children collaborated with several partners in outreach to Congressional and Presidential candidates, paid advertisements, electronic communications, and forums aimed at informing voters of candidates’ positions on children’s issues and getting candidates to address and prioritize children’s issues in their campaigns.
To read more about our work on the federal health care issues, click here.
Good Neighborhoods
With funding from The Skillman Foundation, Michigan’s Children works to build the capacity of neighborhood leaders, parents and youths to advocate on their own behalf by providing training and technical assistance to the Foundation’s Good Neighborhood Initiative grantees in six Detroit neighborhoods – Southwest Detroit (Vernor and Chadsey/Condon), Brightmoor, Osborn, Central and Cody/Rouge.
To read more about this project, click here.
Kids Count in Michigan
As a partner in dissemination of the Kids Count Data Book measuring the well-being of children in all of Michigan’s 83 counties and the city of Detroit, Michigan’s Children works with the Michigan League for Human Services to educate policy makers and local communities on using the information available through the Kids Count project to improve planning and decision-making about children’s services. Kids Count in Michigan is part of a broader national effort of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 2008, Michigan’s Children connected hundreds of people around the state with information about the status of children and families in their communities and briefed them on how to best utilize the data for program planning and advocacy strategies. Michigan’s Children also assisted communities in developing strategies to work with local media in order to maximize the impact and reach of important messages and trends found in the data book.
To read more about Kids Count, click here.
KidSpeak Neighborhood News
In 2010, Michigan's Children will launch KidSpeak Neighborhood News, a
youth-driven
multimedia information network offering young people the chance to
become
citizen journalists by producing high-quality content for local Web
sites, TV and radio while boosting involvement in civic life. With oversight from former journalists
acting as mentors, youths will learn to write and produce local news stories about
their neighborhoods for distribution online as well as through partner Web
sites. Detroit Public Television has agreed to broadcast some reports, and
stories will be available for use by media outlets. KSNN is a project of Michigan’s
Children with support from The Skillman Foundation and The
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and in partnership with The Skillman Foundation, the Detroit Free Press, Detroit Public Television, YouthVille
Detroit, Detroit Regional News Hub, Matrix Human Services and the Arab
Community Center for Economic and Social Services.
To read more about KSNN, click here.
Michigan's Promise
Michigan's
Children in 2008 proudly took over leadership of the Michigan's Promise
initative, part of the America's Promise Alliance created in 1997 by
General Colin Powell.
Because of our
strong reputation and history of working to improve life in Michigan
for ALL children, the Michigan Nonprofit Association selected
Michigan's Children to take over the initiative and carry on the
mission of fulfilling Michigan's Promise for the Whole Child, working
to ensure that all young people in Michigan are healthy, safe,
supported and cared for, challenged, engaged and connected.
Voices Leadership Training
Michigan’s Children in 2008 trained more than 250 parents, caregivers and others to be advocates on their own behalf during 11 leadership trainings held in 8 communities during 2008. Participants in these training opportunities are motivated to communicate more consistently with policy makers, and practice skills needed to do so effectively. Staff provides flexible training options to accommodate a variety of local partners. Trainings vary in length and content, but always include opportunities to use the skills developed.
Youth Programs
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KidSpeak® - A signature program of Michigan’s Children, this event brings youths to policymakers to share their concerns on a variety of topics. In 2008, Michigan's Children hosted two KidSpeak® events. The first in
March brought 34 youths representing eight counties (Calhoun, Eaton,
Ingham, Gennessee, Kent, Mecosta, Muskegon, and Wayne) to the state
Capitol where they met with more than 50 state legislators, policy
makers, business representatives, foundation leaders and others for to
talk about a variety of issues important to them. In October, more than
35 youths participated in KidSpeak® :Youth Voices on Election 2008 at
Detroit City Hall. Teenagers without health insurance, youths
struggling to stay in school, young parents and new voters gathered
with elected officials, community leaders and political candidates to
share their hopes and concerns for the election and challenged
candidates to prioritize children’s issues in their campaigns and
administrations. To view photos from the 2008 KidSpeak events, click here.
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KidSpeak Neighborhood News - KidSpeak
Neighborhood News will launch in April 2010 as a multi-media, youth-driven information network offering
young people the chance to learn new skills as citizen journalists by creating high
quality content for local Web sites and broadcast TV and radio, while boosting involvement
in civic life by giving their voices a platform to explore and expound upon public
policy issues related to children and families. KSNN is a project of Michigan’s
Children with support from The Skillman Foundation, as part of its Good Neighborhoods
Program, and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as part of its Knight
Community Information Challenge.
Our
partners include The Skillman Foundation, Detroit Public Television, YouthVille
Detroit, Detroit Regional Hub, Matrix, and the Arab Community Center for
Economic and Social Services (ACCESS).
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Youth Legislative Day - Since 2001, Michigan’s Children has offered Youth Legislative Day as a hands-on approach to teaching the legislative process to youths through total immersion and role-playing. With the help of select legislators and professional lobbyists, students receive training in drafting, researching, debating and voting upon legislation. As if they are elected lawmakers, the young people then participate in committee hearings in the actual House committee rooms and a full debate of the mock bills on the House floor. The practices five youths from around the state a keen awareness of public policy in an effort to stimulate their further interest in civic involvement. To read more about this program, click here.
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Youth Voices Changing Public Policy - Part of the Dropout Recovery & Retention initiative, these forums bring together policy makers and young people who for a variety of reasons have struggled to stay in school. In 2008, forums were held in communities in Wayne, Kent, Genesee, Ingham and Kalamazoo Counties. To read more about this program, click here.
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