Posted on January 26, 2024
Did you know that nearly half of all U.S. families with babies struggle to afford diapers? This struggle is commonly referred to as diaper need. Read the brief below by ACNJ’s Olivia Carrara, in which she addresses the issues contributing to diaper need and recommendations, such as supporting diaper banks, to help reduce it.
Posted on January 26, 2024
ACNJ is a seeking a Fundraising Manager!
Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) is a leading children’s advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of children. ACNJ educates, engages, and collaborates with policymakers, advocates, and the public to advance and strengthen policies and programs that promote equitable opportunities for all children, addressing their needs identified by parents and community partners, data, research, and policy analysis, and a 45-year track record of improving outcomes for children.
ACNJ is currently seeking a Fundraising Manager to help raise increased resources for the organization. While providing overall leadership and management for all of ACNJ’s fund development activities, the Fundraising Manager will focus most of their direct efforts on working with the President and Board to increase revenues from individuals and businesses.
Detailed Functional Activities:
Individual Donor
Board Liaison and Development
Events
Collaboration with Communications & Media Management
Technology
Qualifications:
Experience and Credential Requirements:
At ACNJ, we want staff to love their work and show respect and empathy to all. We encourage staff to work together across positions and roles. We are being deliberate and self-reflective about the team and culture that we are building, seeking staff who have different strengths, backgrounds, and experiences, and who share a passion for improving outcomes for children and strengthening families. We believe that diversity and inclusion will be key to our success and are seeking candidates who are strong in their aptitudes and who care deeply about supporting each other's growth. The viewpoints of all of our employees and board members are key to our success. ACNJ’s offices are located in Newark, NJ and staff is currently working a hybrid schedule of 3 days in the office and 2 days remote.
Anyone interested in the applying for the position should email their resume, cover letter and writing sample to Mary Coogan at mcoogan@acnj.org.
Posted on January 16, 2024
New Jersey Ranks High in Child Well-Being, but Across the Country, Children of Color Face Disparate Outcomes, Jeopardizing Their Well-Being and America’s Future
2024 Race for Results Report Identifies Gaps in Child Well-Being That Persist Across Race and Ethnicity, Caused by Policy Choices That Shortchange Young People
NEWARK, NJ — New Jersey outpaces national statistics when it comes to enrollment in early education, high school graduation rates and the percentage of young adults completing an associate degree or higher. However, those results are in the context of a nationwide failure to equip all children to succeed, with policy choices and lack of support for families resulting in particularly dire outcomes for Black, Latino and American Indian or Alaskan Native.
Read Report: 2024 RACE FOR RESULTS: BUILDING A PATHWAY TO OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL CHILDREN
Key Findings:
“While New Jersey ranks well compared to other states for children living at or above the poverty level, even when broken down by race and ethnicity, it is important for us to compare how New Jersey’s children are doing in relationship with each other. ” said Mary Coogan, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey, the state’s member of the KIDS COUNT network. “Key legislation like the state’s expanded child tax credit has helped thousands of families, but we must do more to ensure that children from all corners of the state have the opportunity to thrive.”
The Race for Results index standardizes scores across 12 indicators representing well-being milestones from cradle to career, converting them into a scale ranging from 0 to 1,000 to make it easy to compare and see differences across states and racial and ethnic groups. Indicators are grouped into four areas: early childhood, education and early work experiences, family resources and neighborhood context. Overall child well-being in New Jersey, when broken down by race/ethnicity, ranged from 465 for Black children, to 877 for Asian and Pacific Islander children.
Nationally, Asian and Pacific Islander children have the highest index score at 771, followed by white children at 697 and children of two or more races at 612. Scores for Latino (452), American Indian or Alaska Native (418) and Black children (386) are considerably lower. Calculations of the index for all 50 states show that experiences vary widely depending on where a child lives, from a high of 877 for Asian and Pacific Islander children in New Jersey to a low of 180 for American Indian or Alaska Native children in South Dakota.
Young people are missing critical developmental milestones as a direct result of choices to fail to invest in policies, programs and services that support children, especially in under-resourced communities and communities of color.
The Casey Foundation introduced the Race for Results index in a 2014 report and updated it in 2017. This third edition of the report carries data from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that demonstrates both the urgency of ensuring all children can thrive, and the promise of policy prescriptions for achieving that goal. Race for Results contends that young people are missing critical developmental milestones as a direct result of choices to not invest in policies, programs and services that support children, especially in under-resourced communities and communities of color.
The Casey Foundation makes several recommendations in Race for Results toward improving outcomes for all children:
The 2024 Race for Results report is available at http://www.aecf.org.
Posted on January 11, 2024
By Alena Siddiqui
For more information on this topic or kids count data, contact Alena at asiddiqui@acnj.org
On January 10, 2024, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its 2024 Race for Results policy report. This report comes ten years after the first Race for Results report in 2014, and through a variety of indicators illustrates the well-being of young people living in the United States. The data is broken down by race, ethnicity, and immigrant family status, which illustrates a more detailed view of the diversity in the United States.
The policy report provides an Overall Index which gives a combined score out of 1,000 possible index points for each racial/ethnic group. New Jersey is doing quite well for each racial/ethnic group compared to the United States as a whole (Table 1). Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander young people living in New Jersey have the highest overall index in the country. New Jersey’s young non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native population has the second-highest overall index in the country. Despite New Jersey’s children faring better than many across the nation, it is crucial for policymakers and the community at large to compare the state’s children to each other to understand where help is needed and then create actionable change. The indicators chosen for this report are reflective of different facets of a child’s life broken into four categories: early childhood, education and early work experiences, family resources, and neighborhood context. Over the next few weeks, ACNJ will be spotlighting some data points from each of these categories.
Family Resources
Based on data collected during 2017-2021, about 71% of children in New Jersey are living at or above 200% of the poverty level, an increase from 68% in 2012-2016. For a family of four, 200% of the poverty level is approximately $55,000. When that data is broken down by race/ethnicity, we see disparities. For instance, 87% of non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander children and 82% of non-Hispanic White children were living at or above 200% of the poverty level. Also, of the children who are Hispanic/Latino or of non-Hispanic Black or African American background, only 5 of every 10 are living at or above 200% of the poverty level. While this is an increase from 2012-2016, as non-Hispanic Black or African American children were at 48% and Hispanic/Latino children were at 45%, the statistics show that equitable work needs to be done to address these racial/ethnic disparities. When categorized by family type, 74% of children in U.S. born families are living at or above 200% of the poverty level compared to 66% of children in immigrant families.
Neighborhood Context
Another interesting indicator related to poverty is the percentage of children living in low-poverty areas. Low-poverty areas are those areas where less than 20% of families have incomes below the poverty level. The reason the Annie E. Casey Foundation included this indicator is because past policies, like redlining, have led to families of color more often living in high-poverty neighborhoods. In 2017-2021, 8 of every 10 children in New Jersey were living in low-poverty areas (Table 2). This table shows the same trend where children living in New Jersey, while doing better than their counterparts nationwide, still need help to escape systemic poverty. Also, 85% of children in U.S. born families and 80% of children in immigrant families living in the Garden State are in low-poverty areas compared to nationally, where the numbers are 80% and 76% respectively.
The 2024 Race for Results report has many other interesting indicators which show the well-being of our children. You can learn more about the report and access it here.
Posted on January 10, 2024
By Hannah Korn-Heilner, Policy Associate
For more information on this topic, contact Hannah at hkornheilner@acnj.org
By Olivia Carrara, Leontine Young Fellow
For more information on this topic, contact Olivia at ocarrara@acnj.org
The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly known as WIC, provides supplemental nutritious food to pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, and to infants and children up to the age of five in New Jersey households, with incomes up to 185% of the federal poverty level, which is $55,500 for a family of four. WIC also provides nutrition education and counseling, breastfeeding education and support, immunization screening and referrals, referrals for free or reduced-cost health care, and referrals to health or social services. New Jersey’s WIC enrollment increased 9% between 2022 and 2023, while the state participation rate increased 11%. Despite these increases, the number of women, infants, and children actually participating remains lower than the number of those enrolled. ACNJ Kids Count data for 2023 shows that 184,181 women, infants, and children were enrolled in WIC, but only 166,839 were actually participating.
In 2023, members of ACNJ’s Melinated Mom’s Parent Leadership Council interviewed parents across the state about their experiences raising young children in New Jersey. Five parents from Essex, Camden, Burlington, and Hudson Counties shared how beneficial the WIC program has been to their families, providing critical funds to purchase formula and other necessities such as milk, eggs, and fruits. Parents appreciated the healthy food options and the opportunity to meet with a dietician who suggested helpful recipes. Parents indicated that the application process was easy–one parent even mentioned receiving the application in the hospital, allowing the benefits to start quickly without having to make a trip to the WIC office. In recent years, WIC transitioned to e-cards, which alleviates parents from the need to pick up their check at the WIC office each month. Parents report that the e-cards make it easier to purchase food in stores.
Parents also shared ways to improve WIC. They cited a need for all formulas to be allowable under WIC, including special formulas made for babies with particular dietary requirements. Parents also recommended that WIC expand its food options to include a wider variety of choices so that they can have greater autonomy over what they are feeding their families.
ACNJ’s Maternal and Infant Health Workgroup recommended that the NJ Department of Health, which implements the State’s WIC Program, maintain the flexible policies put in place during COVID, increase benefit levels and eligibility, and increase outreach and enrollment. While ACNJ applauds state officials for their willingness to brainstorm ways to make the WIC Program more accessible, it recognizes that many of the regulations are set at the federal level. In 2023, the Maternal and Infant Workgroup submitted comments in support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed changes to allow for the usage of WIC benefits in online shopping and food delivery transactions.
Recently the WIC for Kids Act was re-introduced (H.R. 5757), expanding eligibility and improving enrollment by allowing families already enrolled in similar social service programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, and Head Start to be deemed eligible for WIC. Federal funding for WIC may see significant cuts under current federal appropriations bills, creating waiting lists for some and ending eligibility for others. See congress.gov for more specific details.
