Advocacy in the Time of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a life-altering impact on daily routines throughout the world. While we navigate the personal and professional challenges this crisis brings, the work of advocating for children and their families never stops. Here’s just some of the things the Ahlquist Center has been advocating for in response to COVID-19: Relief for […]
Supporting the Community Schools Model
A major focus of the Ahlquist Center for Policy, Practice and Innovation is to ensure adequate, sustained funding for community school programs—a proven model that improves learning outcomes for students in under-resourced school districts. The community schools approach brings together public schools, non-profit organizations and local businesses, community schools to provide a broad range of programs […]
Improving Child Welfare in Illinois
Today Children’s Home & Aid staff, including Melissa Ludington, Vice President of Child Welfare Services, and Amber Hoeft, Foster Care Case Manager, joined Andrea Durbin, CEO of Illinois Collaboration on Youth to testify before the Illinois House Appropriation Human Services Committee. At the hearing, the group testified about shortcomings in the child welfare system in Illinois and […]
How the State can Support School/Community Partnerships
On Friday, November 17, a panel of speakers testified at the Illinois State Board of Education Budget (ISBE) Hearing in Chicago on behalf of the Federation of Community Schools to ask that ISBE include a $15 million Community School program line in its FY19 budget. The panel included Patrick Brosnan from the Brighton Park Neighborhood […]
Ensuring Youth in Illinois Live Exceptional Lives
The Ahlquist Center On September 20, the Ahlquist Center for Policy, Practice & Innovation at Children’s Home & Aid convened a group of 30 policy practitioners to introduce the framework for Start to Finish: Completing Our Commitment to Youth, an initiative focused on youth ages 8-25. The goal of the initiative is to begin to […]
Action Alert: Urge Governor to Fully Restore CCAP
Today early childhood advocates across the state will call on Governor Rauner to fulfill his promise to restore access to affordable child care for thousands of working families. In November 2015, months after the Governor made dramatic and devastating changes to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), a compromise was reached to bring income eligibility […]
Thank You from Redeploy Illinois
Participants from Children’s Home + Aid’s Madison County Redeploy Illinois program and the 20th Judicial Circuit Redeploy Illinois program recently gathered together to express their gratitude to local legislators for their votes to end the Illinois budget crisis. Redeploy Illinois is a court mandated program that serves youth who are being considered for an evaluation or a […]
Take Action Tuesday, June 27 – Demand of State Legislators a Full Budget with New Revenue
Illinois is in its final days of the special session and fiscal year. The state is currently poised to enter our third year without a full budget, increasing the damage to our communities, schools, human service and healthcare sectors. Lawmakers are in a special session through June 30th. There is no guarantee that the Governor and […]
Children’s Mental Health: Championing a System of Care
Over 43,000 children in Winnebago County alone rely on medical assistance programs, including Medicaid[1], to provide for their physical and mental health needs. In addition, children in foster care receive Medicaid benefits regardless of the income of their families. With substantial cuts to Medicaid pending at the federal level, providers are concerned about the state’s […]
From Help to Hope
After emerging from a series of physically and emotionally abusive relationships, 37-year-old Stacey found her five children, ages 3 to 17, struggling to cope. Stacey’s two oldest children often fought with each other, sometimes violently, and both lacked motivation to work or do well in school. Stacey’s middle daughter faced anger issues and was quick […]
Employment Opportunities for At-risk Youth
When Louis Blake found himself homeless at age 15, he made his way to a shelter that works with homeless teens, which in turn referred him to Children’s Home + Aid. Louis was initially served by the Comprehensive Community-Based Youth Services (CCBYS) program, which provided support for teens who are homeless. Sadly, the program that […]
Funding for Healthy Families Illinois
Last week, Jaime Russell, Program Manager of Children’s Home + Aid’s Family Support Services in the Central Region, testified at a Senate Appropriations I Committee hearing. Jaime spoke in support of funding the Healthy Families Illinois and Parents Too Soon home visiting programs in the Illinois Department of Human Services’ budget at the $16.9 million level […]
Ready by 21 National Meeting
Children’s Home + Aid Policy Manager Stefanie Polacheck and The Federation for Community Schools Director Melissa Mitchell joined hundreds of youth advocates from around the country at the 6th Annual Ready by 21 National Meeting held in Austin last week. Each year, the Ready by 21 National Meeting brings together hundreds of leaders from around the country […]
Opportunity Youth
Children’s Home + Aid’s Director of Youth Services, Jimi Orange, Youth Mentor Avery Sterling, and client Lewis Blake spoke with Chicago Tonight recently to discuss the City of Chicago’s efforts to reengage youth ages 16 to 24 who are neither in school nor currently working. The Chicago Tonight story is a follow up from the Thrive Chicago Opportunity […]
Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act
On Sunday, March 19, Children’s Home + Aid Policy Manager Stefanie Polacheck joined U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and U.S. Representative Danny Davis at a news conference at the University of Chicago Medical Center to announce the introduction of the Trauma Informed Care for Children and Families Act. The proposed legislation addresses the lack of identification, referral, and […]
How are we investing our public funding so youth thrive by 25?
On March 1, we attended the Illinois Collaboration on Youth (ICOY) Advocacy Day in Springfield in order to present to both legislators and advocates, for the first time ever, a complete analysis or “fiscal scan” of the state’s investments in older youth. This scan takes a new approach to the state budget, organizing it by […]
State of the Budget at Stake: Take Action Today
Many of you may have seen the Responsible Budget Coalition’s call to contact legislators today to pass a budget that fully funds human services. The RBC action alert can be seen here. Our own call to action is at the bottom of this post. Today at 2 p.m., the Senate Appropriations I Committee will hear […]