Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), the region’s leading child advocacy organization, has been advancing the well-being of children and families for more than 27 years. It's because of the investment in PCCY from business leaders like you that we are able to continue to improve the lives and life chances of children in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Much of our success has been our ability to work across all issue areas, to take advantage of every chance we see to improve the lives of children, and to recognize the importance of speaking truth to power on behalf of those who are rarely heard. In more than 27 years we have demonstrated persistence and independence, flexibility in speaking out on issues as they appeared and consistency in working to assure that all children are as safe and healthy as they can be. We have worked to increase their opportunity to arrive at school ready to learn and to have their schools ready and able to teach them. We have helped them grow into caring and capable adults and we are looking forward to continuing this work. During this past year, we have celebrated several “Wins for Kids”. We have:
- Connected 1,400 children to much needed health insurance and dental care;
- Connected 1,000 children to vision care through our Give Kids Sight Day program
- Successfully advocated to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), resulting in 4,700 additional children being insured throughout the Commonwealth since March, 2007;
- Fought to get the lead out of children’s lives resulting in Philadelphia being the most improved city in the nation in decreasing the dangers of lead in children’s lives;
- Advocated and won free transportation for Philadelphia students to get to school;
- Played a major role in securing a historic increase of $200 million for early care and education in Pennsylvania. The increase established Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, which provides high quality pre-kindergarten for 11,000 children;
- Advocated for increased counselors and social workers in schools to prevent youth from dropping out and to increase safety;
- Supported small schools and lower class size and advocated to save initiatives that showed positive results in schools;
- Provided children in Philadelphia’s public schools with arts and music opportunities through our Picasso Project;
- Developed Behavioral Health Resource Guides in Bucks and Delaware counties connecting children and families to much needed behavioral health services.
Our persistence, flexibility and independence have allowed us to respond to new issues as they appear. Neither city, state nor federal funds support our core work and our bottom line will continue to be the well-being of children. We anticipate:
- Expanding our work in the region on behalf of babies as well as adolescents, insisting that all our children have a community that supports them in after school and pre-school, in health care, child care, education and safety;
- Working with organizations across the region to develop policies to decrease incidents of youth violence;
- Improving school funding and fairness, school climate and student success throughout the region;
- Publishing and distributing Behavioral Health Resource Guides for Montgomery and Chester counties;
- Writing and distributing health care resource guides that will reach over 4,000 school nurses and counselors in the five-county region to help connect students to much needed medical and behavioral health services;
- Reacting to issues that affect the well-being of our region’s children through proactive measures of thoughtful advocacy.
In order for PCCY to continue to be the leading child advocacy organization in the region, we need you to join us. By becoming part of the Corporate Collaborative at the $2,500 level, you will be investing in our most precious resource – our children. We all know that communities that are good for children, are good for families and are good for business!
For your contribution of $2,500 or more, you will receive recognition in all of PCCY’s major reports, in our year end annual report and on our website. Other opportunities are available for corporations interested in funding a report or special project at PCCY. For more information about corporate sponsorships, contact PCCY’s Development Director Louise Pangborn at 215-563-5848 x 20 or louisep@pccy.org. Thanks again for your continued support! We will keep you connected throughout the year on our “Wins and Works for Kids!”
