Stand w. Planned Parenthood on Pink Out Day – 9/29/2015 – Cecile Richards says “78%+ of Planned Parenthood patients have yearly incomes at or below $37,000 or 150% of the federal poverty line for a family of four”. Planned Parenthood has 59 unique, locally governed affiliates nationwide that operate approximately 700 health centers, which reflect the diverse needs of their communities. These Planned Parenthood health centers provide a wide range of safe, reliable health care — and the majority is preventive, primary care, which helps prevent read more…
Forty-three million of our U.S. workers have no paid sick leave. For them, the threat of homelessness looms large. These workers may be unskilled with intermittent and unscheduled part-time work. They may earn minimum wage that pays about one-half the cost of food, shelter and childcare. Employers must give time off for sickness without termination by the Family Leave Act, but not paid sick leave. Every worker, and his or her children and their grand parents experience illness. Children with a fever read more…
My husband, George, believed that women and men need unlimited access to information on sexuality and birth control so as to avoid abortion. He also believed in a woman’s right to choose abortion as a last resort. He understood the power of the sexual impulse that has peopled the world, and also the critical importance of a woman choosing the appropriate time for parenthood, even at the risk of abortion. George was a general surgeon for women, and he performed read more…
There is conflict between ‘pro-life’ people who emphasize right to life of the fetus, and ‘pro-choice’ folks who emphasize the life of the growing child and parent readiness. Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. points out this flaw in the ‘pro-life’ movement: No concern is shown for the healthy development of a child after birth. It costs money for the government to promote the healthy growth of infants and children – money that low and minimum waged parents lack. But many ‘pro-lifers’ do read more…
by Ellie Richardson Through my weeks of volunteering, I’ve noticed that one girl in particular doesn’t like to do art projects because she “doesn’t know how to draw”. At first, this seemed silly to me; it didn’t matter if the art was good or not, so long as she expressed herself. But when I saw her look around at the other girl’s drawings, then immediately erase what she’d produced, I could see read more…
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child tax credit subsidize the low wages of working families and help to fill the gap between income and the cost of basic needs so as to avert homelessness.
By Ellie Richardson Anxiety in children usually comes from a sudden turn of events, or a fear of that sudden change happening. This is why it is always important to explain to children what is happening, or better yet, what is going to happen, so that they know what to expect in situations they may not be familiar with. Today, during my volunteer work, two different children in my group had melt-downs due to a lack of this explanation. The read more…
By Ellie Richardson Having volunteered at the same organization for a few weeks now, I’ve begun to notice a pattern in the way the children’s activities are structured. Because this particular program is focused on literacy, the class always begins with reading a book to the children. This part of the class is also paired with a short “discussion” period, in which the topic of the book being read is introduced. For example, one day we were reading a book read more…
At our literacy program children made the letters in their names out of pipe cleaners. This was easy for some, but others needed a lot of help to visualize the letter and imagine making it, rather than writing it. Every child liked to roll up the pipe cleaner to make the dot for the small “i”! Eventually, each child had their name at their place on the table. Our literacy program is well supervised. Each volunteer has an interview, must read more…
Teaching isn’t just providing their students with information, it’s also listening to the students for information about themselves and how they learn. One day while doing my volunteer work at a summer literacy program for young girls, I was put in charge of making sure each girl wrote a sentence about the picture they were drawing. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. In fact, this sentence-writing activity was apparently one of the biggest activities of the year that marked each girl’s progress in read more…
Please sign up and join 500 other volunteer advocates who support the safety net for our nation's children. We send monthly emails suggesting ways to help. Too many parents are working for low wages that prevent them from paying for safe childcare, early education and adequate health care. They need support!
