- New Advocacy Toolkit for Doctors on DFT web site
- Voter registration
- CHIP funds at risk
- The Safety Net In Action, a new C-SNAP report
- Early Childhood Development Chartbook
1. Please visit the Docs For Tots web site to view the new Advocacy Toolkit for Doctors that provides information about how to get started in child advocacy. In addition, we posted talking points on the following topics: Foster Care, Child Advocacy, and Voting’s Impact on Child Health and Development. (http://www.docsfortots.org/Links.htm Please let us know if there are topics you would like to see covered on the web site, dft@docsfortots.org.
2. Please encourage and assist families in registering to vote before the upcoming election. There are still several weeks left to register to vote. If you would like to receive a free voter registration packet which includes a poster, state voter registration forms, magnets and stickers, please contact Kate Irish, kirish@docsfortots.org. This project, a partnership with The Every Child Matters Education Fund (www.everychildmatters.org) has been very well received so far as we have had many requests from and sent many packets out to our network doctors.
3. Doctors can use their influential voices to encourage Congress to preserve important CHIP funding. An estimated $1 billion in Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds from prior years will expire on September 30, 2004 without action from Congress. A bipartisan proposal by Sens. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) would keep all CHIP funds in the program and available to states through FY 2007 when the program will need to be reauthorized by Congress. Please contact your legislators to voice your opinion on CHIP funding. To find the contact information for your elected official, go to http://www.capwiz.com/cdf/dbq/officials. For more information about the importance of children’s health insurance, http://www.docsfortots.org/documents/PublicHealthInsurancetalkingpoints.pdf
4. The Safety Net In Action: Protecting the Health and Nutrition of Young American Children. Findings from this Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP) report indicate that it is more cost-effective to fund food stamps, WIC and other social safety net programs essential to reducing and preventing illness than to pay for expensive hospitalizations among babies and toddlers. This report provides an overview of six years of research on the link between food, health, nutrition and family assistance programs and young children’s well-being. https://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/csnappublic/CSNAP2004.pdf
5. Early Childhood in Social Context: A Chartbook, released by The Commonwealth Fund and Child Trends, contains more than 30 indicators of development and health for children up to age six along with social factors in the family and neighborhood that affect these outcomes. The report looks at:
- How children are faring on indicators of intellectual development such as reading proficiency and expressive language;
- Indicators of socio-emotional development such as behavioral self-control and social competence;
- The link between good health practices and social, emotional and intellectual development of young children; and
- The effects of family function and parental health on how young children grow and develop.
To view the chartbook, please visit: http://www.cmwf.org/usr_doc/ChildTrends-Chartbk2004h.pdf
