Quality early care and education is beneficial for children ages 0-5 and was indicated as a topic of interest for most of the network doctors in Virginia. DFT would like to draw you attention to Voices for Virginia’s Children, a state-wide child advocacy organization.
Voices for Virginia's Children
Voices for Virginia’s Children (www.vakids.org) a state-wide child advocacy organization focuses on four main issue areas through programming and policy work:
- Early Childhood
- Family Economic Success
- Foster Care and Adoption
- Health and Mental Health
While they address many issues that occur at the federal level the vast majority of their work focuses on these issues at the state level.
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) has been a policy issue for Voices for Virginia’s Children for a number of years, and there currently is strong momentum behind this issue. Governor Kaine made UPK a major issue during his campaign in 2005 and Voices’ VA President, Suzanne Clark Johnson, was recently named to the Smart Start Council. The council will focus on developing an affordable, effective, and efficient blueprint for expanding access to high-quality, pre-kindergarten education to every child in Virginia.
Voices also serves as the KIDS COUNT project for Virginia. KIDS COUNT is a data project that features over 20 indicators of child well-being for each of Virginia’s 134 localities. For more information about Voices’ policy and data work, you can visit their web site at www.vakids.org.
Voices for Virginia’s Children is experienced in working with the medical community, and recognizes the importance of doctor participation in advocacy. If you are interested in promoting early education in VA through writing opinion-editorials, authoring an article for a parent magazine, giving legislative testimony, or if you are simply interested in learning more, please contact Rachel Zukrow, project coordinator at Docs For Tots, at rzukrow@docsfortots.org.
