Building a Circle Of Protection Around Children’s Programs
Posted May 17, 2011
In the face of historic deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices are economic, political—and moral.
Promise the Children believes that the moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare. We look at every budget proposal from the bottom up – how will the most vulnerable children be affected?
Watch an eye opening report by 60 Minutes – Hard Times Generation: Families living in cars
Children do not have powerful lobbies, but they have the most compelling claim on our consciences and common resources. As a caring community we have an obligation to help them be heard, to join with others to insist that programs that serve the most vulnerable in our nation are protected. We know from our experience serving hungry and homeless people that these programs meet basic human needs and protect the lives and dignity of the most vulnerable.
As people of faith we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. We are also committed to resist budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people. Therefore, we join with others to form a Circle of Protection around programs that meet the essential needs of children.
Hundreds of people from all around the country stopped by the Promise the Children table at the UU General Assembly to send a post card to their senators.
Join the Circle of Protection Campaign.
Download a Circle of Protection post card and pass it around at your church. We are sending these postcard to Senators, Congressmen and the President at this time so ask each person to fill out as many as they would like. Call Sue Kirby (978-910-0190) for assistance. We find it most effective to combine them and send them as a batch so please send them to us at: Promise the Children PO Box 4571 Salem, MA 01970
Join us as we raise our voices in this debate. We witnessed a groundswell of outrage by senior citizens over Medicare cuts and proponents of those cuts backed down.
Children cannot speak for themselves. We Must!
- Call or write your Congressman/women and Senators and President Obama. (contact information at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elect
- Send a Circle of Protection Circle_post_card1.pdf to your Congressional and Senate Representatives
- Hold an event or service at your church to educate and involve you congregation.
- Write an editorial in your local newspaper.
- Become a Promise the Children advocate by signing up to receive emails. Sign up at the top right.
There is more information below and a COP_Fact_sheet.pdf to help answer your questions. Feel free to call our Director – Sue Kirby at 978-910-0190 or email her if you have any questions or comments
Related Links and Resources
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Campaign to End Child Homelessness
President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Proposal:
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America’s Youngest Outcasts
Website
Center for Budget and Priorities Center
September 2011 Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on Census’ 2010 Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Data
OFF THE CHARTS: Census Report in Pictures.
Children’s Defense Fund:
Coalition on Human Needs:
The Human Needs Report-February 6, 2012
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How Low Can You Go:House Appropriators Start to Carry Out FY 2012 Budget Cuts
Food Research and Action Center
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A Half Empty Plate – Fruit and Vegetable Affordability and Access Challenge in America – Dec. 2011
Food Hardship Report- Aug. 2011
First Focus
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Big Ideas: Game Changers for Children
National Priorities Project
Budget Matters, January 2012: The Pentagon’s New Blue Print
Cost of Cuts
Costs of War
National Council of Churches
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National Women’s Law Center
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“This national debate about our priorities and, indeed, our character, is far from over. When all is said and done in any final deal, the faith community will be watching to see if the most vulnerable are being protected or savaged for the financial sins of the rest of us. If low-income people are not exempted from deficit reduction, the result will be a fundamental moral default. And, with your help, we will continue to remind our legislators to remember that God is watching them too.”— the Rev. Jim Wallis
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