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Newsroom

Find the latest news releases, statements and research from the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman’s Weekly Child Watch® Column and other useful information to the media.

Media Inquiries

Please contact Patti Hassler, Vice President of Communications and Outreach, at (202) 662-3554 or phassler@childrensdefense.org.

Media Resources

The Children’s Defense Fund is dedicated to providing a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor children, children of color and those with disabilities.

CDF’s mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. That is why CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.

         
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News

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Child Watch® Columns
Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman is a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans and is the President of CDF. Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation's strongest voice for children and families.

Her Child Watch column is sent every Friday to subscribers and posted to The Huffington Post weekly.

  • 12/11/15
    Child Watch® Column:
    The Education Inequality Struggle
    This has been a hard year for poor children and children of color in a gridlocked and cantankerous Congress. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replacing the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted after gutting a strong federal role in education policy designed to protect these children and jeopardizing their opportunity for a fair and adequate education to prepare them for work in our globalizing economy. Over the past 50 years under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act too many states violated their responsibility to serve their poor and non-White children equitably, did not comply with the law and misused huge amounts of the funds intended for poor children for other purposes. With the loss of federal accountability in the new Act, I hope we will not see the mistakes of the past repeated and poor children fall further behind.
  • 12/04/15
    Child Watch® Column:
    Who Put The NRA in Charge of Our National Security?
    With the echo of gunshots from the San Bernardino massacre ricocheting across the country, and another American community reeling with new broken hearts, it sounds like a reasonable plea for common sense legislation a responsible lawmaker might make today. This quote from Senator Robert Kennedy’s letter to a constituent was written just over a year before he would be assassinated by a gun on June 6, 1968 in Los Angeles. Since Robert Kennedy’s and Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 deaths more than 164,000 children have died from gun violence in America—three times more than all the American soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam War and every external conflict since.
  • 11/25/15
    Child Watch® Column:
    A Prayer of Thanksgiving to the God of all Children in America and the World
    O God of the children of Syria, Nigeria and Liberia, of Sudan, South Africa and South Carolina, Of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Myanmar — Dalits too — of Israel, Iran and Iraq Of the Congo, Central America, Charleston, and Cleveland, of Darfur and Detroit, of Libya, Yemen and Ukraine, Nepal and New Orleans, Help us to love and respect and protect and welcome them all.

More Child Watch® Columns
Monthly Newsletters

The CDF Monthly eNewsletter provides an update on CDF's efforts to be a voice for children, issues affecting America's children and how you can take action on those issues.

Latest Newsletter

October 2015
Change Agents for Children

Recent Newsletters

January 2015   February 2015   March 2015   April 2015
January Actions   We Never Give Up   Recommit to Children   Child Defender News
             
May 2015   June 2015    July 2015    August 2015
Children Matter. Act Now!   A Momentous Month 4 Children    Who Says Summer's Slow?    Summer of Success
             
September 2015            
Bad News, Good News            

2014 CDF Monthly Newsletters

January 2014   February 2014   March 2014   April 2014
10 Best and Worst   What Parents And Teachers Need to Know   This Round Goes in Favor of Gun Safety   Tune In at 10:30
             
May 2014   June 2014   July 2014    August 2014
Freedom Summer   Get in Trouble Today   Children at the Border   Top 5 Reasons to Celebrate August
             
September 2014   October 2014   November 2014   December 2014
Progress and Possibilities for Children   Building a Better Tomorrow   Your Chance to Make a Difference   A Season for Change

Past Issues

Videos

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CDF Freedom Schools® Program

  

The Children's Defense Fund

Beat The Odds® Honorees

  

Improving the Odds for Our Children
     

Black Community Crusade for Children

  

Protect Children Not Guns
     
CDF Speakers Bureau Request Form

Thank you for your interest in inviting a CDF speaker to your event. Note that if a request requires CDF staff to make a trip out of town, CDF asks that the requesting organization pay all expenses for travel and hotel accommodations.

Requests for Marian Wright Edelman to speak should be emailed to Michele Smith at msmith@childrensdefense.org. Please include the date, time and location of the event, as well as background on the event/organization and the expected attendance. If Mrs. Edelman accepts, you will be responsible for lodging and round-trip travel expenses for Mrs. Edelman and a staff member, plus a $35,000 donation (honorarium) to the Children’s Defense Fund in lieu of a traditional speaker's fee.

For media inquiries, to request an interview with Mrs. Edelman, or to request information about any other CDF speaker, please complete and submit the form below. Because of coordinating schedules and travel, it may take a few weeks to confirm whether a CDF speaker is available. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Patti Hassler at phassler@childrensdefense.org or (202) 662-3554.

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