Prevent Child Abuse America applauds the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in a 7 –2 decision today. By keeping this law intact, Native American tribal leadership retains its sovereignty in child welfare cases that involve the placement and adoption of Native children.
At PCA America, we know that family involvement in the child welfare system is stressful and challenging
Join us, alongside our partners nationwide, in contacting lawmakers to urge them to act now to reauthorize and increase funding for the bipartisan Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. Your members of Congress need to hear from you!
The MIECHV program is a federal grant to states, territories, and Tribes that supports evidence-based home visiting for families and children from prenatal period through kindergarten entry. While the program’s ability to impact maternal and child health outcomes is clear, the current funding level limits its ability to reach the children and families who need it most. Only 150,000 of the 18 million current and expectant parents who could benefit from the program receive services. To bring the power of home visiting to more families and promote improved maternal health outcomes, we need Congress to reauthorize and increase funding. Unfortunately, the law that authorizes the MIECHV program will expire in September 2022, so we need your voice now more than ever.
Specifically, we’re requesting that Congress:
Increase MIECHV funding over the next five years to reach more families and better support the workforce Double the tribal set-aside within MIECHV from 3% to 6%
Yet to accomplish this goal, we must address root causes and systemic factors that perpetuate inequities and injustices—a root that is founded in racism. To truly make an impact in child abuse prevention efforts, we cannot ignore the role long-standing racist policies and deeply integrated systems unfairly disadvantage children and families of color. We can start by understanding some of the influential factors—social determinants of health and racism—so we can learn how to begin the process of dismantling the discrimination.
Social determinants of health are conditions in which we are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks1 conditions vary because of unequal access to resources and opportunities like health care, safe housing, financial stability, and qu
We all have a role in preparing children to become healthy, thriving members of our community. All families and children succeed by growing a better tomorrow, together.
