Our 2023 Children’s Health Policy Agenda Is Here!
Our 2023 Child Health Equity Policy Agenda Is Out Now!
By Gabriella Barbosa, Managing Director of Policy
Quick Links:
- 2023 Health Policy Webpage
- TCP Children’s Health Policy Agenda 2023 (download & print)
- TCP Detailed Legislative Agenda & Full List of Supported Bills (more in-depth information)
- A Child Is A Child Data Snapshots
We’re proud to share our 2023 Children’s Health Policy Agenda. These sponsored, co-sponsored, and supported bills offer a vision for child health equity in a challenging year. Alongside a diverse group of partners and community networks, we are offering a bold vision for the future, where all of California’s children are healthy and thriving. Check out the policy webpage for more information.
Children of color now make up over half of California’s children. Nearly 7 million or 75% of our state’s 9 million children identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander or mixed race. As an organization focused on advocating for children from historically marginalized communities, anti-racism is at the center of our work.
We are working to undo the racism and oppressions built into our systems of care through public policies that center and address the experiences of children of color. Explore our research on strengths and challenges facing children from communities of color: bit.ly/AChildIsAChild.
Our 2023 legislative agenda includes four bills that The Children’s Partnership is sponsoring. It also includes dozens of other bills we are supporting that advance child health equity. The entire policy agenda uses a whole child lens that strengthens children, their families, and the communities where they live by addressing a variety of issues that shape health and well-being.
Two of our sponsored bills, AB 665, authored by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo; and AB 289, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, are rooted in recommendations provided by youth as part of our Health, Healing and Hope Collective research. These bills will help address the youth mental health crisis in our state by increasing access to mental health services for youth in Medi-Cal and providing a dedicated seat for youth to help determine how counties spend mental health dollars.
Our other two sponsored bills, AB 608, authored by Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, and AB 1202, authored by Assemblymember Tom Lackey, emphasize early childhood development as the foundation of lifelong health and well-being through healthy pregnancy, birth and addressing health-related social needs of birthing people and their children.
In line with our values, over 85% of the bills are authored by legislators who identify with historically marginalized communities and are part of the California Legislative Black, Latino, LGBTQ and Women’s Caucuses. Many of the bills we are supporting are also being led by coalitions that center historically marginalized communities and people with lived experiences, including Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, Care4all California, and Food4all California.
We invite you to join us in support of these public policies! Together we can create anti-racist policies that center the health and well-being of children and families from Indigenous, Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Asian American, and mixed race communities.
We invite you to check out our policy agenda, use it as a tool in talking with decision makers, and keep working toward a lifetime of healthy outcomes for all our children.
