November 2025 Newsletter
After an incredibly tough year for so many of our families, this holiday season undoubtedly brings conflicting feelings. It’s hard to practice gratitude when your child’s Head Start program is closing due to canceled funding, your health insurance premium is tripling soon, or your Thanksgiving meal is in jeopardy due to delayed SNAP benefits. When families are literally torn apart by immigration raids, there is no celebration.
So many of the children and families we advocate for at The Children’s Partnership have found themselves in one or more of these situations this year. In response, we are called to lean even more into the power of partnership to strengthen our collective advocacy for children.
Together, we advocate for a future where all children are safe, where children’s access to basic needs isn’t upended every few months by politicians, and where we value investing in our children and their families.
We cannot do any of this work without you. Today and every day, we at The Children’s Partnership are grateful for your partnership and support.
Tell Congress to Extend Health Insurance Subsidies NOW
Last week, 10 California members of Congress — including every Republican representative from our state — chose to make life even harder for California families by passing a short-term funding bill without extending the ACA (Covered California) subsidies that keep health care affordable. If Congress doesn’t act NOW, nearly 2 million Californians will see their premiums double — or even triple — on January 1.
California representatives including David Valadao and Young Kim promised they’d prioritize extending these subsidies once the shutdown ended. Now that the shutdown is over, they need to stand by their word, not turn their backs on the people in their districts.
Tell your representative to extend the ACA subsidies now — before millions of Californians are hit with impossible costs.
New Safe Spaces Resource for California’s ECE Providers
ALL IN For Safe Schools is excited to share our newest resource for California’s early care and education providers: a one-pager titled “How to Create Safe Spaces in Early Care and Education for Children in Immigrant Families.”
Did you know nearly half of California’s 9 million children are part of an immigrant family, and 1 in 5 California children lives in a mixed-status family? This one-pager offers early care and education providers a concise, practical guide for implementing safe-space guidance into their site policies to support the safety, confidence and well-being of children in immigrant families.
“How to Create Safe Spaces” is available in eight languages. We’d love your support in amplifying this important resource across your networks and early care and education communities. Together, we can ensure California’s children in immigrant families have access to the safe ECE spaces they deserve, so they can thrive through their education journey.
Please Share: Survey for CA Families with Children Ages 0-3
In support of work with Bringing Up California, The Children’s Partnership is working in partnership with FM3 Research, EVITARUS, and Castillo and Associates to conduct confidential research to better understand the economic and social needs of California families with young children (prenatal to 3 years). Considering the targeted attacks on marginalized communities, we intend to oversample low-income, BIPOC and immigrant families.
We are requesting your assistance in reaching California families. All studies will be conducted online, be confidential, and participants will be compensated up to $150 for their time.
Please share the short message below with your communities:
The Children’s Partnership (TCP) is conducting a confidential, anonymous online study of California parents with children ages 3 and under to learn how to better support families statewide. The information will be kept safe—not shared outside the research team, and used to inform TCP’s advocacy to support the needs of families of young children from diverse backgrounds. There are multiple online studies available. Participating parents of children ages 3 and under will receive $150 for their time! Click here to take a short survey to be considered for the study: TCPResearch.com.
A Child is a Child: Native American, Alaska Native & Indigenous Children’s Health Data Snapshot
In collaboration with The California Consortium for Urban Indian Health and United American Indian Involvement, we shine a spotlight on the health challenges of over 346,000 American Indian, Alaska Native and Indigenous children in California. Recognizing the historical impact of colonization and genocide on Indigenous cultures, we acknowledge our responsibility to address persistent harm to children and families – and hope our fact sheet helps in that effort.
Our A Child is a Child fact sheet emphasizes health disparities rooted in historical injustices. By focusing on issues such as health care access, food security, poverty, child welfare and protective factors, we aim to empower advocates and allies to dismantle systemic barriers.
Join Us Dec. 9 for Bringing Up the Budget
The Bringing Up California coalition invites you to join us at our next meeting featuring special guest Laura Pryor, research director at the California Budget & Policy Center.
We’ll take a closer look at California’s 2025-26 budget and how upcoming federal decisions could shape funding for programs supporting birthing people and young children. We’ll review the state’s budget forecast, discuss how federal actions affect state and local programs, and share what’s next in the budget process.
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025
Time: 4-5 p.m. PT
Health4All: The Role of Legislators, Local Governments, and Agencies in Protecting Immigrant Health Access
A panel discussion and interactive forum exploring how legislators, local governments, and agencies can work together to fill gaps in care in the wake of the Medi-Cal enrollment freeze and other upcoming changes.
December 11, 2025
1-2:30 p.m. PT
Raven Jones-McKinney in Public News Service on Peer-to-Peer Support
Public News Service featured TCP’s Peer-to-Peer Youth Mental Health High School Pilot Demonstration, a historic $8 million investment in a youth-driven approach to mental health and well-being in partnership with the California Department of Health Care Services. “Peer support programs are a lifeline,” said Raven Jones-McKinney, TCP’s director of peer-to-peer youth mental health. “They’re also a proven intervention for mental-health support, specifically for the most marginalized groups.” The story is also available in Spanish.
Mayra E. Alvarez Speaks on Importance of Health Care Coverage
TCP President Mayra E. Alvarez emphasized the benefits of having health coverage for children and their families, as well as the need for affordable health care, in her role as a Covered California board member press conference in San Diego. “Statewide, the projected premium increase for children under the age of 17 is $83. Now that might not sound like a lot to some of you, but it’s a lot for our families,” Alvarez said. ABC10 News San Diego covered the event.
