October Newsletter: LGBTQ+ History Month
This LGBTQ+ History Month, in partnership with Equality California and the CA LGBTQ HHS Network we are highlighting the health of over 100,000 LGBTQ+ youth who live in California through our A Child Is a Child factsheet series. This factsheet shines a light on inequities that impact the lives of LGBTQ+ children, teens and young adults in California.
We recognize we are living in a time that will be historically important to the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2023, the United States saw a record-breaking 384 anti-trans bills introduced and California saw multiple school districts pass anti-trans policies. These efforts threaten children’s access to health care, education and other social drivers of health.
Understanding the issues helps us improve the conditions in which children live, learn, grow and play so that LGBTQ+ youth have the resources and opportunities they need to achieve their dreams and reach their full potential. We hope advocates, policymakers, parents, guardians, teachers and others use this factsheet to better understand challenges and create change.
We would like to honor the past champions of LGBTQ+ rights by recommitting ourselves to advocating alongside the community for LGBTQ+ children’s safety, health, education and futures.
Visit bit.ly/AChildIsAChild to download the factsheet.
Making Progress for Child Health Equity: TCP Legislative Update
This year, we sponsored four bills in the California legislature. We are proud of our work with partners and leaders who share our vision for health equity for every child.
AB 665 (Carrillo) Medi-Cal Minor Consent Bill – Signed!Now California youth on Medi-Cal will have the same access to mental health services as youth on private insurance. This bill is a much-needed tool in the ongoing mental health crisis California youth are facing. Despite being the target of an anti-LGBTQ+ smear campaign, we persevered!
AB 289 (Holden) Mental Health Services: Youth Representation – Signed!
This bill is ‘nothing about us without us’ in action! AB 289 means California youth voices will be amplified when policies about youth mental health are being decided. It is key that the people most affected are heard.
AB 608 (Schiavo) Medi-Cal: Comprehensive Perinatal Service – Vetoed
AB 608 would have given a full year of postpartum services to birthing parents and infants. We will keep fighting so all infants and families gain the benefits of lactation support, in-home care, peer support groups and preventative care.
AB 1202 (Lackey) Children’s Provider Analysis – Vetoed
This bill would have identified areas with a shortage of healthcare providers for children. While this bill was vetoed, we will continue to support efforts to get data that shine a light on barriers to children’s health.
It’s Medi-Cal Renewals Time! Get the Word Out!
The new ALL IN #KeepKidsCovered Community Outreach Toolkit helps California families get information about Medi-Cal renewals. Community-friendly resources include fact sheets, tools for educators and videos that star community health workers who serve diverse communities and speak to families in their native languages – English, Spanish, Punjabi, Tagalog and Chinese.
The Children’s Partnership and our ALL IN partners are proud to offer this toolkit to schools, child care providers and other child and family champions. Thank you to the community health workers for their work in making these videos with us!
Share the toolkit and videos by downloading or linking to them on social media, in newsletters or on your website!
30th Anniversary Celebration Begins!
Thank you to all who joined our 30th anniversary kickoff! We launched our For Our Children’s Future: 30th Anniversary Speaker Series with a stirring discussion between TCP President Mayra E Alvarez and acclaimed author and activist Edgar Villanueva. Mayra and Edgar spoke about the work we must do together to support the health and well-being of all our children, and how attacks on children and families today – whether banning books, attacking transgender children, or separating families at the border – echo generations of colonizers’ attempts to remove culture and disrupt community.
This was a powerful reminder of why we do this work. The event gave us the opportunity to connect with our community in-person, honor founding board members Shari Davis and Tamara Ritchey Powers, and bring attention to the work we will do together to address the multiple challenges facing families today. We are humbled to work with a powerful community of advocates, families, community members and health care professionals. Thank you for being part of it!
If you were able to attend, please share your thoughts on how it went in our brief feedback form.
Bioscience and Children’s Health Equity
Earlier this month, Gabriella Barbosa, our managing policy director, spoke at the 6th Annual LA County Bioscience Forum.
Gabriella’s comments centered the cultural expertise of Indigenous, Latine, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander communities to serve California’s children. She highlighted the importance of treating people’s lived experience as expertise when designing health equity solutions via biotechnology.
Medical Debt: TCP Gives Testimony at LA County Board of Supervisors
On October 3, Maddie Ribble, our policy director of social determinants of health, joined allies in calling for action on medical debt. Medical debt hurts children’s health by destabilizing families, preventing family members from seeking health care, and dramatically increasing the likelihood that a family will experience housing insecurity and food insecurity.
The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion sponsored by Supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell directing county agencies to take action. Agencies will need to develop strategies within 120 days on reducing medical debt in LA County.
TCP and our allies offered our enthusiastic support as a first step to tackle this problem. We also asked for a focus on identifying root causes of the problem, and developing upstream solutions. Our focus is on solutions that do not put further burdens on already-struggling families after experiencing medical debt. Instead, we can place greater expectations on our health care institutions and public agencies to prevent medical debt before it happens, ensuring that the simple act of receiving health care does not cause harm.
Connecting Immigrant Families with Resources that Help Them Thrive
Gabby Benitez, senior policy associate, and Liza Davis, director of community engagement & advocacy, joined partners from the Connecting Immigrant Families Coalition for a back-to-school webinar for outreach and family support workers, health promoters, and community educators. We discussed how to make the most impact on immigrant families’ lives by connecting them to the information, care and support they need. We shared the “Family Benefits Checklist” we co-created with the coalition and our ALL IN for Health project as a model for partnering with schools and education leaders to reach children and families where they play and learn.
52nd Legislative Conference Congressional Black Caucus
Ebony Durham, our community engagement and advocacy associate, attended the 52nd Legislative Conference Congressional Black Caucus in DC. It was a gathering of visionaries, activists and leaders who are shaping the future of African Americans and the global Black community.
“I felt very empowered, comfortable and inspired being around all these beautiful and professional Black people,” Ebony said.
Somos Latinx Series
Are You a Latinx Parent or Raising a Latinx Child? Do You Want to Hear from Other Latinx Caregivers?
TCP is proud to join our partner, The Brazelton Touchpoints Center, in offering the Somos Latinx Families series. This is a free, 5-episode virtual conversation series that offers a safe and welcoming space to hold conversations for and by Latinx families. Explore what it means to be a parent as part of the Latinx community, raising Latinx children while navigating the U.S. The conversations are moderated by our own, Eva Rivera, director of early childhood development.
Join us for our 3rd episode Monday October 30, 2023, where we will discuss Latinx Parenting: Embracing and understanding Afro Latinidad and Indigeneity in our Latinx communities
All webinars will be presented in English, with live Spanish translation available.
Let’s Talk: Mental Health Webinar
Join The Children’s Partnership along with mental health and restorative practices professionals on Wednesday, November 8, at 5 p.m. for our “Let’s Talk: Mental Health” webinar. We have heard families across California express concerns about their children’s mental health. Being mentally healthy during childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems.
Mentally healthy children have a positive quality of life and can function well at home, in school, and in their communities. This webinar will discuss the importance of mental health and will engage parents, families and community members in a discussion on how to destigmatize mental health and how families can approach their child on this issue.
Special Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Grant Preview
The Children’s Partnership and the California Department of Health Care Services is partnering to grant $8 Million to eight selected high schools across California. The grants will fund innovative peer-to-peer mental health programs.
These grants come directly from youth driven policy recommendations facilitated from the collaborative Hope, Healing and Health Collective led by The Children’s Partnership and the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI) on the Youth Mental Health Crisis in 2021.
The Hope, Healing and Health Collective, a youth-led policy council focused on mental health, sought to identify actionable solutions that policymakers can implement to build a culturally-responsive and gender-affirming mental health care system for all youth, especially youth of color. Youth peer-to-peer programs offer just that.
The Peer-to-Peer Pilot Demonstration aims to provide grantees with the funding, technical assistance and learning community to build peer-to-peer mental health programs on their school campuses. Schools that hold student populations with elevated risk for mental health challenges will carry priority for grants – this includes prioritizing communities of color whose youth have shown marked disparities in unmet mental health needs and poor outcomes, including suicide.
Join the webinar to learn more about the Peer-to-Peer Pilot Demonstration and the upcoming application process.
Peer-to-Peer Pilot Demonstration Grant Information Webinar
Thursday, November 30, 2023
3:00pm – 4:00pm PT
Medi-Cal Renewal Feedback Loop
TCP and National Health Law Program have created a feedback loop for those local organizations and navigators helping families to renew. We provide updates and lift up issues raised by organizations as they share their experience with how the process is going on-the-ground for families.
Please share this monthly feedback loop opportunity with your partners and join us for next month’s meeting on October 18 at noon.
