The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® 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. We have worked relentlessly for over 35 years to ensure every child and pregnant woman health and mental health care that is comprehensive, accessible and affordable.

• Fact Sheets: Children in the States Fact Sheets 2012 (January 30, 2012)

First Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization that is committed to making children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. Children's health, education, early childhood, family economics, child welfare, immigration, and child safety are the core issue areas around which First Focus is working to promote bipartisan policy solutions. While not the only organization working to improve public policies that impact kids, First Focus approaches advocacy in a unique way, bridging the partisan divide to make children a primary focus in federal policymaking. First Focus engages a new generation of academic experts to examine issues affecting children from multiple points of view in an effort to create innovative policy proposals. First Focus convenes cross-sector leaders in key states to influence federal policy and budget debates, and to advocate for federal policies that will ensure a brighter future for the next generation of America's leaders.

The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus that advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are a priority in federal policy and budget decisions.

• Fact Sheet: Children’s Budget 2011 (for the 2011 Budget released in July 2011), January 26, 2012

The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) is an independent, nonpartisan policy and research center whose mission is to expand and improve health coverage for America's children and families. 

• See What’s New from CCF
• “Say Ahhh!” children’s health policy blog
• Report: "CHIPRA at Work Three Years Later: Shaping State Actions and Connecting Children to Coverage" (February 2, 2012)
• Annual Report: "Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012" released by CCF and the Kaiser Family Foundation (January 18, 2012)

The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) is an independent academy of state health policymakers working together to identify emerging issues, develop policy solutions, and promote excellence in state health policy and practice. NASHP is a non-profit organization that provides a forum for constructive, nonpartisan work across branches and agencies of state government on critical health issues facing states. With support from The Atlantic Philanthropies, NASHP has established Children in the Vanguard, a learning network of 10 states’ Medicaid and CHIP officials committed to maintaining focus on children’s coverage in the context of health care reform. NASHP also serves as the unofficial home for all states’ CHIP directors.

• NASHP State Health Policy Blog: http://nashp.org/blog
• Issue Brief: How CHIP Can Help Meet Child Specific Requirements and Needs in the Exchange: Considerations for Policymakers (March 2013)
• Blog Post: Getting the Word Out: Education, Marketing, and Customer Service under Health Reform (March 2013)
• Blog Post: Hurdles and High Jumps on the Road to Streamlined Enrollment (February 2013)

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR)—the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States—works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans.  Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations, NCLR reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.  To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, providing a Latino perspective in five key areas—assets/investments, civil rights/immigration, education, employment and economic status, and health.  In addition, it provides capacity-building assistance to its Affiliates who work at the state and local level to advance opportunities for individuals and families.

• Issue Brief: The Role of Medicare in Hispanics’ Health Coverage (January 26, 2012)
• NCLR News
• NCLR Blog

PICO National Network is one of the largest faith-based networks in the county, with more than 1,000 member institutions representing one million families in 150 cities and 17 states. PICO was a key advocate for the passage of State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 2007 and the historic Affordable Care Act in 2010. Our current initiative, Bring Health Reform Home, is focused on low-income communities leveraging the tools and resources of the Affordable Care Act to transform local healthcare systems for our most vulnerable families. We are currently mobilizing faith communities to protect Medicaid from cuts that will impact their children.

• Webpage: Bring Health Reform Home (educational materials that describe ACA’s benefits and resources for improving community health)

Young Invincibles (YI) is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization that mobilizes young adults, ages 18 to 34, to put them in the center of the debate and to find solutions that will improve their lives.  YI was started by students and young workers during the health care debate in summer 2009 to help give young people a voice in that critical effort and expand youth access to decent health insurance and care. In the short time since its founding, YI has grown into an important voice for the health care needs of young adults, coordinating outreach and advocacy campaigns at the national and state levels, and working in coalition with dozens of youth and non-youth organizations to educate young adults about health care.

• Back-to-School Toolkit for young adults re-released (February 2012)

The National League of Cities (NLC) is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. Working in partnership with 49 state municipal leagues, NLC serves as a resource to and an advocate for the more than 19,000 cities, villages and towns it represents.

The National League of Cities members are municipalities from across the country. A city or town joins NLC and the elected officials and staff participate in NLC's programs, activities and governance. State municipal leagues are also active members of NLC, guiding the organization's priorities and serving as an important link to cities in their state. And, NLC offers membership opportunities for members of the private and non-profit sector.

New America Media is the country's first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. Over 57 million ethnic adults connect to each other, to home countries and to America through 3000+ ethnic media, the fastest growing sector of American journalism. Founded by the nonprofit Pacific News Service in 1996, NAM is headquartered in California with offices in New York and Washington D.C., and partnerships with journalism schools to grow local associations of ethnic media.

NAM is dedicated to bringing the voices of the marginalized - ethnic minorities, immigrants, young people, elderly - into the national discourse. The communities of the New America will then be better informed, better connected to one another, and better able to influence policy makers. NAM produces, aggregates and disseminates multimedia content and services for and from the youth and ethnic media sectors.

MomsRising takes on the most critical issues facing women, mothers, and families, by mobilizing massive grassroots actions. MomsRising is a transformative online and on-the-ground multicultural organization of more than million members and over a hundred aligned organizations working to increase family economic security, to end discrimination against women and mothers, and to build a nation where both businesses and families can thrive.

MomsRising is also a new media outlet with over 700 bloggers and a combined estimated blogging and social media readership reach to over 3 million people.

A collaborative effort of The Children's Partnership, Children Now, and Children's Defense Fund-California to win health insurance for every California child.

• Report: The Future of Healthy Families: Transitioning to 2014 and beyond an Urban Institute report using research commissioned by the 100% Campaign (February 14, 2012) 
• Checklist: 2012 Healthy Child Checklist

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that works to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation.  The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® 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.  CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. 

Since 1998, Children’s Defense Fund-California (CDF-CA) has worked with colleagues in the 100% Campaign to ensure that all of California’s children gain access to affordable, comprehensive health coverage.  CDF-CA’s efforts to expand coverage for children, simplify enrollment processes, and support outreach efforts have resulted in a significant decline in the number of uninsured children in the state.”

• 100% Campaign video where real families talk about the importance of health coverage
• Children’s Health Initiative: Santa Clara County Healthy Kids
• Report on “How Much Does Churning in Medi-Cal Cost?” commissioned by The California Endowment (May 2005)

Children Now is a national organization for people who care about children and want to ensure that they are the top public policy priority.

• Report: State Budget Proposal Hits Kids Hardest, Again (January 24, 2012)

The Children's Partnership works in California and nationally to ensure that all children—especially those at risk of being left behind—have the resources and the opportunities they need to grow up healthy and lead productive lives. We focus particular attention on securing health coverage for all children, simplifying and modernizing how families enroll in public programs, and ensuring that the opportunities offered by computers and the Internet benefit all children and families.

• Policy Guide: Building A Consumer-Driven Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal, System: Essential Design Features for Effective Health Reform in California (January 2012)
• Report: Expanding California’s Dental Team to Care for Underserved Children (November 2011)

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is dedicated to advancing economic and social justice through education, advocacy and litigation. We work with low-income New Mexicans to improve living conditions, increase opportunities and protect the rights of people living in poverty. Our approach is to focus on areas that present the greatest opportunity for systemic improvements.

• Policy Brief: Health Benefit Exchange in New Mexico (September 2011)

Comunidades en Accion y de Fe (CAFe) is a faith-based community organization based in Southern New Mexico that organizes low & moderate income New Mexicans to address systemic issues through policy & budget research & relationship & capacity building.  We are a multi-faith and multi-issue organization that represents 10,000 families in Southern New Mexico.  CAFe is also part of the PICO National Network the largest and fastest growing faith-based community organization in the country with organizations in 18 states.

CAFe was key in the incorporation of Anthony, NM in 2009 and is now pushing for education reform and workforce development policies.  In Las Cruces congregations are working on addressing the rising foreclosure rate due to joblessness and ensuring people are a part of making the Affordable Care Act work for New Mexicans.

• CAFé Facebook Page

The Community Service Society of New York (CSS) is committed to the goal of increasing access to quality, affordable health coverage in order to improve individual and community health outcomes, promote health equity, and alleviate barriers to employment. To achieve this goal, CSS launched a comprehensive campaign around health care access to address the nearly 2.6 million New Yorkers who lack health insurance. Working statewide with local community partners, our aim is to build public will and advocate for significant government support for needed health reforms.

• Policy Brief: Bridging the Gap: Exploring the Basic Health Insurance Option for New York June 2011 REVISED January 2012

Health Care For All New York (HCFANY) is a statewide coalition of more than 115 organizations dedicated to winning affordable, comprehensive, and high quality health care for all New Yorkers. We work to bring consumer voices to the policy conversation, ensuring that real consumer concerns are reflected. We also provide expert policy analysis, advocacy, and education on important health reform issues and policies that affect New Yorkers around the state. CSS, CDF-NY, and SCAA serve on the HCFANY Steering Committee and both CSS and CDF-NY are HCFANY co-founders.

• E-Book: Health Reform Works: How the Affordable Care Act is Already Making a Difference for New Yorkers and press release (January 5, 2012)

The Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy is a statewide, nonprofit, policy analysis and advocacy organization working to shape policies to improve health, welfare and human services for all New Yorkers, especially those who are poor or vulnerable. Since 1872, the Schuyler Center has served as a voice for social and economic justice and policies that work for children, people living in poverty, and persons who are chronically ill and disabled in New York State.

• Overview of the State budget outcomes relating to health and human services and children and families
• Comments to the Medicaid Redesign Team
• Policy brief on Family Assessment Response (child welfare issue)
• Joint fact sheet on home visiting programs
• SCAA report understanding the health behaviors of foster care youth
• Op-ed on Health Insurance Exchange (Albany Times Union, June 2, 2011)

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Leave No Child Behind® 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. The Children's Defense Fund — New York (CDF-NY) focuses on creating policy and programmatic changes that will level the playing field for New York's children. Our research, public education, policy analysis, community organizing and advocacy is primarily focused on juvenile justice, health, early childhood learning, education and youth development.

• Untangling the Web: Coordinating New York's Public Health Insurance Programs with Other Critical Benefits (July 2009)
• Review of New York State Public Health Insurance Policy Changes and Enrollment in 2008 (February 2009)
• Coordinating New York’s Medicaid and Food Stamp Programs: Making It Easier for Families to Access the Benefits They Need (December 2006)

Texas Well and Healthy is a grassroots, statewide campaign led by KidsWell Partners the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), Children’s Defense Fund Texas (CDF-TX), Engage Texas, and Texans Care for Children to ensure Texans have access to affordable, quality health care coverage. Texas Well and Healthy’s work includes providing educational tools on the benefits of the ACA and protecting the state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

• KidsWell Texas website
• KidsWell Texas facebook
• Texans Have Priorities for our State report
• Video on Texas values

The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy institute committed to improving public policies to better the economic and social conditions of low- and moderate-income Texans. The center pursues this mission through independent research, policy analysis and development, public education, advocacy, coalition-building and technical assistance

• Policy Brief: Texas Medical Loss Ratio Adjustment Request A Bad Deal for Consumers (December 7, 2012)

The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® 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. CDF-Texas works statewide to raise awareness and represent the interests of Texas children.

• Social media pages: Facebook, Twitter
• Business Leaders Support Child Health
• In Harm's Way Report, Second Edition
• Video link of CDF-TX Advisory Board Chair, Lan Bentsen, speaking at the Cover Texas Now Advocacy Day

Engage Texas was founded in 2010 to increase civic engagement through strategic campaigns and projects. Our long term goal is to create a culture of year-round civic engagement at both the state and local levels. We work in conjunction with our 501(c)(3) sister organization, the Texas Civic Engagement Table, expanding on the foundation it lays with unlimited grassroots lobbying and political activities allowable to 501(c)(4) organizations. Engage Texas provides tools and resources to participating social welfare organizations to help them reach new levels of effectiveness and capacity in their own work, while building the connections between them to create a permanent, multi-issue and poly-tactical infrastructure for progressive organizations in Texas. Engage Texas will bring together organizations working on different issues and in different modalities for collective endorsements, independent expenditure campaigns, candidate forums and other political activities.

Texans Care for Children brings Texans together for the purpose of bettering children's lives. Nonpartisan, nonprofit, and home-grown in Texas, Texans Care for Children acts as a voice for children, a source on children, and a network for people who put kids first. For over 25 years, the agency has led policy advances to ensure more Texas kids are healthy, secure, and thriving. Through policy analysis, statewide coalitions, grassroots campaigns and research, Texans Care improves conditions for children in the areas of health, mental health and development, poverty, child protection, and juvenile justice.

• A Report on the Bottom Line: Conditions for Children and the Texas of Tomorrow
• Recapping the Texas Legislative Session for Children
• Online Advocacy Center