Children First 2005 Conference Summary
Elected Officials Assets for Youth ▪ Provide more funding for programs for youth including substance abuse, mentoring, pregnant teens, etc. ▪ Collaborate with youth and listen to what they have to say. Get feedback and ideas from them about what they think has been successful in the past and what they need. ▪ Allocate funding for late buses as transportation home from after-school events and activities. ▪ Mandate High School education for youth up to the age of eighteen to reduce the drop-out rate. ▪ Provide funding for youth job training and summer employment. Child Welfare ▪ Allocate more funding to affordable day care for children. ▪ Make it possible for Social Workers to go on sabbatical to reduce the burn out rate. ▪ Improve legislation and laws regarding child support enforcement by enforcing stricter consequences for 'dead beat' parent. ▪ Improve public transportation in areas of low income families to make transportation more accessible to child care centers and work sites. ▪ Seek feedback from families and mental health patients in order to gain awareness of the impact of the mental health reform. Early Childhood Development ▪ Do not allow the North Carolina Infant-Toddler Program to change eligibility requirements for children with special needs, this would eliminate services for the most at risk children. ▪ Create more subsidies, especially more money for children with special needs. ▪ Re-examine how zoning regulations could be changed to support children to be educated in their neighborhood providing more safety and decreasing the cost to run day care centers. The present zoning regulations place child care centers in commercial areas increasing operating costs which get passed onto parents in the form of fees. ▪ Elected Officials should increase their education and awareness of early childhood development. This could be done through consulting with Early Childhood teachers, reading newsletters (Neurons for Neighbors) and keeping up to date on the latest research. ▪ Provide better tax credits for parents of dependent children living under the poverty level. Physical Health ▪ Fund recreation areas and things that promote activity such as parks, greenways, sidewalks and bike lanes. ▪ Provide more funding for school lunch programs that offer fresh foods, fruit, vegetables and less processed foods. ▪ Support legislation to extend the length of school lunches to include time for physical activity. ▪ Provide additional funding to lengthen physical education classes and for more adequate equipment and facilities. ▪ Join Healthy Buncombe Community Coalition to work together on the issue of physical health. Mental Health ▪ Support funding of public policies that prioritize Mental Health services for families, adolescents and children. ▪ Educate yourselves on Mental Health, Developmental Disability and Substance Abuse issues and be mindful of these issues importance in regards to the community. ▪ Devise a method of supporting public agencies or private agencies ability to serve clients with no source of insurance. ▪ Take advantage of the leadership we have with Senator Nesbitt and Larry Thompson to influence the reform of reform. ▪ Work on maintaining Medicaid finding at its present level School Success ▪ More funding!! Provide more funding for educators, specific schools, nurses, late buses and education related programs. ▪ Make improving the nurse: student ration a top priority. ▪ Involve more collaboration in decision making. Work with teachers, administrators, parents and even students to gain more awareness of educational needs. ▪ Increase mindfulness of education issues by visiting schools and always asking the question "is this good for children?" ▪ Zoning regulations for pre-schools.
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