CDF's Southern Regional Office supports children and their families through initiatives, campaigns, and programs such as SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids),  youth leadership training, and training for women leaders in impoverished areas. CDF-SRO also teams up with a variety of agencies and organizations to lobby state officials for change that impacts the health and welfare of children and families.

Health Coverage for All Children Campaign

With more than 100,000 uninsured children in Mississippi, CDF-SRO actively participates in the national Health Coverage for All Children Campaign launched by the Children's Defense Fund in 2007 that calls guaranteeing every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage. CDF-SRO also helps Mississippi families apply for CHIP/Medicaid.

Cradle To Prison Pipeline Campaign

The Children's Defense Fund Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaign® is a national and community crusade to engage families, youths, communities, and policy makers in the development of healthy, safe and educated children. Poverty, racial disparities and a culture of punishment rather than prevention and early intervention are key forces driving the pipeline.

Click here to download facts about the Mississippi Cradle Pipeline

Katrina Research and Resources

Within hours after Hurricane Katrina hit, CDF contacted its network of advocates and pressed them into action to assist those in need, particularly the children. To help children displaced and traumatized by Katrina and Rita, CDF-SRO offered referral services for displaced families, set up after-school CDF Freedom Schools^® programs in Mississippi, Arkansas and New Orleans, made sure displaced children received toys for Christmas, distributed coats and school uniforms and supplies, and helped to rebuild child care centers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Services that helped families immediately following the storm have been discontinued, but the office in New Orleans remained open. The office became CDF-Louisiana and offers a full complement of field services on behalf of children and families. A committee produced an in-depth report, What It Takes to Rebuild a Village After a Disaster: Stories from Internally Displaced Children and Families of Hurricane Katrina and Their Lessons for Our Nation. It was released at a press conference in New Orleans on July 10, 2009.

Mississippi Legislative Priorities

CDF-SRO advocates for policies to help disadvantaged children. Our state legislative priorities include increased funding for public schools and "at risk" students, implementation of early childhood education programs, better access to quality health care, a more progressive tax system that eliminates the burdensome tax on groceries, and other issues related to child welfare and the foster care system.

Learn more about CDF-SRO's role in the launch of the Better Choices for Mississippi, a campaign to increase revenue for the state of Mississippi, that includes closing corporate tax loopholes.

Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids: SPARK

SPARK is a national initiative of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to help communities unite resources to better prepare children for entering school. SPARK stands for “Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids" and seeks to create a seamless transition into school for vulnerable children ages 3 to 8. SPARK supports partnerships of selected communities, schools, state agencies, and families to ensure that they work together effectively for children’s early learning. With the initiative serving as a catalyst or “spark,” the goal is to ensure that vulnerable children are ready for schools and schools are ready for children.

CDF-SRO is the grantee for SPARK Mississippi. Click here to visit SPARK's web site.

Click here to download SPARK's brochure.

Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Social and Economic Justice

SRBWI organizes, trains and nurtures women in 77 impoverished rural counties in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia to incubate businesses, build networks of leaders and advocate for public policies that help families and communities. Its Young Women's Leadership Program brings 85 young women and their mentors to a five day leadership training and career development institute each summer on the campus of Tougaloo College, a historically Black college near Jackson, Mississippi. Mayors' Commissions on Human Rights, led by black women mayors in six towns in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, receive training in public policy advocacy to change the debilitating conditions in their communities that trap them and their children in poverty. SRBWI's approach to lifting women out of poverty is Asset and Economic Development building skills, cooperative networks, and small local and regional businesses rather than relying on traditional economic development practices, such as attracting industry, that have left many rural women behind.

Learn more about:

• SRBWI (PDF)
• Young Women's Leadership Program (PDF)
• Asset and Economic Development (PDF)
• SRBWI Commissions on Human Rights (PDF)