Action Report: Building a Better Future for the Kids Who Need Us Most

2017 was a groundbreaking year for Children’s Rights. With individual donation dollars we have accomplished major achievements across the country:

• We launched a groundbreaking case in Iowa challenging lack of mental health care and improper use of solitary confinement and physical restraints at an all-boys state juvenile detention center. 
• We launched Healthy Kids, a holistic advocacy plan to ensure that all Medicaid-eligible youth continue to receive the screening, diagnostic and treatment services needed to keep them healthy.
• We helped Tennessee achieve 140 benchmarks for improvement of their child welfare system. It is now a model for other states.
• We are launching a targeted advocacy campaign in six states to keep LGBTQ youth safe in child welfare, juvenile justice and homeless systems.
• We filed the first class action suit to shine a federal spotlight on the overuse of psychotropic medications on kids in foster care (Missouri).
• We joined a coalition of advocates to testify about the harmful impact of restrictive housing on young adults at Rikers.
• We represented unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America through a pilot project to help children who cannot reunite with at least one of their parents due to abuse, neglect or abandonment, and whose best interests are served by remaining in the U.S. rather than returning to their home country.
• We developed a policy advocacy and litigation reform project to combat sex trafficking of youth in foster care.
• We authored a key chapter in a landmark new book, Violence Against Children: Making Human Rights Real.
• We made tremendous progress on our four active legal campaigns across the country: Texas, Rhode Island, Missouri and Arizona.
• We continued to monitor the implementation of reforms in six states: Milwaukee, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, Connecticut and Tennessee.

Please stand with Children’s Rights by making a gift that will help us achieve transformational change for hundreds of thousands of kids in 2018 and beyond.