Take Action Now: Children Cannot Wait

Join the Children Cannot Wait Campaign
​—​​​​​

JANUARY 26, 2022

Pennsylvania is at a crossroads with the advent of new policy makers. New leadership at state and federal levels will affect how young children experience homelessness. Will you join our campaign to convince the candidates to support vulnerable young children? ​

The Children Cannot Wait Campaign asks Pennsylvania’s Gubernatorial and US Senate candidates: If elected, would you strengthen the ties between the homeless housing and education systems to support Pennsylvania’s 29,000 young homeless children? 

click here to sign up

​​By signing up, we will add your name to the growing list of supporters, engage you with updates as we make progress, and invite you to the Zoom meeting with early childhood education and homeless service leaders from across the state that we are proposing the candidates attend.
​
​The letter we sent read: ​

---

If elected, would you strengthen the ties between homeless housing and education systems to support Pennsylvania’s 29,000 young homeless children?  

The United States Department of Education estimated that 29,000 children ages birth to 5 experienced homelessness in Pennsylvania in 2019. Homeless children are found in every county in the Commonwealth, residing in all communities. While some homeless children are resilient to adversity, most are not.

Thankfully, there are thousands of Pennsylvanians who work to support these  vulnerable young children, and there have been improvements over the past ten years  in state and federal policies and procedures in key systems. 

We, the undersigned, urge you to make a public statement declaring support for young  homeless children by considering implementation of the following strategies:  

• Remove barriers to participation in childcare, Head Start, Early Intervention, and Home Visiting programs.  
• Prioritize the improvement of state data collection systems. 
• Continue to increase funding for early childhood education for all children and to spend the American Rescue Plan funding dedicated to this purpose. 

---

Join our campaign and ask your network of colleagues to join us.

The Children Cannot Wait Campaign is the result of the Building Early Links for Learning (BELL) Summit organized by PEC in September 2021. In 2022, Pennsylvania voters will elect a new Governor and new United States Senator. We are asking ourselves ‘Will those elected policymakers support young children experiencing homelessness? Will the newly elected representatives build upon the policies and funding that support young homeless children, or reverse progress?’

We want to be proactive and convince the candidates to publicly support young children experiencing homelessness before they get elected.
​
Over the past five years, early childhood education and homeless housing systems have been improving how they coordinate services in support of young children experiencing homelessness and working together to eliminate barriers to accessing services. While many good policies have been implemented, and leadership in several counties are forging links between systems serving young children experiencing homelessness, there are still too many children who are homeless who are not benefiting. No one is satisfied with stalling at progress to date. There is still much work to be done. 

To listen to the BELL Summit presenters and view their PowerPoints visit BELL SUMMIT - PEOPLE'S EMERGENCY CENTER (pec-cares.org)

For more information, contact us at policy@pec-cares.org​