As the legislative session kicks off, the Voices & Choices for Children Coalition is proud to release our 2023 Legislative Agenda. Our mission is clear: to shape more equitable practices and policies that will support better outcomes for children of color and American Indian children prenatal to 8 years old across Minnesota. We fundamentally believe that people of color and American Indians must be at the table as policies are created and decisions are made about and for our children.
Our work is grounded in a rigorous, codified definition of racial equity. In the policy environment, we insist that success must be measured by a technical standard: Racial equity is the condition that would be achieved if one’s racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares in society. This scope includes the elimination of not only unequal policies and practices, but also attitudes and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race.
Our LEAD priority this year is the Community Solutions for Healthy Child Development Grant Program. V&C worked with many stakeholders to advocate for the creation of this grant program. We know that communities closest to the problems are also closest to the solutions but are furthest from the resources. Fully funding and making this program permanent is essential to transferring decision-making power where it belongs.
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