Current Projects
Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) focuses on a wide range of issues that effect child well-being; economic well-being, education, health, safety, immigrant and refugee, juvenile justice and tax and budget. While some of our current projects focus on one specific issue, others span multiple issues. View some of our current projects below:
- Blueprint for Kentucky's Children is a coalition of nonprofit, private, and public organizations committed to making Kentucky a great place to be a kid. The partnership was created in the summer of 2007 when legislators put forth a challenge to state child advocacy groups to develop a cohesive strategic agenda for child well-being. The result was a comprehensive six-year plan called the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children. KYA serves as the lead organization in this partnership. Learn more about the Blueprint by visiting www.blueprintky.org.
- The Dental Health Project is an effort by KYA to bring together relevant stakeholders to build upon previous dental health efforts and to further improve dental health care for all Kentuckians. All children need good oral health to grow and thrive, yet many children in Kentucky fail to receive the dental care they need. In fact, children in poverty and children of color are routinely and systematically underserved by health providers. KYA plans to bring more attention to this issue by creating a statewide dental health coalition that will create systems-level policy change and promote evidence-based practices to improve the oral health of Kentuckians.
- Federal Advocacy - KYA works directly with Kentucky's Congressional delegation to raise the profile of children's issues and increase federal investments in support of children. We are proud to work with the following national partners:
- First Focus is a bipartisan advocacy organization that is committed to making children and their families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. KYA works closely with this nationally recognized organization on children’s issues including health, education, family economics, child welfare, and child safety.
- Voices for America's Children is a national network with 60 members in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The VOICES’ network is connected in a shared vision of a world in which every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential. This vision is achieved with the help of member organizations, like KYA, working with elected officials at the local, state and federal level.
- KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. KIDS COUNT exists to measure child outcomes and contribute to public accountability for those outcomes, resulting in a model for data-driven advocacy for children, their families, and their communities. The Annie E. Casey Foundation funds a KIDS COUNT project in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. KYA, the Kentucky KIDS COUNT grantee, provides a detailed county-by-county picture of the condition of children in order to inform public debate and strengthen public action on behalf of children and families.
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The Race, Community and Child Welfare (RCCW) initiative is a collaborative project between Casey Family Programs, the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), and Kentucky Youth Advocates. The purpose is to build community awareness, desire, and capacity to address and rectify the disproportionate number of and disparate outcomes for African-American youth who enter, reside in and exit out-of-home care. The partnership is working to address racial disproportionality with community partners and DCBS in Christian, Daviess, Fayette, Graves, Hardin, Jefferson, Kenton, McCracken and Warren Counties.
- The Safe Routes to School National Partnership (SRTSNP) is a partnership of more than 400 nonprofit organizations, government agencies, schools, and professionals across the country. KYA organizes the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Kentucky State Network. The Kentucky network works with stakeholders from diverse fields to increase physical activity in students, to make the best use of available federal SRTS funds, and to remove policy barriers to walking and bicycling to school.
- SortingThroughtheSmoke.com serves as a one-stop shop for individuals interested in documenting the impact of Kentucky’s high tobacco usage on the health of its residents. The website provides state and county-level data, local expert contact information, regional news coverage and resources to help tell the story behind tobacco in Kentucky. Sorting through the smoke is a joint endeavor of Kentucky Youth Advocates, the Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy, and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
- The Tax and Budget Initiative is one of KYA's efforts to help low and moderate income families in Kentucky. By researching state budget and tax policies, promoting adequate, sustainable and transparent tax and budget systems, and demonstrating the impact of various tax and budget decisions, KYA helps ensure that policymakers consider the needs of low and moderate income families, and other vulnerable populations like children, across the Commonwealth.
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