MassKids

kidscount_web2 KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the status of children in the United States. There is a KIDS COUNT Project in each of the 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Massachusetts Citizens for Children, the oldest state-based child advocacy organization in the country, is the national KIDS COUNT grantee.

Massachusetts KIDS COUNT provides citizens, policymakers and child advocates with accurate, non-partisan data on a range of social, economic, education and health indicators on the well-being of children. Massachusetts KIDS COUNT aims to raise public awareness of children's issues, stimulate dialogue, and help state policy makers and advocates make informed decisions to provide a better future for our state's children.

Click here for the KIDS COUNT Online Data Center, which contains the latest child well-being data.

Annie E. Casey Foundation

KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Foundation was established in 1948 by Jim Casey, one of the founders of UPS, and his siblings, who named the Foundation in honor of their mother. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today's vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities, and communities fashion more innovative, cost-effective response to these needs. For more information, visit www.aecf.org.

National KIDS COUNT Data Book

Since 1990, the Annie E. Casey Foundation has produced a National KIDS COUNT Data Book, which tracks indicators of child well-being in each state and shows how states compare on those measures. Download the latest here:

2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book

The New England Consortium

With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, child advocates in the six New England states formally launched the New England Consortium in January 2010. Its member organizations - Connecticut Association for Human Services, Connecticut Voices for Children, Maine Children’s Alliance, Massachusetts Citizens for Children, Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, and Voices for Vermont’s Children - will develop cross-state strategies that have the best prospects of reducing child and family poverty in the region.

Members of the New England Consortium meeting at MCC in Boston to develop the strategic plan.

As the Massachusetts partner in the Initiative, Massachusetts Citizens for Children and its KIDS COUNT Online Data Center will provide cities with their latest child well-being data and link them to promising efforts in other locations. With our colleagues in the state and region, we will work with the New England Congressional Delegation to push for federal policies that have the best chance of advancing an effective poverty reduction agenda.

Learn the Facts!

Recent American Community Survey data for 2010 shows that the recession has had a real impact on children in the Commonwealth, with child poverty increasing at all poverty levels between 2007 and 2010. Now, hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts children are living in families who barely are getting by economically, which can affect their current well-being and their ability to succeed as adult.

Nearly 100,000 of our state’s children live in extreme poverty (a family of four earns just $11,025 a year). Deep poverty has a strong negative effect on the education and development of young children. Even relatively small changes in incomes among low-income young children have been found to trigger significant changes in school achievement.

Over 200,000 children (14% of Massachusetts children) are at the poverty level ($22,050 for a family of four).

Over 400,000 children (29% of our state’s children) live in families who are now dipping into poverty. These children are considered low-income ($44,100 for a family of four).