About Us
To advocate for the creation and support of policies and practices that protect and promote the well being of children in the Lehigh Valley. The Children's Coalition of the Lehigh Valley is a community based, member supported, volunteer advocacy organization dedicated to making the Lehigh Valley an environment where all children and families can flourish. We strongly believe that our community must make the well being of children and families a top priority in all decisions made by our leaders in the Lehigh Valley and across the state. That is, we must devote resources to evaluate and attend to child health, development and education. And, since children live within families, their well-being and growth into productive caring and participating citizens depends fundamentally on a family's ability to raise and nurture them. Therefore, The Children's Coalition advocates for social investments and policies that assist and support families in their vital role. The CCLV pursues its mission by:
We invite you to join us in this important work. Family Policy Summits To provide for coordinated and effective advocacy for children and families in the public policy arena, the Children's Coalition initiated the Family Policy Summit process in 2004. Over the past 3 years, CCLV has run a series of Family Policy Summits to establish and maintain an ongoing, open conversation among local advocates across a wide range issues focusing on child and family welfare. These events provide an opportunity for human service professionals, child protection specialists, educators, health professionals, leaders in the faith based and philanthropic communities and citizen advocates to hear experts on a variety of themes related to our mission, discuss and develop shared child advocacy goals to work on during the year, and most importantly, leave the Summits with an action plan they intend to carry out as an effective political force in state budget and other policy deliberations. The Family Policy Summit process has yielded three principal and continuing goals these groups have endorsed include:
Towards these ends, Summit members have carried out a series of meetings with our state and national legislative representatives to advocate around the creation and funding of local, state and federal programs that promote our goals. As Family Policy Summit Members, we have been able to speak in concert before both the public and decision makers on issues vital to families and children in our Valley. Current Family Policy Summit
Below are copies of their presentations. Board of Directors John Reynolds, Ph.D., President John Van Brakle, M.D., Vice President Chris Stamper, Treasurer Peggy Campbell Diane Donaher Gregg Dowty, Ph.D. Jane Ervin Joan Farrell Angie Gutekunst Nancy Kanuck Richard Lane Victor Lesky, Ed. D. Kathleen Mills, Esq. Robert Spengler Susan M. Williams
The development of the Children's Coalition began in 1986 when a number of business and community leaders became concerned about latchkey children in the valley and a working committee was formed under the auspices of the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. The Latchkey Committee realized early on that their concerns were part of a broader set of issues related to child care. Thus, the Latchkey Committee became the Child Care Coalition. A second group, the Children At-Risk Planning Group, also under the United Way, was working on similar issues, and eventually they merged in September 1993 with the Child Care Coalition to form the Children's Coalition of the Lehigh Valley. During its initial period of service (1993-2000) to the Lehigh Valley, the CCLV organized many events to advance the well being of the region's children. In 1993, The Children's Coalition sponsored "Building Bridges: Forum I and II" which brought regional and state planners and leaders to talk about the state of the children in the Lehigh Valley and in 1994 presented a series of five half-day conferences titled, "CHANGING OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: Building a Community Movement" In 1996, the Children's Coalition participated in the development of a Bi-County Systems Reform Planning Team that received a $1.5 million grant from the state to implement community strategies for systems reform. During this period, the Children's Coalition also hosted numerous candidate forums and published well received briefing books on local and state campaign issues as well as organizing local participation from 1996 to 1998 in the Children's Defense Fund national "Stand for Children" and the "Children's Sabbath" programs. In 1997, the Coordinating Committee of the Children's Coalition began the process of incorporation of the Children's Coalition as a 501 (c)(3) organization. The Articles of Incorporation were filed in December, 1997. On February 5, 1998, the Children's Coalition became one of 50 non-profit child advocacy organizations across the country, joining only the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children and Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth as the only other Pennsylvania organizations with such status. The Coalition Board developed and adopted its first Strategic Plan on March 3, 1998. Since its incorporation, the CCLV has focused its advocacy activities on several ongoing initiatives described above. Contact Information You can contact the Children's Coalition in the following ways: Mail: PO Box 1529 | ||
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