Governor Gavin Newsom, LA County Board Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas Join St John’s Well Child and Family Center In Fight to End Child Poverty

 

For Immediate Release: May 17, 2019
Contact: dae@revolutionmessaging.com
+1 310 879 9908

LOS ANGELES— Governor Gavin Newsom was in Los Angeles on Friday, May 17 joining St. John’s Well Child and Family Center in the fight to End Child Poverty. Elected officials, community members & leaders, local parents, and anti-poverty advocates participated in this event for the statewide End Child Poverty Bus Tour, which runs Friday, May 17 to Monday, May 20.

“We are honored to host Governor Gavin Newsom and we are grateful he has made such a strong commitment to expand healthcare and end child poverty. As the largest provider of health services in the largest area of contiguous poverty in the United States, there is no issue more important to the 100,000 patients we serve, then ending poverty,” said Jim Mangia, President and CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center.

“In the words of MLK Jr.: ‘The curse of poverty has no justification in our age.’ The End Child Poverty Plan is an important first step to reducing child poverty in our state.” said Los Angeles County Board Supervisor, Mark Ridley-Thomas. “It also directly connects to our efforts in combatting homelessness. It sends a clear message that our work must be bold and our policy agenda must be steady to lift children and families out of poverty.”

Led by the End Child Poverty in California coalition, the tour will launch in Chula Vista and will make stops and hold open press events in Los Angeles, Pomona, Weedpatch, Fresno, Salinas, Oakland, and Sacramento.

The End Child Poverty Bus Tour, sponsored by GRACE, made a stop at St. John’s main clinic in Los Angeles. St John’s hosted a press conference and a round-table discussion with the following key leaders in our State tackling this issue, including:

  • California Governor, Gavin Newsom
  • California State Senator, Holly J. Mitchell
  • California State Assemblywoman, Autumn Burke,
  • Los Angeles County Board Supervisor, Mark Ridley-Thomas
  • Jim Mangia, President of St Johns

OVERVIEW
State legislation created the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force to develop an anti-poverty plan to be released just before the new governor and legislature took their oaths of office in January. The End Child Poverty in California Coalition rallied people and organizations and lobbied elected officials to adopt the Task Force’s End Child Poverty Plan, which would end deep child poverty in just four years when fully implemented. The plan would also reduce overall child poverty by 50 percent over the next decade.

As a result, Governor Newsom’s recently released May Revised budget includes unprecedented investments to address deep child poverty. Furthermore, several pieces of legislation and budget proposals have been introduced to implement the comprehensive End Child Poverty Plan.

The Bus Tour will highlight this magnificent start and urge our elected leaders to continue the momentum by passing the Governor’s budget and the End Child Poverty Plan-related legislation this year and next. In addition, the coalition on the bus and gathered at the various stops will share their lived experiences with poverty and showcase the wide range of challenges across different parts of California and the common threads among our communities.

The report issued by the Task Force pegs the cost of the four-year plan to eliminate deep child poverty for 450,000 California children starting at $1.6 billion the first year. If concentrated as a population, 450,000 would represent the state’s eighth largest city — larger than Oakland, twice as large as San Bernardino, and just smaller than Long Beach. When fully realized, savings generated by lifting these children from poverty would total $12 billion annually, on an ongoing basis, representing a dramatic return on investment.

California has the highest number of children and highest percentage of children living in poverty of any state in the nation — almost 2 million children, who represent one out of every five California kids. Deep poverty is defined as families living at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty line, or less than about $12,500 for a family of four. In addition, 204,000 California children experience homelessness.

For background and to read the plan, visit: https://www.endchildpovertyca.org/ For press inquiries, please contact dae@revolutionmessaging.com.

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JOHN’S WELL CHILD AND FAMILY CENTER (SJWCFC) IS AN INDEPENDENT 501(C)(3) COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER SERVING PATIENTS OF ALL AGES THROUGH A NETWORK OF FEDERALLY QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS AND SCHOOL-BASED CLINICS THAT SPAN THE BREADTH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH LOS ANGELES AND COMPTON. OUR MISSION IS TO ELIMINATE HEALTH DISPARITIES AND FOSTER COMMUNITY WELL-BEING BY PROVIDING AND PROMOTING THE HIGHEST QUALITY CARE IN SOUTH LOS ANGELES.