Children's Advocates Roundtable

Background / General Information

The Children's Advocates Roundtable, established in 1990, is an affiliation of over 300 statewide and regional children's policy organizations, representing over twenty issue disciplines (e.g., child abuse prevention, child care, education, poverty, housing, juvenile justice). The Roundtable is convened by the Children's Advocacy Institute, and is committed to providing a setting where statewide and locally-based children's advocates gather with advocates from other children's issue disciplines to share resources, information, and knowledge, and strategize on behalf of children; an opportunity to educate each other about the variety of issues and legislation that affect children and youth — facilitating prioritization of issues and minimizing infighting over limited state resources historically budgeted for children's programs; an opportunity to collaborate on joint projects that promote the interests of children and families; and a setting to foster a children's political movement, committed to ensuring that every child in California is economically secure, gets a good education, has access to health care, and lives in a safe environment.

The Children's Advocates Roundtable meets quarterly. The date of the next full Roundtable is May 9, 2019, from 12:00-3:00 pm at the California Endowment, 1414 K Street, Suite 500, Sacramento CA.

Each Roundtable consists of:

• A detailed discussion of an emerging area of significance for children's advocates, coordinated and presented by a different Roundtable member organization each time. This is a great opportunity for Roundtable member organizations to inform and educate others about new issues of importance! If your organization is interested in coordinating such a detailed discussion for a future Roundtable, please contact Melanie Delgado at (619) 260-4806.
• A discussion of timely matters important to all children's advocates, such as the budget, elections, or "inside the horseshoe" information.
• An opportunity for Roundtable members to briefly discuss their legislative and advocacy priorities, and seek support and assistance from other members.

Although other Roundtable members will be helping to select and present topics of significance for discussion, CAI will continue to provide the facility, food/beverages, promotion and general coordination for the quarterly meetings, as well as a call-in option for Roundtable members unable to attend in person.

For more information on the Roundtable, or to sign up for our email list, please contact Melanie Delgado at (619) 260-4806.

Information on the Roundtable's Child Welfare Subcommittee:

• The Roundtable's Child Welfare Subcommittee meets monthly to discuss and strategize on issues concerning child abuse prevention, child protection, foster care, the dependency court process, etc.
• Subcommittee meetings are typically held on the 3rd Thursday of each month.  When Subcommittee meeting dates coincide with the full Roundtable meeting dates (quarterly), the Subcommittee meetings are held from 11:00 am - 12:00 pm.  On all other 3rd Thursdays of the month, the Subcommittee meetings are held from 1:00-3:00 pm. 
• For more information about the Roundtable's Child Welfare Subcommittee, please contact Susanna Kniffen at Children Now.

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