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Pregnancy Assistance Fund Policy Briefing Thursday, September 26, 2019
Esteemed Colleagues
I am honored to share that Andrea Kane is the Vice President for Policy and Strategic Partnerships at Power to Decide will join us, Thursday, September 26th. Andrea is a long-time advocate for fathers, and exceptional professional working on a wide range of national domestic policy issues will be the guest speaker for the September Unifying Voices in Fatherhood Initiatives National Call. Mr. Michael Peeples, Director for the City of Milwaukee's Fatherhood Initiative, will be the moderator for this call. Please feel free to share this invitation with your networks. The bottom of this note includes the conference call and or video access information.
Ms. Kane will share an urgent and time-sensitive national policy impacting the lives of millions of teen parents, families, and providers who are working with high school and college students. The array of affected providers from Zero- Three, Head Start, K12, juvenile-justice, child-welfare, homeless & runaway youth, fatherhood practitioners, etc., make time to join Andrea to learn about the reauthorization of the federal Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) $25 million annual program funding. We will start on-time at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and end promptly at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The meeting will stay open until 1:10 p.m. and then close access; therefore, please ensure to mark your calendar and join us a few minutes early.
On Thursday, September 26th, we’ll have a significant opportunity to learn more about and help support the reauthorization of the federal Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF). In the meantime, here is some background and an action step you can take now.
BACKGROUND: PAF is the only federal program designed to meet the unique needs of high school and college students who are pregnant and parenting, as well as to support pregnant women harmed by sexual violence. PAF is a competitive grant program that funds States and Tribal entities so they can provide a seamless network of support services to expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families. The program helps those who are pregnant or parenting, as well as their children, to thrive by connecting them to a wide range of support services including services related to personal health, child health, parenting supports, education support, employment support. And concrete supports like diapers, food, and baby equipment.
Participants in PAF projects have experienced positive outcomes, including improvements in high school graduation, acceptance into Institutions of Higher Education, reductions in dropping out of high school, and reductions in subsequent unintended pregnancies. Since PAF started, about 94,000 youth who are pregnant and parenting and pregnant women in 32 States and 7 Tribal entities have benefited from the program. For more background on the Pregnancy Assistance Fund, see here. You can also see a list of current grantees and these profiles of some of the past projects.
Congress established PAF in 2010 and provided mandatory funds at $25 million annually through FY 2019. Without further action, PAF will expire September 30, 2019. Senators Lisa Murkowski(R-AK) and Robert Casey (D-PA) recently introduced a bipartisan reauthorization bill with a mandatory appropriation of $25 million annually for five years (see Power to Decides’ statement of support).
ACTION STEP: A letter of support for PAF reauthorization from a variety of organizations at the national, state, tribal, and local levels will be especially helpful in finding a path forward for this program. We invite you to lend your important voice by joining the PAF support letter. You can add your organization to the message by completing this Google Form. I hope we can count on your help to ensure that this small but essential program can continue to serve some of the most vulnerable young people in our country, promoting positive outcomes for two generations.
For any questions, contact Andrea Kane at Power to Decide at
I have the power to decide how to show up every day.
Andrea Kane is the Vice President for Policy and Strategic Partnerships at Power to Decide. She is responsible for Power to Decide’s non-partisan federal and state public policy program, as well as forging strategic partnerships with a range of public and private sector organizations.
From 2001 through 2008, she was affiliated with the Brookings Institution’s Center on Children and Families in various capacities. Before joining Power to Decide in 2001, Kane served at the White House Domestic Policy Council as a special assistant to President Clinton. She has also worked at the National Governors’ Association and the state and local level in California, Texas, and Virginia.
She studied Government at Smith College, received a BA from Cornell University and an MPA from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
DATE: Thursday, Septemeber, 26, 2019
TIME: 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; Noon Central Standard Time; 11:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time; and 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION
Dial-in number (US): (605) 475-4855
Access code: 931057#
International dial-in numbers: https://fccdl.in/i/fathers_familiescoalition1
Online meeting ID: fathers_familiescoalition1
Join the online meeting: https://join.freeconferencecall.com/fathers_familiescoalition1
For 24/7 Customer Care, call (844) 844-1322
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