Beloved,
Every January is an opportunity to press the reset button. But this year…in this moment…it was different. We are being called to something deeper.
I heard it everywhere. As the year began, I traveled to local communities, from the South to the Pacific Northwest, listening to our partners in community organizing, faith leadership, philanthropy, and youth engagement. On January 21, the CDF team came together for the first time.
We began with a conversation about, “What’s going on?” The hybrid exchange between the Ella Baker Conference Room in Washington, D.C., and staff logging in from across the country, started with Marvin Gaye’s words and shifted quickly to Grace Lee Boggs’ query. “What time is it on the clock of the world?”
Team members shared powerful stories. From the physical and political violence in Minnesota. From immigration battles and family detention in Texas. From attempts to rollback policy wins in New York. In each instance they illuminated the harm being done to children and their families.
With each story, it became clearer that it’s time for us to do our first works over. As a nation. As a community. As an organization. I needed to do the same as a leader.
When I joined CDF in December 2020, I was wrestling with Eddie Glaude’s book about James Baldwin. The best-selling text published that year was entitled, Begin Again. It was named for the ancestor’s reflections on America “in the aftertimes.” In The Price of the Ticket, Baldwin says “to do your first works over means to re-examine everything. Go back to where you started, or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it.”
Two generations ago, CDF began with public truth-telling and narrative campaigns, grassroots base-building, and direct engagement with policymakers. This year, CDF will do her first works over to pursue child well-being through child advocacy.
CDF’s truth-telling work builds moral suasion in child advocacy by reporting data and the daily experiences of children. In 2026, we will support a special journal issue reflecting on the legacy of our signature 1975 report on school discipline, initiate a multi-year research partnership with Chapin Hall, and launch narrative campaigns to center children in democracy, faith, and public policy.
Our base-building focuses on child advocates, students, parents and caregivers, and faith communities. This year, we are expanding our Child Policy Training Institute, deepening relationship with state-level multi-issue child advocacy organizations, and scaling faith community organizing through place-based capacity-building. We will convene and equip 40,000 child advocates to make change for children this year.
We engage policymakers through professional staff and by mobilizing our base to advance our 2030 Public Policy Agenda. Our policy advocacy is rooted in national community listening campaigns and coalition work. In 2026, our goal is to put 8,000 advocates in direct contact with policy makers. With partners we will also launch an effort to center Black children in public policy in the South.
Join us as we begin again. Contribute. Volunteer. Give. Follow the work and share it with others.
