Dear Lord be good to me. The sea is so wide and my boat is so small

The Children's Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind^® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. Full Mission Statement »

Watch videos of our Beat the Odds^® Honorees »
Cutting children from the budget now will cost all of us later. Read CDF's Budget Principles »
CDF-NY’s Youth and Community Justice Tool-Kit is meant to equip teachers, youth program leaders, and community organizations with the information, resources, and interactive activities to teach people about justice issues in their communities. Read more...
Mayor Bloomberg’s budget threatens child care and after-school programs for 47,000 children. Join the Campaign for Children and fight for New York City’s children and working families. Campaign for Children

Protect Children, Not Guns

For more than 20 years, CDF has produced a gun report “Protect Children, Not Guns” which documents the epidemic of gun violence in America. A child or teen dies or is injured from guns every 30 minutes. Gun violence saturates our children’s lives. More children and teens die from guns every three days than died in the Newtown massacre. The number of children under 5 killed by guns in 2010 was more than the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty that same year. Between 1979 and 2010, 119,079 children and teens died from guns. This is more deaths in 32 years than U.S. soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam, Korean, Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined. Download our new fact sheet “The Truth About Guns”, distribute the most up-to-date key facts on child and teen gun deaths and injuries and take action by signing a petition to the President and members of Congress demanding they #ProtectChildrenNotGuns.

CDF-NY News

Health advocates push to save school clinics on cutting block
May 15, 2013,

New York’s Diversity-Competent Health Insurance Exchange
April 30, 2013,

U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Fell Steadily From ’05 to ’11
April 17, 2013, The New York Times

The Movement to Expand Health Care Access
April 16, 2013, New America Media

As Child Care Costs Rise, Families Seek Alternatives
April 3, 2013, The New York Times

About CDF

Learn more about CDF, our history and our Leave No Child Behind® mission.

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Joshua Norris

Joshua Norris was presented with a college scholarship during the annual CDF-New York Beat the Odds^® awards ceremony this past December. Watch the stories of our other honorees »