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Recent
Events
Progressive Parties
The name Progressive Party was coined to describe our goal to progressively raise $150,000 over the course of the next 9 months, by engaging donors at small, intimate gatherings.
From brunch to cocktails, hoedowns to backyard barbecues, a Progressive Party offers our supporters the opportunity to get together, enjoy great food, wine and conversation.
Barbara Spradling hosted the first Progressive Party on Sept. 8th at the McColl Center for Visual Art. If you are interested in hosting a Progressive Party, please contact Laura Maguire at 704-943-9460 or e-mail: LauraM@cfcrights.org
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Children's Rights Concept of the Month
What is the difference between adult court and juvenile court?
Adult court, in most cases, is focused on deterrence and punishment. The purpose of juvenile court is to identify the underlying issues which cause delinquent behavior and provide possible interventions to address and treat these issues.
What is the Youth Accountability Act?
If passed into law, House Bill 1414, the Youth Accountability Act (referred to as Raise the Age) would raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction in North Carolina from 15 to 17 years old.
North Carolina is one of the last states in the country to automatically charge, try, sentence, probate, and incarcerate youth in the
adult criminal justice system. The Youth Accountability Act would require that 16 and 17 year olds be handled by the juvenile justice system.
Want to learn more? Check out our blog post on Raise the Age.
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New website, same voice for children
By Brett Loftis
You might notice a change in this months e-newsletter. You might also notice a change at our website, www.cfcrights.org. We take our role as the leading voice for children seriously. As a result, we realized we need to communicate better with YOU! We know our community values children. We know it is our job to work with every member of this community to unlock children's potential. We have upgraded the  website and our communication tools in an effort to ensure our community knows the issues, knows the facts, and knows what they have to do to be heard.
Because in the end, it's about helping children succeed. It's about giving children a voice and allowing them the opportunity to grow up safe, healthy and educated.
Over the last few years our community, like many others, has struggled to find ways to respond to the economic crises. Children in our community feel the effects. You cannot open a newspaper without reading a story about larger class sizes, increased demand for crisis interventions, and more children slipping through the cracks of the services that should be a safety net.
That is why our work is so vital to this community. We focus on individual children and the community at large. This broad spectrum of services allow us to affect thousands of children.
If you are interested in learning more about our programs, please visit our new site. If you find that your questions are not answered, we want to hear from you. We can only provide the best and most useful information by hearing from you. Please email or call Penny Hawkins, associate director of communications and corporate relations, to make sure our website and our communications are the best they can be - penny@cfcrights.org or 704-943-9476.
We also want you to know how important you are to the mission of the Council for Children's Rights. We would not be the leading voice for children without the advocacy, support and volunteer efforts of each of you.
Thank you,
Brett A. Loftis
Executive Director
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Disparity in CMS graduation rates
Last month, the UNCC Urban Institute released interactive data relating to graduation rates in our region and across the state. While the region's overall graduation rate rose, Mecklenburg was one of six counties that showed an overall decrease in graduation rates. In fact, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had the lowest graduation rate in the region, 72.2%. A shocking 27 school buses could be filled with students who failed to graduate in 2011 from CMS. Yet, CMS also has some of the region's highest graduation rates at individual schools. This means there is a huge disparity between schools in our county.
For example, the lowest graduation rate in CMS was E.E. Waddell High School (now closed) with 51.2% graduating. Providence High School had the highest graduation rate, with 93.2% graduating. This constitutes a 42% difference in graduation rates, which is not seen when only looking at the overall county graduation rate.
In addition, CMS graduation rates for white students are above average when compared with data across the state. But, CMS graduation rates for black and Hispanic students are below average when compared with state data. The good news is that graduation rates rose for black students by almost five percentage points (up to 66%) and by 3 percentage points for Hispanic students (up to 57%).
If you are interested in seeing the charts, or exploring graduation rates, please visit the UNCC Urban Institute Site, or interact with education data by clicking here.
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DukeEngage, here at the Council for Children's Rights
By Laura Ezell
Charlotte, NC - July 27, 2011 - My name is Laura Ezell, and I'm a rising junior at Duke University. Over the summer another Duke student and I had the opportunity to intern at the Council for Children's Rights through a program called DukeEngage. DukeEngage enables students to do civic engagement volunteer work around the globe by funding transportation and living expenses during a 9-week program. This summer there were 12 Duke students living and working in Charlotte through DukeEngage at 4 different placement sites, sharing our experiences with one another and being exposed to new people and ideas.
Working at CFCR was an eye-opening and educational experience for me. I've worked with children in the past, but I'd never before gotten to see the "behind-the-scenes" work of child-related policy research and child advocacy. Through this internship, I've been able to research community programs that assist families with school readiness, watch as lawyers defend their child clients in juvenile court, sit in on meetings discussing the new budget, and make phone interviews to learn more about the different human services collaborations that exist in Charlotte. Each day brought something new!
In the sometimes-isolated college world, it is easy to get absorbed in the day-to-day routine, but this summer enabled me to step out into the "real world." Although part of this journey included being exposed to terrible problems and suffering, it also included watching people hard at work to break the cycles of poverty or the "cradle to prison" pipeline. Despite learning more and more about children in troubling situations, each day ended with optimism, seeing the strides that are actively being made at CFCR to combat these difficult problems.
As a rising junior I have no idea what the future may hold, but through my work this summer I've gotten to see how people turn a love of children into a career, to explore my own interests and abilities, and to learn more about the world of law and policy as it relates to children.
READ MORE ABOUT DUKE ENGAGE
IN THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
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