The California Endowment and GRACE will co-convene on Monday, December 16th for the policy conference “California’s Crisis: Ending Child Poverty” with key note speaker Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Ann Huff Stevens, Director of the Center, will speak as a panel speaker for the opening session “Income Support Programs: Effectiveness and Goals,” along with Lydia Ramirez, Director of the Health Benefits Resource Centers for Daughters of Charity Health System, Thomas Saenz, President & General Counsel of MALDEF, and Kim Belshe, Senior Policy Advisor of the Public Policy Institute of California and Executive Board Member of California Health Benefit Exchange.

More than one in five children in California lives in poverty.  If you include children who live just above the poverty line, nearly half of the children in the state either live in poverty or perilously close to it. Childhood poverty is a crisis affecting millions in California.

The purpose of the conference is to discuss and seek consensus on the most effective approaches to reduce child poverty in California. 

Speakers and Panelists include:

• Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder, Children’s Defense Fund
• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
• Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37), Founder and Co-Chair, Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth
• Rep. Barbara Lee (CA-13), Co-Chair, Congressional Out-of-Poverty Caucus
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson
• CA State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
• Peter Edelman, Faculty Director, Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy, Georgetown Law School and author of “So Rich, So Poor: Why it’s so hard to end poverty in America”
• Jim Newton, Editor-at-Large, LA Times, in Conversation with California Leaders
• Geoffrey Garin, President, Hart Research Associates, one of the nation’s most respected survey research firms, will present results from two polls on child poverty—general CA voter’s views on current programs and potential solutions and the perspectives of CA families living in poverty.

Registration is required as seating is very limited. To RSVP, please contact Sylvia Bermudez. Last day to RSVP is Monday, December 9th.