Children's Health Alert: Help Raise Awareness in Your Community

Received from Catholic Charities on 02 July 2007

Children's Health Alert: Help Raise Awareness in Your Community Take Action!

Write to your local newspaper today!

WHAT: When Congress returns from its week-long July 4th recess, committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate will begin debating legislation to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). SCHIP provides high quality, vital health coverage to 6 million children whose families would otherwise be unable to afford insurance, but more than 9 million children in America go without health insurance. It's time that all our nation's children got the health coverage they need. We need your help to raise awareness in your community about this critical program and the need to ensure that all eligible children receive health coverage by sending letters to the editors of your local newspapers. We need your help to spread the word! ACTION NEEDED: Click on "Take Action" and enter your zip code to find contact information for your local media outlets and a sample letter to the editor to get you started. We strongly encourage you to personalize this letter to paint a picture of issues in your community and what you may be doing to help. BACKGROUND: Improving public policies that promote the health of our nation's children is a key issue area of Catholic Charities USA's Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America. Click here for more information on Catholic Charities USA's positions on SCHIP. For more tips on writing letters to the editor and working with the media, check out our advocacy manual, Taking Action, Catholic Charities USA's Guide to Effective Advocacy. For more information, please contact Christin Driscoll, Senior Director for Policy Development and Advocacy, at cdriscoll@catholiccharitiesusa.org or Desmond Brown, Director of Health and Welfare Policy at dbrown@catholiccharitiesusa.org. Did you send a letter to the editor? Tell us about it on the poverty campaign blog! Thank you - you efforts make a difference!