Fighting to meet children's needs for almost two decades

While New York City makes its comeback from the COVID-19 pandemic, many working families are marred by the stress of a worsening affordability crisis. 

One nonprofit that remains a staunch advocate for the city’s most underserved and vulnerable children and families is the Citizens’ Committee for the Children of New York. Throughout its 80 year history, the Committee has helped inform policy decisions impacting early childhood education, healthcare, homelessness and public safety. It’s annual flagship report “Keeping track of New York City's Children” has been in active development for nearly 30 years, informing policymakers and philanthropic experts on key challenges impacting children. 

For the last 17 years, Jennifer March has served as the organization’s executive director, with her tenure ending this year. Having taken up the position right before the 2008 recession, March steered the agency not only through the fiscal crisis, but more recently through the COVID-19 pandemic – during which she helped restructure and expand research and advocacy efforts to meet the demands of a post-pandemic society marred by affordability and mental health crises.  

Among her most recognizable feats include advocating for reforms to New York City’s Earned Income Tax Credit, universal Pre-K and universal afterschool programs for middle school students, expanding Raise the Age programming and most recently, increasing behavioral health care for children and youth. 

New York Nonprofit Media spoke to March on her tenure, the importance of expanding youth behavioral health services and the increased inclusion of migrant families and children in city programs. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

What were some of the biggest advocacy goals that Citizen’s Committee for Children was able to make progress on this year?

So at the city level, we're very pleased to see about $283 million restored to the early care and education continuum, to make sure that greater progress expanding access to 3k and pre-K would not stall. There has also been progress on the recognition of over 500 million in resources for CityFHEPS rental vouchers. Those resources was a huge step forward, as they play an essential role in combating family homelessness and helping expedite people to permanent housing. On the state level, one of our primary areas of focus was really on improving access to behavioral health care. There has been, prior to the pandemic, behavioral health care needs for children and adolescents, and then through the pandemic, they've just skyrocketed. So one of the big things in this state budget is continued commitment to expanded access to behavioral health care, with millions of dollars invested. But importantly, a reform in commercial insurance reimbursement, so that commercial insurers can pay no less than the Medicaid rate for community based behavioral health care, which is really important because people wait a really, really long time accessing basic services in that community.

In a testimony you gave during a joint hearing on Mental Hygiene earlier this year, you mentioned the importance of increasing outpatient behavioral services for youth. Would you mind elaborating on this? 

This year, [the governor] prioritized investments in acute care, which is good, but the most important thing they did was advance this commercial insurance reform that requires insurers to reimburse for behavioral health care at no less than the Medicaid rate. And what that does is, when you can attract and retain a workforce, you actually help sustain and build capacity to serve children and families. We know that that there are very, very long waits for screening, assessment and treatment intervention. And moving forward, our proposal is really prioritizing, how we lift the rates of reimbursement in these areas to attract and retain the workforce and expand capacity.

Is this one of the central goals of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Kids coalition, of which the Committee is a part of? 

The vast majority of children in New York either have public health care coverage or private health care coverage, but they wait far too long for assessment and treatment interventions. So the focus of the campaign is to make both the right legislative reforms and budgetary investments so that children get timely access to the behavioral health care at the level they need. In the field of behavioral health care, we actually have an enormous amount of evidence about what works well for children— we just don't have enough of it and it's not accessed timely. So it's been important over the past several years that people have tried to make sure that there's enough acute residential beds and hospital beds, but that's really the last resort. So our focus is really upfront. What are we doing at the community level to reach children early and often, so that you can avoid the cycling in and out of emergency rooms or residential placement.

Earlier on in your tenure, you stated that funding for subsidized childcare is so “volatile”. In what ways is this still the case today?

Well, if you look at the city budget—what we're spending on both child care and 3k and pre-K, the lion's share of resources now are city tax levy. There are minimal amounts of state resources in child care. Most child care support is split City, Federal, because it comes from the child care block grant, but in the pre K, 3k space, I believe over 60% of that budget is city tax levy at this time. So that's grown enormously. What's challenging about that it really creates an exposure for that system when the economy is shaky in the city of New York. When the city administration tries to balance the budget, it looks to areas where the city tax levy exists, because that's what it can control. I think that there's a real opportunity to think critically about the affordability of child care and preschool education and the necessity to ensure that all kids are school ready. Depending on how the national election lands, maybe greater resources in the form of child care block grant subsidies. But also at the state level, maybe greater resources in the form of education aid, but that that's going to require a lot of collaboration across colleagues inside and outside of government and robust advocacy to make happen.

In terms of the recent influx of children who are coming into the city, by way of new arrivals and families, how should universal pre-K and 3-kprograms, be expanded to accommodate these incoming populations? 

I think both the city, state and federal government should be thinking about inclusive policies for immigrant led households, both new arriving immigrants and long-standing residents of the city of New York. And there are proposals in circulation. For instance, how do we make our tax policy for state child credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, more inclusive for ITN filers, how do we ensure that early education is accessible? At the state and city level, they did create immigrant specific childcare pods like Promise NYC. But we can't also forget that Head Start does not have immigration restrictions on it, nor does education aid. So making certain that households led by immigrants, both new arriving immigrants and long standing immigrants, are aware of the ability to access 3k, pre-K and Head Start is super important. Similarly, there are proposals on the table at the state level to make rent subsidies more inclusive, that the housing access voucher program would not have an immigration restriction. And there are also proposals on the table at the state level to create a food stamp look-alike, to make sure that food security is accessible for immigrant households. While there’s a lot out there, we often talk about them in individual ways, rather than a package that we could do for immigrant New Yorkers. What's important for us all to remember is that New York is an immigrant city, and that has always been the case. Immigrants are a vital part of the cultural fabric of New York City and our economy, so it's incumbent upon us to make sure that as we help support recovery, we're inclusive as we do it.

Regarding the Committee’s, “Keeping track of New York City's Children” report—what has been the cultural impact this resource in New York City? 

It's been in production now for 30 years, which is incredible. So we were collecting data before big data became a thing. What pleases me most about both the production of the desk reference and the online resource is that over time, it's begun to inform things like participatory research at the community level where we're working directly with young people and household heads to better understand, how are they experiencing their community. We've done five of those assessments now we're about to finish community needs assessment in central Brooklyn that was completely youth led. We're working with partners in the Bronx on a 10-year exercise to improve health outcomes in the Bronx that will be community led. I feel like having government administrative data in one place that sets the foundation for greater inquiry is really an important resource, not just for CCC, but for our philanthropic and direct service partners and government partners. So my hope would be that we continue to build on the resource and make the data as easily accessible as humanly possible to the greatest number of people. 

So just to zoom out a bit. You’ve been with CCC for about 25 years, including your 17 year tenure as executive director. How much has changed regarding the nature of challenges that children face? 

So the issues don’t change, but I’ve learned a lot over time about the effectiveness of different interventions, and the question for us often is, what can we encourage? What choices can we encourage government to make, relying on the evidence of what works for kids and families?

I think that child and family needs are fundamental and that there are consistent through lines that we know are important to focus on to ensure that children and families thrive. We know that healthcare coverage is important, but that prioritizing access to healthcare is just as important. We know that stable housing and affordable housing is a linchpin to connectivity to a whole host of other things. While wages have grown over time, housing costs have outpaced wage growth. In terms of education, it's broadly recognized that what you do to prepare kids for school, help them to achieve in school, is recognized really internationally now. How we actually support those that can't afford to really purchase, access to all the other supplemental things that help kids succeed in school and life is a really important conversation, and I would be prioritize affordable childcare, free youth services and protecting investments in community schools. Then in terms of safety, when you're thinking of the child welfare and juvenile justice system, often those are systems that catch young people and their families because other things have not reached them. So that ties back to the overall affordability crisis we have. I think we've learned through the pandemic that the ability to provide cash relief, emergency food, legal assistance is going to be a perpetual issue in the city of New York, and what our goal is to move beyond those types of emergency interventions to make sure every family has the tools to be stable economically and ability to grow. 

What are you most proud of accomplishing?

I’m incredibly proud of the success with Raise the Age. It was a really Herculean effort. I’m incredibly proud of the role CCC and other colleagues played in establishing a universal pre-K for four year olds and universal after-school for middle schoolers. I’m really proud of expanded approaches to tax policy—a deeper Earned Income Tax Credit, with proposals to make these tax credits more inclusive. And then the last thing, I would say is our work in the last several years around trying to combat family homelessness and improve access to behavioral healthcare has been particularly meaningful. I think that we have much more progress to make in both of those areas, but the diverse coalition of people involved has been really meaningful.

Will you continue to work with these coalitions when you leave?

I mean, that's an open question. I have to land on my feet somewhere, but it is my hope. You know, my career has been in public policy, and I'm a big believer in the role everyone has to play in the civic life of New York City. So maybe as a layperson, or I might not have an organizational role, but I'm definitely going to stay abreast of what all these coalitions are doing in the future.

So what led you to step down as Executive Director? 

I took the job in the fall of 2007  right before the great recession began, and I've led the organization through the pandemic. And I'm a big believer that you should take the opportunity to step away before you need to. I think that when I reflect back on my tenure, the organization has grown dramatically in size and impact. We like to say the three pillars of our work are research, civic engagement and advocacy. And in each area, we've grown enormously. Each pillar is now much more inclusive in terms of how we work internally and who we work with externally. There's never a great time to step away from an organization that's so integral to one's personal identity, that I feel so responsible for its future success. But as everyone emerges from this pandemic, I would say in my own personal life I have a child that started college, which often the empty nest often require, encourages someone to reflect on what do I do next now, that I have a little more, you know, free time. So I think It's just an opportunity to toss the baton to a slightly younger generation, and that the team at CCC is really well prepared to partner with a new leader. And I'm really excited to see what's next for the institution, and I have every confidence that they will find new ways to build on the foundation that I'm leaving them. It’s an 80 year old organization, and, you know, I really stand on the shoulders of many other people that came before me that did incredible work as well. 

What kind of priorities do you hope your successor will uphold?

The most want some of the most important things is really being inclusive in our approach to our three pillars. I think our participatory research with community members is incredibly meaningful and unique to CCC. Similarly, we have dramatically expanded our leadership development work and have made a commitment to the Healthy Minds Healthy Kids Council, which is supporting the deep involvement in our behavioral health advocacy of parents and young people. In family homelessness, we have family homelessness fellows, who are women that have experienced the family homelessness system themselves, and they are working with us to create a family action advisory board of other people with lived expertise. Similarly, we've worked with young people with experience in the juvenile justice system. So I think ensuring that our advocacy is not top down, but inclusive of the voices of those who are most impacted by the changes we seek is super important. Then I think in advocacy continuing, our commitment to lead by example in advocacy campaigns, ensuring that those campaigns are citywide or statewide, and include a diverse array of organizations. How do you make sure that we are a resource and a convener, and that our work is really inclusive of both people that have experienced the systems we're trying to change people that deliver service within those systems, philanthropy and government. Because you accomplish these big, ambitious policy or budgetary goals collectively. It's been really the highlight of my career to run CCC, and I'm excited for its future and for my own.