In the last two decades, during a time when Northwest Arkansas has grown more prosperous and gained a national reputation for its booming economy and quality of life, poverty has taken a stronger foothold. In Northwest Arkansas, the number...
Health reform legislation and its impact on Arkansas’s low- and moderate-income children and their families remains at the top of AACF’s advocacy agenda. This issue of Moving Families Forward outlines AACF’s top concerns with Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus’...
Arkansas working families are losing as much as $110 million every year because they don’t claim the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a significant loss in federal dollars to the hard-pressed Arkansas economy. They spend another $100 million...
In public debates on taxes, it is often forgotten (or ignored) that the poor pay taxes just like everyone else. Not only do low-income working families pay a vast array of taxes—from payroll to sales taxes and from property...
Even during the August recess, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families has been closely following Congress as it continues to develop legislation that will have a profound impact on Arkansas children and families. Newly released 2009 federal budget deficit...
The Task Force recommends that Arkansas take the following actions to support expanded access to quality after-school and summer programs across the state. Promote quality by: Using the framework for quality standards and all of its elements in program...
Half of 3,700 Arkansas children recently surveyed said they were unsupervised after school on a regular basis, according to a new report by students from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. The report on the demand...
In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, ending welfare as we had then known it for several decades. The Act replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with an...
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is closely following Congress as it continues to develop legislation that could have a profound impact on Arkansas children and families. Healthcare reform and climate change dominate discussion in both the Senate and...
Arkansas’s Transition to Employment Assistance (TEA) program is a safety net for children and families in poverty. TEA provides short-term cash assistance to families in financial crisis, with the long-term goal of moving them from poverty and dependence to...