Kids Impact Initiative is a California-based nonprofit project founded in 2017. Our mission is to improve the lives of the nation's 74 million children by strengthening public- and private-sector accountability and by helping develop and support the next generation of advocacy for children. Kids Impact works both nationally and in California, which is home to 9.1 million children.
Kids Impact's purpose is to develop and promote strategies to support and strengthen the child advocacy field as a whole. We are a team of seasoned advocates who have stepped away from the day-to-day running of organizations. Kids Impact analyzes trends and lessons across a broad range of issues and organizations in order to reinforce effective efforts already underway and ratchet up accountability and advocacy for children.
Kids Impact Initiative conducts independent research, publishes, develops advocacy strategies, and promotes action on topics relevant to child advocacy in the U.S. today. Kids Impact acts like a think tank to conceptualize and frame issues and then uses a networked approach to spark action—serving as a resource to leaders and networks. Kids Impact Initiative's work is developed specifically to offer high-impact, actionable ideas and support the diverse set of people and groups working to improve the well-being of America's children.
Since the early 1990's, the principals of Kids Impact Initiative have used this model of conceptualizing and framing issues and strategies that have had far-reaching impact on child advocacy and, ultimately, the nation's children. For example, in 1994, in their leadership roles at The Children's Partnership, they wrote the first report on how the Internet could impact the nation's children and laid out an action agenda. In 1995, they developed the first guide for parents in the online world, both of which sparked widespread advocacy action. In the health arena, they laid out in a 1999 publication the way the majority of uninsured children could be found and more easily enrolled in coverage through nutrition and other programs in which they were already enrolled. This approach, called Express Lane Eligibility, was adopted in a number of states and included as part of the Affordable Care Act, resulting in millions of children gaining coverage. These seminal publications (and related advocacy) are a few examples of how research and strategic direction can spark large and ongoing advocacy activities that lead to tangible results for kids.