Guest Post: The Children’s Agenda and a Big Advocacy Win

After the expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit during the pandemic, the poverty rate was cut in half nationwide by that one policy alone, down to 5.2% in 2020.  That kept an estimated 9.6 million people out of hardship:  fewer missed meals, fewer evictions from homes, fewer neglected asthma inhalers and medicines.  Once that tax credit ended, 3.7 million children nationwide were plunged back into poverty. 

This demonstrates that policy interventions CAN work! And, GREAT NEWS! Recently, Governor Hochul announced an expansion of the Empire State Child Credit to $1,000 per child from birth to three and $500 per child aged 4 to 16. This is a significant, $800 million per year commitment, and will singlehandedly lift tens of thousands of families in New York State above the poverty rate.  The Children’s Agenda, RMAPI and other advocates have pushed for this approach since the pandemic.  Children under 4 were entirely excluded from the state tax credit until advocates successfully pushed for their inclusion in the state’s 2023-2024 budget!

We are thrilled!

For more information, The Children’s Agenda has published a  policy brief about Governor Hochul's proposed expansions on our website: Explaining Governor Hochul's Proposal to Expand the Empire State Child Credit - The Children's Agenda

And here is a handy calculator allowing families to see how much their own household income would increase as a result of this expansion: Proposed Tax Credit Calculator - The Children's Agenda.

In addition to celebrating this momentous progress for New York families, The Children’s Agenda (TCA) would like you to be aware of additional approaches currently being considered by the New York State legislature aimed at reducing child poverty:

 1)     Expanded state tax credits:  The Working Families Tax Credit[1] would combine the state’s current portion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the dependent exemption, and the Empire State Child Credit for a new tax benefit.

 2)     Baby Bucks Allowance[2] -- sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos and Assembly Member Sarah Clark, provides direct cash supports to mothers and their newborns, up to children two-years old, based on the successful Bridge Project here and elsewhere around the state.

 3)     Medicaid “Healthy Birth Grant”[3]: provides 47% of all birthing people and their newborns $1,800 at birth every year.

 4)     Child Care workforce supports[4]:  New York State spent $800 million in 2024 – 2025 to supplement the income of the child care workforce.  But, this capital was one-time-only support and there is a growing shortage of child care availability for families who need it to work as a result of child care workers leaving the profession in droves.  The average wage of child care workers in New York State is $13.55 per hour –most child care workers themselves rely on public benefits just to get by.[5] 

5)     NYS Housing Access Voucher Program[6]:  a state-version of federal Section 8 housing vouchers, this program would ensure fair access to affordable homes and better housing stability for families.

 6)     Reduce administrative barriers to access existing social safety net support:  TCA detailed what those changes to SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and child care assistance might look like in this recent report on our website.

The Children’s Agenda looks forward to working with partners like RMAPI and leaders in government at all levels of policy decision-making to use family income supplement policies to actually help eliminate – and not just alleviate -- poverty for Rochester families.

Contributed by Larry Marx. Larry Marx is CEO of The Children’s Agenda, a Rochester-based organization The Children’s Agenda that advocates both locally and statewide for effective, equitable policies, especially for families with children most impacted by poverty, racism, health inequities and trauma. Larry is an appointee to the Governor’s Child Care Availability Task Force, and serves on the Steering Committee of the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, ROC the Future and the board of directors of the Council of Agency Executives.

Footnote citations:

[1] https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/andrew-gounardes/senator-gounardes-impacted-families-and-advocates

[2] https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A1597

[3] https://nysfocus.com/2024/11/04/new-york-birth-grant-medicaid-cash-parents

[4] https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/03/compensation-fund-could-boost-nys-child-care-industry

[5] https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2024/states/new-york/

[6] https://housingjusticeforall.org/our-platform/housing-access-voucher-program/

Impact: Measuring the Difference We Make

Impact is a buzzword, particularly in the nonprofit space. What is our impact? Are our programs having impact? The challenge is that “impact” means different things to different people, and social science has a strong opinion. Impact indicates causality and can only be determined through rigorous evaluation. 

An inherently empirical term, impact is the difference in a specific outcome resulting from a particular intervention versus the outcome that results without that intervention. You could think of it like a math problem:

(Outcome with Intervention) – (Outcome without Intervention) = Impact

We often hear of impact defined as an intervention’s results (without evaluation) or even as a measure of output, such as the number of meals served. The danger in the disassociation between impact and causality is that we are setting ourselves up to connect the wrong dots, coming to an inaccurate conclusion because we omitted the science.

As you plan future projects, consider the science behind impact and how you want to measure success. Remember: ACT Rochester is here to help! 

For technical assistance feel free to email actrochester@racf.org