Season's Greetings

The Casey Foundation’s Year in Review

Dear Friends and Partners,

As we nav­i­gat­ed the sec­ond year of the pan­dem­ic, we con­tin­ued work­ing with all of you to make sure the needs of the nation’s chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies remained a pri­or­i­ty through­out this cri­sis and beyond. You helped house­holds make ends meet and fought to advance jus­tice and equi­ty, while respond­ing to your own orga­ni­za­tion­al challenges.

For all of us who care deeply about kids and fam­i­lies, this year deliv­ered unex­pect­ed, long-sought oppor­tu­ni­ties. His­toric fed­er­al invest­ments — includ­ing the expan­sion of the child tax cred­it and the earned income tax cred­it — were game chang­ers for mil­lions of low-income fam­i­lies and young workers.

Your efforts helped bring about this moment, and your voic­es will be crit­i­cal in the months and years ahead in shap­ing invest­ments and pro­grams to ensure all chil­dren emerge from this peri­od healthy, finan­cial­ly sta­ble and well posi­tioned to thrive.

In these uncer­tain times — and in no uncer­tain terms — your part­ner­ship has been critical.

High­light­ing the Devel­op­men­tal Oppor­tu­ni­ty of Adolescence

In Jan­u­ary, we launched Thrive by 25, our effort to coor­di­nate and con­nect pro­grams, sys­tems and resources to devel­op com­pre­hen­sive solu­tions that address issues fac­ing young peo­ple ages 14–24. Over the next decade, the Foun­da­tion will com­mit at least half of its invest­ments to five key areas: meet­ing young people’s basic needs, build­ing per­ma­nent con­nec­tions with fam­i­ly and car­ing adults, advanc­ing edu­ca­tion and cre­den­tials, pro­mot­ing finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and cul­ti­vat­ing youth leadership.

As you will see below, we believe this is a crit­i­cal area of focus giv­en the unique devel­op­men­tal win­dow of ado­les­cence. At the same time, our com­mit­ment to build­ing a brighter future for all chil­dren and youth — from birth through young adult­hood — and their fam­i­lies remains steadfast.

Pre­vent­ing Sys­tem Involvement

Our long-stand­ing work to pre­vent kids from enter­ing pub­lic sys­tems took on new urgency dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, as we sought to keep them healthy and safe.

• We expand­ed Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren — a joint effort with the fed­er­al Children’s Bureau, Casey Fam­i­ly Pro­grams and Pre­vent Child Abuse Amer­i­ca — from four to 22 juris­dic­tions, includ­ing a trib­al nation.
• We kicked off a nation­al cam­paign with Casey Fam­i­ly Pro­grams to elim­i­nate the need for child wel­fare group place­ments by 2030, build­ing on a foun­da­tion of research we sup­port­ed this year that cap­tures how harm­ful these set­tings are for young people.
• We con­tin­ued our work with juris­dic­tions to trans­form juve­nile pro­ba­tion and sup­port com­mu­ni­ty-based solu­tions for hold­ing youth account­able for their actions.

Sup­port­ing Suc­cess in School and at Work

We con­tin­ued cre­at­ing school and work oppor­tu­ni­ties for youth and young adults, work­ing with employ­ees, com­mu­ni­ty col­leges and oth­ers to remove bar­ri­ers and equip young peo­ple for success.

• We bol­stered the sta­bil­i­ty and edu­ca­tion­al suc­cess of young par­ents and helped youth get back on track in school.
• We worked to strength­en and expand youth appren­tice­ship pro­grams in advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing, health care and infor­ma­tion technology.
• We helped close the racial wealth gap in the South by reduc­ing debt from med­ical expens­es, stu­dent loans and court fees and fines in com­mu­ni­ties of col­or, and pro­tect fam­i­lies from accu­mu­lat­ing more debt dur­ing the pandemic.

Pro­mot­ing Safe­ty, Oppor­tu­ni­ty and Hous­ing Sta­bil­i­ty in Communities

We invest­ed in efforts to reduce and pre­vent vio­lent crime, cre­ate eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, expand access to afford­able hous­ing and pre­vent home­less­ness, par­tic­u­lar­ly for youth.

• We expand­ed our invest­ments in pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty safe­ty — launch­ing and grow­ing efforts to reduce crime in Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Jack­son (Mis­sis­sip­pi) and Mil­wau­kee — and shared our lessons on lever­ag­ing proven strate­gies to curb gun vio­lence.
• We cre­at­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for entre­pre­neurs of col­or in Atlanta and Bal­ti­more by increas­ing access to cap­i­tal and oth­er resources aimed at start­ing and sus­tain­ing a business.
• In our home­towns and beyond, we sought to pre­serve afford­able hous­ing and help fam­i­lies main­tain sta­ble hous­ing and access fed­er­al rental assistance.

Fos­ter­ing Pan­dem­ic Relief and Recovery

We con­tin­ued our work to sup­port the sta­bil­i­ty and well-being of chil­dren, youth and fam­i­lies through­out the pandemic.

• Our 2021 KIDS COUNT Data Book called on law­mak­ers to make the his­toric expan­sion of the child tax cred­it per­ma­nent. We also fund­ed out­reach to help fam­i­lies access the cred­it and research on how fam­i­lies used these crit­i­cal funds.
• We sup­port­ed research and advo­ca­cy that helped inform fed­er­al pan­dem­ic recov­ery efforts — includ­ing fund­ing for direct finan­cial relief, increased food assis­tance, K–12 edu­ca­tion and eco­nom­ic relief for state and local gov­ern­ments — and the effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of relief leg­is­la­tion to ensure the ben­e­fits and sup­port reach fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties who need them most.

In these ways and many more, you’ve helped cre­ate a brighter tomor­row for America’s kids and fam­i­lies. This is impor­tant, life-chang­ing work, and we look for­ward to our ongo­ing part­ner­ship to advance these efforts and more in the new year.

Sin­cere­ly,

Lisa M. Hamilton
Pres­i­dent and CEO
The Annie E. Casey Foundation