West Virginia Press Association
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (WVCBP), an independent research and advocacy organization working to advance public policies that increase opportunity and eliminate inequities for children and families, announces that it will be serving as the KIDS COUNT® partner for the state of West Virginia in 2024 and beyond.
As a new KIDS COUNT partner organization, the WVCBP will grow our capacity to make a difference for West Virginia’s children by tracking data and serving as a resource on the key indicators of child well-being. KIDS COUNT is a platform of the Annie E. Casey Foundation that provides legislators, public officials, and child advocates with reliable data, policy recommendations, and tools to advance policies that benefit children and youth. Each state—as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—is represented by a KIDS COUNT grantee that operates independently from the Casey Foundation.
The WVCBP prides itself on being a trusted source of data related to children, youth, and families in the Mountain State and we are honored to continue this work through our expansion into the role of KIDS COUNT partner for West Virginia. Among other new responsibilities, the WVCBP will now provide data to inform the West Virginia section of the KIDS COUNT Data Center, which includes insightful information pertaining to demographics, economic well-being, child welfare, education, and more.
“Robust, reliable data combined with community-rooted advocacy drive positive policy change for children and families. The WVCBP is honored to carry on the KIDS COUNT work in West Virginia and to be part of this critically important national network,” said Kelly Allen, WVCBP executive director. “We invite lawmakers, public officials, and child advocates to reach out to us with data requests and suggestions on what policy issues they would like to see us prioritize in the year ahead.”
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based national philanthropy, creates a brighter future for the nation’s young people by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity, and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work, and grow. For more information, visit www.aecf.org.
The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is a public policy research organization that is independent, nonprofit, and statewide. The WVCBP works to advance public policies that increase opportunity and eliminate inequities through credible and accessible research and community-rooted advocacy.
KIDS COUNT® is a registered trademark of The Annie E. Casey Foundation in the United States and/or other countries and is used with permission of the Foundation.
KIDS COUNT has a rich thirty-plus year history of providing credible data and policy recommendations in the Mountain State. In 1989, the Governor’s Task Force on Children, Youth and Families served as the first KIDS COUNT project partner in West Virginia, publishing annual, statewide data books to educate the public and policymakers about the needs and conditions of children. Most recently West Virginia Kids Count, now known as Every Child WV, served as the state KIDS COUNT partner in the national network, during which the group contributed meaningful data and partnership to stakeholders throughout West Virginia.
