Public Citizens for Children and Youth

PCCY was founded over 25 year ago to help improve the lives of children by advocating on their behalf and being a catalyst for positive change.  We help to identify and educate the public about children’s needs and insist that our children become a priority if we as a society, and they as our future, are to survive.
 
Our goals have always been to increase the awareness of children’s needs;   increase the resources for children and families;  strengthen families and communities in helping children learn and grow and assure implementation of funding of public policies which promote stable children and families.
 
While we educate and advocate on behalf of children across all issues, we undertake specific focused efforts to improve the health of our children by maximizing access and availability of health care;  improve child welfare by targeting efforts to strengthen families;  improve the quality and quantity of child care programs;  act earlier rather than later in developing, monitoring and disseminating information about in-home programs that work;  improve the chances for troubled and troubling adolescents by seeking out the causes and responses to truancy or delinquency by building alternative programming in communities and develop more and better after-school programs in neighborhoods.
 
We have increasingly moved toward more involvement in communities and schools because that’s where our children are and that is where their lives take shape.
 
In addition to these activities, PCCY looks at the City, State and School District budgets and analyzes their effect on children.  We testify regularly in front of government officials on the impact of proposed legislative decisions that involve children;  act as a resource center for the media on children and family issues and develop reports on juvenile justice, education, child care, child welfare and budget issues.
 
PCCY’s ongoing presence as a watchdog and advocate for the region’s children is our most important work assuring us the flexibility and integrity to carry out our mission.
 
In the last several years, PCCY has played critical roles in expanding health care and child care for children in the City and State; improving the child welfare system in Philadelphia; helping to provide a better learning environment for children and building public awareness and concern about our children’s lives.