CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Advocates for the Our Children, Our Future campaign are encouraging candidates to make West Virginia children their main priority as this election year rolls out.
“We’ve got budget problems. We’re having to cut funding to schools, higher education and services for kids. We want to see a refocus on making this a really great place to raise a child,” said Carey Jo Grace, regional organizer for the campaign with West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families.
On Thursday, community leaders met in Charleston to discuss the campaign’s platform for the 2016 election called the “Commitment to Our Children and Our Future.”
Grace said they laid out three main areas of focus when it comes to making West Virginia the best place to live, work and raise a family.
“Jobs and education, healthy communities and a government who works for the people and people who work with the government,” she said.
Campaign officials have gathered policy ideas from citizens across the state for the last three months and now plan to sort through it. Public input will then be organized in a ballot that will be voted on statewide in April and May of what people with the campaign want to see on their commitment.
The commitment itself is going to be a document that lays out the policies that will be worked on over the next several years, but this year, they want to use what they know to speak with candidates, Grace said.
“We’re going to use that document to talk to candidates and ask them whether they support these issues or not, where they stand on them,” she said. “We’re also going to use it for individuals and organizations to make a pledge to end child poverty in the state of West Virginia.”
Campaign advocates will hold their annual meeting and summit at Pierpont Community and Technical College on April 22 to present the final ballot of issues to be voted on, which will then be included in their commitment. A roll out of the commitment will take place May 25.
The Our Children, Our Future campaign works with over 170 organizations and thousands of individuals.
The campaign secured several policy victories the 2016 Regular Legislative Session including legislation that helped get families back to work through new provisional driver’s licenses, kept child care and Pre-K programs open by allowing counties to set their own schedules and empowered nurses to provide more affordable care to patients in need, according to a news release.