History of CDF and SAY

• Children's Defense Fund

The Children's Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of children who are poor or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. CDF encourages preventive investment before children get sick or into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown.
CDF has been our nation’s strongest voice for children and families since its’ founding in 1973 by Mrs. Marian Wright Edelman. Mrs. Edelman, a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People's Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. For two years she served as the Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in 1973, she founded CDF.

• Howard University SAY

Howard University S.A.Y

After attending the National Summit on America’s Cradle to the Prison Pipeline® Crisis at Howard University hosted by the Children's Defense Fund in the fall of 2007, a group of Howard University undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty convened to discuss pertinent issues that concern children and youth. The first chapter of S.A.Y was established at Howard University in December 2007.

• Spelman College SAY

After interning with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and attending the 13th Annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry, a group of Spelman College students convened to discuss pertinent issues that concern children and youth. With the support and guidance of the Howard University SAY members and the Children's Defense Fund, these group of young women decided it was time to introduce Spelman College and the greater Atlanta community to SAY. Since the summer of 2008, thes young women have been coming together to enthusiastically identify and determine what steps can taken to combat the challenges that are prevalent among our children and youth. Currently, Spelman S.A.Y is working on political and social projects under the guidance and support of Spelman College's Sisters Chapel.