The Children’s Agenda offers this review of the proposed 2016 County budget and its impact on children and youth as a contribution to the local dialogue about how to best use limited resources to create a thriving community for families and children.

2016 is an important year for Monroe County’s children and youth. 2015 brought remarkable progress in aligning community leadership and resources in pursuit of systemic change that we hope will reverse the persistent and troubling negative trends around child poverty, school success and children’s health. We commend the County for being involved in these initiatives and we urge County leaders to take advantage of current community initiatives to marshal public policies and funding around evidence-based strategies that will strengthen families and improve children’s well-being.