STANDING UP, SPEAKING OUT FOR CHILDREN, SINCE 1975

• The early years
  Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth is one of the oldest child advocacy organizations in the country. A three year old in an isolation cell in San Francisco's Juvenile Hall was the spark which led Coleman's courageous founder, Jean Jacobs, to begin a lifelong campaign to help children in the juvenile justice and foster care systems. Gertrude Coleman, impressed by Jacobs' resolve, left a small trust to the San Francisco Foundation, which created Coleman and appointed its first Board of Directors. Coleman began operations in 1975. The citizen outrage, which led to the creation of Coleman has remained the dominant force behind Coleman's work.
  
  Throughout the 70's and early 80's Coleman focused on the systems that served abused, neglected and status offender children. Coleman's goal, which was accomplished, was to have services for these children removed from the Juvenile Hall and have comprehensive family-focused services placed in the community.
  
  
• Prevention
  As Coleman matured throughout the 80's, it turned the spotlight on the need to further expand services that prevented institutionalization and other bad outcomes for children. Coleman spearheaded the citywide Youth Emergency Services Coalition on behalf of homeless youth, leading to a network of the city's major homeless youth services. This campaign for homeless youth was followed by a successful Playgrounds for Kids initiative to create school-based, after-school programs.
  
  
• A political force to be reckoned with
  By the mid 80's Coleman was creating a strong political force in the city for children. After sponsoring the city's first candidate forum on children's issues and astonishing the political establishment by drawing the largest crowd assembled during the entire election, holding elected officials accountable became a key component of Coleman's work. This led to report cards, regular candidate forums, and an annual Speak Up for Kids Day at City Hall.
  
  
• Budget advocacy
  In the late 80's, after witnessing a succession of budget cuts, Coleman turned most of its attention to the funding needs of children's services and developed a series of Children's Budgets. Frustration with the exhausting annual budget battles led to Coleman's singular achievement: the landmark Children's Amendment, which put Coleman in the national spotlight, where it has been ever since. In 1991, with the passage of the Coleman-sponsored Children's Amendment by the city's electorate, San Francisco became the first city in the country to guarantee funding each year for children. Proposition J, as it became known, not only ushered in a new era for San Francisco, but set a precedent for cities around the country. The Children's Fund, created by Proposition J, funded 180 programs and served 80,000 children each year. In 2000, with the Children's Amendment about to sunset, Coleman led the campaign to have it renewed. The Children's Amendment was re-authorized overwhelmingly by 74% of San Francisco voters in November, 2000. The new and improved legislation increases the size of the Children's Fund and extends it until 2016.
  
  
• Empowering parents and youth
  The 1990's saw Coleman focus increasingly on expanding the children's constituency, working particularly to empower youth and parents. Youth Making a Change (Y-MAC) and Parent Advocates for Youth (PAY) were created as essential arms of the organization's work. Both groups have become influential voices in the city. PAY has been credited with spearheading the city's park revival, and Y-MAC's work brought clinics to high schools.
  
  In 1994 Coleman mounted the YouthTime campaign to expand positive opportunities for youth and present youth as community assets rather than problems to be fixed. The San Francisco YouthLine, the Beacon Schools, and the city's Youth Commission are results of the YouthTime campaign.
  
  In 1997 Coleman began an early childhood initiative, sponsoring an annual Baby Brigade at City Hall and mobilizing advocates for young children to speak out effectively for expanded childcare and family support services. The result has put San Francisco in the national vanguard for its comprehensive childcare policies and programs, including the country's most innovative and extensive compensation program for childcare workers, a public/private local initiative to improve childcare facilities, local subsidies for working parents, and a High Quality Childcare Fund.
  
  
• Progress in the new millennium
  As Coleman entered the new millennium, our work turned to the city's neighborhoods, mounting the San Francisco Child Advocacy Network. We helped create district-level coalitions throughout the city to advocate on behalf of children, and connect in a new way to newly-elected, neighborhood-focused elected officials. The result has been the protection of numerous community based services, despite the worst budget years in the city's history, as well as major reforms in the city budget process precipitated in part by demands from children's advocates.
  
  Coleman also mounted successful campaigns for a local universal health care program for children (one of the few in the nation), a local earned income tax credit for working families, and an amendment to the city charter which guaranteed funding for universal pre-school and the funding of arts, libraries and sports in the public schools.