On Thursday morning, Nebraska Appleseed participated in an interim study, LR529, on the “front door” or entries to Nebraska’s child welfare system.
Appleseed’s Executive Director, Becky Gould, testified about the role anti-poverty programs can play in supporting families and preventing children from ending up in the child welfare system.
“We believe that effectively addressing poverty is not only fundamental to the well-being of children and families in our community, it is also one of the keys to preventing the unnecessary entry of children into the foster care system,” Gould told the Legislature’s HHS Committee.
Making strategic improvements in our public assistance programs will help improve outcomes for children and will better position these programs to do as they are intended to do – keep families together and improve their circumstances as they battle tough economic times.
Read Appleseed’s fact sheet for more facts and figures as well as recommendations for how economic assistance programs can better support families.