Economic security policy must recognize that lack of economic resources limits access to health care, results in poor nutrition, limits full participation in educational activities, and may result in greater injury. Welfare policy must focus on asset-focused development to strengthen the Therefore, we must strive to meet the following goals.

ES 1. The proportion of children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level must be reduced at least to the 7% rate achieved for senior citizens.

1. California's minimum wage should be raised to at least the federal poverty level. There should be regular increases to keep pace with the poverty level. People working full time should not live in poverty.
2. At least one parent of every child must have the opportunity for employment in a job that pays a living wage.
3. Flexible working hours should be negotiated and agreed upon by employers and employees. Parents should not be forced to work overtime.
4. Worker safety laws and protection against wrongful termination must be maintained and, in fact, strengthened.
5. State policies should discourage employer reliance on contract employees who receive no benefits at the expense of a stable workforce that receives health and pension benefits and worker protection.

1. Recognizing that children often enter into serious intimate relationships before they are developmentally, financially or emotionally ready, children must be encouraged and educated by families, schools religious and community organizations, to establish short and long-term goals for their lives, and to make personal decisions about intimate and/or sexual involvement consistent with those goals.
2. Establish the societal norm that all pregnancies be intended, consciously and clearly, at the time of conception.
3. Recognizing that these preventive efforts may fall short of the hoped-for goals, we encourage state policies which aggressively hold parents responsible for the costs and care of their children. To wit, child support establishment and collection efforts must be improved to at least 50% of the caseload (from 13%).
4. Child support cases should be taken out of the court process and handled using full administrative processes for paternity and order establishment.
5. Create a state-run child support system under the Franchise Tax Board to provide uniformity of procedure, remove jurisdictional barriers, and develop clearer accountability.
6. Recognizing the integral link between nonsupport and welfare dependency, the state of California must adopt policies such as child support assurance which allow families to receive an assured child support payment from the state combined with earned income-- increasing the family's standard of living "above the poverty level.
7. Ensure children's access to health care by increasing the number of medical support orders established and enforced once in place.

1. Welfare reform efforts should ensure that , if parents maintain eligibility and follow program rules, families will continue to receive housing assistance to ensure that children do not become homeless.
2. State policy should expand the amount of subsidized housing available to low-income families.

1. Child care and school meal programs and summer food programs must be continued and expanded to meet the need.
2. Food stamps and supplemental food programs, including WIC, must be funded adequately to ensure that families food needs are met every day of every month.

1. Medi-CAL must be expanded to cover all children to 200 percent of poverty with no share cost, and to the extent funds are available, to cover children up to 300 percent of poverty on a share of cost basis.
2. Cumbersome medical eligibility and application procedures must be streamlined and simplified.