What is the Child Watch Visitation Program?

A~rdingto Rona Wyner, director of the Rochester Area Children's Collaborative (RACC)and one of the KIDS BUS organizers, "I believe that this bus trip will serve as a type of'shocktherapy' for many politicians. Although the statistics about child poverty in Rochester tell a frighteningstory, only when we add the faces and suffering ofreal children can we hope to motivate policymakers into taking action that will begin to mitigatethe effects ofthat poverty. Itis my sincere hopethat today's journey will be one ofhope, learning and challenge - a bus tour which will spur politicalleaders into action on behalf ofthe 38% ofchildren in Rochester who are poor."After an orientation to the WIC program, the KIDS BUS participants will receive a simple butnutritious breakfast at FOODLINK followed by a tour ofthe Special Neonatal Intensive Care Unit atRochester General Hospital, a visit to a HeadStart Plus program and tour ofWilson CommencementPark. Community leaders have agreed to do briefings at each location in order to discuss theramifications ofchildhood poverty and to illustrate solutions to these problems. Policy briefers willhelp participants to understand the choices between costly intensive hospital care and cost-effectiveprenatal care, costly foster care and relatively inexpensive crisis intervention programs, costly remedialeducation and quality early childhood education and development programs.The KIDS BUS tour was organized jointly by Rochester Area Foundation (RAF) and theRochester Area Children's Collaborative in an effort to draw attention to the growing incidence ofchildpoverty in Rochester. Itis patterned after Child Watch Visitation, a program of the Children's DefenseKIDS BUS TOUR -2222-Fund in Washington D.C.·-more-146