News » The City's Youngest Advocates Raise Support for Butterflies!

On Thursday, May 28, the Children's Aid Society sent their youngest advocates to the steps of City Hall to raise support for restored funding of the Children Under Five Mental Health Initiative, which funds our one-of-a-kind mental health program, Butterflies.  Negotiations are currently underway between the Mayor’s office and City Council to determine what the final City budget will be for next year.

Butterflies is one of only a small handful of programs available to address the mental health needs of infants, toddlers and preschool age children in New York City.  City Council was the first body of government that recognized and responded to the urgent need for mental health services for our youngest children and it remains the source of the largest allocation of money for this work, ultimately helping over 3,000 children under five and their caregivers in the past four years.   Unfortunately, all of these programs are at risk of closing if this funding is not restored. 

As a way to raise awareness of the proposed cuts and drum up support to restore funding, a group of children, parents and therapists from University Settlement, Jewish Board for Children and Family Services, Albert Einstein's Early Childhood Center and SafeSpace joined a rally on the steps of City Hall where they had council members doing therapeutic yoga and even a surprise visit from Mayor Bloomberg!  One young advocate couldn’t help but show his support for the Mayor; hopefully, City Council and the Mayor will return the favor!