The YWCA of Palm Beach County in conjunction with Every Child Matters – Education Fund and Colors of Life Foundation is presenting to the community during the month of March a national photography and banner exhibition as part of a non-partisan public education campaign to spotlight the needs of children in 2012. Children from around the world are the subjects of a photography exhibit; and President’s Helping Children, including a booklet and fact-filled banners designed to inform the public about how earlier Presidents and Congresses steadily advanced child well-being over the last century in areas of nutrition, health, education and child safety, completes the exhibit. Tana Ebbole, Executive Director of the Children’s Services Council, stated, “Every Child Matters has outlined clearly the support that today’s families want and need to help them raise their children to be healthy, safe and strong; accesses to affordable quality child care, early care and education, health care, early identification and intervention for developmentally delayed and disabilities, programs to prevent child neglect and abuse and strategies to reduce poverty.”

Suzanne Turner, CEO of the YWCA explains, “We all should know where public officials being elected in the upcoming 2012 election stand in terms of investment in the needs of our children making them a national priority! Our global economic competitiveness is at stake when over one-half million children annually are abused and neglected; more than seven million children do not have health care; and nearly half of all kindergarten teachers report that at least 50% of their children come to school with problems that hinder their success.”

The exhibit will be on display during the month of March at the Children’s Home Society, 3333 Forest Hill Blvd. in West Palm Beach and the Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, 129 East Ocean Avenue in Boynton Beach. Opening of the exhibit will be Monday, March 5th from 5-7pm at the Children’s Home Society and Thursday, March 8 from 6-8pm at the Schoolhouse Museum.

In addition to Children’s Home Society and the Schoolhouse Museum, supporting agencies are Adopt-a-Family, The Arc of Palm Beach County, Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, Families First and The Lord’s Place. These agencies will be working with parents and advocates to better understand the federal issues that directly affect how children will be treated and cared for in the future and the environment in which they will become adults.