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Brigid’s Path: Saving our most vulnerable at their most vulnerable time

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By: AIF Staff

As the number of Americans dying from drug overdoses increases almost every year, organizations around the country are actively developing solutions to help those families and communities plagued by substance abuse disorders. These organizations know that addiction does not just impact the individual user, but has a ripple effect that can change the trajectory of entire families.

This is particularly true when thinking about substance users who are pregnant and preparing to give birth. Newborns who suffer from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, which occurs when babies withdraw from substances they were exposed to in the womb, are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable. They enter the world and, through no fault of their own, immediately face a series of health challenges which can reverberate throughout their entire life.

These newborn babies deserve the best care that the American health care system can provide. Their parents deserve care and treatment so families can stay intact and so children can be raised in an environment free from the scourge of addiction.

Every child should be given the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life and that is why the American Idea Foundation is actively supporting the work of Brigid’s Path in Kettering, Ohio.

Brigid’s Path is the first, in-patient, newborn recovery center in Ohio. Founded in 2014, its mission is to care for newborns who have been exposed to an addictive substance like opioids or other drugs during pregnancy. From almost the moment of birth, Brigid’s Path and its team of trained health care professionals employ the latest therapeutic and medical techniques to help babies be as comfortable and as healthy as possible while they experience withdrawal.

At a critical stage in a newborn’s development, the medical staff of Brigid’s Path shower them with love and attention 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As they care for the newborns, they also care for the parent, working with community partners to provide resources that help moms raise their children in healthy and safe environments. They do this on a one-to-one basis, offering wrap-around services so families can stay together, bond, and develop healthy relationships. As Brigid’s Path cares for the medical needs of newborns, they also help mothers meet goals and develop connections within the community that last long after their baby leaves Brigid’s Path.

To date, Brigid’s Path has helped 214 babies and will care for around 70 babies and families in 2023. Because of Brigid’s Path, in 2022, 90% of the babies treated went home last year with a parent or family member. Without the organization, 77% of those babies would’ve been sent directly to the foster care system.

Brigid’s Path is making a difference every single day by fighting for those babies who cannot fight for themselves. They are giving newborns a chance to grow and thrive and, at the same time, they are giving parents an opportunity to remain in their child’s life.

The support provided from the American Idea Foundation to Brigid’s Path in 2023 will help raise awareness about the organization’s transformative efforts. The American Idea Foundation will help Brigid’s Path tell amazing stories of individual transformation and will work to buttress the evidence and data associated with their program in the hopes of scaling and replicating it in other communities suffering from the scourge of drug abuse.

Addiction is a complex problem, but Brigid’s Path is making a difference one baby at a time and is playing a critical role in helping our most vulnerable have a chance at a healthy and productive life.

Bernie’s Book Bank: Youth Book Ownership provides Pathways out of Poverty

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By: AIF Staff

This year, as part of its work supporting front-line organizations who are developing evidence-based approaches to fighting poverty, the American Idea Foundation has provided grants to 7 groups across the country. 

These organizations were selected because they are policy entrepreneurs, innovative problem-solvers, and leaders in their respective communities. The policy problems that these organizations are tackling vary greatly, but these groups share the belief that the American Dream should be accessible to everyone and they have created programs to achieve this noble goal. Like Speaker Ryan, these groups believe evidence and data should drive decision-making and have designed their programs accordingly.

One organization receiving funding and institutional support from Speaker Ryan and the American Idea Foundation in 2023 is Bernie’s Book Bank in Chicago, Illinois.

Bernie’s Book Bank was founded in 2009 on a simple premise: Reading is a vital skill for every child and children, particularly those in under-served communities, need access to books, to properly develop this skill. If a child has access to books and develops an early love of reading, the positive effects will reverberate throughout their life.

Bernie’s Book Bank knows how critical reading is for young children’s development and understands how education can offer a pathway out of poverty. It is why, fifteen years ago, Bernie’s Book Bank started distributing books to under-served children from a garage in Chicago.

Bernie’s Book Bank sources new and gently used books from individual donors around the country, group them by age-appropriateness, and then select a group of 8 new and used books to be packaged for distribution. The Book Bank delivers books directly to the children they serve via school districts and early childhood programs in the Chicagoland area. In one year, each child served will receive a total of 8 quality children’s books to take home and call their own.

In the organization’s first 12 months, Bernie’s Book Bank sourced, processed, and distributed 140,000 children’s books. In its second year, Bernie’s Book Bank expanded and distributed 350,000 books to more than 35,000 children. By the end of 2012, it had distributed 1 million books. In 2019, it reached 15 million. By 2023, Bernie’s Book Bank had distributed over 25 million books since its founding.

Bernie’s Book Bank knows that where a student resides will often affect their ability to get a quality education. It can affect their ability to access reading materials, particularly at a young age, and impact their desire to pursue an education as they mature. Bernie’s Book Bank knows that reading can transform children’s worlds. Books can offer children new perspectives, teach new lessons, or inspire passion about a particular subject. It is fundamental to a child’s development but all too often, children are falling behind.  

In Illinois, according to a 2019 survey by the Casey Foundation, 66% of fourth-graders in the state were not proficient in reading. The strains on our educational system only worsened during the pandemic, with lower-income areas being hardest hit. Illinois and other communities need organizations like Bernie’s Book Bank now more than ever.

Because of their success in Illinois and because of the demand for books in other cities, Bernie’s Book Bank is scaling their efforts in Southern Wisconsin and building out programming through Milwaukee’s public school system.

The American Idea Foundation is going to spend the next year working with Bernie’s Book Bank to ensure that more children in Illinois and Wisconsin have access to reading materials of their own. The Foundation and Speaker Ryan will help Bernie’s Book Bank as they assess and measure the impact book ownership has on the short-term and long-term development of the children it serves. Anecdotes and personal stories about how Bernie’s Book Bank has changed children’s life are plentiful.

By pairing these stories of transformation with tangible, empirically sound evidence, other communities can see the effect Bernie’s Book Bank is having in Chicago and hopefully develop similar programs to help children in under-served communities experience the joy, and the benefits, of reading. 

WKOW: Ryan previews upcoming stop at UW-Madison, discusses debt ceiling & fixing the social contract

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By: AIF Staff

On February 22nd, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will be a featured guest at UW-Madison’s La Follette School as part of the University’s Policymaker in Residence program. Ryan, who represented Southern Wisconsin for two decades in the House of Representatives, will talk with the UW community about ongoing fiscal fights in Congress, the increasing polarization in American politics, and his recently released book, American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Strengthen the Social Contract and Save the Country’s Finances.

Previewing his remarks in Madison, Ryan spoke exclusively with WKOW’s A.J. Bayatpour in an interview that aired on Capital City Sunday. Excerpts of the interview follow and video of the conversation are accessible here.  

On visiting UW-Madison & talking to young Americans about our fiscal challenges:

“I represented Southern Wisconsin for 20 years in Congress and have been visiting Madison on and off for my entire life, but also throughout my career. I’m speaking at the La Follette [School] and my main message is going to be the subject that I’ve been working on through this book from the American Enterprise Institute, which is: How do we make the 21st century a great century for all Americans? How do we avoid a debt crisis? How do we restructure our social safety net and our social contract and get our economy growing with all the big challenges we have in our future?

“It’s really more of a public policy address and I just like talking to young people [about these issues]. I teach Economics at the University of Notre Dame today, and that’s [part of] what I do now among other things and I just love engaging with young people about their future and the big policy challenges and choices they have in front of them.”

On a possible Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal:

“Senate Republicans don’t have the majority and therefore, they’re not in the driver’s seat. They’re not in a position to basically determine what comes to the floor and what doesn’t. So yes, it should be the House Republicans taking the lead because they are the only Republican majority that we have.

“And by the way, it’s very common for things to be attached to debt ceilings. I was on the Bowles-Simpson Commission in the middle 2000s, which was [created as] a result of negotiations on the debt limit. I also helped write the Budget Control Act, which again was because of the debt limit negotiation and that put spending controls and caps in place. So, it is very common.

“I did two of these deals with President Obama himself when Joe Biden was Vice President, which were a result of these [types of] negotiations. So yes, House Republicans should lead and yes, it is very typical to try and put some kind of fiscal reforms in place while you deal with a deadline.”

On McCarthy’s ability to navigate a thin majority & a push for fiscal common sense:

“It’s a razor thin majority and it’s going to be very hard for my successor, Kevin McCarthy, to get everyone on board and thinking that every move he makes is the right move. It’s almost impossible with a five-seat margin.

“The question is: Can he get good fiscal reforms and can you get President Biden to engage? I don’t know the answer that question, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

“What I like about this situation is the fact that Republicans are raising the issue that we have a debt crisis in our future, that really important programs like Medicare Social Security are going bankrupt this decade or the next decade, and that we ought to do something about it. It’s good to raise these issues.

“[Speaker McCarthy] should try to get some things done. Is he going to keep the caucus or the conference unified this entire time? It’s hard to do and I don’t necessarily see that happening. But [the debt ceiling] is going to be a bipartisan agreement at the end of the day anyway, because you have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president, so whatever happens will be bipartisan and it will get bipartisan votes because it has to get bipartisan votes.”

On how a debt ceiling standoff might impact the markets:

“We had this happen in 2011. It was very temporary. I do not think we will default on our debt. I think the Department of the Treasury will make sure that they prioritize the spending so there is never a debt default.

“Frankly, I know there’s going be a lot of fireworks, a lot of hysteria, but at the end of the day and I’ve been through a few of these myself, I really do not think we will default on our debt. And I think it’s important that we make it crystal clear that the full faith and credit of the US government and the US Treasury are sacrosanct.  I think you’re going to have a lot of hysterics surrounding that, but that’s what democracy is like. This is what governing is like, especially with divided government between two different parties, so I expect this time to be no different.

“It may be a little closer to the wire than probably other episodes but again, the goal here is to try and bring some fiscal sanity. If we weren’t heading toward a debt crisis like we are in this country, I don’t think you’d have all of these fireworks but we are heading toward a debt crisis and something does need to be done and it’s going to take more than just this episode over the debt limit but at least that conversation is getting started. To me that’s a good thing.

On the biggest threats to the United States at present:

“I’d say three things: 1) The debt crisis in the future. 2) The challenge from China and the race towards superior technology in areas like quantum computing. And 3) Our labor market problems which are a long-term economic problem but it’s [due, in part, to] our immigration laws.

“We’ve got to fix our immigration laws once and for all. We’ve got to prevent a debt crisis. And we’ve got to rise to the challenge on behalf of freedom and democracy against the tyranny from China.

“I think those are the three really big challenges for America. There are many other issues, but those are the big existential challenges: Get our immigration laws fixed, prevent a debt crisis, and rise to the challenge with the threat posed by China.”

On whether Social Security becoming discretionary spending will be part of a debt ceiling increase

“I don’t think it will. Joe Biden supported that in his early days. Many of us have supported that proposal. I don’t think that that’s going to happen. I think it’s Senator Scott from Florida’s proposal. I don’t think that’s the way to go. I think there are better things to do to get Social Security shored up short of doing that.”

On getting ahead of Social Security and Medicare’s looming insolvency:

“Let’s be really clear: Social Security goes bankrupt in 2033 which means there’s a 23% across the board benefit cut if we don’t do anything before that. And the Medicare Trust Fund goes bankrupt in 2028. Doing nothing means you’re complicit with the bankruptcy of these critical programs.

“What we propose in this book at the American Enterprise Institute is to shore these programs up. And here’s the good news: It’s sort of a stitch in time saves nine. If you reform these programs early, you can do it in such a way that it doesn’t change anything for people in and near retirement. And for those of us in the X generation who will not have solvent programs when we retire, you can make them whole.

“What we argue in this book and what I spend my time on here at the American Enterprise Institute is we believe in the social contract. We, Republicans and Democrats, the center-right and center-left believe that we should have health and retirement security for all Americans and that we should have a safety net to make sure people — like those who cannot help themselves because of some disability — are taken care of and brought back up on their feet. We want to revive the system of upper mobility and save that social contract because the social safety net programs are really important parts of American life. And I believe that there is a durable political consensus among Republicans and Democrats that we need to maintain that.

“The problem is that these programs were written in the 20th century in ways that are proving unsustainable in the 21st century. The sooner we start realizing this and having sober conversations about that and stop demagoguing the issue, the better off we’re going to be. The point is, doing nothing is a really bad idea because that means they go bankrupt and current seniors get hurt. So, by getting ahead of that problem and solving it for future generations means you can guarantee the social contract for the existing generation and that’s going to compound it. By the way, the government made these promises to the America people and they need to be honored, but they won’t be if we don’t do something. That’s the point I’m trying to make.”

On how to achieve a bipartisan consensus on immigration reform & why it matters:

“I tried three different times in my career to get an agreement on this issue. It’s probably, next to entitlement reform, one of the most vexing political issues of our time. Your question is the answer which is both sides have to give something to get something done. You need to have border security and crackdown on unlawful immigration, along with the kinds of critical reforms for legal immigration that ultimately make our system work.

“Our nation’s gross domestic product and our growth rate is basically cut in half in the 21st century versus the rate we grew at in the 20th century because of labor force participation. After the Baby Boomers, we don’t have as many people because our birth rates have declined and so, legal immigration is going to be a critical part of getting the American economy to grow and produce the type of opportunities and jobs that we used to know in the 20th century.

“I think we can do this, but it does mean both sides coming together and addressing each other’s concerns, which by the way, are both legitimate concerns, in my opinion.

“The problem is getting the politics right. It takes a president who is willing to put a lot of political capital on the line to do it and I just don’t frankly see it right now if Joe Biden runs for reelection. I personally wish he would not run for re-election so that he could get an immigration deal and put a lot of political capital on the table to get a deal that secures the border, cracks down on unlawful immigration, and also fixes the broken illegal immigration system so that we have a system that is working well.

“I think there’s a vote coalition in Congress there to get it done but it takes a lot of leadership, particularly from the White House, and I just haven’t seen that.”

On issues he regrets not tackling during the Speakership:

“There are too many, that list would be too long. The two issues that got away from me and that I wanted to see progress made on was, like I said, entitlement reform. I passed a budget with entitlement reforms four years in a row out of the House during my career but it didn’t get to the Senate and the White House.

“And immigration reform. I was a part of three different separate efforts to fix our immigration laws. In my farewell speech to Congress as the Speaker of the House, those are the two things I mentioned then and that’s what I’ll mention to you today. Those are the two policy things we have to get done….

“My hope and goal is that we can depolarize our politics to the point where we can get back to rational policy conversations to fix these problems. And by the way, if we do, we’re going to have one awesome century in America and we will yet again lead the free world in peace and prosperity. If we can solve our own domestic problems, we can really set a tempo and example for the rest of the world and show them what a great American 21st century looks like.”

To learn more about Ryan’s book, check out his recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.