NCLC (original) (raw)

National Child Labor Committee

NCLC Fact Sheet

The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1904 and incorporated by an Act of Congress in 1907 with the mission of "promoting the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working." Even with years of enlightened laws and public scrutiny, the work of NCLC’s founding visionaries is still relevant and necessary today. Now in its tenth decade, NCLC dedicates its efforts to:

* Educating children about the world of work
* Preventing the exploitation of children and youth in the labor market
* Improving the health and education opportunities for the children of the migrant farmworkers
* Increasing public awareness of the work done day-in and day-out on behalf of the nation’s children

As advocates, technical assistance providers, researchers, and catalysts, the National Child Labor Committee works across the nation with corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Under broad-based funding from individual contributors, foundations and corporations, NCLC continues to be a leading force working on behalf of this country’s young people in the areas of child labor law, youth occupational safety and health, and education. Some of our current programs include:

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The Lewis Hine Awards honor ten individuals for their unheralded volunteer or professional work that betters the lives of America’s youth. The awards are the result of hundreds of nominations from the country’s governors, mayors, CEO’s and nonprofit leaders. In addition, Distinguished Service Awards are presented to individuals in the public eye who have shown unsurpassed commitment to improving the lives of children. Recent recipients include Hillary Rodham Clinton, Michael Bolton and Joan Ganz Cooney. At the ceremony, NCLC also presents at the Ron Brown award, memoralizing NCLC’s former Board Chair, and honoring those like Mr. Brown who overcame prejudice and discrimination in their lifetime and used their success to help others do the same.

* NCLC is a Certified Technical Assistance Provider under the Federal School to Work Act. Click here for a link to our T.A. Provider Profile at the National School-to-Work Learning and Information Center, www.stw.ed.gov

* NCLC is a Member of the National Mentoring Technical Assistance Corps www.mentoring.org, a network of people and communities providing assistance to youth serving organizations towards the development of mentoring opportunities for America’s youth.

* NCLC works with companies and other organizations in the areas of child labor law compliance and transforming the workplace into a learning environment. In one model program, NCLC assisted the Burger King Corporation in retooling those corporate policies and training practices related to its youth employees. NCLC conducts research and evaluations of child labor law, and health and safety compliance and advises management as to how to effectively implement its recommendations. To ensure that compliance changes are systemic and sustainable over time, NCLC provides supervisors and managers with training and materials.

* The National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health has contracted with NCLC to analyze all youth worker fatalities that have taken place in the country over the past five years. Based on this information, NCLC will make recommendations for legislative and practical worksite changes that will help prevent such occurrences from happening in the future.

* NCLC was a founding member of the National Youth Employment Coalition and continues to be a driving force in its ongoing efforts. The coalition brings together diverse groups who share common concerns about youth and work.

* NCLC is a member of the National Farmworker Health and Education Coalition, helping expand opportunities for the children of migrant farmworkers.

Highlights of NCLC’s work over the last two decades include:

* From 1990-1998, NCLC has worked to assure the presence of strong state and federal child labor laws and to ensure the health and safety of young people entering the workforce.

* From 1980-89, NCLC played a pivotal role in expanding and improving secondary school cooperative education programs. Through this effort, many more high school students across the country were given the opportunity to participate in quality work experiences.

In 1979, for the U.S. Department of Labor, NCLC created the first-ever compendium of labor laws that exist in all fifty states. NCLC gathered and analyzed the available data to create the compendium and made recommendations as to how states could modernize their laws. Even today, this compendium is the only one of its kind.

* In 1979, NCLC assisted the Federal government in improving its Summer Youth Employment program, which until that point was mostly comprised of "make- work." NCLC helped make the project a more positive and useful experience for students and employers.

Today, the National Child Labor Committee continues to seek new ways to improve the lives of young people as they grow and develop. NCLC’s work with a broad range of entities--small and large businesses, private, public, and nonprofit agencies--is indicative of the widespread needs that exist for young people today in relation to work and working, and NCLC’s longstanding commitment to meeting those needs.

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