This week, Connect for Kids presents the first of four winning essays from our first-ever essay contest, "Speak Out! Let Your Voice Be Heard." Caitlin Hillyard, 16, of Des Moines, Iowa was one of more than 70 teens who took the opportunity to share their ideas on what President Bush should know when making decisions that affect young people's lives.

The results are in for Connect for Kids' first-ever youth essay contest. We invited teens aged 14 to 18 to answer the question "What would you like President George W. Bush to understand about your life, or the lives of people your age, when making decisions or taking actions that affect you?" Read on to learn how the contest was judged and who our winners are... Winning essays will be published right here starting next Monday.

Even with failed teen voting bills on each coast in Cambridge, Mass., and Berkeley, Calif., student activists haven't lost their passion for lowering the voting age. Here, Connect for Kids highlights Children's PressLine's coverage of the issue.

Amid all the speculation about changes on the Supreme Court, Connect for Kids Editor Susan Phillips takes a look at cases the court will be hearing in the next term that will have an impact on children and youth.

To strengthen the capacities of North America's nonprofit child and family service organizations to serve and to advocate for children, families, and communities.

The Alliance for Children and Families provides services to nonprofit child and family serving and economic empowerment organizations.

Just like most American political issues, the youth voting issue has led to some partisan divides. Will the hopes and fears of Democrats and Republicans stall—or propel—the issue? Rob Capriccioso reports.

Teens worked hard to sell the Berkeley City Council on a referendum that would let voters decide if residents 16 and up could vote in local elections but their effort fell short. It was an object lesson in how hard it can be, even in liberal Berkeley, to convince adults that younger teens should vote. Rob Capriccioso has the story.

The Coalition on Human Needs has analyzed the impact of the President's proposed budget on low-wage parents, and those of moderate income. They conclude that the public services and supports these families rely on to help pay for heat, child care, after-school supervision, medical care or food -- already stretched too thin to reach every eligible family -- will become less and less available over the next several years . CHN also finds the cuts won't have a meaningful impact on the burgeoning deficit.

Did you know that Social Security is the single largest program providing support to American children, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. The program provides life and disability insurance for many American families, and more than 5 million children reap its benefits -- either as direct beneficiaries or as members of households receiving a monthly check.

Results from an American Youth Policy Forum poll show that adults place a high priority on after-school, job training, service-learning, recreation, arts and health care programs. The data come from two random-digit-dialed telephone surveys of 300 adults in ten cities (Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit, Nashville, Oakland, and Portland, Oregon).