Page 152 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

LEADING WITH PURPOSE

conditions were for the young children of these hard-
working families. They lacked proper health care and edu-
cation, and yet they all had a sense of hope in their lives.
This was just one of many experiences that inspired
Hillary and gave her life a sense of purpose.
Over the course of many years, Hillary dedicated her
time and energy to creating better living conditions for
young children. She eventually served on the boards of the
Arkansas Children’s Hospital Legal Services and the Chil-
dren’s Defense Fund, and she published a scholarly article
in the Yale Law Journal called “Children’s Policies: Aban-
donment and Neglect” in 1977. The article explored the
difficult decisions that the judiciary and society face when
children are abused or neglected by their families, decisions
that can have such consequences as denying a child med-
ical care or the right to remain in school. Also in 1977, she
cofounded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Fam-
ilies, a statewide alliance with the Children’s Defense Fund
that investigated the conditions under which juveniles were
incarcerated in adult jails. The alliance ulimately led an
effort to separate juveniles from the general population in
order to provide them with more protection and faster
adjudication. And, of course, throughout the rest of her
political life, children were often at the heart of her initia-
tives. All of this started as a result of Hillary’s being
exposed early in her life to experiences that inspired her to

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