My Role as an Adovocate

What motivated me to start advocating for very young children I believe was my experiences in school and those I observed with other children made me passionate about helping children learn.  However becoming an advocate for young children began to truly blossom with the birth of my oldest child and has become more prevalent as I have proceeded on my professional journey.

It is essential to acknowledge and foster advocacy efforts at the micro level, as well as the macro level because without communication or feedback from the micro level the macro level has not ideal of the impact they are making on the population.  It is the advocates at each level that work together across the grid to ensure that the best interest of a certain group or population is being maintained as policies are being made or changed at the macro level.

To be a community leader it takes passion for an issue and being able to “move public will and promote community-wide investments” in that issue. (Zero, 2008) 

The resources that it takes to be a state leader on early childhood issues according to Robin Roberts is  that as state leaders on early childhood issues you have to be open to working with other organizations at the state level.  Collaboration is key to the success of state leaders because you “cannot be effective unless you are collaborative” says Roberts.  The article also shares that there has to be a partnership from the “grassroots level all the way to the state level”.  Without collaboration work at the state level is ineffective and individuals at the local level feel unsupported in their work. (Zero, 2009)

Strategies and tactics to mobilize others are uniting community, organizations, parents/families, teachers, local, and state officials to discuss issues and support policies to improve early childhood education.  Public education about early childhood development and education is also a strategy to mobilize support for early childhood issues.  Other strategies include passing on information through mailings, emails and other sources.  Newsletters that highlight advocacy events and strategies and proposing opportunities for action on issues can be passed out and forwarded to local and state officials.  Workshops also provide a strategy for mobilizing support, through workshops others can get information about programs and clear up any myths they may have.  Also, organizations can hold meetings to update others on advocacy opportunities and discuss successes they have had with advocacy to help others with future advocacy efforts.

To advocate for young children and their families one should take on a leadership role by being a facilitator for families and stakeholders. According to Brian Spicker  “bringing all the stakeholders together to support the face-to-face work with children and families” is key to being an advocate.  Robin Roberts suggest that building relationships is key to advocating for infants and toddlers.  Once you have determined what goals you would like to achieve you should seek out people and groups that are working to achieve the same issues or goals.  By working with others and maintaining an open line of communication, the work you do will be much stronger.  She also recommends creating a common message to present in order to prevent confusion or conflicting information when presenting information in public.

Zero to Three Policy Center. (2008). Advocacy strategies to improve outcomes for very young children: Interviews with leaders at the state and community levels. Retrieved from
http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/AdvocacyLeaders_final.pdf?docID=1882