Children's Alliance - Advocacy Camp Blog

"All Politics is Local"

I enjoyed Aimee's entry about Have A Heart for Kids Day. Although I didn't make it this year, in February I had the opportunity to stalk the halls of Congress in Washington D.C. as part of a national effort to push for funding for early childhood programs. Congress was recessed, but we had the opportunity to meet for much longer (and wide-ranging) conversations with legislative staff. Many of them did not know much about the Washington Learns Early Learning Council and its work on early learning policy and funding issues for Washington State (for more info see: Washington Learns).

Which got me thinking about relationships. Although I doubt whether my state legislators would recognize me on the street, I've had individual conversations with all three of them on the phone or in meetings. I know what their hot-button issues are and where they choose to put the bulk of their attention and energy. Happily for me, I respect them all (including the one from the "other" party), even if I don't always agree with their positions and votes.

This is the point of representative democracy, right? To truly experience that it's your neighbor representing you in Olympia. So here's my question to ponder: how does relationship (or lack of relationship) affect communication with legislators?

Energized in Olympia - Have a Heart for Kids Day

Have A Heart For Kids Day 2006 was an excellent opportunity to act on the knowledge we received by attending Advocacy Camp 2005! I feel privileged to have been a part of both.

It was great to see many of the Advocacy Camp alumni, as well as many other advocates for children come to Olympia and show their support for the current issues impacting children and families here in Washington State. This is a picture of my daugther Sarah and I during the morning program.

I felt the day was both informative as well as fun, and I would strongly encourage each of you to attend next year’s Have A Heart For Kids Day scheduled for Presidents Day 2007.

It is only when we stand up for social justice and make our voices heard will others take notice and perhaps join our efforts in mobilizing others to create social change!

A big thank you to the Children's Alliance for giving me the tools at Advocacy Camp 2005, and the opportunity to use those tools at Have A Heart For Kids Day 2006; both were awesome experiences and I look forward to many more opportunities to advocate for children’s issues!

I have saved the date for next year's Heart Day on my calendar!

Advocacy Day at the Capitol

AWESOME EXCITING AND ENERGETIC
Is all I can say about the Advocacy Rally that was hosted by ECEAP/HEADSTART program. 

On Feb 16, 2006, over two hundred parents and staff united together and kicked off one of the best and largest rallies that our Capitol has ever seen. RED was the color worn by everyone.  We had an Indian drum going, testimonials and songs were sang in light of this event.  I even sang a little of Whitney Houston's "I believe the CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE". 

Representative Brown came and knocked us off our feet with her inspirational words of encouragement and support of ECEAP. With all the laughing, crying, singing and shouting we managed to get the attention of many legislators, lobbyists and other local groups that were at the Capitol on this day. We successfully scheduled over 20 parent visits with their local legislators to educate and ask for support about our State ECEAP issues.

The testimonials came with many tears and I don't think the CAPITOL will be the same. The rally was a BLAST.  Always remember it's up to us to educate our legislature and don't expect them to know to support us, we are to be a walking TEACHER and ADVOCATE for what we believe in. 

Tree House

Hello Fellow Advocacy Campers,

I want to let you know that since Camp we at Tree House have had each of our Board members sign and send letters to each of their state legislators encouraging them to support legislation that benefits foster children. In our February Board retreat we will be exploring expanding our advocacy role as an organization. Also, last week I went to Olympia for a hearing on a bill to extend foster care until age 21 for foster  youth who are pursuing higher education. So, Advocacy Camp got our organization jazzed. I hope it did for you and your good work as well. Please stay in touch.

Holly Hill- Treehouse Advocacy Chair

Policy and Advocacy

I know people who can hear an idea and immediately jump into action. In fact, I work for one and I'm married to another one. Despite the fact that it often drives them crazy, I'm not one of those people. For me there is a middle "thinking" stage - which can last as long as, well, years sometimes.  So a lot of the changes percolating for me since Advocacy Camp have to do with changes in thinking (although I have also taken some actions that I'll get to in another post).

Bouncing around in my head lately is this question: What is the nature of the connection between policy and advocacy? After Advocacy Camp I have a much better sense of what advocacy is and how to do it. But doesn’t effective advocacy presuppose some understanding of policy, or at least of how policy gets made? About policy, a web dictionary gives us: “A plan or course of action, as of a government, political party, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters.” It also says, “Prudence, shrewdness, or sagacity in practical matters.” Hm. Does this mean that policy by definition is effective or smart? I wonder.

Roget’s web thesaurus suggests that other words for policy include: action, administration, approach, arrangement, behavior, channels, code, course, custom, design, guideline, line, management, method, order, organization, plan, polity, practice, procedure, program, protocol, red tape, rule, scheme, stratagem, strategy, tenet, the book, the numbers, theory. Is it like pornography – we’re not sure how to define it but we know it when we see it?

 

My friend and colleague Susan says that we don’t advocate to change policy. We advocate for money. I would say that at my organization, advocacy is not enough. We want to be at the table when child care policy is made.  Of course, that's also the best place to be when they're giving out the money.

What do you think? Are policy and advocacy connected, independent, or is there another way to describe it?

Greetings!

Hey - we did it! Otts, Jon and I have finally arrived at the first entry in the Advocacy Camp Blog. Before diving in, I'd just like to say THANKS to the Children's Alliance staff for their thorough and thoughtful approach to setting this up. Although I know that thousands of people think nothing of sitting down and whipping out a blog entry on a daily (or hourly) basis, for me it's new and still a bit daunting. Otts and Jon have been wonderfully supportive while we've worked out the details. I'm also looking forward to seeing posts from Holly, who will be our other initial contributor.

For those of you who, like me, have never blogged before, I'm looking at a screen that closely resembles a "compose e-mail" window. I can identify the box where I should type, but there are some unfamiliar things on the screen too - like an "edit HTML" tab, and an "Accept TrackBacks" checkbox. So I will be learning some new things while hoping that something interesting will come to mind that somebody out there will want to read!

I'm going to end this post by offering a question: what, if anything, have you done differently (or tried for the first time) because of your experiences at Advocacy Camp?

In my next post I'll share my thoughts about that.
Laura Giddings, 2005 Advocacy Camper