Twenty-five tips for more effective child advocacy from one of the nation’s leading advocates. Watch out for political divide-and-conquer games. …

Helping Children Grow and Thrive in Todays World
Twenty-five tips for more effective child advocacy from one of the nations
leading advocates

Published in CommuniquÃ “ Iowa State Education Association “ National
Education Association Vol 42, No7 June 2005 issue

1 Dont be blinded or bamboozled by political, media, and cultural
chaff Keep planting your seeds of hope and honesty and hard work
and service and leave the harvesting to God
2 Ignore labels and just do what youve got to do It doesnt matter
whether someone calls you liberal, conservative, radical, extreme,
or center Labels dont matter when 2-year-olds are being killed by
guns and are dying from lack of health care we could provide
3 Talk less and act more Peter Marshall, the distinguished preacher,
said, Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned
4 Act now with urgency while planning ahead Noah did not wait for
the flood to come to begin building his Ark The budget decisions
our leaders make this year and next will determine the course of
America and the fate of our children
today and tomorrow, and in the
next century Many children wont live to see the future if they
arent provided a healthy and safe start right now
5 Do something personally to help at least one child or family
besides your own Anne Frank said, How lovely to think that no one
need wait a moment: We can start now, start slowly changing the
world How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make a
contribution toward introducing justice straightaway
6 Dont worry about credit, turf, or critics Keep doing your work
Gandhi said her grandfather told her that there are two kinds of
people “ those who do the work and those who take the credit He
told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition
there It doesnt matter who gets the credit as long as our
children get the health care, childcare, and family support they
need
7 Have holding power Hang in and hang onto your values and faith in
every kind of political weather Millions of children will
continue to perish rather than flourish if sunshine advocates give
up when inevitable stormy
political weather and low tides come
Persist and insist that childrens needs be met
8 Stand up and fight the real opponents of children Our children
have so many needs and there is so much to do It will take every
effort of everyone within and without the child advocacy community
to meet them We must work with each other and reach out to others
in every party, race, income, faith, and age group
9 Stand together Watch out for political divide-and-conquer games
At the wonderful Monterey, California, aquarium, I watched little
sardines swim together in unified formation This protects tiny
fish from sharks who gulp them up one by one when they stray off
alone If child advocates dont swim together and focus on a few
achievable objectives for our children each year, crucial
individual child investments will be eaten up one by one Dont let
our leaders pit hungry children against homeless children, children
with disabilities against abused children, and others who need
child care to get off welfare against those already working who
need child care to stay off
welfare
10 Learn how to communicate simply A Chinese proverb reminds, Tell
me, Ill forget Show me, I may remember But involve me, and Ill
understand Thats why the Childrens Defense Funds Child Watch
Visitation program takes community, media, and political leaders
out to see and experience firsthand the needs of children, the
solutions to those needs, and how everyone can help During the
June 1 Stand for Children Day, when your members of Congress are
home, take every single one of them on a Child Watch visit to talk
to parents, children, and providers and see the human faces behind
the statistics Take them to a neonatal intensive care unit and let
them see the child, parent, and taxpayer cost of low birth weight
I hope Child Watches on child health needs and solutions will go on
all over America until our corporate, state, local, and federal
leaders feel compelled to act Ask them what they plan to do to
assure jobs, childcare, and health care for families
11 Dont waste time reinventing the wheel in endless meetings, or
duplicating efforts when there is so
much new ground and so many
unmet child needs CDF does not take positions on many of the
important childrens issues that are addressed effectively by
others All of us must keep seeding, watering, fertilizing, and
growing a movement to leave no child behind which will take many,
many planters and tenders
12 Reach out to others Know how and when to collaborate but do not be
afraid to lead It is always a few people who get done the things
that others can follow, adapt, and expand as desired Margaret Mead
said, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world Indeed, its the only thing that
ever has It is a hard but necessary struggle to strike the proper
balance between leading, collaborating, following, and seizing
targets of opportunity
13 Dont take but for an answer How many times have you heard, I am
for indeed, who can possibly be against? children-but this is
unrealistic in light of budget constraints; but it will take a lot
more time to get done; but I dont like this particular proposal or
strategy; but this
is not the right time; but you need to build the
political support for it and come back; but the other party will
block it But But
14 Answer their buts with our buts But just do it because children
are dying every day and thats morally wrong and unnecessary But
there are many ways to provide health coverage for children,
building on many successful private, state, and federal efforts
But we will pay for it in the same way Congress would pay for
capital gains tax cuts and corporate welfare Ensuring healthy
children is not a money issue; it is a moral imperative
15 Dont give up when you fail the first, second, fifth, or tenth
time Saving children is a mission, not a job Transforming
movements take decades to build and big wars have many battles “
some of which you win, some of which you lose, and some whose
outcomes are undetermined for a long time In 1996, we lost the
income net but helped beat back seven other unjust block-grant
proposals that would have repealed child and family nutrition,
child protection, and Medicaid So dont be discouraged and dont

quit
16 Turn challenges into opportunities and work on multiple fronts
Child advocates must move beyond the unjust welfare law and turn it
into real welfare reform in states and localities with demands for
parental jobs, childcare, and health care We must simultaneously
hold the Presidents, Congress, and the states feet to the fire
to restore many unjust cuts and provide our children and legal
immigrants a safety net in every state, especially when a recession
comes
17 Focus on a few important priorities Insist on a seat at the
decision-making table when critical policy and political choices
are made to implement welfare reform in states Share knowledge
and good state practices, and work across party and ideological
lines to minimize the welfare laws most harmful features
18 Do your homework and keep learning new skills Leadership in the
1990s and 21st century requires leaders who understand the
connection between program, policy, community empowerment
strategies, politics, technology, and media “ how to get our
message across simply and stay on
message until it is heard Child
and family advocates, therefore, must be strategic, well-informed,
technology “ and media literate, and skillfully insistent and
persistent in carrying the urgent message about our childrens
needs and the spiritual, human, and fiscal costs of not meeting
them
19 Keep weaving a seamless web of community for children and families
across constituencies and disciplines We need to preach and
practice parental, personal, community, corporate, and political
responsibility Do not accept either/ors about whose responsibility
it is to protect children All of us must Parents and the first
line of defense, but all parents need safe and healthy communities,
employers who help them balance work and family obligations, and
government that is fair to all children
20 Vote It should not be so hard to get leaders and citizens in our
wealthy democratic nation to meet every childs needs to be
healthy, educated, safe, and protected by nurturing families and
caring communities, as every other industrialized nation does Why
is it so hard?
Because children do not vote, lobby, or make
campaign contributions Because political leaders respond to those
who can affect their bottom lines “ re election
21 Run for office We need more women and child advocates to run for
political office and change the priorities too many men still
ignore because they dont bear the brunt of caring for children
22 Dont let politicians or the media scapegoat children, poor women,
and working families for our budget crisis and other national ills
Are children and poor families responsible for the growing economic
inequality and underlying structural problems in our economy? Are
children responsible for the 220 million guns in circulation that
take over 5,500 young lives each year? Can children and poor women
control the decisions of corporate and government power brokers who
determine who gets what? Child advocates must make sure that
proposals to balance the budget to do not so on the backs of our
children and the poor while the powerful and affluent continue to
go untouched or get more If the rich would just get richer a

little less quickly, we could afford to meet all our childrens
needs tomorrow
23 Do not content with the status quo for children Have a positive
agenda Dont defend what doesnt work, but do defend the fight for
what does “ like Head Start and immunizations and child and family
nutrition and quality child care, and jobs, jobs, jobs
24 Have faith, keep struggling, and remember that God has the final
word, not the President, Congress, governors, celebrities, the
media, or corporations Slave women Harriet Tubmans faith helped
her run an underground railroad of slaves to freedom without losing
a single passenger “ a record no train line or airline can beat
Twant me, ˜twas the Lord, Tubman said I always told Him, I
trust You I dont know where to go and what to do, but I expect
You to lead me And He always did
25 Pray for children, ourselves, and our nation that we will do what
is right by our children Prayer, Gandhi reminded, is the key of
the morning and the bolt of the evening With prayer we will
continue and succeed in building our movement until no child is

left behind

The Author, Marian Wright Edelman, is the founder and chief executive
officer of the Childrens Defense Fund CDF She coined the phrase, Leave
No Child Behind, and it is included in the CDFs mission statement The
following facts are published by the Childrens Defense Fund

Key Facts About American Children

3 in 5 preschoolers have their mothers in the labor force
2 in 5 preschoolers eligible for Head Start do not participate
1 in 2 never complete a single year of college
1 in 2 will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood
1 in 3 is born to unmarried parents
1 in 3 will be poor at some point in their childhood
1 in 3 is behind a year or more in school
1 in 4 lives with only one parent
1 in 5 is born to a mother who did not graduate from high school
1 in 5 was born poor
1 in 5 children under 3 is poor now
1 in 6 is poor now
1 in 6 is born to a mother who did not receive prenatal care in the first
three months of pregnancy
1 in 7 children eligible for federal child care assistance through the
Child Care and Development Block Grant receives it
1 in 7 never
graduates from high school
1 in 8 has no health insurance
1 in 8 lives in a family receiving food stamps
1 in 8 has a worker in their family but still is poor
1 in 9 is born to a teenage mother
1 in 12 has a disability
1 in 13 was born with low birth weight
1 in 13 will be arrested at least once before age 17
1 in 14 lives at less than half the poverty level
1 in 35 lives with grandparents or other relative but neither parent
1 in 28 is born to a mother who received late or no prenatal care
1 in 60 sees their parents divorce in any year
1 in 83 will be in state or federal prison before age 20
1 in 146 will die before their first birthday
1 in 1,339 will be killed by guns before age 20