The Children's Movement of California
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is The Children’s Movement of California?
- Why would an individual join The Children’s Movement of California?
- Why would organizations join The Children’s Movement of California?
- If I/my organization signs up, how will my name or my organization’s name be used?
- How does The Children’s Movement of California cover Sacramento developments?
- Who started The Children’s Movement of California?
- What is the core strategic insight behind The Children’s Movement of California?
- What policy issues will The Children’s Movement of California address?
- When will these policy issues be addressed?
- To join The Children’s Movement of California, do I/does my organization have to support all of the items on the Agenda?
- How can I/my organization sign on and help?
- Why should children’s issues be the focus of California’s policymakers?
- Isn’t children’s poor status because California’s policymakers don’t prioritize kids?
- And what about the parents’ role?
1. What is The Children’s Movement of California?
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The Children’s Movement of California is an organizing effort dedicated to empowering organizations and individuals resolved to see all children’s basic developmental needs met to improve the lives of children and the prosperity of our society. It is open to everyone.
Until now, the voices of those concerned about children’s well-being have been disconnected, making it unnecessarily difficult for children’s policy issues to get the attention the public desires vis-à-vis the many other better organized and more powerful interest groups vying for policymakers’ attention. The Children’s Movement of California is connecting all those who want to change this unfortunate dynamic by leveraging their collective force to generate the major policy changes kids need.
2. Why would an individual join The Children’s Movement of California? [ return to top ]
People who care about our society’s character and future strength, and believe the best way to improve it is by enhancing the lives of today’s children are joining The Children’s Movement of California every day. By doing so, you get to:
- Participate meaningfully and easily in state-level policymaking for children;
- Connect to a much wider and more powerful network of organizations and individuals willing to support your primary issue or issues under the more powerful banner of “doing what’s best for kids”;
- Leverage expert representation in Sacramento across the fundamental children’s policy issue areas;
- Access regular policy development updates from Sacramento;
- Receive and participate in email and letter-writing campaigns and other collective actions by The Children’s Movement of California to support their policy goals.
3. Why would organizations join The Children’s Movement of California? [ return to top ]
Organizations that join The Children’s Movement of California receive all the benefits individuals receive (please see above). Additionally, for organizations, these benefits translate into:
- Exert policy influence to benefit children’s lives (you now have a policy arm), without disrupting your organization’s operational focus;
- Enhance your organization’s profile and credibility in the state and your local community—take shared credit for policy successes and associate with other marquee organizations in a strong social cause;
- Access to policy expertise to inform your positions and bring you into the goings-on in Sacramento (you gain access to children’s policy and advocacy expertise and connect/influence state-level policy decisions)
All types of groups are joining The Children’s Movement of California, from those who focus on delivering child care and other services to children to businesses and civil rights groups.
4. If I/my organization signs up, how will my name or my organization’s name be used? [ return to top ]
The Children’s Movement of California’s ability to communicate its strength relies on publishing its membership. In joining The Children’s Movement of California, you will be given the opportunity to opt-out of your/your organization’s name being publicly identified as “supporting The Children’s Movement of California.” We hope that you won’t choose to do so.
Your/your organization’s name will not be attached to any specific policy component of the Agenda, until you explicitly chose to do so.
5. How does The Children’s Movement of California cover Sacramento developments? [ return to top ]
The Children’s Movement of California has expert personnel dedicated to covering each children’s policy area included in the Agenda. This includes coverage of Early Learning & Development, K-12 Education, Aftershool and Extended Learning, Health Coverage, Health Homes, Oral Health, Obesity, Integrated Services and Foster Care. In joining The Children’s Movement of California, you gain access to a monthly webinar on children’s policy updates.
6. Who started The Children’s Movement of California? [ return to top ]
Children Now, the leading multi-issue research, policy development, and advocacy organization dedicated to children in California, started and is coordinating The Children’s Movement of California. The organization spent several years analyzing the children’s advocacy field and developing a strategy to make it more effective. McKinsey & Company and others assisted in this strategic planning.
7. What is the core strategic insight behind The Children’s Movement of California? [ return to top ]
It boils down to this, there are really only two levers driving policy adoption: money (lobbying dollars and/or campaign contributions) or popular pressure. Children don’t have enough of either one of these things behind them now. Relative to pharmaceuticals, financial services, tobacco, beverages, labor, the gaming industry, trial lawyers, prisons, seniors, and others, interest group representation for children’s causes is sorely outmatched. That’s why they’re in such bad shape. That’s why we need The Children’s Movement of California.
We aren’t big fans of the growing influence of campaign contributions and lobbying dollars, but we still believe in the power of people-based advocacy that’s the foundation of our democracy.
And, an unprecedented amount of untapped people-based advocacy power exists for children. In addition to extraordinary voter support, countless organizations serve or support stronger childhood development. Engaging and organizing this existing support in The Children’s Movement of California will provide children and the people who care about them with the leverage they need to bring about big policy changes for kids.
8. What policy issues will The Children’s Movement of California address? [ return to top ]
The initial policy goals of The Children’s Movement of California are specified in The Children’s Agenda for California. The Agenda was delivered to California’s new leaders in early 2011 and serves as the long-missing comprehensive guide to children’s policy needs at the state level. The Children’s Movement of California and its Agenda, which will be updated annually, seek to address the fundamental, overarching issues with the greatest reach and impact, such as:
- Disproportionate state budget cuts to children;
- Improving the education system and student achievement;
- Childhood obesity.
Please see The Children’s Agenda for California for complete details.
9. When will these policy issues be addressed?
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Individual policy components of the Agenda will be addressed based on opportunity and need. The inner workings of Sacramento require on-going, expert landscape analysis in order to identify and capitalize on opportunities to move specific issues.
10. To join The Children’s Movement of California, do I/does my organization have to support all of the items on the Agenda? [ return to top ]
No. By joining The Children’s Movement of California you are simply showing your support for the basic idea that children need to be a top priority of California policymakers. You can then participate only in the campaign activities for the specific issues that you support.
11. How can I/my organization participate?
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So, here’s what you can do to help. It’ll only take a few minutes:
- If you haven’t already, join The Children’s Movement of California yourself, as an individual: www.childrennow.org/join.
- Show your organization’s support for The Children’s Movement of California by completing the online Organization Sign-Up form: www.childrennow.org/join.
- Invite your family, friends, and colleagues to join as well; you can do so here.
- Stay tuned: we’ll email you to participate in meaningful campaigns and policy updates from Sacramento (we promise not to overload your inbox).
12. Why should children’s issues be the focus of California’s policymakers? [ return to top ]
Children are clearly a top public priority when measured and they receive ample attention in political rhetoric. Yet the issues undermining their well-being continue to be given short shrift. California children’s educational achievement and health currently is in crisis. For example, only 24% of California fourth graders scored at or above proficient in grade-level reading [a] and one-third of all the state’s children are overweight or obese.[b]
What’s more, there is ample research pointing to the fact that investing in children’s development, by improving the education and health systems serving them, yields exceptional long-term gains in terms of more successful lives and greater societal prosperity. For example, lifetime return on a dollar invested in quality preschool can be as high as 17-to-1.[c]
13. Isn’t children’s poor status because California’s policymakers don’t prioritize kids? [ return to top ]
In part, but it isn’t that simple. Most policymakers would like to do right by California’s children. The problem is that they are heavily influenced by the immense power interest groups wield, which can virtually dictate policymakers’ priorities. Children currently do not have a powerful enough interest group representing their needs, like business, prisons or seniors have, so they aren’t prioritized as highly. The Children’s Movement of California has representatives on the ground in Sacramento with vast political experience and, unfortunately, they see this play out time and again.
14. And what about the parents’ role? [ return to top ]
Parents are the most important part of a child’s successful development. Their voice in changing the poor public policies undermining their children’s education and health is crucial. Although hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent by interest groups in California on lobbying and campaign contributions, parents can make all the difference by channelling their support into a collective voice and joining with other individuals and organizations who care about California’s children to leverage their collective force to generate the major policy changes kids need.
Download Frequently Asked Questions
[ a ] U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress, The Nation’s Reports Card, California State Profile (November 30, 2010).
[ b ] U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau, U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, “Indicator 1.4a: How many children are currently overweight or obese, based on Body Mass Index for age (BMI-for-age)?” (November 23, 2010).
[ c ] High/Scope Educational Foundation, Perry Preschool Longitudinal Study (November 2004).