What Is Child Advocacy?
Introduction:The Purpose of This Manual Chapter 1:Setting an Advocacy Agenda Chapter 2:Communications Chapter 3:Working In Advocacy Coalitions Chapter 4:Community Engagement Chapter 5:Legislative Advocacy Chapter 6:Electoral Advocacy Chapter 7:Administrative Advocacy Chapter 8:Legal Advocacy Chapter 9:Monitoring Program Chapter 10:Evaluation of your OrganizationsWork Additional Resources: Connecting With the Voices Staff and Network Voices Mission and Services Voices Staff List Voices Member List This edition of theChild Advocacy Primeris supported by theAnnie E. Casey Foundation.
Child advocacy is the ministry of raising awareness of the needs, neglect, nurture, and potential of children in poverty, and challenging others to greater involvement with children. Interested in becoming a child advocate? Get the Facts: Children in Poverty Research and statistics related to children in poverty. HIV/AIDS A complete resource center for HIV/AIDS materials. Other Resources: Books and Articles Educational resources for child advocates of all ages. Photo Essays View photo essays of Compassion’s child ministry. Radio Hear the prayers of children around the world in our daily radio feature Speak Up With Compassion. Videos A visual expression of Compassion’s child advocacy message. In the Spotlight: Compassion: A Pastor’s Perspective Want to change the heart of your church toward children in poverty? Start with your pastor. Watch this compelling video as Max Wilkins, a pastor from Florida, shares about his involvement with Compassion and how it’s changed his life.
Child advocacy includes parents, professionals, teachers, and organizations dedicated to emphasizing and protecting the rights of children. The core of child advocacy to make sure that children are allowed to develop at normal, optimal levels. Child advocacy seeks to ensure that development and growth is not stunted by people who would abuse or ignore child rights, or put children in danger. Child advocacy generally concerns itself with the following areas, but child advocacy is certainly not limited to the following areas: child prostitution, child abuse, child pornography, child labor, and corporal punishment of children in schools. Children do not have any real power on their own in society. Children are often voiceless victims, silent in the face of their oppression and abuse. Even if children do seek out help, an uncaring or indifferent adult can wreck whatever chances they have of finding relief. Furthermore, in many situations, children are put in dangerous and bad situations by
Advocacy means “speaking up”. Child advocacy is speaking up for children who cannot speak for themselves. It is about speaking out on children’s issues in public and working with policymakers behind closed doors, about introducing bold proposals to address long-standing challenges and monitoring health and safety regulations, about ensuring that the tax base is adequate to meet the community’s needs and finding a technical solution to an administrative issue. It is about compiling data, understanding research, devising strategies, crafting messages, joining voices, and using every tool possible to improve the lives of children and families. If you dedicate your voice, time, skills, and energy to working to improve the laws and programs which affect children in your community, you are a child advocate. Child advocacy thrives in a multitude of forms. Whether it’s a few committed parents in a housing project circulating petitions for a safe playground, a city-wide coalition of teachers an
