3 Steps Toward Change for Children

Change! In the next few days and weeks we'll be hearing that word a lot. It has almost become an Obama brand, but let's not forget that we - each of us - can make change too. Here are three things you can do in the next week that can change the lives of children and their families for the better:

1) Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day next Monday by participating in the National Day of Service. To find a service project near you, go to: http://www.mlkday.gov/ If you can, take your kids or a couple of neighborhood children with you. Nothing creates change over the long term like teaching children how to make it!

2) Call your members of Congress and ask them to support child care and Head Start in the Economic Recovery Bill, and to share their support with key leadership. In the short term, child care support will allow parents who are losing income to stay in their jobs or look for new ones, and will maintain jobs (especially for low- to middle-income women) in the early childhood education field. Most importantly, it can give kids stability and the many benefits of high quality early childhood education while their parents work or look for jobs. Key organizations have asked the incoming administration and Congressional leaders to include a $3 billion increase in child care funding, and a $3 billion Head Start increase in the upcoming Economic Recovery Bill. If you don't know how to reach your Representatives and Senators, go to: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml For more information about federal support for child care, and why it's critical to economic recovery, go to: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/ChildCareEconomicStimulusNov2008.pdf

3) As you get ready to attend or watch the historic Inauguration of President Obama, begin learning about the many child and family policy issues the new Administration and Congress will be tackling over the next two years. Congress is preparing to reauthorize funding and policy related to critical issues like education and nutrition (including school lunches), while simultaneously managing the country out of an historically bad economy. You can weigh in, and ensure that Congress and the President put children and families first.

You can make change for children and families - today, next week, and in the coming months and years. Stay tuned to this blog and to http://www.childandfamilypolicy.net/ to find out how!