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Enhance the lives of children, families
and early childhood professionals.
 

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Checklist for Advocates - What Can I Do?

Important decisions that affect a child’s healthy development are made by our state and national legislatures. Among the most significant of these issues are those listed below.

► access to high quality, affordable child care & after school programs while parents work

► insurance coverage for children whose parent does not have access to or cannot afford coverage

► policies that support children’s life-long health, related to nutrition and opportunities for physical activity

It is important that your legislators and your community understand the significant contributions that early education lends to later academic success and lifelong achievement.

Here are come ideas about how you might help make quality preschool an important part of education in Arkansas. Choose some specific actions to which you are willing to commit your time and energy.

1. Build / Grow / Maintain Support

☐ Be informed. Read the paper, attend community meetings, join a group that advocates on behalf of young children.

☐ Reach out to my friends, family, and co-workers to ask for their support and action
on behalf of early care and education.

☐ Implement a formal communication system to reach other advocates quickly (i.e. a phone
tree or e-mail list).

2. Work With My Elected Officials

☐ Call my members of the state legislature to introduce myself. Communicate regularly.

☐ Share information with them about the need for comprehensive early care and education legislation. Call and write my legislators on a regular basis and encourage my network to write as well.

☐ Take groups of families and supporters to visit my state representatives and senators in their
home offices when they are not in session. Be a vocal presence at elected officials’ town hall
meetings or other high-profile events.

☐ Plan to visit my state representatives and senators and other key legislators during session when
key decisions in early education are at hand.

☐ Plan a visit for policymakers so they can see local early care and education programs and hear about the need for child care legislation that provides new funds to help more families pay for child care and improve quality.

☐ Invite elected officials to speak at my organization’s meetings or conferences.

☐ Find out how my elected officials vote on early education issues and thank them when they support children and families.

3. Generate Media Coverage

☐ Write letters to the editor to local papers, preferably in response to early care and education
articles or timely federal and state movement on early care and education. Ask my network to write as well, and provide them with a sample letter containing the pertinent talking points.

☐ Inform the media of learning activities and special events at my program so that they can help spread the word about the importance of quality early education to school readiness.

4. Work With Families

☐ Gather stories from families in my community who need child care assistance or who
have benefited from child care assistance; share these stories with the media, with
my legislators, and with the Invest Early in Education coalition.

☐ Meet with families and work with them to create opportunities to contact and visit
their elected officials.

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