ADVOCACY

January 6, 2012
 
Dear SOAR Partner:
 
Good afternoon, and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2012 for all. 2011 was an interesting year, and from an economic standpoint, I am glad to look at it in the rearview mirror. My hope is that 2012 will see an upswing in revenues, and an opportunity to restore cuts and move forward with programs that support the healthy development of our communities’ children and youth.
 
While 2011 ended on the high note of Washington’s successful application for “Race to the Top” funding and 2012 began with the state supreme court affirming every student’s right to a solid basic education, we still have our work cut out for us in assuring that children, youth and families are a high priority for decision-makers at the federal, state and local levels. It is important that we continue to encourage our leaders and hold them accountable to meeting the multiple needs of our communities’ kids.
 
President Obama will submit his 2013 budget proposal to congress in February, and we need to encourage our representatives to stand strong regarding the preservation, support and strengthening of investments such as child care, Head Start and Early Head Start, Section 619 and Part C. These programs support children’s healthy development and provide critical support to parents involved with and returning to the work force.
 
The recently completed special session of the WA state legislature saw $500 million in cuts. While important programs such as early childhood were spared the chopping block in this session, further cuts will be required in the regular session, which kicks off on Monday, January 9, and there is a good possibility that everything will be revisited. We need to be vigilant and, when necessary, active. Given the grim revenue projections, much of our advocacy will need to focus on fighting off cuts to existing programs and/or seeking out new revenue strategies. There will also be opportunities to advance policy bills which will put important protocols in place.
 
We at SOAR will do our best to keep you informed of key advocacy issues in timely manner and encourage you to contact your legislators in support of children, youth and families. Here is a brief insight into how we will approach this.
 
Early Learning
The early learning community is fairly well organized in the area of advocacy. SOAR belongs to a couple advocacy groups in this area, which do a great job of keeping us informed and staying in the ears of key decision-makers. If you are a stakeholder in early learning and have not already, I strongly recommend that you join the Early Learning Action Alliance, the Children’s Alliance, and the WA State Resource and Referral Network. Each of these organizations provides timely information on advocacy opportunities, and an efficient means of contacting key decision makers. Stakeholders who work with older youth might also benefit from being involved with these groups, as many of the issues faced by older youth are directly related to early childhood experiences or lack thereof. Also, childhood is a journey to adulthood, and we need to be mutually supportive of quality experiences for all kids at all developmental levels.
 
Youth Development
The youth development community covers a broad range of issues and is in some ways less cohesive. There are some excellent advocates around issues pertaining to older youth, and SOAR’s goal is to get a good handle on these key issues, and  connect with and rally community support behind those who are working hard in this area, such as the Mockingbird Society (for child welfare issues); Children’s Action Network (for youth development and afterschool issues, hosted by SOWA) and the League of Education Voters. SOAR has a Youth Advocacy Action Team that is working on this (email to join), and we are also working closely with our sister organization, the Youth Development Executives of King County, to generate a coordinated approach. Stay tuned on this. I also encourage our early learning partners to track and support these efforts as well. They build upon the foundational work of early learning, and support kids through critical developmental phases on their journey to adulthood. We need to assure that our kids both start and finish strong.
 
Your advocacy makes a difference. Thanks for your continued support of SOAR and for all the great work that you do for the children, youth and families of our communities.
 

Best Regards,

Harla Tumbleson
Director of SOAR
206.336.6930
harla@childrenandyouth.org