My Role as an Advocate

         My motivation in advocating for very young children is my background story of my very own childhood. I was born premature but I grew up to become a healthy young lady ready to take on the world. I wanted to be an encouragement to other families out there who are going through the same issue as my parents with premature children even despite having developmental issues and delays as well. I believe that at the macro level of advocacy, you can reach so many people at the local level and get together to think of great solutions. That way once you put all of your ideas together then you can upgrade those ideas and concerns to those at the national level where all the policy takes place. To be a community leader in childhood issues you have to be willing to have a passion and to be able to work with all sorts of people. You also have to be consistent in your work and never back down. Funding and networking is so important when it comes to the resources in state leadership. Networking helps to keep in touch with programs all across the state. In order to mobilize people, I focus on the issues going on in early childhood today. We have a few newsletters that come in at work every now and then and I read them to get the heads up. The advice I would give to someone interested in leadership role and advocating for young children and families are to have a lot of passion, drive, and determination to do all you can for them. Being a teacher has its challenges but I would encourage those interested to keep their head up and keep the motivation to lend a hand for children and families. 



                                                                        Reference
                                                                             
                   Zero to Three Policy Center. (2008). Advocacy strategies to improve outcomes for very                                      young children: Interviews with leaders at the state and community levels. Retrieved from
                        http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/AdvocacyLeaders_final.pdf?docID=1882