By taking action on behalf of children, we can help ensure that all young children get better education, more opportunities to connect with nature and the environment. Find helpful resources for following legislation, getting tips for becoming an effective advocate, and more, below.
- American Alliance of Museums: The Alliance offers several resources for building your advocacy skills, learning about Congress, making your case and getting involved in advocacy.
- "The Art of Lobbying": Little attention is given to how most lobbyists simply do their job or become effective at what they do. Whether it's helping staff draft legislative language, providing members with quality policy and political information, or just being a good listener, lobbyists must build and maintain relationships.
- The Aspen Institute: APEP provides advocates with free online tools: The Advocacy Progress Planner and the Continuous Progress side-by-side guides to advocacy for grantmakers and advocates working on domestic issues and global issues. These tools enable advocates, funders, and evaluators to plan, evaluate, and advocate better.
- Bolder Advocacy: Bolder Advocacy has developed a number of step-by-step tools to help you and your organization assess and build capacity and evaluate advocacy. They’ve also pulled together some comprehensive toolkits that bring together resources, from a variety of sources, on a range of topics – from the basics of establishing your organization or understanding the laws that affect advocacy, to curated collections of resources on a particular issue or activity.
- "Building Capacity for Public Policy": This tool kit reviews the factors found to have the greatest impact on improving organizational capacity to engage in public policy. It shares the lessons learned by state associations of nonprofits that participated in a three-year initiative, Building Capacity for Public Policy.
- Campaign for Environmental Literacy: The Campaign for Environmental Literacy provides you with a voice and the tools to advocate for increased federal funding for environmental, ocean, conservation and sustainability education.
- Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest: The Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (CLPI) promotes, supports and protects 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy and lobbying in order to strengthen participation in our democratic society and advance the missions of charitable organizations.
- "Congress at Your Fingertips": A guide to all legislators, Congressional committees, other Federal agencies, and their staff.
- Congress.org: A "one-stop-shop" where you can identify Congressional and State Representatives, research Congressional voting records, and learn about the issues of the day.
- GovTrack: GovTrack allows you to keep tabs on your Congressional representatives and pending legislation. You can follow the voting activity of members of Congress, get information on committees, and research bills.
- Institute for Sustainable Communities: ISC’s Advocacy and Leadership Center offers training, consulting and mentoring to established and emerging leaders and advocates. The trainings and tools have been honed over two decades by ISC and the Advocacy Institute.
- Just Enough Planning Guide: The Interactive Just Enough Planning Guide provides users with an online, interactive approach to the planning process. As you work your way through the tool, you'll have several opportunities to evaluate your answers and ensure you are making the smartest choices. At the end of the process, you will have a fully completed plan that links your organization's objectives to the many strategic decisions necessary for a successful campaign.
- "Make a Difference for Your Cause": This resource and discussion guide takes readers through the steps of the CLPI Road Map, provides examples of nonprofits that have successfully used public policy engagement to meet their missions, and presents six questions readers can use to stimulate discussion with others in their organizations.
- NACHC: While not directly related to early childhood EE, this site has helpful resources for drafting letters to your Congressional representatives. Sample letters are provided, with correct formatting and tips on effective communication.
- National Association for the Education of Young Children: NAEYC has compiled a set of effective advocacy resources. Here, you will find do's and don'ts for advocacy efforts, and critical facts about programs for young children.
- No Child Left Inside Coalition: The NCLI Coalition has put together sets of talking points about EE to use when speaking with members of Congress. There are talking points for those who are already supporters, and for those who need to be convinced.
- North American Association of Environmental Education: Advocacy tools for environmental education.
- Smart Chart 3.0: The interactive Smart Chart 3.0 is an online tool that can help you make and assess strategic decisions if you are just starting the communications planning process, evaluating a communications effort already in progress, or reviewing a communications effort you've already completed.
- Congress.gov: Find legislative information from the Library of Congress. You can search bill summaries and their status, view daily floor activity in Congress, and access schedules and calendars.
- U.S. House of Representatives: The official site of the U.S. House of Representatives.
- U.S. Senate: The official site of the U.S. Senate.
- 10 Tips for Local Advocacy: Ten tips for engaging in local advocacy from the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania.
If you know of any great resources for taking action on behalf of children and the environment, please let us know.