33 Child Care Law Center | The Child Care Law Center is a national organization that focuses on removing legal barriers that families face in accessing high-quality and affordable childcare. The organization intervenes in a number of legal matters on behalf of those in need of childcare and has some high-profile success stories, including maintaining child care benefits for 55,000 low-income children in California through the lawsuit Parent Voices Oakland v. O’Connell.34 The organization’s Twitter feed and Facebook page are useful for staying up-to-date on the latest events and news. Past events highlight that the organization partners with local grassroots organizations for many protests and advocacy efforts.35 The organization also uses Twitter as an advocacy tool to highlight support for certain policies; Twitter users can become involved by retweeting these posts and directing them at their local legislators.
Facebook | Twitter
36 Children’s Defense Fund | The Children’s Defense Fund is a multi-issue organization that advocates for child-friendly policies, particularly for marginalized children, including those who are low-income, POCs, or have disabilities. The organization focuses particularly on preventative investments,37 as is made clear through their Twitter and Facebook pages, which highlight events that focus on preventive investments, such as providing early child care and providing quality medical care in public schools.38The organization’s Facebook page is particularly useful for staying involved in events and offers a number of ways to get involved, including attending virtual rallies, signing petitions, and calling legislators.39
Facebook | Twitter
40 9to5: Winning Justice for Working Women |This national organization is a coalition of women who work in low-wage jobs who work to establish better policy in and out of the workplace. Strategies include advocacy and engagement events and leadership development trainings. These events and trainings enable members to challenge their lawmakers to pursue better childcare policies.41
Facebook | Twitter
42 Children Now | ChildrenNow is a California-based organization that aims to give children political power by advocating for child-friendly policies in the state and beyond. The organization’s social media pages are useful for staying up-to-date on the latest policies affecting children in California and provides ways for users to get involved, whether that be by educating oneself through webinars or by contacting local lawmakers to express support for certain child-friendly legislation.43
Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
44 Generation to Generation | Generation to Generation is an intergenerational advocacy group that encourages adults and elders to partner with younger generations to advance child-friendly policies.45Programs include the #Gen2GenSummer Challenge, which encourages adults aged 50 and older to address the learning gap that occurs over the summertime by getting involved with a local youth through providing learning activities, meals, jobs, or play.46 The organization’s social media accounts are useful for staying up-to-date on the importance of intergenerational support and seeing the variety of ways in which seniors are connecting with youth.47
Facebook | Twitter
48 Annie Murphy Paul. | @AnnieMurphyPaul is a science journalist and book author who gave a very well-received TED Talk (attached below) that explored when the human brain actually begins to learn. The TED talk is included below and the conclusions from the talk suggest that we should be investing heavily in prenatal care (as so many grassroots organizations already are focusing on). Her tweets and columns focus on how to use scientific understandings of the human development to inform our curriculum and programs.49
Twitter | TED Talk | Author Page | Articles in TIME Magazine | Articles in the NYT
50 Laura Bornfreund . | @LBornfreund is the director of early and elementary educational policy at New America’s Early Education Initiative. She collaborates with a team to improve children’s learning experiences from birth through third grade.51 Her tweets and articles are useful for understanding how past policies have been effective or ineffective at addressing the achievement gap and how we can better address these issues going forward.
Twitter | The Huffington Post Articles | The Atlantic Articles
52 Suki Graves M.Ed. | @SukiGraves has a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of California at Santa Barbara and has worked on early childhood intervention strategies from a number of angles, including working as a program director at the local level and as a Head Start program specialists at the federal level through her position at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.53 Her Twitter feed is useful for understanding the variety of ways that we can improve early childhood programs, including by offering a living wage to childcare providers, investing in teacher training, and addressing child poverty.54
Twitter
