Parent Power: Engaging and Supporting Essential Leaders

Parents are powerful advocacy partners who bring both lived experiences to inform policy development and priorities and also strong leadership skills and connections to community. Parents know how government programs and systems are failing them and the improvements that are necessary. Their voices are critical to the development of more effective and equitable policies, yet they too often remain excluded from many policy making spaces. 

What can early childhood policy and advocacy organizations do to support the full and authentic leadership of parents in their advocacy efforts? We heard directly from parent leaders about what brought them to policy and advocacy, what keeps them engaged, and how policy advocates can best support the power of parents.