For traditional advocacy organizations, statewide engagement is essential to developing the kind of large, ongoing constituency for early childhood issues that can lead to big advances. Starting this work is a commitment, though, and doing it effectively and equitably requires a commitment of time and budget.
If you are an advocacy organization thinking about formalizing or expanding your statewide engagement strategy, here are some things to think about.
- Understand how your organization defines engagement and/or community organizing. One of the most important tenets when it comes to community work is transparency and setting realistic expectations with partners and community members.
- Are you looking for folks who will help implement the policy agenda you’ve already established? Is there room to add additional issues as raised by the community? Are you hoping to engage parents/providers/community members directly or through organizations they’re already involved in?
- Where on the continuum of engagement is your organization currently? Is there desire/support for moving on the continuum?
- Start with landscaping. I strongly encourage new engagement managers to spend several months getting to know the lay of the land in terms of early childhood issues and policy advocacy in your state. In addition to meeting with the “usual suspects” (groups that your organization likely has relationships with already), meet with leaders and community members who work on intersecting issues – for example, learn from direct service providers within the early childhood space, from advocates in related issue areas like health equity and housing, and from organizations that already work with the types of people you want to engage. You can adapt the approach that community organizers take when they have one-on-one meetings (see An Introduction to 1-on-1 Organizing Conversations, The Art of the One-on-One, and Exploration, Connection, and Exchange.)
- What are their priorities?
- What do they see as the biggest challenges and opportunities facing families with young children?
- How is your organization viewed by them and by their members? Do folks feel like you share power/the spotlight with others? Do parents/providers/other grassroots community members feel welcome and respected in your spaces?
- Always ask who else they recommend you meet with.
- Include statewide travel. Get out and personally visit parts of the state outside the capitol or metro area where you are located. Attending local organizations’ events and scheduling one-on-one meetings with community members while you’re there will help you understand local conditions and will show a commitment to their communities. When I did this work in Colorado, we often used KIDS COUNT presentations as opportunities to travel the state, to learn more about local communities, and to show that more remote areas of the state are just as important as the bigger cities.
- Identify partnership opportunities and gaps. Through your landscaping have you identified any groups that you can partner with to advance your shared community engagement goals?
- Can you bring resources to the table that would strengthen/grow partners’ existing efforts (resources include money of course but could also mean expertise, access to people in power, time, and energy.)
- Are there activities that don’t already exist that your organization could provide/create? Bonus points if the gaps were identified by community members!
- Be patient and realistic.
- This is all about relationship building, which takes time and energy that must be sustained over the long-term.
- Have a budget – for smaller things like coffees, event registrations, mileage as well as larger things like sponsorships and advocacy days.
- Don’t expect fireworks in the first year – define success in terms of growth and new sprouts rather than fully bloomed efforts.
Once again, kudos to anyone embarking for the first time on the journey to build a statewide force for young children and their families. Just remember that the best results come from working with communities instead of for communities.
Jacinta “Jacy” Montoya Price, Senior Director of Advocacy and Issue Campaigns at the Alliance for Early Success, has extensive campaign and coalition development experience that she leverages to help the Alliance’s allies advance important early childhood policy and build collective power in their states. Prior to joining the Alliance, Jacy served as Advocacy Director for the Colorado Children’s Campaign, where she oversaw the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Campaign’s efforts to engage advocates, providers, parents, caregivers, and others in the organization’s policy work, publications, and research.
