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Assignment: Action Plan 5: Advocating for Children and Families in Your Community

As you have learned in this course, societal factors and issues impact young children and their families. Both as a student of child development and in your future role as a professional who works with young children and their families, you have a responsibility to take an advocacy role in addressing these issues with the goal of improving conditions that affect children’s healthy development and learning.

Action Plan Professional Scenario: You have been challenged by a mentor you respect and admire to demonstrate your commitment to young children, their families, and the field of early childhood. Your mentor asks you to think about the many factors and issues that affect children’s healthy development and learning and choose one that you care about personally, examine the issue in your state, and then identify advocacy strategies you can use to champion this cause.

Before you develop your Action Plan, consider:

• What you need to know to understand the issue you choose
• What ideas and advice from experts will be effective in addressing the issue
• What you can do as an advocate to support young children, their families, and/or the field of early childhood

Follow these steps to create your Action Plan:

1. What You Need to Know: Learning About an Issue of Concern

There are many issues of concern to those who care about the rights and needs of young children and their families. Below are two issues and related articles/Web sites, including sources for finding information specific to your state. Select the issue that is of greater interest to you. Then as you read, take notes to help you summarize the issue and how it impacts children, families, and communities in your state.

As an alternative, you are also free to choose a different issue that you are passionate about and develop your Action Plan around that topic of concern. Include your sources for all information on the issue that you use in creating your plan.

• Issue 1: Providing High-Quality Child Care for All Children

State Fact Sheets on Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund

http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/data/state…

(Click on your state: All data relevant)

• Issue 2: Children Living in Poverty

Kids Count Data Center: Data by State

http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/bystate/Defau…

(Click on your state: View “Economic Well-Being” indicator, and click on “Poverty” indicator)

2. Ideas and Advice: Checking Resources for Advocacy Strategies

Review pages 440-446 in your text and access any or all of the Web site below to identify advocacy strategies. Take notes on ideas that would be effective in addressing your issue of concern and that you personally could carry out.

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2017). Effective advocacy resources. Retrieved from
https://www.naeyc.org/policy/advocacy

Build Your Advocacy Skills

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/public-policy-advoc…

Tools and Resources

http://www.theounce.org/resources/advocacy-tools

3. Taking Action: Advocating for the Issue You Chose

Combine the knowledge you have gained and strategies you have gathered to take action! Complete your Action Plan in three parts:

• Part I: Identify the Issue: Explain in your own words how this issue is affecting children, families, and communities in your state.
• Part II: Identify Your Strategies: List three strategies you believe would be effective in advocating for the issue you chose. For each strategy, include the specifics of how you would carry it out.
• Part III: Identify the Potential Impact: For each strategy, explain its potential impact on young children and families in your community. Set a goal for implementing each strategy.

As you create your plan:

• Choose ideas for which you have the skill and influence to implement now or would have as an early childhood professional.
• Write explanations of issues and strategies in your own words, to create a model that you could use in talking with others about the topic and encouraging others to be advocates, too.

Assignment length: 2–3 pages

By Day 7

Of this week, submit this assignment.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK5Assgn2+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment 2 Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 5 Assignment 2 link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK5Assgn2+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Grading Criteria

Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity

Submit Your Assignment by Day 7

Week in Review

This Week you explored the role of community in socializing and supporting young children and their families. You also considered your role as an advocate who can positively impact children families, and communities. In addition, you created an Action Plan for advocacy on an issue affecting young children that is of special concern to you. Next Week you will review what you have learned in this course with regard to the influence of families, schools, and communities on the socialization of young children.