8 Very Good Reasons to Advocate for Your Family

What does Advocacy mean?  According to Webster’s Dictionary Advocacy mean:  Active support, as of a cause.  Advocate means one who supports or defends a cause (an advocate of equal rights). One who pleads on another’s behalf.
Here are 8 Reasons to Advocate:

• You make a difference.    It only takes one person to initiate change. Michelle’s Law.  One mother fighting for her daughter’s right for health insurance.  
• People working together can make a difference.  Groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving have come together and convinced dozens of states to toughen up on their drunk driving laws.  Many people find healing from tragedy by telling their stories and working to prevent it from happening to others.
• People can change laws.  Many of us think that ordinary individuals can’t make a difference.  It is hard to change laws and policies.  But it can be done.  It has been done, over and over again in our history, in the face of great obstacles.  Our history is full of stories of people and groups that fought great odds to make great change a few examples are child labor laws, public schools and social security.  These changes were not easy to achieve.  It took thousands of people who felt something needed to be changed.
• Advocating is a democratic tradition.  The act of telling our policymakers how to write and change our laws is at the very heart of our democratic system. 
• Advocacy helps find real solutions.  People thinking creatively and asking their elected officials for support can generate innovative solutions that overcome the root-cause of a problem. 
• Advocacy is easy.  Many of us think that it is difficult to make change.  But with a group of people committed to the same outcome, anything and everything, is possible.  It is just a matter of learning how, when and where to get your voices heard.
• Policymakers need to hear from YOU.  Few people are closer to the real problems than community groups.  You see problems first hand.  You know the needs.  You see what works and what doesn’t.  YOU can make problems real to policymakers.  Your passion and perspectives need to be heard.  Policymakers can learn from your stories.
•  Advocating helps people.  All the work that you put into your cause will pay off.  The research, the strategy planning, the phone calls and the visits with the policymakers will help you fulfill your goal whether it is finding a new way of doing things or improving the system we already have.  Through your advocacy work you could help yourself and those around you and could even help on a larger scale.

Parent Advocacy Programs throughout the State.
Here is a list of different programs throughout the state that can be easily accessed by the web. 

American Friends Services Committee – www.afsc.org/cost
Belknap County Citizens Council –Parents as Leaders in Society (P.A.L.S.) -  www.bccj.org
Casey Family Services – www.caseyfamilyservices.org
 Child and Family Services – www.cfsnh.org
Children’s Alliance of NH – www.childrennh.org
Directory NH – www.directorynh.com/NHAssociations-Organizations/NHParentingOrganizations.html
Early Learning NH – www.earlylearningnh.org
Every Child Matters – www.everychildmatters.org/nh
Families and Work Institute – www.familiesandwork.org
Family Support NH – www.fsnh.org
Kids Count – www.kidscount.org
Million Mom March, NH Chapter – www.millionmommarch.org
NH Citizens Alliance – www.nhcitizensalliance.org
NH Women’s Lobby – www.nhwomenslobby.org
Parent Information Center – www.parentinformationcenter.org
Parents NH Magazine  -  www.parentingnh.com
Priorities NH – www.prioritiesnh.org
Real Clout – the Public Policy Institute – www.realclout.org
Voices for America Children – www.voicesforamericaschildren.org