February 21, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Who Speaks for America’s Children?
edited by Carol J. De Vita and Rachel Mosher-Williams
Conflicting agendas and limited interaction among organizations has restricted the ability of child-advocacy groups to mobilize and influence legislation and public opinion, according to the editors of Who Speaks for America’s Children?
The book, edited by Urban Institute researchers, sets out to examine the problems and progress of child-advocacy organizations. It suggests that such organizations should initiate major changes in the way they work, including possibly reducing the number of advocacy groups to achieve better coordination and identifying a few strategic issues to focus on.
“The most significant challenge to keeping children’s issues on the public and legislative agendas is managing the conflicting interests and strategies of the large number of child-advocacy organizations,” says Emmett D. Carson, president and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis Foundation, in the book’s introduction.
The editors communicate their point through a series of essays by leading experts on children’s health policy and education policy.
The first section of the book examines a range of child-advocacy organizations and the potential obstacles they face, and explores the role of child advocates in promoting policy change. The second half reviews the successes, current struggles, and future needs of those organizations.
Publisher: Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037; (202) 261-5790; fax (202) 833-6231; swilson@ui.urban.org; http://www.urbaninstitute.org; 236 pages; $26.50; I.S.B.N. 0-87766-704-7.
