Although written for small groups (such as adoptive parent groups), the information in this fact sheet will also help guide individuals and other organizational advocacy efforts on behalf of children and families. See below for rules for non-profits.
Adoptees, foster youth, and their families need support that our child welfare system just isn’t giving them. We can advocate for better laws for adoption, foster care, and kinship care when we make our voices heard.
There are many ways to become an advocate for children and the child welfare system. If your group is small or you are just getting started, you can begin by advocating for the needs of foster and adopted children in your local schools, community centers, or neighborhood places of worship. If you are more experienced, have several organizations in partnership, or you’re willing and able to take on a bigger task, you may be interested in working for change on a statewide or province-wide legislative level.
Basic Advocacy Steps for Child Welfare Laws:
- Identify the problem
- Collect data to document the problem
- Identify decision makers
- Gather support
- Develop recommendations
- Develop a strategy
- Evaluate your plan and outcomes
When you become an advocate, always nurture the relationships you develop and do not take your contacts for granted. When and if you ever disagree with a policy maker, learn to disagree amicably. There may come a time in the future when you are both on the same side of an issue ,and you can be of help to each other again.
Identify the Problem
To get started, you need to find your focus. You may feel frustrated when you see the many ways systems fail to serve families, but your desire to want to fix everything can paralyze your efforts. To be effective, you need to identify the specific problem you want to try to solve and move on from there.
Plan a Brainstorming Session
To identify the issue you want to address, set aside time to list the problems that you feel are affecting foster and adoptive families. Plan a brainstorming session where you don’t limit the suggestions. Accept all ideas, even those you don’t believe are a high priority, so that you don’t alienate anyone who risks sharing an opinion. Remind participants to frame their suggestions in terms of children’s needs. Once you have your list of possibilities, look for connections among the ideas to see if some of them can be combined to address a single issue.
After you combine the original ideas into a new list, display and read this version to the group. Allow the group time to react to the new list, without trying to prioritize or solve the problems.
Have a Guided Discussion
Next, facilitate a more guided discussion to help the group choose which problem to focus on. Have participants prioritize the problems and then vote to determine which one you want to solve. You may need further discussion and a second vote if a majority is not determined.
The priorities for each group will be different, depending on what everyone believes is important and what they think they can handle at this time. A less experienced group may choose to resolve a problem in their local school district, while an experienced group may be ready to tackle a more complex problem at the state level.
Once you choose an issue, be sure to restate the problem from the point of view of the children who are affected by it.
Example Problems You Might Address |
| Problem 1: Local school administrators and teachers are unaware of or unresponsive to the issues that affect foster and adopted children. For example, teachers assign family tree homework projects that marginalize foster and adopted children.
The Problem from the Child’s Point of View: All children deserve a quality education. To ensure a quality education for all foster and adopted children, administrators and teachers need to:
Problem 2: State legislators are considering making cuts to residential treatment services for adoptive families. They may tighten eligibility criteria or reduce the pool of funding available to adopted children. The Problem from the Child’s Point of View: All children deserve a permanent family, including those who experience mental health problems. Children who are adopted from the foster care system sometimes have severe mental health problems. Many of these issues are genetic or stem from abandonment, abuse, and trauma that occurred in their pre-adoptive lives. Access to mental health services will help prevent adoption disruption and allow parents to nurture their children as they address their mental health issues. |
Collect Data to Document the Problem
Once you have chosen a problem in child welfare to tackle, you need to collect data to identify the scope of the problem — how widespread is this issue? There are four types of information that you may need to gather to complete the picture:
- Current relevant laws (local, state/provincial, or federal)
- Current relevant rules and regulations
- Demographic information on the children affected by the problem
- Testimonials illustrating exactly how the problem affects specific children and families
Bring Your Group Back Together
Lead the group in a second brainstorming session to clarify what kind of information you need and how to get it. Post the following questions and have the group answer them as they apply to your problem. Have someone in the group record responses.
- What do we need to know?
- Where can we find the information we need?
- What access do we already have to the information?
- Where do we get additional information?
Once you sort through the data you’ve gathered, organize your materials to build your strongest case. Then, decide what information is missing and figure out what your group has to do to get it.
Where to Find the Data You Need
Child welfare data is public information. If you request totals or summary data, public agencies cannot refuse to supply you with this information. Get a copy of your state’s “right to information” lawOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tab. In the United States, states submit foster care and adoption data to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as required by the Adoption and Foster Care Data Analysis Reporting SystemOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tab (AFCARS).
AFCARS is an excellent place to start since these reports include summary information about case plans, length of time in care, and age of children in care. Child Welfare Information Gateway Opens in a new tabOpens in a new tabalso has data from most states.
Example Data You Might Collect
For example, a group that is trying to solve problem 1 in their schools might come up with the following list of ideas for gathering information to document the problem. They might want to find out:
- The number of foster and adopted children in the school system and the special needs they have
- Examples of inappropriate assignments and how they affect children’s performance in school
People trying to improve access to mental health services might want to find out:
- The number of youth adopted from the foster care system who have been denied mental health treatment
- The number of adoptive families who are on waiting lists to receive mental health services for their children
- If the waiting lists are longer than in the past
- The number of families who have had to relinquish custody of their children in order to get mental health services for them
Use Your Group’s Connections
When participants start sharing what they know, they often discover that a wealth of information exists within the group. Each member has had a variety of experiences and usually knows a number of contact people in the community.
Collectively, most groups know where to find resources to get a good start. Each has contacts with other organizations, and some might have a personal story related to the problem.
Try to determine to whom you need to talk to get additional information, such as legislators, heads of committees or task forces, key people from agencies, and other bureaucrats. Some of these people may be sympathetic to your cause but are unable to do advocacy work because their jobs prohibit it. They may be willing to channel information to your group as long as you do the advocacy.
Always nurture the relationships you develop and do not take your contacts for granted. When and if you ever disagree, learn to disagree amicably. There may come a time in the future when you are both on the same side of an issue, and you can be of help to each other again.
During this research phase, you can also search for other groups who are doing similar work. You may also want to know what other states or provinces are doing and how they achieved their goals.
Identify Decision Makers
Once you have developed recommendations, you will need to determine which person, agency, or group can make the changes you need.
The Type of Change Needed Determines the Changemaker
First, ask yourselves if you need legislative change or administrative change. In most cases, the answer is administrative change. If you need administrative change, find out who actually makes the decisions that affect your problem. If you are advocating for a change across a school district, for example, you may need to work with the superintendent in some districts and the school board in others. In other cases, the decision may be left to individual schools, so your target would be the principal.
If you seek to improve access to mental health services, you may need legislative change or administrative change at the county, state, or provincial level. It is important to understand how the system works in your area. In the U.S., some states have county-administered systems so the critical decisions are made by the head of the county agency or by the board of commissioners. In other states, decisions come from the state agency in charge of child welfare. Before you begin your advocacy effort, be sure you have done your research to identify the right decision makers for your particular problem.
Many child advocates believe that if all existing laws were fully enforced, there would be no need to introduce any additional child welfare legislation. Many existing laws are either not enforced or not funded as they were intended.
Determining Who to Contact
Once you have determined which agency or organization makes the decision you need made, it may help to have an organizational chart showing which staff members have what responsibility. In state agencies, you may want to work directly with the commissioner, who typically has the ultimate authority.
It will also help to build relationships with other staff members in the agency who understand the issue you are addressing and are involved in rule writing. These staff are key players and may well be supportive of your position. Child advocates typically have the most contact with staff members who are several levels down in the hierarchy. You should ask these people how best to bring about change. They are often your best allies.
Don’t forget that, as advocates, you are very important players in this process. Personal experience gives you credibility and knowledge. Experienced advocates emphasize their expertise and first-hand knowledge.
Gather Support
It is important to identify your supporters or potential partners. Make a list of people you believe can give you additional information, help you with your cause, or join your efforts. Although you may not always need them to be involved in your efforts, it is useful to know who supports your work so you can solicit help when you need it.
There are three categories of potential supporters:
- Groups that have similar interests (other parent groups, nonprofits, or associations, including those outside adoption or child welfare)
- Groups that have power in the community and may also have a soft spot for kids (labor unions, retired people, or business groups)
- Groups that have a skill you need (lawyers, educators, or accountants)
Building a Coalition of Groups
Sometimes to bring about change, you need a united voice from many groups. Building a coalition can make a strong case to decision-makers because your cause is supported by numerous qualified people.
The talent behind the plan and the number of people who can help carry out the plan increase your potential power when you build a coalition.
Connect with Media Contacts and Attorneys
Plan to develop media contacts (newspaper reporters at larger and community papers, television or radio journalists, influential bloggers) and be ready to provide them with background information on the problems you want to solve. These contacts should be nurtured in case it is necessary to go public with your information. (Learn more about working with the media with our advocacy toolkit.)
Finally, you may want to identify a lawyer. Sometimes, advocates are monitoring problems that are caused by potentially illegal actions, in which case a lawyer will be helpful.
Develop Goals and Recommendations
Once you have gathered the information and support you need, arrange for another group meeting where you can review the information and develop recommendations to solve the problem.
When you are dealing with complex issues, it is important to think ahead about your bottom line so you don’t lose sight of your needs when negotiating with others.
SMART Goals and Objectives |
When you plan your strategy for how to achieve your goal, you need to make sure your action plan includes objectives that are:
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Develop a Strategy
Now you are ready to plan your child welfare advocacy strategy. Make sure your strategies are:
- Targeted to the right decision makers
- Appropriate for solving your problem
- Adequate to sufficiently address the problem
- Effective in helping you achieve your objectives in a reasonable time
- A wise use of time, money, and energy
- Sensitive to side effects that could generate resistance by special interest groups or cause negative responses or consequences
Example Strategies to Meet Your Advocacy Goals
Maybe you want to start by meeting with a key administrator, writing a letter to the editor, or initiating a public awareness or legislative campaign.
The complexity of your problem will dictate the complexity of your strategy. If you are trying to solve a local problem in your school, your efforts may be confined to dealing with school district administrators and won’t require using all the strategies mentioned. If your group is involved in trying to secure funding for mental health services, you may need to use all the strategies.
A group that seeks mental health services for children may hear in April that legislators are considering cutting mental health services in next year’s budget. This group will want to act fast. If the vote takes place in June, advocates will have a short time to compose a clear, concise message and get it to foster and adoptive parents statewide. Next, they might organize a phone tree, email list, or Facebook group and recruit constituents to call, write letters, e-mail, or visit their legislators to express their position, giving clear details of exactly how the budget cuts will affect families.
Give Your Plan a Timeline
Identify a deadline by which you want the problem solved. The timeline should be realistic, allowing for a reasonable response time by decision makers. The length of time it will take to solve the problem depends on its severity and the influence of those advocating for change.
Sometimes working backward from your deadline can help you think through the steps you will need to map out your strategy.
For example, if you want to initiate training in a local school in October, you may learn that the fall training schedule is determined in the spring. You want to plan to take your action before spring so that the changes are in place by the following October. You’ll need time to identify the decision-making body for next year’s training, prepare quality materials, and present training ideas to the decision makers in the winter. You could also use this year to work with individual teachers to try out some of their materials and determine which ones are most helpful.
Evaluate Your Plan and Efforts
You will need to keep track of the results of your efforts. Advocacy efforts often take numerous attempts. You may have to try a number of strategies before you reach an acceptable resolution of the problem you set out to solve. Sometimes you have to rethink what you did and change a tactic or the overall game plan.
Once you have achieved your objective, celebrate your success! Make sure, however, you continue to monitor the implementation of your recommendations to ensure there is follow-through and the problem you set out to address is actually solved.
Advocacy and Lobbying for Nonprofits
Many nonprofit parent groups in the U.S. shy away from advocacy efforts because they believe that the IRS prevents organizations with 501(c)(3) status from lobbying. While the IRS does limit the amount of money a nonprofit can spend on lobbying, nonprofits are certainly allowed to lobby. The IRS simply states that an organization with 501(c)(3) status “may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates.” There are no limits on volunteer efforts and other cost-free activities.
Of course, not all advocacy is lobbying. In general, at the federal level, lobbying is defined as communication intended to influence specific legislation. It does not include activities to raise policy makers’ awareness about adoption or children’s special needs, efforts to influence administrative rules, examinations of broad social problems, responses to written requests for assistance from committees or other legislative bodies, or actions to improve school practices, for example.
Nonprofits should not be afraid of advocating or lobbying, but should track expenditures related to lobbying. If a group is concerned about the vagueness of the “substantial part” limitation, it can choose to come under the provisions of the 1976 lobby law and file IRS form 5768 to apply for 501(h) status. This status provides specific dollar limits for lobbying based on the organization’s lobbying expenditures. Groups that choose the 501(h) election remain 501(c)(3) organizations with tax-deductibility of contributions, and simply have to complete an additional financial report on their lobbying activity with their annual IRS 990.
For more information about applying for 501(h) status and how it will affect your organization, contact the Alliance for Justice in Washington, D.C. for a copy of Worry-Free Lobbying for Nonprofits—How To Use The 501(h) Election to Maximize EffectivenessOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tab, 202-822-6070.
We Believe in You! Reach Out for Help.
For more information on lobbying guidelines in Canada, contact the Child and Youth Permanency Council of CanadaOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tabOpens in a new tab at 888-54ADOPT or Families Rising at [email protected].