Children's issues are vital to America's future—poverty, neglect, child care and education are under constant scrutiny from policymakers and public policy scholars. However, there has been little study of how policies relating to children are made. In Who Speaks for America's Children?, leading experts in children's health policy, education policy, community organizing, and sociology focus on the ways nonprofit organizations and community groups influence policymaking on children's issues. Seven chapters frame the issues, raise critical questions, and explore opportunities for further study. The book looks at the number and types of nonprofit groups that advocate on behalf of children; the role of private philanthropy in articulating children's needs; the politics surrounding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP); an analytical framework for understanding the spectrum of child advocacy activities; case studies of early childhood education and child care policy; structural factors that contribute to successful mobilization of parents as child advocates; and the shift from locally-organized membership groups to professional centralized organizations advocating for children.
Who Speaks for America's Children? The Role of Child Advocates in Public Policy, edited by Carol J. De Vita and Rachel Mosher-Williams, is available in paperback from the Urban Institute Press (6" x 9", 236 pages, ISBN 978-0-87766-704-9, $26.50).
