If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.
– Marian Wright Edelman

Yasmina Vinci, Executive Director of the National Head Start Association, has written a letter that she has distributed widely during the past week:

“Dear friends,

Sixty years after breaking generational poverty and putting 40 million lives on a trajectory for success in school and in life, Head Start is in danger of being wiped out, eliminated, finished.

We received an inquiry from a reporter stating that they had seen a draft of the President’s budget and that it proposed the elimination of Head Start. We reached out to the White House and they said that the budget has not been finalized yet.

However, even floating a proposal like this must be responded to with outrage because it might be, like so many things nowadays – a trial balloon. We responded to the reporter with the following quote:

‘Eliminating funding for Head Start would be catastrophic. It would end early learning, meals, vision, hearing, and developmental screenings, and dental care for nearly 800,000 of our nation’s most at-risk children. Over a million parents wouldn’t be able to go to work. Communities nationwide would lose a vital foundation of their child and family support systems. We urge every parent, every American, and every believer in the American dream to reach out to their elected officials to express their outrage about such a proposal.’

The USA Today article came out hours after we made the statement.

Please help save Head Start by taking one minute to click on the advocacy action we launched. Then send this (or a briefer appeal) to all your friends and family you think might take this easy and quick advocacy action.

Thank you and raise your voice for Head Start!

Yasmina”

One resource that’s been designed to help you utilize strategies in multiple ways to advocate for all aspects of the early childhood field, is The Art of Leadership book, Promoting Early Childhood Services. It’s filled with articles on ways to help others realize the importance of ECE services, as well as advice on how to work with lawmakers and become an effective advocate.