What if this is the moment we’ve been preparing for?
What if the disruptions we’re facing aren’t just challenges to navigate but invitations to lead differently? With more vision. More conviction. And a deeper sense of community.
Across the country, advocates working to advance equitable policies for children and families are being called to show up in new ways. The landscape is shifting. Federal protections are weakening, and state lawmakers hold increasing power over the safety net programs that shape the lives of children and families. The pace of change feels both urgent and uncertain.
And yet — alongside these shifts — something powerful is emerging:
- An invitation to embrace new leadership models rooted in community.
- A deeper call to collaborate across lines of difference.
- Hard-earned lessons about what works.
- And a growing hunger to reimagine how we build power and drive change.
This is not just a moment of challenge — it’s a moment of choice.
A moment to clarify our values, renew our commitments, and take bold, collective action.
Because the future of child advocacy won’t simply happen on its own. It will be shaped intentionally by how we choose to lead and how we choose to show up in this moment.
State and Local Advocates Are at the Center of the Work.
What if the most powerful strategies for change are already in motion—led by the advocates closest to the ground?
State and local advocates have always been at the heart of this work. They are building trust with families, rooted in community, and deeply attuned to how policy decisions show up in real life. And now, as states hold increasing responsibility for programs and services that shape children’s lives — from education and Medicaid to economic supports — their leadership has never been more essential.
This shift comes with enormous pressure. State advocacy leaders are being asked to do more with fewer federal guardrails and less resources. But it also creates room for innovation and space to test policy solutions, build new coalitions, and learn what actually works in complex, polarized environments.
To meet the moment, advocates need more than inspiration. They need infrastructure. That means consistent funding, capacity support, and aligned partnerships that allow them to not just respond, but lead.
We Know What Works. Let’s Not Lose Sight of It.
What if the answers we need are already here—and we simply need the courage to stay the course?
The pandemic showed us what’s possible when systems are properly resourced and responsive. When we expanded access to food assistance, health care, and family income supports, we saw child poverty drop to historic lows. When those investments were pulled back, child poverty rates surged again.
The lesson is clear: We already know what children and families need. Whole-child, whole-family approaches are not new ideas. They are proven pathways. The danger is that in the chaos of the current moment, we might abandon what we know out of fear or fatigue.
Now is not the time to pull back. It’s the time to double down on our policy goals: physical and mental health, strong public education, family economic security, and racial equity in every system. The goals haven’t changed. What we need is the staying power to keep fighting for them—no matter which way the political winds blow.
It’s Time to Reimagine What Advocacy Can Look Like.
What if advocacy wasn’t just something done for communities—but something built with them?
This moment invites us to expand how we think about advocacy and power — to not only shape policy, but to share space, elevate community wisdom, and lead alongside those with lived experience.
Families and young people are the experts in their own lives. And the most powerful advocacy happens when institutional knowledge and lived experience come together to drive change.
What if we stepped back—not to disengage, but to create space? What if we used our relationships, platforms, and political capital to lift up community voices rather than speaking on their behalf?
That doesn’t mean abandoning strategy. It means evolving it. Today’s advocates need to understand the issues and know how to engage across generations, platforms, and places — from coalition tables to social media to kitchen tables.
We can honor what we’ve built — and make room for what’s next.
Philanthropy Must Be a True Partner in Change
What if philanthropy and advocates came to the table as collaborative partners—co-creating strategy, sharing power, and fueling long-term change together?
Philanthropy has always played a powerful role in shaping what’s possible. And in this moment of both challenge and opportunity, there is incredible potential for funders and advocates to work together in new and transformative ways.
Meeting this moment calls for partnership that goes beyond project-specific grants or short-term wins. It calls for shared vision, deep trust, and a commitment to building the long-term capacity of the child advocacy movement.
That starts with flexible, multi-year investments that give advocates the ability to respond to urgent threats while staying grounded in long-term strategy. It means trusting state-based and BIPOC-led organizations as the experts they are — and resourcing them to lead lasting change in their communities.
It also means recognizing that the most effective advocacy requires a full ecosystem of strategies working together: narrative change, community organizing, policy development, and civic engagement.
Intermediaries like the Partnership can be the bridge for this collaborative work — aligning resources across states, identifying trusted local leaders, and creating pathways for coordinated investment and shared learning. Together, we can move beyond incremental progress toward collective transformation by not just achieving policy wins but the lasting infrastructure needed to sustain them.
A Call to Lead with Clarity and Conviction
What if we stopped waiting for stability and decided to lead right here, in the uncertainty?
This moment demands something deeper than quick fixes. It calls for leadership that is rooted in purpose, grounded in community, and bold enough to challenge the status quo.
Let’s lead from what we know while staying open to what’s emerging. Let’s trust one another more deeply, share power more generously, and keep the work centered on children and families—not just in principle, but in practice.
The future of this movement is not ahead of us. It’s already unfolding. And we can decide to lead with a hope, clarity, and conviction that will build an advocacy movement and a future for our children that is more powerful than ever before.
Let’s respond to this moment together and choose to lead courageously.
