Dec 16 What Does “Allies for Children” Actually Mean?

(December 16, 2022) Thanks for coming to Allies for Children’s blog, Bold Voices. Hopefully you’ve found yourself here because you want to learn more about us, how advocacy for children and youth works, or about how you can make a difference in your community. As the newest member of the Allies team, I learn something new every day: about what we do, how this world of advocacy works, or even just that the Department of Agriculture runs the federal free school lunch program. Did you know that? Everybody here at AFC found it quite amusing that I did not.

So, what is Allies for Children, and what does it mean to be “a voice for policy and practice changes that improve the wellbeing of children in our community?”

The simplest way to explain it is that Allies for Children works behind the scenes to try to make big-picture differences in kids’ lives. For example, one of our current projects is trying to consolidate school transportation routes. The hope is that this makes the bus-riding experience quicker and better for students, as well as helping schools save money and ease some of the burden of the bus driver shortage. You’re not going to see Allies for Children staff driving the buses, though – instead, we’re gathering data on how to make those routes more efficient, bringing school districts together to collaborate, and getting buy-in from stakeholders to put a plan into action.

A lot of what we do at AFC is bring the pieces together. We work with partners, utilizing everybody’s strengths to get the job done. We gather information and data to back up our arguments when speaking to policymakers and other decision-makers. We bring people together, gathering their stories and perspectives to find out where change is needed and demonstrate why.

Hopefully, this helped you understand the big picture of what we do here at Allies for Children. If you still have questions, just shoot us an email at contact@alliesforchildren.org. If you want to keep up with us, follow us on social media and check back here at the website. Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you in the new year! There are so many great things to come!

Laura Condon, Allies for Children Project Coordinator