Personal Advocacy Reflection

I believe that for me personally the event that impacted me to want to learn to become an effective early childhood advocate was when I attended my first National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Policy Institute.  The first time going to the Hill to talk with Senator's and Representatives filled me with pride that maybe something I said might make a difference for the children and families back in Oklahoma.  Listening to the speakers provide us the messages for the Hill and learning from Adele Robinson made me want to become the public policy junky I am today.  I follow many different list serves and get Call to Action emails from several advocacy groups. 

Adele Robinson has written the book Advocates in Action and has written many tools for early childhood advocates.  She is my mentor in advocacy and I aspire to be more like her.  She amazes me with her knowledge.  She truly knows every Senator and Representative by name and their typical voting patterns.  When she would do a quick debrief with us prior to attending the Hill she would be able to give every state a short bit of information that would benefit them in delivering their message.

I teach an advocacy training in Oklahoma for directors and much of the material used in my presentation comes from things I learned from Adele.  I am proud to call her my friend and colleague and hope to continue to learn from her.