TIME FOR A CHILDREN'S MOVEMENT
Wingspread Journal, Winter 1997

IS IT TIME FOR A CHILDREN'S MOVEMENT?

YES! was the answer from a recent Wingspread conference, as participants met to discuss how to activate America's spoken support for children. But who will make up this movement? How can the support of legislators be won to put children's issues first? And what would a "children's movement" look like?

The articles explore some of the ideas from the conference "Building a Constituency for Children: Community and National Strategies." As the conference participants examined the historical and social implications of organizing a movement for children, it was apparent that, to succeed, such a movement must build a broader public constituency for children and become more skilled at using the political process to achieve success.

To do that, participants have sought to extend the discussion to a wider circle. Two additional Wingspread conferences have focused on these ideas, and a follow-up conference is scheduled for later this year.

ENLISTING HEARTS AND MINDS FOR CHILDREN

What might a children's movement look like today? According to Raphael Sonenshein, successful American social movements share some common bonds and contain elements that advocates can use to enlist the hearts and minds of Americans for children.

"Children are America's abandoned icons. In no other society are children so worshiped and admired, and yet, in terms of social policy, so neglected as they are in the United States."

It is that peculiarly American perspective, says Raphael Sonenshein, professor of Political Science at California State University at Fullerton, that must be addressed if advocates for children are to create a successful movement. Sonenshein was a presenter at the "Building a Constituency for Children" conference at Wingspread where he shared the results of his study of American social movements. To succeed, he stressed, a children's movement must be in tune with how Americans think about children because advocating on behalf of child-friendly policy will be unsuccessful unless a large and supportive constituency for children can be nurtured.

"Without public support, advocating on behalf of children will be like pushing a car with no engine," says Sonenshein. "The children's world has produced some of the greatest advocates in our society, but they have no constituency. Policies that last will only be established through enduring public support."

How can such a constituency be built? Sonenshein argues that a movement for children can be planned, based on an analysis of the 10 elements of other successful movements. They are:

1. A Core Constituency

True movements start with a base of individuals who are vitally concerned with a particular issue. For this core, the issue is truly the most important issue of their lives. Mothers Against Drunk Driving for example, began with a group of mothers who lost family members to drunken drivers and whose lives were changed as a result.

"One problem the children's movement has is that we have not identified the stakeholders of the children's movement," says Sonenshein. "Kids are not really the core constituency because we cannot expect children to respond to policies we advocate on their behalf. It just won't happen." The obvious constituency for a children's movement is parents. Policies that help parents will mobilize them for children.

2. Leaders

In every movement, one or more individuals will emerge as the symbol and chief promoter of the cause. Leaders have an extraordinary sense of the political climate and the will of the American public to embrace or reject new values. And, says Sonenshein, movement leaders "operate at the level of 'big picture.' They don't sweat the details." Instead, they know how to focus on the few big things that are integral to their cause and ignore everything else.

One way to identify such leaders is through their language. They do not get bogged down in numbers and statistics. Sonenshein noted that President Roosevelt, when talking about numbers, kept ideas simple, like one-half or one-third. Martin Luther King used language--not numbers--that inspired and soared.

3. A Mass Audience

A powerful movement has more than a core constituency. It also has masses of people with differing views and perspectives who nonetheless support the ideas of the movement. How a movement views those masses of people beyond the core constituency will often determine how well it succeeds. If the masses are seen as heathens who need to be converted, the movement will fail. People will not be converted through politics. If, however, those masses can be seen as customers who can be marketed to, the movement can build a broader base.

"You may be amazed at your capacity to reach people if you resist the desire to straighten them out," says Sonenshein. "To build a movement for children we need to accept people as they are and demonstrate that we can help them."

4. Opposition/Enemies

Movements based on deeply held beliefs will draw equally strong opponents who may be hurt by the success of a movement or disagree with its values. However, enemies can fuel the movement and, says Sonenshein, can energize the movement if they are selected with care.

"It is better to be Elliott Ness than Carrie Nation. She's the judgmental person who goes into the bar, takes the beer out of the hand of the working-class guy, and says 'Stop drinking.' Ness went after the breweries and institutions, and was a hero."

5. Vital Interests at Stake

A movement has to be about something the public thinks is of the utmost importance: war or peace, pro-life or pro-choice, saving or destroying the earth.

"Ask a group of voters what their vital interests are and they will not say, 'society does not invest sufficiently in children,'" says Sonenshein. "We must define our interest in the voters' terms, not ours."

6. Core Values at Stake

Voters do not want to talk about policies. According to Sonenshein, Americans, perhaps uniquely, believe social policies are either right or wrong. Americans apply a moral filter to all social policies. Movements reach people by connecting to values like fairness, individual responsibility, and community. A policy that doesn't pass that moral filter will fail no matter how practical.

7. Hidden Agenda

Race, class, and ideology act like a riptide under the surface of many movements and can be exploited by opponents. A movement must know where it stands and be ready to counter inevitable accusations of favoritism, racism, and other hot-button name-calling.

8. Acts of Symbolic Power

Acts of symbolism are the flashpoints where the values, passions, and goals merge to become part of the national vocabulary.

"Rosa Parks refusing to sit at the back of the bus was an act of symbolic power, as was the Boston Tea Party," notes Sonenshein.

A single symbolic act, however, is powerful and can permanently help--or harm--a movement. Used with care, and as part of an overall strategy, it can recruit a lot of people.

9. Policy Milestones

If movements are about important things, important changes must occur.

"Can you imagine the environmental movement without the Clean Air Act?" asks Sonenshein. "Or senior citizens without Social Security or Medicare?" Such public policy landmarks provide real change as well as fuel a movement.

But children don't have any such thing working in their behalf. What does Sonenshein suggest a child-friendly policy might be? "Maybe we ought to look at the portability of health insurance as a constituency-building policy milestone for kids."

10. Think and Act Locally

You build momentum by translating a big vision into simple steps that can be taken by people in neighborhoods and communities across the country.

"The civil rights movement had a phenomenal local sense. Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery are etched in our memory," says Sonenshein.

"This could be one of our greatest strengths: We've got the community foundations and The Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth, which is a perfect model of local action, nationally networked.

"This is something we can do."

Raphael Sonenshein is professor of Political Science at California State University at Fullerton. This article was based on his presentation to "Building a Constituency for Children" a Wingspread conference.

Building a Constituency for Children was sponsored by The Children's Partnership, The Coalition of Community Foundations for Youth, and The Johnson Foundation, with support from The Ford Foundation, the Foundation for Child Development, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.