How to Advocate

Posted on June 18th, 2021

Are you passionate about issues around young children? We are too. Advocacy is one of the three focus areas of the Early Childhood Collaborative of Southington. But sometimes it is hard to know what to do, how to help, and if it will make a difference.

As of 3/12/2026.

2026 Advocacy – Southington

At a local level, one of the top opportunities to advocate is around the Elementary Facilities Plan. which may result in expanding or building new elementary schools, closing a school and a town-wide redistricting of students.

Budgets and services provided by the school district and town are also advocacy opportunities.

2026 Advocacy – CT

The 2026 is a short session that runs from March to May. Laws about child-tax credit, school meals, food assistance, vaccines, home schooling, and funding for a variety of child-focused issues are all being considered.

The CT Early Childhood Alliance’s Advocacy Day at the State Capital is scheduled for Wednesday, April 8th and the ECCS plans to be there. Contact us if you want to join us.

Yale’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy released this report in December 2024: In-Depth Review of CT Budget Guardrails Provides Analysis to Inform Policy.

The ECCS shares additional advocacy opportunities from the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance, Childcare for Connecticut’s Future, The Connecticut Diaper Bank, and other state and federal organizations on our social media pages.

2026 Advocacy – Federal

There is a lot going on at the federal level related to military conflicts, immigration action, healthcare, the environment and more.

Akin, an international law firm, has published the Trump Executive Order Overview.

Just Security, a non-profit, daily, digital law and policy journal that elevates the discourse on security, democracy and rights, has published Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions 

Finding Decision Makers

One step in knowing how to be an advocate is identifying the leaders who have the power to address your issue.

Decision-makers at the National level:

Decision-makers at the State level:

  • Find your State Legislators
  • Description of the Committees of the CT General Assembly
  • The CT Office of Early Childhood, which licenses and regulates childcare providers, runs Care4Kids, funds State-wide programs.
  • The CT Department of Education
  • You can view the Connecticut General Assembly’s upcoming events on its schedule on the CGA official website.
  • Follow CT-N for live coverage of committee meetings, as well as House and Senate floor debates.
  • The Office of Legislative Research (OLR) provides nonpartisan and unbiased research to members of the General Assembly and their staff. Part of their duties include writing bill analyses, which are summaries of bills in plain language.
  • You can register to monitor any bill’s journey as it goes through the State legislative process. By signing up, you can enter the bill number and receive real-time updates. Stay informed with email notifications whenever there’s a change in the bill’s progress.
  • Visit this website for information on how to testify on a bill at a public hearing.

Decision-makers at the Local level:

  • Southington Town government meeting minutes, agendas, live stream and recordings can be found here.
  • Town Council member contact information is here.
  • Southington Town Manager contact information can be found here.
  • Southington Board of Education members are listed here. To contact all Board of Education members, send an email to sboe@southingtonschools.org.
  • Southington Superintendent of School info is here.
  • Southington Public Schools information, including main office contact info and staff directory is here.
  • Southington Democratic Town Committee
  • Southington Republican Town Committee

Other Advocacy Resources

The Connecticut Office of the Secretary of State shares these resources about civic engagement: PowerofCivics.ct.gov and Civics101.ct.gov. Voting locations and key election dates are at MyVote.ct.gov. Follow the Office on social media at @ctsots.

Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center, Inc. (CPAC) is a statewide nonprofit organization that offers information and support to families of children with any disability or chronic illness, age birth to 26. The disability can be temporary, such as a concussion, or life long. They offer a variety of classes and services, including training about how to advocate for your child in the special education system. http://www.cpacinc.org/

Presentations on How to be an Advocate

On June 16, 2021, Merrill Gay, Executive Director at the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance joined the ECCS Childcare Provider call and talked about How to be an Advocate. You can view the 2021 Advocacy Workshop PowerPoint presentation or watch the recording.

We learned about these elements of effective advocacy:

  • There is power in numbers
  • Know what you want
  • Understand the system you are working in
  • Find out who has the power to fix the problem
  • Make a compelling case
  • When at first you don’t succeed, try again

On January 17, 2018, the ECCS hosted a free legislative advocacy training session which was taught by Merrill Gay, Executive Director, and Samantha Dynowski, Director of Advocacy and Outreach, at the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance. Here is their PowerPoint presentation. Advocacy Workshop for ECCS

We learned about:

  • What is advocacy?
  • Defining a problem
  • Understanding the process
  • Decision-makers (see lists below)
  • Making the case for a solution
  • A plan for action: Planning Template and Testimony Template

The examples they used related to children’s issues such as healthcare and the Care4Kids program but the material will be helpful to anyone interested in advocacy.