United Way of Sumter,
Clarendon & Lee Counties
215 North Washington Street
Sumter, SC 29150
Become an advocate for children. Let your leaders know you want to make children our top priority.


As a child care professional, you can have an impact not only through your daily care for children, but also through
advocacy for children's issues, whether on the local, state, or national level. Advocacy can be as simple as writing a
postcard to your legislator or as complex as running a campaign to pass a referendum. Keep current on legislation and
budget issues pending in your state, and then you can advocate for passage (or defeat) of any bill which affects
children and child care; urge better funding for child care and children's services in your state; and even suggest new
legislation for children and child care. With all forms of advocacy, you should be well-informed, able to state what you
want and why it is important, and give facts to support your request. You can act alone or (usually with greater impact)
with others. You may wish to join children's advocacy organizations or even start your own association of child care
professionals in your area to do effective advocacy work.
Senator Leventis reading during a Read Out and Read Event
Children's Defense Fund's Child Care Advocacy E-mail Network -
is a free weekly newsletter for advocates interested in issues
affecting early childhood and school-aged children. The
newsletter provides updates and information on key federal and
state developments, winning advocacy strategies, new research,
and other resources to help you help children. The network is
not a discussion forum, so you will not receive e-mail from other
members, only CDF.