We are going to wrap up our series on the Essentials for Childhood Framework with perhaps one of the toughest parts of the work – influencing policy. One of the best ways to assure that all of our great work doesn’t disappear when the winds change is to have it be embedded in our infrastructure, but it isn’t easy. The CDC suggests that there are two steps to inform policies that might support safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments.

• Identify and assess which policies may positively impact the lives of children and families in your community.

This can be done on multiple levels:

• Organizational or internal policies – rules and practices that an organization or agency stets for how it does business. Examples like Westar’s WE SAVE police (Westar Energy Shield Against Violent Environments) that provides resources and support systems for employees who are victims of domestic violence assuring a safe workplace environment for all employees or organizations who have expanded maternity/paternity leave place an emphasis on family connections and safety.
• Regulatory policies – rules, principles or methods established by government agencies that have regulatory authority for products or services. This could include work being done across the state to place stronger restrictions on payday loan companies to reduce their impact on vulnerable families.
• Legislative policies – Laws or ordinances passed by local, state, or federal governing bodies. In Kansas, a number of communities have passed Complete Street plans to make their communities safer for pedestrians and bicyclists or have passed Clean Air Policies. At the Federal Level, the Families First Prevention Services Act places an emphasis on supporting vulnerable families in an effort to maintain family relationships and prevent children from entering foster care.

• Provide decision-makers with information on the benefits of evidence-based strategies and rigorous evaluation.

Keeping decision-makers informed helps support directing funding to strategies that are known to work while also funding evaluation of innovations to determine their effectiveness.

Identifying and keeping track of family-friendly policies can be a bit overwhelming. The Building Community Resilience Collaborative offers tools that can help.

Advocates across from a wide variety of sectors and communities across Kansas are doing what they can to support safe, stable nurturing relationships and environments. We’d love to hear your stories! Post a blog on this website or send it vanessa.lohf@wichita.edu and we will post it for you.

Together we make a difference!