Politics Aside, People Want What’s Best for Children

The inaugural speeches are over, the kissed babies are back in their strollers and the soccer moms have vanished from the political radar screen. Or so it seems. Down in the grass roots, the people who have been pushing for a more family-friendly government are sharpening their strategies to ensure the politicians don’t forget about children’s and family issues until the next election.

They say the movement is showing signs of a new constituency and new clout.

“They’re more than just the liberals who are concerned about the poor children,” said Sara Moores Campbell, a Santa Barbara minister and community activist. “I think that more of us, liberals, conservatives and in between, are realizing that all our children are at risk.”

Last year, Campbell spearheaded the first local Parents to the Polls project, a pilot program of the New York-based National Parenting Assn., which aims to motivate parents to identify local issues and vote. Campbell said she was so excited about getting the project up and running for the November election that she didn’t stop to raise money or hire any staff. Instead, she pulled together volunteer support from groups like the PTA and the League of Women Voters.

“I never had any difficulty getting things started,” she said. “There’s a hunger for it. People were amazed that someone asked them to come together and talk about what they felt would help make it easier for them to be the good parents they want to be.”

By avoiding divisive issues, and focusing on what Campbell called the “vital center,” the activists got hundreds of parents in small focus groups to come up with an agenda of issues that included workplace flexibility, preschool child care and after-school programs; safe schools with good discipline; tax relief for college; health care for children at school; and safe public transportation to and from school. The volunteers then interviewed candidates for Congress, state legislators and local school boards and published their positions in 1,500 voters’ guides for parents.

There’s no way of knowing, Campbell said, how much or whether the guide had an impact. Nevertheless, they will be doing it again next year (this time with funds and a director) and, she said, “We’re looking to see some other communities do this.”

There’s a good chance others will.

The climate for such experiments is rapidly warming, said Wendy Lazarus, co-director of the Children’s Partnership, a Santa Monica-based national nonprofit organization that along with 350 other groups recently commissioned a national public opinion poll on children’s issues. It showed that voters--men as well as women--rank children’s issues as a top priority. Ninety percent of the 800 respondents said they would be watching elected officials to see how they vote on issues important to children.

“We asked what they most wanted Congress to address in the upcoming session,” Lazarus said. “At the top of the list was education--parent involvement in schools and in what schools do. Close after that was crime and violence and health care.”

“The challenge is to come up with a measurable agenda and then to really be in the faces of elected officials and say, ‘We’re going to be watching what actions you’re going to be taking,’ ” she said.

The new urgency is “a recognition that what is in the community interest is in our self-interest,” Campbell said. “The safety of children. The health of children. The education of children. That’s what we are advocating whether they’re our children or somebody else’s children. We will all suffer if they’re not cared for. And we will all benefit when they are.”

* Lynn Smith’s column appears on Sundays. Readers may write to her at the Los Angeles Times, Life & Style, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053 or via e-mail at lynn.smith@latimes.com. Please include a telephone number.