Advocating
We advocate for effective public policies and programs grounded in racial equity and justice.
Our approach to advocacy
We advocate for policy changes that help children and families thrive. We work with child care providers, community-based organizations, and families to make sure their needs and priorities come first. We advocate for policies, programs, and services that help young children and everyone they rely on.
Our policy agenda to advance racial equity
We advocate for and invest in:
FAMILY
- Financial stability: Policies and programs that support low-income and working families so that they can access services and meet basic needs to create safe, healthy home environments.
- Coordinated systems: Systems that support the health and well-being of families by ensuring easier access to services and making government programs easier to participate in.
NEIGHBORHOODS
- Community leadership: Community- and family-informed development, programs, and policies.
- Thriving neighborhoods: Community-driven, place-based investments that make sure the people who most often miss out on services and support have what they need for their children to be safe, healthy, and ready to learn.
LEARNING AND CARE
- Access & quality: Access to quality early care and education options.
- Workforce: Policies and practices that expand the diverse early care and education workforce.
- Local investments: Dedicated funding streams for families with young children.
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
- Whole community, whole family, whole child: Programs and policies that improve the well-being of families and communities.
- Birth equity & reproductive justice: Programs and policies that protect the right to personal bodily autonomy and safe, healthy pregnancies and births.
Why we’re advocating and taking action
In Alameda County, there’s a $109,910 gap between the income required to meet basic needs and the income of a family of four living at the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).* With the cost of living rising at an unsustainable rate and 1/3 of a family’s income going toward childcare,** thriving as a family in Alameda County can be challenging.
Infants, children, and parents—especially those who identify as people of color—bear the brunt of structural inequities. That’s why we center equity in our advocacy to create conditions and systems that advance economic justice. It’s also why we invest in and advocate for strategies such as Universal Basic Income, an improved public safety net, living wage jobs, education and apprenticeship programs, work supports, and wealth-building that promote the health and well-being of families with young children.
*Analysis by First 5 Alameda County calculating the difference between Income Required to Meet Basic Needs – 2022 FPL level for a family of 4.
**Insight Center (2021). Family Needs Indicator – Alameda County Fact Sheet. Retrieved from: https://insightcced.org/the-cost-ofbeing-californian-alameda-county-fact-sheet/
Government Affairs and Policy Team
News
All News
Jan 2, 2025
Annual Report highlights successes and partnerships
Please join us in celebrating our collective work accomplished over the past 25 years. From the start, First 5 has stood as a powerful reflection of California voters’ values. The passage of Proposition 10 in 1998 was a transformative moment, enabling California to fund early childhood programming in each county, weaving together our societal commitment to a child’s…
Read MoreJan 2, 2025
Strengthening system partnerships through collaborative investments in diaper distribution program
Read MoreAre you delivering services, or are you delivering change?
Dr. Manuel Pastor, Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California