Published: February 11, 1999
The leaders of Connecticut's Promise, a statewide citizen-based education and accountability campaign coordinated by Connecticut Voices for Children, believe that a small investment today will have a profound effect on children tomorrow. They also believe that Connecticut citizens are concerned about the future of children. But many citizens don't know how to show support for workable public programs, or how to encourage candidates to set agendas for children in families. In short, concerns don't always translate into public policy.
Connecticut's Promise is using public polls to educate the public and its elected representatives about the needs of children in the state. They are using the knowledge gained from poll results to articulate the public's collective concerns about kids, and to show the public how to translate their concerns into support for policies that make Connecticut a better place for children and families.
In conjunction with the campaign launch, Connecticut's Promise commissioned an initial survey of public attitudes [1] through the University of Connecticut Center for Survey Research and Analysis. The survey asked 500 randomly selected adults across the state about the role of the state government in meeting children's needs. The poll found the following:
- Regardless of party, age, income, race or gender, the majority of Connecticut residents want to see more attention paid to issues affecting children.
- Connecticut political leaders earn low grades when it comes to addressing the needs of children.
- Connecticut citizens want state government to play a more active role in support of children's programs.
These survey results demonstrate sentiments similar to those captured in Great Expectations [2], a 1996 post-election survey of 800 registered voters released by the Coalition for America's Children, of which Connecticut Voices for Children is a member. Great Expectations showed that more than eight out of 10 voters (84 percent) identified children's issues as important to them in driving their voting behavior in the 1996 elections. Perhaps for the first time, children's issues ranked with key concerns such as social security and Medicare.
Child advocates can use poll results to create a climate in which candidates must put forth children's platforms in order to stay competitive and respond to the public's mandate. The process begins by analyzing poll results to determine what issues resonate with the public, and what terms best motivate those issues. For example, citizens may view "violence in schools" as an issue that affects other people's kids only, or perhaps as an isolated problem. The same citizens may respond to the term "school safety" in a different manner—as something that applies to all children, for instance, and is therefore worth fighting for. Connecticut's Promise uses this knowledge to translates its policy agenda for popular support.
"We were able to take the campaign's messages," says the political advisor to Connecticut's Promise, "and not change, but better articulate and define them, linking important children's issues to existing public concerns."
Connecticut's Promise focuses on six factors all children need to become successful adults: economic security, community service opportunities, caring adults, successful learning opportunities, growing up healthy, and growing up safe. On the first Monday of each month, beginning in March, Connecticut Voices for Children presents a series of short reports and events highlighting the six themes of the campaign. In each case, polling data punctuates the information provided in the reports.
At the First Monday event on youth and community service in April 1998, Connecticut's Promise released a special report that summarized the results of a community service poll [3]. The poll demonstrated that residents believe in the benefits of kids doing community service, and fueled the campaign's efforts to place a community service requirement for high school graduation on their children's agenda.
Child advocacy organizations like Connecticut Voices for Children are demonstrating a growing sophistication in the strategic use of polling, and using the media to act as a megaphone for public concerns about children and families. If the public and the campaign present a unified message to candidates, candidates will end up battling over who has the best proposals addressing the needs of children and families.
"The polling keeps us honest—it proves that the public believes what we say it believes," says Janice Gruendel, co-director of the statewide campaign. "And it's a wonderful way to get media coverage."
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/92
Links:
[1] http://statlab.stat.yale.edu/cityroom/kidslink2/promise/special1.html
[2] http://www.usakids.org/html/CACpoll/home.html
[3] http://statlab.stat.yale.edu/cityroom/kidslink2/promise/special4.html
[4] http://statlab.stat.yale.edu/cityroom/kidslink2/promise/polls/March.html