For many years, children's issues were not considered "real" politics—the way, say, senior citizens' issues or environmental policy were. But children's organizations have been getting smarter about the relationship between kids' issues and elections. Many statewide, citizen-based campaigns for kids are employing professional strategists to help them navigate the political waters of the state, keeping an eye always to working both sides of the political aisle. When asked for her advice on starting a campaign for kids, Connecticut Voices for Children (CVC) co-director Shelley Geballe says, "Find somebody who runs political campaigns and who's sensitive to your issues, and partner with them."

CVC asked a spokesperson with significant political experience to advise their two-year campaign, Connecticut's Promise: First for Kids. Connecticut's Promise is designed to focus the state's considerable creative and financial resources on improving the well-being of all Connecticut's children.

The advisor uses his experience in higher education as an analogy to the children's movement. According to the advisor, both initiatives share common goals: to educate, persuade and mobilize targeted constituents to communicate with elected officials about their concerns.

In the last few elections, both higher education and children's issues have been on the minds of the general public, but neither has had a place on the slate. "While there was a sense that higher education was good," he says, "it was clear that very few thought this was a constituency worth addressing."

In response to this knowledge, higher education advocacy groups became increasingly sophisticated about getting their constituents to contact legislators, but they neglected to connect citizens to policy makers at a district level. "A letter from a constituent two districts over didn't count," he says. In addition, the number of individual contacts were diminishing, and therefore growing in singular importance.

While at work on higher education issues, the advisor partnered with a group who designed and implemented strategic communications programs, also called grassroots or indirect lobbying. Together, they began to experiment with different messages to see which would have a greater effect. Focus groups demonstrated that when ads talked about supporting college kids, people were not moved; when ads featured younger children and emphasized society's responsibility towards them, people responded.

"We built files of friends of the university, then matched them with voting records," the advisor says. Through direct mail, phone calls, and TV ads, they reached their targeted audience. Ultimately, they succeeded in helping get legislation passed to provide additional funding for higher education.

Had they "sold out" on their message? Had they implemented techniques that other nonprofits such as child advocacy organizations would be loathe to implement?

Not according to Connecticut's Promise, as well as many other statewide campaigns for children which borrow the techniques of political and for-profit enterprises to communicate their messages to targeted audiences. "Many advocacy organizations don't understand that the way in which they talk about their issues and frame their messages is critically important," the advisor says.

Once you get into specifics, you start to lose people. For example, Connecticut's Promise works for the economic security of all Connecticut children. The campaign's direct mail piece, therefore, doesn't talk exclusively about child poverty. "There is a constant give and take in which advocates want to be specific and detailed, but from a public relations standpoint," he says, "we want to be broad."

The new direct mail pieces look more like campaign brochures. They feature less text, more persuasive language, a call to action, and a tear off postcard that allows citizens to ask for more information, join 1000 Voices for Connecticut Kids, or pledge they will ask their elected officials to worker harder for children and families in the state.

But that's not all it takes. In order to get a new and aggressive children's agenda passed in Connecticut, the advisor explains, "There must be a consensus that something needs to be done." Advocates must create an environment in which policy makers feel they must pass legislation to satisfy their constituents' needs.