Early Childhood Australia viewpoint: The magic of membership

Early Childhood Australia advocates in many ways, through:

• our network of branches, regional groups and members
• our policy work (these policies are on the Early Childhood Australia website and the requests for them are frequent)
• our publications—these are made possible by the efforts of the Early Childhood Australia members, the early childhood professionals who write and review them. They provide an important tool for Early Childhood Australia to be responsive to issues that confront children and those who have responsibility for their growth and learning.

Examples of our responsiveness to big issues, and the importance of our role in helping children, include:

• Following the September 11 tragedy we published Our part in peace. The book was written by the members of the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood at the University of Melbourne.
• Last year, as a result of Australian Defence Force involvement in East Timor, Early Childhood Australia worked with the Department of Defence to publish Parenting at home and away by Pam Linke. Ten thousand of these books have already been distributed to Defence Force families, with another 5,000 distributed during the war in Iraq.
• In response to requests for books on helping children during a divorce or death of a loved one, we published Helping children in times of need: Grief, loss, separation and divorce.
• This year we released the Learning at Home Series, especially written for parents, grandparents and family day care professionals. It is a fun, easy-to-read series that provides a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration from the home.

Early Childhood Australia continues to advocate through:

• the Biennial Conference—this year's conference, organised by the Tasmania Branch, was outstanding
• Voice, the quarterly newsletter that keeps members and others up to date with the latest information from the early childhood sector
• our magazine Every Child, our academic journal the Australian Journal of Early Childhood, and the Research in Practice Series
• our website—the material on the website about Children and Bushfires and Children and War has been distributed to over 10,000 schools, services, organisations etc. and has been republished by many organisations.
• the media
• alliances with other organisations.

We advocate through:

• our discussions with the National Child Care Accreditation Council
• our projects
• the submissions we write, the delegations to Ministers and politicians and the meetings we attend
• submissions to the Broadband Redevelopment and also to the National Agenda for Children
• Early Childhood Australia chairs the National Children's Services Forum and sits on the Childcare Reference Group.

Importantly, all of us advocate everyday when:

• we wear our Early Childhood Australia badges
• we talk about children and their needs
• we do our work every day with and for children.
• we make strong relationships with Government and support them to do their work well

Finally, the core focus of advocacy for children will remain the mandate for Early Childhood Australia—as it has been for over 60 years.

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