How Grandparents and Other Seniors Can Use KidsCampaigns

No Americans have more potential to improve the conditions of childhood than seniors. Older Americans are not only powerful politically, but they're physically younger than ever before, able to provide the muscle and money at the grassroots that many parents may, in fact, be too harried to offer. As an older American, you're needed to join the growing movement of "winter warriors" on behalf of children.
Get started—and keep going—by using the KidsCampaigns online primer (it's also offered in traditional book form) called "101 Things You Can Do for Our Children's Future," by Richard Louv. The guide suggests actions that grandparents, seniors and others can take now to enhance family life, make neighborhoods safer for children, become senior mentors to parents and teens, help in the schools, become senior reading tutors, create intergenerational community centers, activate places of worship for kids, and get involved politically.


Get smart: Find the data and documents you need from the U.S. Census Bureau, other federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. For example: Involved with local school issues? Click here for the latest statistics on the finances of elementary and secondary public school systems from the Department of Education's Education Finance Survey. Or jump to the big picture, with KIDS COUNT, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which tracks the status of children in the United States, with national and state-by-state measures of the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children.


Get connected: Find out what people and organizations around the country are doing to improve the lives of kids—and how you can help.


Headline stories: Visit our new section on teens, drugs, and parenting; learn how neighbors can protect children from crime and drugs. Explore other new and effective tools to make our streets, parks and homes safe for kids. And learn how to help replace negative peer pressure with positive adult influences.


Search Use this feature to find the information and contacts you're looking for, from welfare reform news to how to start a neighborhood safe house.


Sign our Guestbook, fill out our survey—and most important, give KidsCampaigns and its readers your feedback. Let us know what you're doing in your neighborhood, schools, churches, and politically to improve the lives of kids.


Contents An outlined guide to KidsCampaigns—from the news room to the most recent government studies to our favorite links to child advocacy organizations.