Can Twitter and Facebook really perform miracles for hardworking child advocates? Journalist and Child Advocacy360 blogger Ray Schultz takes a look at the brave new world of social networking.

All ‘a-twitter’ about social media in child advocacy communication? Lots of folks are. But to what end? Are we just looking for connections with like-minded people, or a chance to move people to action—and just how would you do that with 140 characters per message? How much time does it take each day to make social media effective?

The advocacy organization Every Child Matters persuaded hundreds of members to congratulate President Obama on his first 100 days and on the “kid-friendly parts” of his budget. How did it mobilize so many? Through e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, among other things. But can children’s champions use social media to make a real-world impact? Commentator Ray Schultz talked with Every Child Matters.

How could something so simple as the power of good communication about good works and good results produced by advocacy initiatives in communities across America be so neglected by thought leaders and top executives in the child/youth field?

When people and organizations succeed in improving policies that affect disadvantaged children and young people, it makes a huge difference in many lives—a National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy report offers real results from New Mexico.

A recent First Focus report, The Cost of Doing Nothing, offers a stunning analysis of the long-term impact of the current recession on child poverty and our nation as a whole. So is anyone really paying attention? And what can advocates do to drive home the issue -- and the solutions? I asked the report's author, Michael Linden, to weigh in.

Hope Meadows, an intergenerational community in Illinois, creates a stable, extended family network for children moving from foster care to adoption. Its founders just keep doing more to impress and inspire me – and their work has motivated me to take action, following my own “Communication as Catalyst” theory...

In this October 2008 blog entry, Hershel Sarbin reacts to a recent CFK article on Hope Meadows, an intergenerational community launched in 1993, and how “smartly its founders have adapted to changing conditions over the years.” Therein lies a model for all of us, he says.

In this column, Hershel Sarbin, publisher of Child Advocacy 360, lays out the basics of the Scorecard Initiative and asks for your help in identifying efforts across the country that are making a difference for kids and youth. ISO: Real People, Real Results.

It is clear that there is a huge gap between the good work being done to improve children’s lives in communities across America and the communication required to demonstrate the results being achieved—and we’re going to do something about this, as Hershel Sarbin notes in this column.