So Many Organizations, So Little Time

We've come a long, long way towards family-friendly public policies in this country, but we have a ways to go.  Good thing so many organizations are busily working on the issues near and dear to our families' hearts.  I've spent some time (OK, a lot of time) checking out many of these fine organizations on the web.  How wonderful that they exist and are stepping up to work for serious change - it's high time and we, I think, are good and ready.    

But I am also a little overwhelmed by them all - who does what for whom and when and how (and where do I fit in)?   I've seen The Motherhood Manifesto.  I get the Moms Rising e-mails (they're great), I've checked out 9 to 5, Portland-based Stand for Children, and I admire the National Partnership for Women and Families (their byline is "A Better World for Women is  A Better World," how can I argue with that?).  I sometimes check out N.O.W., Two Angry Moms and the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.  And just tonight I came across Mothers and More's national advocacy site.  Eek - there are so many!  And the laundry and my job are (not so patiently) waiting.

Since it's impossible to keep tabs on them all and challenging to settle on the one(s) that are a comfortable fit, I wonder if there any real standouts that I have overlooked?  Which one(s) do you rely on for information about family-(un)friendly policies?  For activism?  For those handy e-mail alerts that allow you to be politically active with one free hand and a nursing baby on your lap?  Which organizations stand out to you as the most in sync and effective on issues important to urban mamas and papas - especially us Portlanders?   If you had to settle on just one, which would it be? 

Comments

[mama-amy]

oooh, they are all good. If I have to go with a local, grass-roots orginization that actually works hard to get things done (and they DO get things done!) I would go with Stand For Children. They are indeed a national orginization, but with local chapters. Portland's chapter is headed by Jonah Edelman - son of the famous Marian Edelman who started the Children's Defense Fund and is an advocate of children's rights and programs that support them. A good resource and ally to have in our own stumptown.