Child Development

Alliance for Childhood is a partnership of individuals and organizations committed to fostering and respecting each child's inherent right to a healthy, developmentally appropriate childhood. www.allianceforchildhood.net

 

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Promotion of mentally healthy children, adolescents and families through research, training, advocacy, prevention, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, peer support and collaboration.  http://www.aacap.org/

 

Lesson One gives adults a proven plan to help children develop the life skills and internal discipline necessary to learn and thrive in today’s society.  www.lessonone.org

 

Raffinews - home of Raffi Cavoukian's award-winning music and the global Child Honoring community.  http://www.raffinews.com 

Commercialism in Schools

Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education conducts research, disseminates information, and helps facilitate a dialogue between the education community, policy makers, and the public at large about commercial activities in the schools.   www.schoolcommercialism.org

Consumerism

Center for a New American Dream helps Americans change the way they consume to improve quality of life, protect the environment, and promote social justice. www.newdream.org

 

Share, Save, Spend helps families understand the relationship of money, values and habits in today's  hyper-consumer culture and, in turn, provide resources/tools to assist them  in achieving financial sanity.  www.sharesavespend.com

Corporate Practices

Corporations and Health Watch provides a forum for researchers, health advocates and those interested in studying or organizing campaigns to change corporate practices that harm human health.  http://www.corporationsandhealth.org

 

Make TIAA-CREF Ethical is a coalition of organizations (including CCFC) that urges TIAA-CREF, the nation's largest pension fund, to use shareholder advocacy to influence the practices of these corporations involved in human rights violations, and public health and environmental degradation.  http://www.maketiaa-crefethical.org/

Education

Kids Can Make a Difference - an educational program for middle- and high school students, focuses on the root causes of hunger and poverty, the people most affected, solutions, and how students can help. The major goal is to stimulate the students to take some definite follow-up actions as they begin to realize that one person can make a difference. www.kidscanmakeadifference.org

 

Media Education Foundation is a nonprofit educational organization devoted to media research and production of resources to aid educators and others in fostering analytical media literacy. www.mediaed.org

 

School Mediation Associates' mission is to transform schools into safer, more caring, and more effective institutions. www.schoolmediation.com

Food Marketing and Public Health

Center for Informed Food Choices advocates for eating a whole foods, plant-based diet and educates about the politics of food. They publish "Informed Eating," a free monthly email newsletter that exposes food industry tactics and analyzes nutrition policy.  www.informedeating.org

 

California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that raises awareness about critical public health issues and mobilizes communities to promote the establishment of effective health policies.  www.publichealthadvocacy.org

 

National Action Against Obesity  is a non-partisan, all-volunteer advocacy group whose mandate is to expel junk food from schools and daycare, eliminate obesity- and disease-accelerators from the U.S. food supply, and to break the Secondhand Obesity cycle--obesity passed down from one generation to the next and across the culture. NAAO believes reversing the obesity crisis is hinged upon America's 0-5 year olds and fostering a new generation called "Gen-H" for Healthy.

www.actionagainstobesity.com

 

Rudd Sound Bites, the weblog of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, aims to encourage global discussion of front burner news and the most critical issues regarding food policy and obesity.  http://www.ruddsoundbites.typepad.com

Washington Active Bodies, Active Minds, an extensive Web site that provides background information, staff training materials and parent handouts; focus is on preschool-aged children. www.waabam.org

International

Instituto Alana is a non-profit organization that develops educational, cultural and social articulation activities in needy communities in São Paulo, Brazil.  Two of Instituto Alana's programs are "Juvenile Consumerism" and "Turn off the TV".  http://www.institutoalana.org.br/

 

The Campaign for Commercial-Free Education (Ireland) was established in 2005 to address the increasing advertising and sale of commercial products in Irish schools. It is a grassroots body of teachers, parents and concerned individuals who believe that students should not be subject to commercial marketing during school time.   http://www.commercialfreeeducation.com/

 

Kids free 2b Kids (Australia) is a national community education campaign to raise public awareness about the harmful impact of increasing sexualized imagery in the media on children.  www.kf2bk.com

Media Literacy

Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME), free of corporate media funding, is a strategic network linking media educators, health advocates, media reformers, independent media makers, community organizers and others. www.acmecoalition.org

 

Common Sense Media is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to helping families make the best media choices for their kids.  www.commonsensemedia.org

 

Canadians Concerned About Violence In Entertainment addresses media violence and its effects.  http://www.c-cave.com

 

Media Aware Childcare is a Free STARS-approved online training course for early childhood professionals.  www.waabam.org/media_aware_childcare.htm

Media Literacy.com is designed to increase awareness of the need for media literacy and the many resources available for teaching it.  www.medialiteracy.com

New Mexico Media Literacy Project provides media literacy CD-ROMS, videos and curricula that are used in thousands of schools, worldwide. www.nmmlp.org

Powerful Choices: Healthy Living in a Media World, a free media literacy curriculum geared toward 3rd-6th graders; developed especially for out-of-school program settings. www.wapartnersinaction.org/powerful_choices/

PBS Parents: Children & Media Literacy provides tips and strategies for raising children in a digital age. http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/

Shaping Youth is a nonprofit counter-marketing consortium using the power of media for positive change. Our goal is to flip harmful messages impacting the emotional and physical well-being of children, and promote a healthier worldview for kids. http://www.shapingyouth.org

Media Policy

Free Press is a national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and to generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.

www.freepress.net

 

The Praxis Project - Provides technical assistance, training, strategic consultation and other kinds of support to advance community media and policy advocacy on health issues.  The organization works with communities to identify solutions that shift from individual blame to institutional and systemic approaches. www.thepraxisproject.org

Parenting Resources and Advocacy

Dads and Daughters is the national, nonprofit membership organization of fathers and daughters. DADs provides tools to strengthen father-daughter relationships and to transform the pervasive cultural messages that value daughters more for how they look than for who they are. www.dadsanddaughters.org

Drug Watch ("keeping an eye on the pharmaceuticals") aims to educate the public about medications, drug recalls and the side effects associated with thousands of drugs, including the wide variety of medications marketed to and for children. DrugWatch.com provides information about the risks and benefits of these prescription medicines, as well as detailed profiles of many over-the-counter children's medications. http://www.DrugWatch.com

Family and Home Network is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984, supporting and advocating for parents who forgo or cut back on paid employment in order to spend generous amounts of time nurturing their children. www.FamilyAndHome.org

 

Hardy Girls, Healthy Women support organizations, schools, communities, providers, parents and girls in their efforts to change the culture from one that values girls and women on how they look to one that recognizes girls and women for who they are and what they contribute to the world.  www.hardygirlshealthywomen.org

 

Healthy Media Choices, a national nonprofit with offices in New York and Vermont, serves teachers and parents of children ages zero to eight by providing tools to create a healthy relationship with media. http://www.healthymediachoices.org/

 

The Motherhood Project an initiative of the Institute for American Values, is to put the importance of motherhood on the national agenda and to foster a renewed sense of purpose, passion, and power in the vocation of mothering.  www.motherhoodproject.org

 

The National Association of Mothers' Centers (NAMC) addresses the needs of mothers through a network of programs that offer information and support, break the isolation of motherhood, advance maternal health and well-being, and recognize the importance of mothers to society.  www.motherscenter.org 
 

TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) produce and provide an annual guide for teachers and parents to help them in selecting toys that are educationally and developmentally appropriate for young children. www.truceteachers.org

Publications

Mothering magazine helps families establish their own unique parenting traditions and make informed choices that consider the needs of all family members. Every publication addresses contemporary, evidence-based issues focusing on pregnancy, birth options, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, vaccination and childhood illness, child and teen advocacy, alternative health and education, the environment, nutrition, and the deeper issues of parenting. www.mothering.com

 

New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams - produces media for every girl who wants her voice heard and her dreams taken seriously and for every adult who cares about girls.
www.newmoon.org

 

Stay Free! is a print magazine focused on issues surrounding commercialism and American culture.
www.stayfreemagazine.org

Spirituality

The Children's Center for the Common Good helps children reveal that which is good through arts and actions.  www.cccgood.org

Violence

Child-Responsible Media Campaign works to protect children from the negative effects of violent media through raising awareness of media violence issues, advocating for policies that limit children’s exposure to media violence, and tracking legislation related to media violence.  www.medialegislation.org

 

Concerned Educators Allied for a Safe Environment (CEASE) is a network of parents, teachers and other concerned individuals, who are dedicated to creating a safe and healthy world for children.  http://www.peaceeducators.org