History
On June 1, 1996, over 300,000 people rallied in Washington, DC for “Stand for Children Day” at the Lincoln Memorial. This event was the largest demonstration for children in US history, in support of children. Rosa Parks, civil rights movement icon, made a statement that challenged the people of nation to commit themselves to improving the lives of children, saying, "If I can sit down for justice, you can stand up for children." Two days later, the cover of Time Magazine featured a young girl’s face with the headline, “Who Speaks for Kids?,” and an article inside had an interview with long-time children’s activist Marian Wright Edelman, the mother of Stand’s CEO and co-founder, Jonah Edelman.
Following their work at the rally, Jonah Edelman and Eliza Leighton founded Stand for Children seeking to pursue ongoing advocacy for the nation’s children. The organization backed hundreds of rallies nationwide over the next two years, before moving toward more systemic changes. Today, Jonah Edelman is the CEO of Stand for Children, and Eliza Leighton is a member of the Board of Directors of Stand for Children Leadership Center.
Edelman opened a series of offices around the United States. Two of those, in Oregon and Tennessee, are still home to Stand offices, and Portland, Oregon is the seat of Stand’s headquarters, where Edelman moved in 1999. At the start, the ways in which the organization sought to help children were sweeping in scope, while victories were very localized. Over time, Stand grew in the direction of focusing on statewide issues—particularly public education funding, which seemed of highest concern to parents and other community members.
Since 1999, Stand has claimed over 100 state and local victories, affecting billions of dollars in public funding and the lives of nearly 4 million children. After seeing successes in the effort to increase funding for public education, the organization decided to reassess its efforts. The organization saw that the problems it sought to solve couldn’t simply be dealt with from a financial angle but rather needed to be addressed with a vision for systemic change. Currently, Stand is in a strategic expansion phase, broadening its reach to states where it believes it can make the most significant difference for children at all levels of government.
Read more about this topic: Stand For Children
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