ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a longer historical perspective and describes the evolution of modem child advocacy in the immediate post-World War II era. It examines the history of a nonprofit child advocacy organization, the Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC) of New York, Inc., formed in 1945, and also describes the changing content and meaning of child advocacy, as well as the types, strategies, and goals of organizations themselves. The chapter also describes the functions of advocacy as articulating the failures of the government and the marketplace, as well as pointing out the inconstancies, inefficiencies, and other weaknesses of philanthropy itself. It seeks to correct that imbalance by exploring the changing content and meaning of child advocacy through the postwar decades. The chapter assesses CCC’s impact on the child, as well as the strategies it used, and suggests reasons for its influence. It provides instruction and inspiration to others hying to correct government inaction or indifference toward children.
