Our Purpose

Our Purpose is to help our volunteers advocate for and with young people. We give special priority to initiatives that promote the well-being of low-income children and youth.

Our Work

Promise’s main activities include:

• Researching policy issues and educating our members about legislative campaigns.
• Communicating with legislators through visits, phone calls, letters, e-mails and petitions from our volunteer advocates.
• Leading worships, discussions and trainings at churches.
• Building relationships with church members, local advocates, education experts, and lawmakers.

Our Successes

Promise the Children advocates for equitable, fair, and free public education for all children emphasizing a holistic perspective for their healthy development To this end, we initiated an ongoing campaign in 2008 to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act which currently dictates unfunded federal mandates for our public schools. We support well-rounded assessment tools, teacher education and funded tutorial programs for students.

Over the last five years, Promise the Children has supported early education through programs promoting Birth and Beyond and Universal Pre-K. Our work, along with that of colleague organizations, has generated a functioning Massachusetts Department of Early Education and a movement for mandatory early education programs across the Nation.

Our Evolution

Promise the Children grew out of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s call to rally in Washington D.C. in June of 1996.

We continue to work on both local and national issues that affect children, youth and those who care for them.

Our Values

Legislators must have voter support to pass and fund laws that support quality, equitable education for all of our children. Promise helps educate our advocates to provide that support.

Our children need access to quality schools, affordable health care and housing and nutritious food. Their caretakers need living-waged jobs in order to support their families. Every preschooler needs guidance and support either at home and/or in school so that he or she is ready to learn in kindergarten.

Each young student deserves an equal and fair education necessary to pass assessments in grade school and high school. Each school and teacher deserves the resources to provide for the students who are entrusted to them. All of our children should be prepared to find employment that pays a living wage and to participate in the growth of our society.

Our Relationships

Promise the Children has working partnerships with Planned Parenthood in an effort to bring comprehensive sexuality education to public schools, Citizens for Public Schools, the effort to bring fair and equitable education back to public schools, and Fairtest, the effort to eliminate high-stakes testing as an exclusive assessment tool.

Promise the Children is a member organization of the Campaign for Early Education, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, the Food Stamp Coalition, the Working Family Agenda, and the Family Economic Initiative. Our President, Rebekah Richardson, is board member of Citizens for Public Schools. Promise the Children is a member of the Citizens for Public Schools Coalition.