Connecting SRCD members and Congressional offices
Child Policy Connect brings together SRCD members and Congressional offices to answer pressing policy questions that impact children and families.
To do this, SRCD’s policy department builds relationships with offices, assesses their needs, then matches offices with our members’ areas of expertise and facilitates “Hill days”, where scholars attend meetings on Capitol Hill and begin building long-term relationships with legislators.
"SRCD’s presence in Congress as a provider of scientific and data-driven understandings of child development is critical to meaningful efforts made by the federal government to enhance children and their family’s lives, especially during a time of misinformation, disinformation, and fast facts. Even though children’s development, well-being, and care impact all families, these issues are not always seen as bipartisan in Congress. My time on The Hill gave me very important exposure to how each side of the aisle talks about legislation related to children, which it’s important for advancing policy and advocating on children’s behalf.”
Dr. Hannah Valdiviejas, SRCD Congressional Policy Fellow, 2023-2024
Our vision is to become the go-to place for Congressional offices with questions about child development. We want to improve evidence-based policymaking, and help our members put their work into action.
How it Works:
- We connect - We do the initial heavy lifting for you by identifying and reaching out to Congressional offices that are engaging on a topical theme – for example, children and adolescent mental health. We get office buy-in, assess their needs, then we put out a rapid response call to our members based on the office’s questions.
- You respond - Members subscribe to the Child Policy Connect community page to respond to rapid response calls. We also seek out members based on your membership profile – it helps us find you if you keep an updated profile with your expertise listed, so please consider logging in to do that! We then match you with specific offices and coordinate with you to come to Washington, D.C. for a 3-day event, where you are trained and supported to meet with Congressional staff.
Many scholars are funded to attend the Hill days through their institution. For those who can’t get institutional funding, our generous funders at W.T. Grant Foundation have enabled us to issue small travel awards.
- You collaborate – After the Hill day, you can continue collaboration with your offices with activities like:
- Creating fact sheets
- Writing policy briefs
- Organizing congressional briefings
- Reviewing bill language
- Preparing roundtables
- Attending Congressional hearings with researcher testimony
Who is eligible to participate?
SRCD members! This service is part of your suite of SRCD member benefits and contributes to our mission to advance evidence-based policymaking. Your membership dues help support SRCD’s policy work, including Child Policy Connect.
Working with the Research-to-Policy Collaboration
SRCD is partnering with the Research-to-Policy Collaboration (RPC), to make our Child Policy Connect program a certified RPC model.
This model has demonstrated success. Randomized controlled trial results show that the RPC model increased Congressional office’s use of evidence by 23% and improved the staff’s appreciation for and ability to use evidence in their work. Scholars reported a 55% increase in their policy engagement, knowledge of lobbying rules, and a belief that the policy engagement benefitted their research agendas. In short, engaging in this program can help both researchers and Congressional offices.
Navigate the Child Policy Hub: