WASHINGTON, D.C. – Local advocates from Denver, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, Alamosa, Aurora and Centennial, including students from Metro State University and a local high school and Ty Coleman, mayor of Alamosa, will travel to Washington, D.C. from March 18-20 to participate in Save the Children and Save the Children Action Network’s annual Advocacy Summit, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson.

They will join hundreds of advocates from across the country to attend in-depth advocacy trainings and urge lawmakers from both parties to make key investments in early childhood education in the U.S. and maternal, newborn and child survival programs overseas.

Specifically, attendees will ask lawmakers to oppose deep budget cuts to international assistance programs that would have disastrous impacts on the health, education and safety of mothers, children and families abroad, and cosponsor the Reach Every Mother and Child Act, which would help end the preventable deaths of mothers and children around the world. Additionally, advocates will urge lawmakers to keep their promises to protect funding for domestic early childhood education and child care programs like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant program.

During the 2018 Advocacy Summit, more than 200 advocates – including 75 high school and college students – from 34 states are expected to meet with more than 150 lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Summit participants will hear from powerful change-leaders and elected officials, including Jeff Edmondson, of the Ballmer Group, , activists from around the U.S. and the world, Cook Political Report National Editor Amy Walter, Save the Children President & CEO Carolyn Miles, SCAN CEO Mark Shriver and SCAN President Kris Perry.

Caption: Then Alamosa Mayor Pro Tem Ty Coleman, right, who has since been elected mayor, reads to Alamosa Head Start youngsters at the opening of the Nestle Toll House Café reading nook in downtown Alamosa in 2016. A long-time literacy advocate, Mayor Coleman will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in Save the Children’s annual Advocacy Summit./Courier file photo by Ruth Heide.