Strolling Thunder™
Join us on April 4, 2023 for our Strolling Thunder event at the Alabama State Capitol!
At Strolling Thunder, you’ll raise your voice for babies and their families in a FREE, family-friendly setting. This event celebrates wins at the legislature, brings attention to what families need to thrive, and helps participants connect with their state and local elected officials. We will start the morning off with a press conference with Governor Kay Ivey on the Capitol Front Steps and then “stroll” to the South Lawn where there will be activities for children and information for adults on helping young children thrive.
Get a chance to speak with your state and local elected officials and help bring awareness to babies 0-3!
Learn more details about Strolling Thunder.
Strolling Thunder is the flagship advocacy event of Think BabiesTM. It’s a day when babies, toddlers, and their families meet with their policymakers and urge them to Think Babies—for stronger families, vibrant communities, and a prosperous country. Strolling Thunder focuses on policy solutions that ensure all babies and families have what they need to thrive including good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences.
This year we are having our own Strolling Thunder event in Alabama to help families connect with state and local elected officials and raise a voice for babies!
We invite all who advocate for young children to join us to help bring awareness to the vital investments needed in programs for Alabama’s children from birth to age 3. Parents, grandparents or guardians of children 0-3 across Alabama are encouraged to attend with their child!
You will be responsible for your child for the duration of the event.
Strolling Thunder will be held in Montgomery, AL at the Alabama State Capitol Front Steps and South Lawn. This is a rain or shine event.
FREE all- day parking is available at Paterson Field- 1215 Madison Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36107.
There are several paid parking decks surrounding the Capitol Complex buildings.
Registration is FREE! Register here now!
9:50am – Gather on the Capitol Steps
10:00am – News Conference with Governor Kay Ivey on the Capitol Steps
10:20am – Strolling Thunder Parade to South Lawn
11:00am- 2:00pm – Strolling Thunder Expo | Lunch, Children and Family Activities on the South Lawn, Handprint Package and Note Delivery to Alabama State House
2:00pm – Conclude
Policy Priorities
Quality, affordable child care
Families want and need access to quality, affordable child care that offers their children a safe environment, nurturing relationships with caring adults, and positive early learning experiences, while supporting their own ability to work.
Time for parents to bond with and care for their babies.
The time right after a baby is born or adopted is a time of extraordinary growth, development, and connection for a family. Parents and their babies need dedicated time together to develop close, nurturing relationships that set the foundation for a child’s healthy development.
Supporting what all families need to thrive.
Early Head Start is the only federal program dedicated to comprehensively promoting healthy child and family development for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers living in families with incomes below the poverty line. As a two-generation program, Early Head Start creates opportunities for both parents and children, helping parents improve their economic security while ensuring their children are on a solid path to engage in lifelong learning.
Healthy social and emotional development.
Healthy, nurturing relationships with parents and caregivers lay the foundation for a baby’s social and emotional development, also known as infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). Mental health issues can take root very early in life. Infants and young children can have diagnosable and treatable mental health disorders. Policies and programs that fall along a promotion, prevention, and treatment continuum can provide parents and young children with support to promote social and emotional development and prevent and treat mental health issues as early as possible.
Supporting families’ fundamental needs.
Family stability is supported when families have access to safe neighborhoods where children can grow and play, and the income they need to meet basic needs such as stable housing, food and nutrition, and diaper supplies. Families need a range of equitable policies that bolster economic security when children are young and their development most sensitive to economic want. Ensuring adequate income is basic to creating the environment in which young children thrive.
Transforming the lives of babies in child welfare.
Babies are the age group most vulnerable to maltreatment. And because of their rapid brain development, the stakes could not be higher for young children entering the child welfare system. Infants and toddlers are an outsized proportion of children in child welfare programs, but the child welfare system was not devised to support the unique needs of babies or their caretakers.
The Alabama Partnership for Children is joining ZERO TO THREE’s Think Babies effort to bring Strolling Thunder to Montgomery, AL on April 4, 2023. Learn more about Think Babies and ZERO TO THREE.