Comments on: Key Elements of Effective Advocacy

By: Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken

Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:58:11 +0000

Attending this Conference workshop as well as another offered by adult learners and their representatives made me decide that I wish to explore with my fellow board members at Proliteracy what Proliteracy is currently doing about adult learner capacity building and leadership development. Such adult learner leadership will be very important for the legitimacy of advocacy, while it also represents a value in its own right.

Second, it made me want to explore whether Proliteracy and other adult literacy promotion organizations (Powerline etc.) should think of ‘attaching’ their Right to Literacy campaign to existing rights campaigns with a focus on the US in the area of economic, social and cultural human rights fulfillment, through e.g. Right to Education campaigns by NGOs such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, etc.

By: mltait

mltait — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:48:40 +0000

Several conferees asked about social networking strategies for advancing public policy goals. If we do this again next year, we will definitely keep that in mind as a workshop topic. Meantime, blog and tweet to reach new audiences!

By: mltait

mltait — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:45:23 +0000

It was fun to see you again, Michele. I admit I was happy to get to the last public policy workshop in the strand and leave my pile of remaining flyers behind! The one-page template is a great idea. It’s important that we know our data cold when talking to policy makers, but it’s also important that we speak (with passion) from our own experiences and involve students and their sotries whenever possible.

By: mltait

mltait — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:43:29 +0000

Hi Stephanie! Sounds like you are off to a great start! Building those bridges to the Workforce community is really important right now and may lead to opportunities to collaborate. Have you thought about making connections to the Work Keys folks in your state? I just learned that Syracuse University has a Work Keys Center and they are looking for ways to better serve students with lower level skills — an opportunity for a program serving those students!

By: mltait

mltait — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:41:02 +0000

Hi Jeff and Others! Thanks for visiting our blog and starting some dialog. You will find some of the statistical resources you need on the NCL Advocacy Toolkit (click on the banner above). Staying connected to other advocates is important and will also give you moral support as you do this work. Be sure to sign up for policy alerts from NCL, COABE, and/or ProLiteracy — and find out who in your state has organized a state-wide network and join it! We wish you success and hope you will keep us all posted on your efforts and outcomes here.

By: Michele Erikson

Michele Erikson — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:26:26 +0000

I am impressed with Jackie’s tenacity to hold us accountable to do what we say we are going to do in regards to advocacy and with Marsha’s discipline and persistance in advertising the blog and NCL site at EVERY SINGLE Session she attended. I believe your hard work and dedication will pay off.

For my part, I am:
hand-delivering a one-page template to caucus leaders and Joint Finance Committee members that has a tutor student story/picture from an agency in their district focused on job attainment and specific data for their district/counties that lists below basic literacy level, unemplyment and health literacy cost by county. I have a paragraph discribing health literacy issues and a one sentence description of our agency.
I am also meeting with all 11 WDB Directors in our state (Jeff Burkhart is conming with) on april 14 to demonstrate what our CBOs do for learners in the area of work readiness.
Finally – I will keep in touch with this blog and the NCL on a more regular basis to keep abreast of changes in WIA Reauthorization and the federal priorites for the field.

Thanks Marsha and Jackie for a great session!

By: Stephanie Moran

Stephanie Moran — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:13:59 +0000

Here I go! From our advocacy meetings, I realize that even though CAEPA does work on advocacy, we can and need to do more. I will share a bit with them on our telephone conference this Thursday. I also mean to advocate more for a more effective and equitable partnership between us and our Workforce system and to that end, I am meeting tomorrow with a workforce employee and former colleague.
Thank you for the inpsiration, energy, commitment, and professionalism you bring to our field, Jackie and Marsha.
Stephanie

By: Jeff Burkhart

Jeff Burkhart — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:58:52 +0000

Hi Jackie,

I’d love to explore both of these topics further as well.

By: Jeff Burkhart

Jeff Burkhart — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:48:28 +0000

To become a more effective advocate in my community, I need:

- better stats about literacy and workforce.

- well established connections on the local, state and national levels to enable us to advocate for community-based organizations in WIA.

By: Jackie Taylor

Jackie Taylor — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:11:44 +0000

Hi All!
Thanks again for your time and sharing your insights. Here are a few resources on using social media for grassroots advocacy that I thought you’d find interesting. Two of them are in the Toolkit:

http://www.ncladvocacy.org/tkstrategies.html#strategies

– See “Social Media for Grassroots Engagement” and “Microtargeting, Netroots Mobilization, and e-Advocacy.”

Also check out:
“User Generated Photos in Campaigns”
http://www.slideshare.net/CommonKnowledge/social-network-strategy-user-generated-photos-in-campaigns?type=powerpoint

This is a big interest of mine. I’d be happy to learn who else would like to explore this topic further.

Jackie