Grassroots Advocacy Symposium Held in Ohio

Date: April 21, 2010

NCL held its second public policy advocacy symposium this month in Dublin, OH in connection with the state-wide Partnerships in Transition conference. The symposium was planned by NCL in collaboration with the Ohio Association for Adult and Continuing Education, the Ohio Literacy Network and the ABLE Resource Center Network. Speakers included Jackson Routh from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Dr. Peter Waite, president of NCL, Aketa Marie Simmons, Press Secretary and Education Staff for Congresswoman Fudge, Ed Roberts, Congressional Aide to Senator Brown, representatives of local partnerships and collaborations in OH, and adult student Dawana Martin.

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Tags: adult education and literacy, advocacy, Grassroots Advocacy, partnerships, symposia

Comments RSS TrackBack 16 comments

mltait

in April 21st, 2010 @ 08:33

Good Morning OH Advocates! Jackie Taylor and I are in Dublin OH today with nearly 100 adult education advocates. Our speakers today include Jeff Gove, newly appointed State Director of Adult Basic Literacy Education, NCL President Peter Waite, Jackson Routh from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, adult student Dawana Martin, Aketa Simmons from Rep. Marcia Fudge’s office, and Ed Roberts from Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office, and many local panelists and presenters… This is going to be a great day for adult education and literacy!

[Reply]
Susan Sheehan Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Thank you for providing an exciting day jam-packed with valuable information!
Jackie Taylor

in April 21st, 2010 @ 11:45

Hello Everyone!

Here is the link to the YouTube video, “Did You Know” — created in 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

I’m really excited about the advocacy discussions that are happening today! I hope we’ll hear more about your advocacy ideas and plans here on the blog. What is your advocacy goal and where do you go from here?

Thanks…Jackie

[Reply]
mltait Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 8:37 pm
The CNN feature on texting by cell phone in middle schools that we discussed is here: http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/21/school-discourages-texting-by-giving-students-phones/?iref=allsearch. Please post your reactions here!

Susan Sheehan Reply:
April 25th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Thank you for providing a very worthwhile advaocacy education experience for us!
Also, thanks for posting the link.
mltait

in April 21st, 2010 @ 15:07

Thank you to all of our colleagues, friends, and advocacy comrades in OH! Today was a great day for adult literacy. We look forward to your comments and questions here in the coming weeks and months!

[Reply]
Marie Barada Reply:
April 28th, 2010 at 7:45 am
Thanks for all the information provided thru the workshop. I appreciate having a plan in hand.
Rusty Smith

in April 22nd, 2010 @ 16:05

My goal is to create a public awareness network. This will be created through publications to the local newspaper and emails to local businesses and politicians. These will be submitted on a quarterly basis, beginning in June. Goal will be achieved when comments are made or recieved through from the published articles

[Reply]
Susan Sheehan

in April 25th, 2010 @ 20:50

We would like to devote more time to educating our legislators (local, state, and national) about adult literacy, and in particular, about our Parma programs. We will be working on a plan of action to include a timeline.

I would also like to work with OAACE to do the same with all our members.

[Reply]
Jeff Seth

in April 26th, 2010 @ 08:18

While we have always enjoyed a good relationship with our local and State legislators, my goal is to provide them with more data that they can use to continue to champion the cause of literacy and education. The symposium was fantastic and, as I said that day, exceeded my expectation for good and useful information and thought-provoking activities. Good job!

[Reply]
David Brown

in April 26th, 2010 @ 10:43

Hello all:

Great conference on Wednesday. Thank you for a well organized and imformative event.

My literacy advocacy plan is prompt my community college toward a more robust relationship with local ABLEs for college remedial education. Our ABLEs have been strong proponents of our regional Ohio Skills Bank project; so, their increased presence at our community college will be a natural expansion of that relationship. Jody Angelone will provide me with some excellent benchmarking with Owens Community College.

[Reply]
David Brown

in April 26th, 2010 @ 11:18

Hello again. I was asked to post the 4 A’s of collaboration discussed during our Pathways Panel discussion from last Wednesday. This is a very brief synopsis of observations made about our own best practices of pathway development in Ohio’s Region 3. The whole picture takes much more space and time, but here goes:

1) ASK – survey your customers (private or public), listen, collect data, make observations about established networks…the key principle here is to develop a customer service mentality. You’ll find public constituents and private industry to view this as amazingly refreshing.

2) ANALYZE – once you have surveyed, listened, and collected all sorts of data, it is vitally important that you “crunch” your data sufficiently and then, even more importantly, prepare or post executive summary type documents that publish the results. We have had great success with our stakeholders through distribution of several professional looking documents regarding local surveys pertinent to them. I can pass on some very affordable means to accomplish this important step if necessary.

3) ALIGN – this is the most important step. The data for your pathway’s ASK and ANALYZE steps will identify the partners needed for success. Invite organizations’ highest level champions from the stakeholder organizations who understand your program and are empowered to make decisions. Do not just invite the highest level position who SHOULD be involved, but the highest level individual who WILL be involved. Eventually, when your pathway gets momentum, everyone will want to jump onboard anyway. There are many aspects of this “A” that need discussed, but let me mention a few: prepare extensive non-credit to credit articulations (intra- and inter-organizations), minimize hurdles for clients moving from one organization to another, build common sense of purpose in your pathway group without regard to individual stakeholders’ positions (leave logos at the door), and so much more…

4) ACT – once your pathway stakeholders have been aligned, you must act on decisions the team (or outside stakeholders) has determined are important to your success. Tolerance for the same-old, same-old is VERY limited. Your public constituents and private industry partners will disregard you as the next “gov’t flavor of the week, month or year” if you meet, develop strategies and then simply do nothing. Your action is vital to success just as much as your inaction is a forecast for failure.

Hope that helps. My best, Dave.

[Reply]
Jody Angelone

in April 27th, 2010 @ 15:51

This event was such a great kick-off to our three day Partnerships in Transiton event in Ohio! I want to thank everyone who planned, participated and supported the Ohio Partners in Advocacy Symposium.

We have linked the slide show and blog to our resource center’s webpage. Thanks again, Jody

[Reply]
Jody Angelone

in April 27th, 2010 @ 15:54

I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments! Thanks to all who have responded.

[Reply]
Marie Barada

in April 28th, 2010 @ 07:39

Thanks for a very informative day. I appreciate walking away with an individual plan for action.

[Reply]
Sharon Halter

in May 1st, 2010 @ 23:43

What a great day with great people and tools for moving the message of our adult learners to a higher level of awareness and increased impact on the gears of economics and politics that make for change. It was a motivating time that spurred me forward in local conversations to increase our output of advocacy for adult literacy. Watch out, web 2.0!

[Reply]

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Grassroots Advocacy Symposium Held in Ohio

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Comments RSS TrackBack 16 comments

mltait

Jackie Taylor

mltait

Rusty Smith

Susan Sheehan

Jeff Seth

David Brown

David Brown

Jody Angelone

Jody Angelone

Marie Barada

Sharon Halter