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Want to Run for Office?
Are you thinking about running for office? Check this site out!
http://incubator.sheshouldrun.org/
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspiring members to action
How to track State Legislation
Trying to track State legislation? Check out these links!
Tools for tracking state level legislation:
- NCSL Tracking Database: The National Conference of State Legislators developed the Education Bill Tracking Database that monitoring state education legislation. http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/education-bill-tracking-database.aspx
- See also the Early Education and Child Care Bill Tracking.
- Minnesota Legislative Reference Library: Designed for Minnesota legislators, this site tracks web resources helpful in finding Minnesota-based state agencies, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and other organizations by topic. So, though designed for public officials, this could be helpful to you in finding additional sources of information about what is happening in the policy area in your state. https://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/links/links
- Minnesota Legislature: The Office of the Revisor of Statutes allows users to search for Minnesota Statutes, Session Laws, and Rules by keyword, Topic Index, and bill numbers. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/pubs/
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspiring members to action
How Else can I track Legislation?
Here are some resources for tracking legislation.
National Conference of State Legislatures
- Education Bill Tracking Database: http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/education-bill-tracking-database.aspx
GovTrack
- Education Bills: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/subjects/education/5991
Education Week
- Federal Policy: http://www.edweek.org/topics/federalpolicy/index.html?intc=main-topnav
- MN News: http://www.edweek.org/topics/states/minnesota/
National Education Association
- Legislative Action Center: http://edadvocacy.nea.org/home
- National Level: https://www.countable.us/ – can see what Congress is voting on and provides ways to take action
- State Level: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/trackbill – search for bills, track bills and see what is scheduled for the house and senate (could also use: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legis)
- State Level: https://mn.gov/governor/resources/legislation/ – shows bills that have been signed or vetoed.
- Education for State – http://cqrcengage.com/neamn/legislature – this is part of Education Minnesota’s
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspiring members to action
Federal Legislation Tracking
Trying to track federal legislation? Check out these links!
Tools for tracking federal legislation:
- GovTrack.us: This is a free legislative tracking tool created by Joshua Tauberer; it is unaffiliated with government and is used by many congressional transparency websites. Use it to track federal legislation by issue area and set up alerts.
- https://www.govtrack.us/
- Congress.gov: The website of the United States Congress, this site includes a searchable database for federal legislation. For those of us who do not know bill numbers by heart, the Advanced Search function offers a Subject Search by Policy Area and Legislative Subject Terms.
- https://www.congress.gov/advanced-search/legislation
Subscription databases for federal legislation include the following:
- ProQuest Congressional http://congressional.proquest.com
- CQ.com
- http://www.cq.com
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspiring members to action
A Conversation with AchieveMpls
As the strategic nonprofit partner of Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), AchieveMpls mobilizes our community’s resources to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the tools and support they need to be career and college ready.
The overall graduation rate in MPS is 64 percent (79 percent in comprehensive high schools) but the gap between white students and many students of color is over 20 percent. There is a tremendous opportunity for improvement.
The January Salon discussion focused largely on how AchieveMpls gives students the right tools and information to make choices for their future. By 2020, 74 percent of all jobs in Minnesota will require some form of post-secondary education. However, not every student is interested in a two or four year post-high school program, so AchieveMpls works with each student to ensure they know their available options.
This kind of guidance isn’t always built into students’ high school experience. For example, the best practice counseling ratio is about 250 students for every counselor. In Minneapolis Public Schools, it is closer to 792 students for every counselor. Which means not every student is getting the level of attention he or she needs. AchieveMpls is focused on ensuring students have support in learning about college and career options that suit their skills and vision for their future. They do this through three primary programs:
Career and College Centers
Located in 10 MPS high schools, CCCs offer career and post-secondary education planning resources for 3,500+ students every year.
Step Up Achieve
This program provides work-readiness training, paid internships and professional mentoring to over 700 Minneapolis youth each year in partnership with 150 top Twin Cities employers.
Volunteers
Each year, AchieveMpls connects students with over 800 volunteers who serve as Graduation Coaches, career exploration volunteers and mock interviewers.
To learn more, visit AchieveMpls.org.
JLM Advocacy: Inspiring members to action
How Can Four Years Last a Lifetime?
Picture a laser beam. Then think of how aiming that laser at your eye, in the hands of an expert, can change your life from coke-bottle glasses to clear vision. One small intervention can change everything — for life.
That’s how Wallin Education Partners functions: one small intervention – a college scholarship of about $4,000 per year — can change one life, for a lifetime. This year Wallin is changing the lives of 540 students and has helped 4,000 students since its creation in 1992.
What does college have to do with the opportunity/achievement gap?
Consider…
· A college graduate will earn nearly $1M more in his or her lifetime than a high school graduate. Just think about those ripples: that’s more in taxes, less reliance on safety nets and beyond money, better health overall.
· Likelihood of college graduation goes down if you’re lower income; a person of color; first in the family to go to college. In fact, only 11% of kids who fit that criteria will complete a degree.
· If you look at top income quartile in the U.S., 77% of those families go to college; in the lowest quartile, only 9% do so.
Clearly a college education plays a major role in equity.
Started by Win Wallin, a former Medtronic CEO and his wife Maxine (a member of the Junior League of Minneapolis and Katherine Phelps award-winner), the organization fulfills his vision to give others the same opportunities he had. The Wallins quickly realized that throwing money at the problem wasn’t the solution. Simply helping more colleges provide more scholarships wouldn’t work. That’s why they “broker” the scholarships so they can both choose kids who need the help and then literally surround each student with support. As in, a master’s level professional who’s there for each student, through all 4 (or 5) years of college.
Another unique component: donor partners, like the Junior League. The scholars know they’re accountable not just to their advisor but also to this partner — in fact they have to report how they’re doing twice a year. (And if you’re curious, our 15 scholars have a 100% graduation rate!)
Who are these scholars? Donor partners can make specific requests (for example JLM sponsors girls who have strong community involvement), but all need a 3.0 grade point average. The vetting process and the support have paid huge dividends: the graduation rate for Wallin scholars is 92% compared to a national average of 59%.
If you want to get involved, email Melissa Burwell (JLM member and Deputy Director) to find out about their Feb 10 meet-up event, and follow them @Wallin_92 or on Facebook. Their 25th gala is coming up this fall.
JLM Advocacy: Inspiring members to action
FreeArts (Salon Series Recap)
Free Arts Minnesota’s mission is to bring caring adults alongside youth in challenging circumstances. Free Arts believes in team-style mentoring, and requires a regular commitment from their volunteers. This commitment is necessary because these children have been disappointed by the adults in their life, or the only adults they interact with are authority figures like case workers. These kids are waiting for the other shoe to drop and it’s important that they experience the consistency of regularly spending time with caring adults, time and people they can count on.
Free Arts Minnesota engages the children in a wide variety of arts learning. They do not do “crafts” with the kids. They engage in all art mediums with a rigorous curriculum that allows the children to learn, create, and provides them with the opportunity to lead.
The work Free Arts Minnesota does with children is important because as Sara stated, “kids can achieve; they just need to opportunity to do so.” The children Free Arts works with typically score high on the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) scale. Adverse childhood experiences have been shown to lead to social and emotional impairment, adoption of high-risk behaviors, disease, and in some cases death. When children come to Free Arts, they have experienced a level of trauma in their young lives that some people will not ever experience.
Scientific research has shown that there is a connection between brain development and engaging in the arts. Through arts learning, children who have experienced setbacks due to adverse childhood experiences can gain social and emotional development, diversion from current life circumstances, increased focus, and better academic performance. Arts learning encourages pro-social behavior, so it also has been shown to increase an understanding of social justice and encourages children to be better citizens.
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspire members to action
Reframe it: How a Backpack or a Grocery Store = Equity (Salon Series Recap)
An “equitable food project”. Do you think of Backpack Buddies that way? Probably not, but that’s how Prodeo teacher Jennifer Christensen presented it. She started the Salon by asking members to think about where we would go to buy fresh produce, meat, gluten-free items. How would we get there? How would we carry the items home? For members, the answers are easy. Most of us have cars and we all have multiple options for shopping. But if we lived in North Minneapolis, the story is different. It’s by definition a food desert. For urban areas, that means a 1 mile radius without affordable, nutritious grocery options.
To underline the point she shared minute 1 to about 5 of the documentary “Living in a Food Desert” that really brought home the domino effect of not having healthy food options nearby.
The group then broke up into twos and wrote suggestions on flip charts for how to change the food desert by topic: connections, services, time, money, goods. Ideas ranged from babysitting at the grocery store to volunteer delivery to community gardens.
So what does a food desert have to do with the achievement gap? Well here’s another reframing: think of it as the opportunity gap. It’s not about whether a child can achieve, but whether he or she has opportunities. If a child comes to school unprepared, not surprisingly, they struggle. They lose that opportunity for academic success, which is a key step to economic self-sufficiency. And that’s where Backpack Buddies comes in. By removing a barrier to learning (hunger), we’re helping with one part of the equation for success. And creating more equity.
Jennifer ended the session by sharing some of the organizations working to end the desert by bringing healthy food options to North Minneapolis:
· Busy Bee Food. Healthy food delivered directly. www.busybeefoods.com
· Wirth Co-op (opening in the next year): www.wirth.coop/
· North Market from Pillsbury United Communities (opening fall 2017) www.puc-mn.org/venture/north-market
Check them out and think about how you can create equity.
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspire members to action
SPECIAL FEATURE Marta Haynes – I’m not a quitter
This past fall, I led a double shift of JLMer’s for the Girls on the Run fall 5k event. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day. We volunteered at the registration table, were part of a cheer squad out on the race course, and helped with some very demanding post-race clean up. Girls on the Run is an AMAZING organization whose mission is: “[To] We inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running”. I can promise a morning of inspiration and joy.
I grew up with a dad who was a marathoner, so the whole idea of going to such an event with a parent is deeply nostalgic. I love it. I am firm believer in using physical challenges – such as accomplishing a fitness goal – to grow self-esteem.
I LOVED seeing all the participation at this event, there were “Sparkle Coaches”, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles from every ethnicity imaginable represented. Little girls and mothers running in beautiful and colorful headscarves. I should mention that there were many girls at this event who did NOT have parents or family their supporting them. These kids were assigned a “Sparkle Coach” to complete the race with. My heart felt tender towards these kids, as perhaps they were missing that familial support at the event.
Everyone took to the course. I felt proud to be an American and a Minnesotan as the starting gun went off. Racers, volunteers and spectators were all FREE – regardless of race, ethnicity or sexual orientation – without fear. Free to run YOUR race. I loved it. There were signs up everywhere encouraging female strength and highlighting positive personality characteristics. Being in that environment was like taking a bath in pool of all things affirming of a powerful woman. Such a much-needed-hiatus from the corporate world I spend so much of life inhabiting.
Out on the course, I posted our JLM team to stand at the top of a hill. The kids all started walking at the bottom of the hill, but I noticed that when I held out my hand to get a high five from the runners – the kids ran towards my hand. It was a great way to get them to run up the hill. Sometimes all we need is a little high five (please consider this in work team situations).
After a while, the running pack started to thin out, and the runners who would be finishing with longer times started shuffling by. I have been in this pack of runners at races – it is “no fun”. There was a girl who was struggling and clearly got separated from her Sparkle Coach.
“Where’s your Coach, Kiddo?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you mind if I run with you for a while?”
“Sure!”
“How’s it going?”
“Awful – I hate every minute of this – everything hurts. I hate running!”
I looked down at her shoes – which were several years old, ripped, and were so small for her feet that they couldn’t even lace up all the way. There was barely enough shoe lace left over to tie at the top. Also, this girl was struggling to walk, talk and breath, as she was carrying extra weight. I perceived that this event may be extremely challenging for her – pure torture even.
“But I WON’T give up! I will persevere!”
I saw this opening as an opportunity. “Oh yeah, why won’t you give up?”
“Because I’m not a quitter and I can do ANYTHING I put my mind to.”
Feeling emotional, and in-spite-of the tightness in my throat, I said, “Do you ABSOLUTELY promise me that you are never going to forget that? Promise me right now. You CAN do anything you put your mind to, and with that attitude you are going to accomplish great things.”
“I promise.”
By this point, her coach had caught up with us and I said good-bye. And a prayer of gratitude. I used to be that little seven year old girl with so much determination – and – as a result of that interaction, I realized she had gone missing for a bit. I realized that – I had actually been showing up as a “quitter” in a couple of areas in my own life over the last few months. As is absolutely true in 100% of the times that I volunteer with JLM, I benefit more than what I contribute. This synergy is why I chose to spend my free time supporting the JLM.
Her determination inspired me to lace up my running shoes the next morning (I hadn’t been running in months) and hit the trails at Lebanon Hills. I can’t wait to volunteer with the JLM at the Girls on the Run 5K this June!
JLM Advocacy: Providing education to inspire members to action
