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Session Title: Using Research and Evaluation to Build the Power and Effectiveness of Community Organizing and Advocacy
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Panel Session 632 to be held in BOWIE C on Friday, Nov 12, 3:35 PM to 4:20 PM
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Sponsored by the Advocacy and Policy Change TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Anna Saltzman, Blueprint Research & Design Inc, anna@blueprintrd.com
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| Abstract:
Advocacy organizations know the power that research has in building an effective issue campaign. Increasingly, community organizing groups are taking on research, and both advocacy and organizing groups are taking on evaluation, as a way to enhance the power and effectiveness of their campaigns. This session will explore some of the ways that advocacy and organizing groups have used research and evaluation to build their power and increase their effectiveness, and will provide guidance to advocates, organizers, funders and evaluators on ways to build research and evaluation into advocacy and organizing campaigns. Presenters representing funders and evaluators will reflect upon successes, lessons learned, and implications for the fields of advocacy and community organizing evaluation.
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| Catherine Crystal Foster, Blueprint Research & Design Inc, catherine@blueprintrd.com
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Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER), launched in 2006, is a national, multi-site funding collaborative that supports educational organizing campaigns working to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for public school students, particularly low-income students and students of color. For over three years, Blueprint Research & Design Inc. has been CPER’s evaluation partner, helping to document the progress of the collaborative as a whole and within each of the sites. Catherine Crystal Foster is an independent consultant and strategic partner with Blueprint on the firm’s policy and advocacy evaluation work, and has co-directed Blueprint’s evaluation of CPER. As presenter, she will describe Blueprint’s approach to evaluating CPER, the methods that Blueprint evaluators are using to engage CPER funders and grantees in data collection and learning, examples of what funders and grantees have gained from the evaluation, and broader implications for the fields of advocacy and community organizing evaluation.
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| Julie Kohler, Public Interest Projects, jkohler@publicinterestprojects.org
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Julie Kohler is the Director of Education & Civic Engagement at Public Interest Projects (PIP), where she manages Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER). As a presenter, Julie will provide background on CPER’s programmatic goals and overall theory of change, describe CPER’s “learning agenda,” and explain CPER’s interest in building evaluation capacity among local and state-based community organizing groups. Julie will also summarize the ways that the CPER evaluation has helped to advance the field of education organizing by assessing impact, providing close-in time feedback on campaign strategies, and building organizations’ capacity to document their own work.
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