education

Boston Adult Literacy Resource Institute

Location:
Boston, MA

The Adult Literacy Resource Institute (ALRI) is a program and staff development center for adult literacy / basic education and English for speakers of other languages programs in the Greater Boston area.

We are part of the Graduate College of Education at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education, and the Mayor’s Office of Jobs and Community Services in Boston, it is one of five regional support centers of the Massachusetts System for Adult Basic Education Support, SABES.

Youth Program Application

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An application created by corps member Molly Higgins for CAPAY’s YouthLearn Program.

Common Frequency

Location:
Davis, CA

To provide information about non-commercial radio broadcasting with the aim of facilitating more public involvement in non-commercial radio. Goals include:
-Alert non-profit and educational institutions regarding broadcast application opportunities. Travel and give presentations for starting new radio facilities.
-Encourage public participation in radio broadcasting, especially to underrepresented, minorities, youth, student, disabled, and local viewpoints.
-Promote a diversity of viewpoints on the public airwaves through the airing of grassroots-produced public affairs programming.
-Promote music education and independent artists on non-commercial radio.
-Provide resources and consultation, and participate in creating new stations, applying for radio channels, and providing information on governance.

CF is directly involved in grantwriting for radio facilities, networking proposed facilities to enable content-sharing among grassroots radio outlets, and building its own facility.

CF directly aids other community nonprofits to in turn help the citizens of the communities they represent by:

-Providing them cost-free engineering and legal services to start new radio stations to groups that cannot afford them (CF has provided $61,000 in free professional services in ‘09-10 in several states including IL, KS, VA, NY, NC, PA, & OR)

-Having a media literacy campaign directed towards underrepresented factions, instigating local broadcast projects.

-Providing grantwriting services (CF wrote PTFP grants totaling $345,000 in 2010, free of cost, for nonprofits that represent lower socioeconomically diverse people to help them gain media access in the California counties of San Diego, Tulare, and San Joaquin).

CF is working with over a dozen radio applicants to make public access radio stations where community members can create their own public affairs shows to empower local participation in the realm of promoting social, economic, and environmental justice.

UFM Community Learning Center

Location:
MANHATTAN, KS

UFM Community Learning Center is a 42 year old creative educational program serving Kansas State University, the Manhattan area and the state of Kansas. Based on the philosophy that everyone can learn and everyone can teach, UFM provides opportunities for lifelong learning and personal development. UFM serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas and as a catalyst for new programs and services that enhance the quality of life for all.

KONZ-Flint Hills Community Radio is a new program of UFM Community Learning Center that will bring locally produced, community-oriented programming to the northern Flint Hills area and the Manhattan community. This radio station will provide opportunities for discussion of public issues and the expansion of musical and cultural experiences to several under-served counties in northeast Kansas.

UFM serves as the catalyst for a number of services to the community. UFM serves the entire community with educational classes. Scholarships are available for low income participants. In FY09, 6962 community members took UFM classes. UFM serves as the administrator of the Community Youth Scholarship Fund with grant money from the City of Manhattan, KS. Our organization screens and awards scholarships for youth to participate in any recreational and/or educational program of their choice in the community. 70 scholarships were awarded in 2009. UFM serves as representative payee for mental health clients that need assistance with money management. In 2009, UFM had an average caseload of 32 clients. UFM also coordinates a community garden, providing supplemental food security to low income and elderly in the community. In 2009, 116 families participated in this program.

Gov 2.0 Summit

When: 
September 7, 2010 - September 8, 2010
Where: 
Washington, DC

Gov 2.0 Summit brings together innovators from government and the private sector to highlight technology and ideas that can be applied to the nation’s great challenges. In areas as diverse as education, health care, energy, jobs, and financial reform, there are unique opportunities to rethink how government agencies perform their mission and serve our citizens. Social media, cloud computing, web, and mobile technologies—all provide new capabilities that government agencies are beginning to harness to achieve demonstrably better results at lower cost.

ED-MEDIA World Conference on Multimedia. Hypermedia and Telecommunications

When: 
June 28, 2010 - July 2, 2010
Where: 
Toronto CN

World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an international conference, organized by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

21st Annual National Service-Learning Conference

When: 
March 24, 2010 - March 27, 2010
Where: 
San Jose CA

The conference is the largest gathering of youth and practitioners involved in service-learning, drawing approximately 2,500 attendees from across the United States and many other countries each year. Through three days of general sessions, thought leader series, service-learning projects, and networking, the conference engages participants in local, national, and global issues that service-learning addresses. Come explore more than 100 exhibits, and nearly 150 hands-on workshops and service-learning projects.

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Winter Meeting

When: 
December 3, 2009 - December 5, 2009
Where: 
Jacksonville, FL

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is a non-profit, educational association of journalism and mass communication faculty, administrators, students and media professionals. Dedicated to promoting the highest standards for education, the Association provides an abundance of resources for news, research and career opportunities, including a multicultural network of practitioners from every discipline of journalism and mass communication.

Appalshop

Location:
Whitesburg, KY

Appalshop, founded in 1969 as a War on Poverty program, is a non-profit multi-disciplinary arts and education center in the heart of Appalachia producing original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books.

Our goals are to enlist the power of education, media, theater, music, and other arts:
* to document, disseminate, and revitalize the lasting traditions and contemporary creativity of Appalachia;
* to tell stories the commercial cultural industries don’t tell, challenging stereotypes with Appalachian voices and visions;
* to support communities’ efforts to achieve justice and equity and solve their own problems in their own ways;
* to celebrate cultural diversity as a positive social value; and
* to participate in regional, national, and global dialogue toward these ends.

Project Description: 

Appalshop has identified the development of our online communication as the key project to address to raise our organizational capacity. Specifically focused on our innovative criminal justice national dialogue project (www.thousandkites.org) we intend to: 1) measure the strengths and weakness of our organization and network partner’s communication capacity through face-based research and sharing, 2) improve intra and inter- regional communication around pressing social and economic issues , 3) develop a new platform of communication beyond current practices, and 4) create community pride and investment in Appalachia by challenging stereotypes and letting people tell their own story in their own way.

Specifically, the backbone of building our online communication capacity is the implementation of a relationship management system, CRM, for tracking and communicating with our partners, constituents and contacts. Training staff in the use of the CRM, creating institutional best practices, migrating current contacts into the new system, and setting up internal and external processes to fully utilize this new technology our are goals for the first phase of implementation. This project would expand our ability to communicate with our community, increasing the impact and reach of our programs. In addition to the CRM, we envision the online communication project developing a monthly email newsletter, increasing the number of updates to our website, and exploring innovative ways to migrate content from our daily work (audio, video, image, and text) to our emerging online community.

Appalshop has been granted a free CRM account from the Sales Force. In 2009 our current VISTA trained staff in the use of SaleForce, migrated a ‘test batch” into SalesForce, and has begun developing an implementation plan. Building on our current VISTA’s work, along with a team members from across the organization, the VISTA would take the lead in implementing the first phase of SF, using Sales Force’s online learning tools, identify the key programs applicable to our needs, and lead the staff through taking the courses and subsequent discussions to enhance learning. The key goals in the first phase of developing our CRM are: to work with our web design firm to connect Sales Force’s online forms to our website and email accounts, create a process for entering leads and contacts, develop email templates for communication, and customize SalesForce to fit our organization structure and needs. We anticipate the VISTA member convening meetings, tracking goals, and looking for opportunities to raise the capacity of our staff and community participants in the use of technology that moves our organizational goals forward. Specifically we intend to do an “assets survey” to evaluate and codify existing opportunities and content being produced through our education, radio, artistic, and community development work that could be migrated into engaging web content.

In early 2008 Appalshop began a consultancy with the Doris Duke Foundation/EMC2 to explore new innovations within the arts and community development. Appalshop’s leadership has identified the development of our database, online presence, social networking sites, and communication strategies as the pressing organizational priority. Expanding our communication capacity will increase the effectiveness of our work, garner more community participants, expanding our individual donor base, and allow us to use our staff time more efficiently. In late April 2009, key Appalshop staff will take part in a week long retreat to work with a technology consultant and organization planning expert to map our future steps in creating stronger communication and online strategies. A VISTA member will bring needed support at a crucial moment in our process.

Appalshop’s education and community work (community radio, theater, youth media, internet, and film making) addresses pressing social issues ranging from rural health issues to exploring the U.S. criminal justice system. At the heart of our artistic production is the belief that low-income communities have the knowledge and experience to find the solutions to problems in their own ways. Developing our online, database, and communication capacity will allow Appalshop to add breadth and depth to its work.

Appalshop’s programmatic work strives to involve community participants at every level of the organization’s process. Developing our online community and communication capacity will deepen our participation base, heighten our impact, and expand our possibilities for partnerships across the programmatic divisions of our institution. We anticipate an increased involvement from rural youth, low-income participants, traditional musicians, and stake-holders in the pressing social, economic, and environmental issues facing the central Appalachian region.

Project Tangibles: 
Appalshop is a member of several regional and national organizations that directly represent the field of community arts centers. (NAMAC, Alternate ROOTS, and NFCB) Annually, Appalshop presents, panels, and screens at dozens of field related conferences and convenings. We intended to document the process of the project, develop a short case study report, and share our experiences and findings through both presentations and field related publications. We envision a blog documenting our experiences that shares links to relevant information regarding our development of a CRM database, communication strategies, and organization development.
Transmission Project