Advocacy
Whether the goal of your organization, association, or grass-roots initiative is to influence legislation and government policy, educate the public about a particular issue, or raise awareness about the importance of your mission -- you'll find expertise, experience, skill-sets, and understanding at Apter & O'Connor to help you achieve success.
Listed below are just a few of our advocacy clients and, in some cases, explanations of specific projects. Contact us today, to learn more about what we can do for your organization.
American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA): Every Child By Two
AIRA is a national volunteer membership organization that promotes and supports immunization information systems (IIS) to ensure healthy communities across the country. The offer advocacy, education, and technical assistance to their members. A&O has guided two strategic planning processes for this dynamic organization and completed a multi-year outcome evaluation encompassing their subcontractor Vaccinate Your Family (formerly known as Every Child by Two). For the most recent project Cynthia O’Connor teamed up with Steve Schack of Clear Blue Associates of NYC and traveled to Savannah to facilitate a board retreat. Together, they led a five-month strategic planning and organizational capacity building process with AIRA’s senior staff and board of directors. Our holistic approach was based on the published body of work by Susan Kenny Stevens known as “Nonprofit Lifecycles” [1] We find that organizations often embark on strategic planning efforts that are almost exclusively focused on looking outward and focusing on their programs and services, with little consideration to the capacity that it will require. By taking this holistic view, we can help ensure that growth is managed, and efforts stay in synch.
[1] Susan Kenny Stevens, Nonprofit Lifecycles Stage-Based Wisdom for Nonprofit Capacity (Wayzata, MN: Stagewise Enterprises, Inc., 2002).
Testimonial
Our Board for our national association was able to come to agreement for a re-organization and succession strategy which we successfully implemented. We were able to “turn around” from decline.
- A comment from our client...View Case Study
Process & Outcome Evaluations of a Multifaceted Child Care Improvement Effort
Child Care Solutions is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1975 to provide information and resources to parents, providers, employers, and community leaders in Onondaga and Cayuga Counties (NY) who seek solutions to their child care needs. In partnership with the Early Childhood Alliance, Child Care Solutions has been working tirelessly to assure child care options are not only available but of high quality.
Beginning in 2021, The Child Care Quality Improvement Pilot (CCQI) funded by Onondaga County, provided extra resources to this effort. This year the pilot’s focus is on family child care. Key components include training family care providers to implement an evidenced-based curriculum (The Creative Curriculum), one-on-one coaching in using assessments (a curriculum fidelity tool, the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale [FCCRS], and the Ages and Stages questionnaire) to inform lesson planning, and communication with parents. There are also stipends for the providers.
As the independent evaluator of the pilot, A&O’s work will have two key components. First, a process evaluation. This is designed to assess CCQI’s progress implementing the project components they’ve planned.
Second, an outcome evaluation will measure progress toward the intended outcomes and describe the activities’ early impacts. Stakeholder feedback and assessment data will be important to that evaluation, and A&O will synthesize data from a variety of sources to formulate suggestions for improvement.
Child Care Solutions of Onondaga and Cayuga Counties (CCS): A Child Care Needs Assessment
In the past, Apter & O’Connor has worked with Child Care Solutions several times to support their needs assessment related to the current state of child care. A&O designed specific inquiries to examine child care supply and demand. The final product illustrated the child care needs unique to these geographic areas and the related work-life issues for both child care providers and the families they serve. The assessments included: a detailed review of national, state and local data; focus groups with child care providers, local government officials, funders and human service experts; surveys for parents and providers; and interviews with human resource professionals. The rigorous methodology employed for each study provided child care advocates with a powerful tool to design new interventions and educate state and local legislators and funders.
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Rigorous Inquiries into Trends and Impacts of The Early Childhood Alliance of Onondaga
The Early Childhood Alliance of Onondaga County (ECA) was launched in 2015 to advance a comprehensive, coordinated, well-funded system of high-quality, prenatal-to-age-five early childhood programs and supports. It is a diverse cross-section of community stakeholders with a shared vision that all young children in the county are healthy, thriving, and successful in school and life, and that all families of young children are supported in their parenting. A&O was engaged to examine two of teh ECA’s key areas of effort: funding support and parent engagement.
In 2022, we completed a study of recent early childhood funding levels and trends nationally, statewide, and within Onondaga County. The results serve as an updated baseline for monitoring future growth and to measure ECA’s advocacy impact.
Methods for this inquiry included a document review of past ECA reports, a literature review on early childhood funding levels and trends at state and national levels, interviews with ECA staff, and a spring 2022 funding survey of local anchor systems (nine key early childhood services and supports).
That report, Funding to Support A Strong Early Childhood System 2019–2021, detected an 8% decrease in funding for the early childhood ecosystem from 2019 through 2021 in Onondaga County. Several survey respondents noted that COVID-related challenges, closures, and lockdowns skewed service delivery data and, in some cases, resulted in underutilized services which could explain some of the funding decreases.
The second inquiry, also completed in 2022, examined the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), the primary mechanism for the ECA’s parent engagement work. A group of parents of young children meet regularly to discuss improving the early childhood system, leveraging their own experiences to provide the ECA with input about its initiatives.
The ECA funded this study to learn how the PAC was functioning, what impact the members have on ECA planning and decision-making, and if the parent participants perceive any value or benefit for themselves. ECA was also interested in gaining new knowledge and ideas from other parent engagement professionals and endeavors statewide and nationally to help inform their overall parent engagement strategy.
A thorough report, Parents in Partnership: An Initiative of the Early Childhood Alliance of Onondaga County, offered valuable insights to the Alliance and strong recommendations and references to strengthen their early efforts.
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Apter & O’Connor led the CNY Community Foundation’s initiative to develop community wide indicators to assess literacy in Central New York. A&O conducted background research, guided the management team and facilitated a task force of 25 community leaders and literacy stakeholders through a six-month exploration and planning process. The final report served as the foundation for the establishment of a community wide literacy coalition that continues today. The Coalition provides home delivered books and activities through the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, has won awards as a Pacesetter from the Campaign for Grade Level Reading and initiated numerous programs and activities in the Central New York community.\
Testimonial
As the facilitators of the Literacy Impact Task Force, Dianne and Cynthia helped us frame our task, refereed 'arguments,' got us to the goal. We now use the Indicators developed with them as the community measures of success. Dianne and Cynthia are practical, sensible data geeks.
- A comment from our client...View Case Study
Literacy Powerline
Apter & O’Connor is collaborating with the national organization, Literacy Powerline. The mission of Literacy Powerline is to increase literacy levels through effective and sustainable community collaboration and engagement. Literacy Powerline works with educators, business and labor leaders, philanthropic organizations, civic and faith-based groups, policymakers, literacy providers and students to demonstrate that everyone thrives when a community is committed to 100% literacy. Scores of communities across the country have accessed the resources and capabilities of the Literacy Powerline team. A&O is offering strategic planning, needs assessment and evaluation expertise to coalitions across the country to develop effective and highly accountable literacy initiatives within their own communities. We are excited to be part of the Literacy Powerline team working with the Annie E. Casey National Support Center for the Campaign for Grade Level Reading to provide consultation for accountability systems, implementation and sustainability efforts of funded projects, particularly in rural areas.
The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
Closer to home, Apter & O’Connor has designed an evaluation of the Herkimer Oneida Literacy Coalition for Literacy Powerline. The approach is an empowerment model to facilitate stakeholder ownership of the evaluation activities and allow for on-going feedback, dialogue and appropriate adjustment. The evaluation is designed to measure the development of a fully functioning literacy coalition and the impact on the community.
A&O has joined Literacy Powerline to support the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading in communities across New York State. The Campaign is a collaborative effort by foundations, nonprofit partners, states and communities across the nation to ensure that more children in low-income families succeed in school and graduate prepared for college, a career, and active citizenship. The Campaign focuses on an important predictor of school success and high school graduation—grade-level reading by the end of third grade. Recognizing that schools can’t “do it alone”, the Campaign seeks to engage and mobilize whole communities to remove barriers, expand learning opportunities and assist parents to serve as partners in their child’s education. A&O along with Literacy Powerline is helping to build a statewide network of GLR Communities across New York by offering coalition building, coaching, technical assistance and resources to individual communities and cities, so they can build their own unique networks and realize the goals of the Campaign.
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