Stay Informed!

State & Local: Working with Your Coalition to Set a Policy Agenda

September 24, 2010 10:15 am - 11:45 am

Room: Virginia A

Knowing what you want is the first step to successful policy advocacy. This session will address the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of setting a coalition policy agenda. It will present a range of resources to help you think through what issues could be included in a comprehensive asset-building and asset-protection agenda, as well as a concrete example of how one coalition set and got buy-in for their agenda. This session is relevant to those working at both the state and local levels and will include a hands-on exercise to work through your own asset policy agenda.

Speakers

• LeElaine Comer, CFED - Moderator
  LeElaine Comer is state policy specialist at CFED. She conducts in-depth policy research and tracks state progress related to a range of policies focused on assets, entrepreneurship and social insurance. She helps manage a network of state policy partners and provides technical assistance in response to requests from state partners and other stakeholders. She is also involved in CFED's biennial Assets & Opportunity Scorecard. Prior to joining CFED, LeElaine worked for MDC, Inc., where she worked on local economic development initiatives in the rural South and co-directed an innovative workforce development sector program that changed the policies of community colleges and employers. LeElaine holds a B.A. in Sociology and Social & Economic Justice and Masters in City and Regional Planning with a concentration in community economic development, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Ida Rademacher, CFED
  Ida Rademacher is research director for CFED. In this capacity she provides research and evaluation expertise to help CFED define and advance a research agenda that identifies, investigates and advances effective strategies for building assets and expanding economic opportunity. Ida has over ten years of applied research and evaluation experience in the fields of workforce development, rural and immigrant entrepreneurship, and community economic development. Prior to joining CFED, she worked as a Senior Research Officer with the Academy for Educational Development where she managed a portfolio of evaluations of community development and social change initiatives. Ida also worked for five years at the Aspen Institute as a Senior Research & Program Associate with the Community Strategies Group and the Economic Opportunities Program where she formulated and led participatory research and peer-learning projects in the fields of workforce and economic development. She undertook graduate studies in economic anthropology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and received her Masters Degree in Public Policy from the University of Maryland. Her undergraduate degree is in anthropology and economics from James Madison University.
• Janet Byrd, NFP
  Janet Byrd is executive director of Neighborhood Partnerships, which works to create opportunities for low income people. Janet’s roots as a neighborhood organizer in Chicago working on housing issues as varied as insurance redlining, neighborhood disinvestment and tenant rights stoked a passion for housing policy and community development that has remained constant over the intervening years. Over her career, Janet has spearheaded a number of collaborative efforts which promise lasting benefit to our communities. As Director of Neighborhood Partnerships, Janet has been central to the success of the statewide advocacy coalition, the Housing Alliance. During her tenure NP also helped to launch the innovative multi-county collaborative to serve high-need homeless families, Bridges to Housing, and quadrupled the impact of the Oregon IDA Initiative, a unique statewide partnership that builds the assets of low income Oregonians. Neighborhood Partnerships is a founding partner of the Oregon Thrives coalition. Ms. Byrd holds a BA degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University.

Resources

Combined pdf presentation