[AAACE-NLA] 33 States Missing in the Save Literacy Campaign?

[Sarah Beaman-Jones]

Dear David and all,

We in Missouri are working in a variety of ways to ratchet up our advocacy
work.  During a state meeting of Even Start coordinators, we spent several
hours discussing the techniques of advocacy based on David Rosen's advocacy
workshop at a conference in St. Louis.  The coordinators have been sharing
their experiences with me.  Here is some of their reports:

In Independence:
Yesterday, the United Way representative brought a staffer from Jim
Talent's office to our site.
Talent's staff person was quite impressed with the comprehensive program
of family literacy / Even Start.  I gave her an Annual Report and before
she left she ask for me to write down the federal funding source on
paper so that she could take it back to the office.
 
In Lemay:
Russ Carnahan through the other day. One of our board members added our
center on his tour of south county without him really knowing. However, this
meant that he was here for literally less than 5 minutes. He did mostly see
our Family lit program since he came after all the children were down for
naps. The young ladies in our program were working on writing official
letters already and decided to write him letters of thanks for coming and
telling him how the program has impacted their lives. His aide for this area
was with him and is supposed to be calling to set up a time to come back to
learn more about us.
 
In St. Joseph:
I met with Congressman Graves' educational aide, Chad Higdon, on January 24.
He was very interested in what St. Joseph Even Start was doing and how
Bush's cuts would affect our program.  Chad was unaware that there was an
Even Start in St. Joseph, and said that he would pass the information along
to the Congressman. I invited them to visit our program, and Chad said that
he would keep that in mind, as it would provide a perfect location for the
Congressman to be seen with children and adults in a federal program.    I
have sent a follow up letter thanking Chad for his time and explaining how
the budget cuts would affect our community. He also requested that I keep
him updated on new developments as they became available to me.


Sarah Beaman-Jones, MAT
Literacy Program Developer
LIFT-Missouri
11885 Lackland Road
Maryland Heights, MO  63146

314-291-4443 ext. 206
800-729-4443
314-291-7385 [fax]
sbeaman at webster.edu
www.lift-missouri.org