FOR "TUTOR NICOLE" ONLY
CarmelSuga2000
policy_advocacy_challenge_.docxComplete Policy Advocacy Challenge 9.9 in Jansson on p. 301. Carefully read the example of the background information and review the list on p. 297 and then complete the Exercise:
Exercise:
Pretend that you are a grant officer at a foundation that has just received this proposal. Imagine that you have a pile of 200 other grant proposals on your desk and that you can pick only 20 of them for funding. Answer the following questions with details.
1. What questions do you still have about the proposal after reading it? (Thin of at least 6-8 questions)
2. What is missing from the proposal?
3. Would you fund it? Why or why not?
HINT: This proposal is asking for funding for a special project (Empowering Women for Change) sponsored by the Women's Re-Entry Project. It is not asking for general funding for the Women's Re-Entry Project itself. So, answer the above questions about the Empowering Women for Change project proposal.
***DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WOMEN’S RE-ENTRY PROJECT, THEY ARE NOT RELEVANT TO THIS ASSIGNMENT***
Page 297 EXAMPLE
A compilation of the top 100 speeches in American history with persons ranging the full political spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jesse Jackson to Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon is available at www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html.Select and listen to one of them (your computer will need audio capabilities). Ask the following questions:
• What goal or objective did the speechmaker seem to have?
• What audience did he or she address, and how was the speech tailored to them?
• How was the speech organized?
• What did the speechmaker emphasize at the beginning of the speech?
• What middle-speech content did he or she have?
• How did the speechmaker finish the speech?
• How did the speechmaker ’ s style of presentation enhance or detract from the speech?
• Summarize briefly why you think this speech was ranked as one of the top 100 in recent American history?
PAGE 301 – Policy Advocacy Challenge
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The female prison and parole populations in California have risen dramatically in the past two decades, largely as a result of mandatory sentences for drug-related crime. According to the Little Hoover Commission, as of December 2004, 10,000 women were in California ’ s prisons and 12,000 on parole. And while approximately 80 percent of women offenders have a substance abuse problem, drug treatment is available for just a fraction of incarcerated offenders and parolees. Most will return to prison within a year of their release. One-third of female parolees returned to custody for parole violation are charged with a drug-related offense.
Under the 1996 federal Welfare Reform Act, anyone with a felony drug conviction is banned for life from receiving government aid for herself and her children. The Sentencing Project found that over 37,825 women in California (40 percent of the total 92,000 women affected by the national ban) have been declared permanently ineligible for welfare benefits since 1996. This welfare ban inevitably dooms many formerly incarcerated women and their children to living on the street where they are subject to hunger, mal-nutrition, disease, sexual assault, and physical abuse. The ultimate victims of this lifetime ban are the more than 54,000 California children who are now at risk because their mothers are without access to income supports and food stamp.
The welfare ban is a short-sighted public policy approach that is already causing long-term damage to families and entire communities. We believe that we can create social change by training and organizing formerly incarcerated women to be active participants in the movement to advocate for policies that would remove the barriers to re-entry for women prisoners. We intend to show policy makers the faces and voices of real women who are impacted by inhumane policies and practices that continue to punish former prisoners (and their families) long after their release from behind bars.
Our vision is for all women and girls to be able to live positive, fulfilling lives free of the ensnaring cycle of violence and involvement in the criminal justice system. Through the Empowering Women for Change project, formerly incarcerated women will be empowered to speak out against policies that are inhumane and damaging not only to women prisoners but also to their children and families. Formerly incarcerated women will understand the public policy process and will insert themselves into this process as representatives of the largely unheard voices of prisoners, former prisoners, and the re-entry community. Through our efforts, formerly incarcerated women will gain a sense of self-worth and strength in the knowledge that they possess the power to improve societal conditions for themselves and others like them.
AGENCY DESCRIPTION
Women’ s Re-Entry Project is a grassroots, nonprofit organization founded as a sober-living home for women by a former prisoner who understands the challenges that women face after leaving prison. Our mission is to assist women and girls to break the cycle of entrapment in the criminal justice system and lead healthy and satisfying lives.
The goals of the Women ’ s Re-Entry Project are to:
• Provide a clean, safe, sober-living home environment where formerly incarcerated women and their children can feel welcomed and supported in their transition to becoming independent members of the community.
• Offer education, job training, and skill-building opportunities for women to prepare them for self-sufficiency.
• Provide leadership as a community advocate for the rights of women inmates and ex-offenders and their families.
The agency is located in South Los Angeles and is the only sober-living facility in the urban Los Angeles area designed to serve women returning from prison.
Women ’s Re-Entry Project provides a safe, sober, re-entry home for up to 20 indigent women ex-offenders and their children and gives them the skills to live independent, fulfilling lives. The agency is unique in that it has a director who was entrapped in the criminal justice system until the late 1990s and has since dedicated her life to helping other women break the cycle of incarceration, homelessness, addiction, and despair. Since its founding, the organization has succeeded in transforming the lives of over 180 paroling women.
PROPOSED PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Women’ s Re-Entry Project proposes to implement the Empowering Women for Change project. We plan to develop the leadership skills of formerly incarcerated women organizers who will develop a statewide media strategy and plan a Southern California Re-Entry Conference. This project will involve the planning and coordination of a two-day leader-ship training retreat wherein 20 formerly incarcerated women will gain leadership, public speaking, and community-organizing skills. We will also coordinate a series of workshops in which these same women organizers will devise a statewide media strategy to educate the public about the needs of women returning home from prisons and to improve the image of formerly incarcerated women in the media. Finally, the same group of organizers will plan and implement a Southern California Re-Entry Conference that will bring together formerly incarcerated women with policy makers to devise solutions to the barriers that women face upon their release from prison.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the “Empowering Women for Change ” project are to:
• Increase the leadership skills and the ability of formerly incarcerated women in our community by providing the tools that will allow them to effect social change.
• Increase positive media coverage around the need for re-entry services and reunification support for formerly incarcerated women. • Influence local and state policy makers to address the needs of formerly incarcerated women.
ACTIVITIES
The Empowering Women for Change project will entail the following four core activities:
• Recruit 20 formerly incarcerated women who desire to engage in community organizing around prisoner re-entry.
• Coordinate a two-day leadership training for 20 formerly incarcerated women focusing on outreach, media, and communication skills to help them plan a Southern California Re-Entry Conference.
• Coordinate a series of workshops with formerly incarcerated women organizers to develop a statewide media strategy with consistent and clear messaging around the needs of formerly incarcerated women.
· Convene a Southern California Re-Entry Conference to educate city, county, and state policy makers about the needs and barriers to re-entry for formerly incarcerated women and work with them to devise strategies for addressing those needs.
OUTCOMES
We will achieve the following three outcomes during the grant period:
1. A trained corps of 20 formerly incarcerated women organizers
2. A statewide media strategy with consistent and clear messaging around the needs of formerly incarcerated women designed by formerly incarcerated women organizers
3. Commitments from policy makers to address the needs of formerly incarcerated women
EVALUATION
We will distribute and collect written assessments at the beginning and ending of the leadership retreat to assess participants’ familiarity and past experience with the topics being discussed as well as the extent to which they benefited from the training. We will also collect written assessments for each media worship to ascertain their effectiveness and to incorporate participant feedback into future workshops. Finally, we will distribute evaluations for our Re-Entry Conference to assess the impact on community participants as well as policy makers.
