Lunch 'n Learn: Nonprofit Advocacy - Awakening the Sleeping Giant

The coming decade will offer one of the greatest aggregations of challenges to poor and working families in modern history. Gaps have widened in income, achievement, life-long earnings, primary and secondary education, and family net worth and assets. The situation is made more grim in Colorado by continued cuts to services that provide the safety net for low-income and working families.

In this climate, the goal of building a powerful civic voice for disenfranchised constituencies and the nonprofits that support them takes on urgent importance. Nonprofit direct service providers can have a crucial voice in public policy campaigns, in particular on anti-poverty and state budget reform issues.

This interactive session will engage participants in a discussion of:

• Nonprofit Advocacy – What is advocacy and why does it matter to human service providers?
  
• Successful Components of Advocacy - Overview of the full cycle of client-centered advocacy.
  
• Opportunities & Resources – How to get started in 2013/2014 and connections to resources, partners and support. 
  

Presenter: Rebecca Gorrell 

Ms. Gorrell is the Program Director at the Colorado Participation Project (CPP), which provides guidance, training and support to human service nonprofits in their nonpartisan advocacy and civic engagement efforts. She brings 12 years of nonprofit management, development, and volunteer experience at organizations throughout Colorado, including Regis University and Seniors’ Resource Center. Rebecca’s areas of expertise include special events, program management, volunteer coordination, nonprofit marketing and business development. Rebecca has been involved in diverse campaign and electoral efforts in Denver as a poll worker, poll watcher, and canvasser.

The mission of the Colorado Participation Project (CPP) is to guide, train, and support human service nonprofits in their nonpartisan advocacy and civic engagement efforts. Since its founding, CPP has grown into a network of 34 service providers statewide who together serve nearly one million low-income Coloradoans. CPP regularly convenes and connects direct service provider organizations to coordinate civic participation and grassroots advocacy efforts, and has gained a national reputation as a trusted and leading resource for nonpartisan civic engagement and advocacy information.