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At ACS, we’ve helped many of our clients learn how to be better spokespersons for their organizations and causes. In our opinion there is nothing better than in-person training and coaching, but we were happy to see a recent article in Education Week entitled, “Becoming a Better Public Speaker: Tips from the Greats.” When we read this article, it was almost as if the writer had attended our spokesperson training! There are great tips and tricks summarized here such as telling a story and showing your own passion for the topic. There’s also the author’s more subtle reminder to practice a presentation many times before you give it.

 

Those kinds of basics are always important, but we also take it a step farther. In our spokesperson trainings and one-on-one consultations, we help our clients decide what to say, create a message frame, and pivot away from distractions and stay on point under pressure­ — even in the most challenging situations. Want more help building the skills that will make your next speaking engagement a hit? Contact Scarlett Bouder to schedule a spokesperson training for yourself or your team, and check out these three tools on our website:

• Give Jargon the Boot – Tips to Remember
• Give Jargon the Boot – Worksheet
• Message Creation Checklist

On July 2, 2015 Freshwater Cleveland featured  ACS client PRE4CLE, which in just 16 months, is nearly halfway toward their goal of enrolling 2,000 children into high-quality preschool. ACS has developed the communication and advocacy plan that drives PRE4CLE local, state, and national activity.

PRE4CLE, Cleveland’s plan to rapidly expand access to high-quality preschool opportunities for the city’s three and four-year-olds, is raising the bar for high-quality preschool. Seven hundred existing preschool slots were improved to PRE4CLE’s high-quality standards. Another 450 high-quality slots were created to meet the demand.

At the heart of PRE4CLE’s success is the unique collaboration of Cleveland’s public, private, business, philanthropic, and faith-based community. The Cleveland community is putting its money where its mouth is. To date, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cuyahoga County, and philanthropic partners have contributed more $9 million in public funding to support high-quality preschool opportunities for the city’s three and four-year-olds.

You can read the full article here: http://www.freshwatercleveland.com/features/pre4cle070215.aspx

Learn more about PRE4CLE’s efforts on their website: http://clevelandmetroschools.org/pre4cle

 

With new words and phrases being developed seemingly every day it can be easy to fall prey to peer pressure and lead a life of jargon filled emails, reports, and presentations. Fortunately, Hamish Thompson, managing director of London public-relations firm Houston PR has created a simple online tool for shaming your colleagues and clients alike.

When presented with questionable English, simply copy and paste the offensive statement into Buzzsaw and you’ll be presented with an analysis verifying your suspicions…your co-worker just sent you a jargony sentence.

So, next time your boss sends you a sentence like this, “It’s critical that our firm streamline our ‘outside the box’ approach to client interfacing so that we can become an industry frontrunner among thought-leaders”, simply “reply all” with the prbuzzsaw link. www.prbuzzsaw.com. We then suggest you pack up your desk.

ACS works with our clients to develop powerful and succinct messaging (without the jargon). Click here to view ACS’ communication tools and resources including, Tips to Remember- Give Jargon the Boot.

Despite the increasing numbers of students across the state who are gifted, economically disadvantaged or who have limited proficiency in English, the Ohio House’s and the governor’s versions of the state budget, as well as the Senate’s version, propose no additional funding for these students. With ACS by their sides, members of The Ohio 8 Coalition have spent hours in the Ohio House and Senate advocating for a 2 percent increase ($43 million) in funding for these students, equal to the lowest increase in funding proposed for other student services. This tiny increase would result in significant support for students and come at a cost that is a mere pittance in the House’s proposed $71 billion budget.

The Ohio 8 represents the largest urban public school districts in Ohio, which serve nearly half of the state’s gifted students and more than 30 percent of the state’s students with limited English proficiency. In addition, 86% of students served by the Ohio 8 are economically disadvantaged. To read more about The Ohio 8’s stance on funding special student populations, read this June 14^th Letter to the Editor in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Ohio delivered more indictments for Medicaid fraud than any other state in the last year — thanks in part to the work of ACS client HMS. “The Ohio Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is doing as good or better than any (other unit) in the country,” said Lloyd Early, special agent in charge of Medicaid fraud, in a June 5^th article in the Dayton Daily News.

HMS works with the state Medicaid agencies to help detect fraud as part of its contract to provide program integrity services. For several years, ACS has helped HMS identify and pursue growth opportunities for its business in Ohio. As a result of HMS’s work, clients like the State of Ohio are able to recover millions of dollars every year and save billions more through the prevention of erroneous payments. That’s a win-win for everyone!

Early childhood advocates and supporters need a set of clear, compelling messages to differentiate infants and toddlers from traditional prekindergarten through grade 12 issues. Advocacy & Communication Solutions (ACS), in partnership with ZERO TO THREE,  analyzed messages most often used for birth to age 3.  The Infant and Toddler Message Guide provides explanation of when and how to use different kinds of messages, ways to make them more effective, and guides users through the process of developing more for their own use. It is available on ACS’s website at www.advocacyandcommunication.org/tools-resources and ZERO TO THREE’s website at www.zerotothree.org/itmessaging.

ACS Senior Associate Rebecca Cohen was a featured presenter at the Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) Training Institute that took place in Troy, Michigan on May 21. In her session, entitled “Reaching More Providers Through Promising Practices, Cohen helped 60 Great Start to Quality outreach specialists increase their confidence and competence in using Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to distinguishing target audience needs and align message and approach to meet those needs. As a result, these outreach specialists are now armed with more effective strategies for recruiting new providers for the Great Start program in Michigan.

The notion of breaking the school-to-prison pipeline has been gaining a great deal of national attention recently and the conversation has gained traction. ACS’s new analysis, Better Than Zero: How alternative discipline is replacing zero tolerance to break the school-to-prison pipeline:

•  Provides an overview of the current national conversation;
•  Highlights a sample of state actions to end the school-to-prison pipeline; and
• Offers a closer look at how research is proving the flaws in zero-tolerance policies.

Check out the resources here on our website.

Are we content to wait another 75 years to enroll 50% of our nation’s four-year-olds in high-quality pre-K? What about 150 years to enroll 70%? That’s the current pace of change, according to the newly-released annual State of Preschool Yearbook, from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). Across the nation, only 29% of four-year-olds and 4% of three-year-olds were enrolled in state-funded pre-K.

NIEER reports that total state funding for pre-K increased by more than $116 million ­– just 1% – in 2014, the equivalent of $61 per child on average. State funding per child for pre-K increased by at least 1%, but that’s still well below pre-recession levels. While these small increases in investment may indicate that state pre-K funding is turning the corner, there is still a very long way to go in ensuring a quality pre-K start for every child.

In May 2015, PRE4CLE honored the first group of 90 early childhood education centers, Head Start programs and Cleveland Metropolitan School District preschools that have chosen to be a part of Cleveland’s preschool expansion initiative, which aims to provide high-quality preschool to all of Cleveland’s three and four-year-old children.

“We want to acknowledge the commitment these centers and schools have made to provide high-quality preschool to Cleveland’s children by being some of the first organizations associated with PRE4CLE,” said Katie Kelly, PRE4CLE director. “Through their participation in PRE4CLE, these providers play an important role in preparing Cleveland’s children for academic success. The preschool years are a crucial window of time to show children how to be successful students and inspire their love of learning.”

In total, these providers can serve 4,378 children in 226 high-quality preschool classrooms across the city.  These providers are private providers, Head Start programs, and Cleveland Metropolitan School District preschool classrooms.

ACS uses its strategic communication and advocacy expertise to help PRE4CLE expand awareness of the importance of high-quality preschool and the demand for high-quality education in Cleveland.