Massachusetts Leadership Academy

Remembering Paul Cellucci

by Judy on Jun 8, 2022 • No Comments

Rest in peace Paul Celluci ,who always responded to poor people’s advocates— as a State Rep, as State Senator, as Lt. Governor, as Governor, as Ambassador. We called his official office in Canada and told a Secretary that an immigrantion lawyer from GBLS needed his official intervention to facilitate a...

advocacy / civic engagement / policy change / Trainings / workforce training

Relationships Matter

by Judy on Nov 30, 2018 • No Comments

When two hill town girls from Western Massachusetts get together in Florida – they have fun. Jane Swift and I go way back to our roots in Western Mass, to small town politics, to shared values and commitment to social, racial and economic justice as we pursued our separate careers...

advocacy / children / civic engagement / policy change

Celebrating National Adoption Day – Like many women in this lobbying business I started as a volunteer 45 years ago.

by Judy on Nov 18, 2018 • No Comments

Like many women in this business, I started as a volunteer. I belonged to an adoptive parent group. We had decided to “do something” about an existing law that forbade the adoption of children across religious lines. Through our parent support network we had learned that more than a thousand...

civic engagement / policy change / Resources

What People Are Saying

by Judy on Oct 24, 2018 • No Comments

More important than ever – positive policy change on the state level. Here’s what professional and volunteer lobbyists and organizers are saying about the newly-released 2018 edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring, by Judith C. Meredith and Margaret E. Monsell: Making effective and lasting change is harder than ever but...

Featured / Resources

New! 4th Edition of Lobbying on a Shoestring Is Here!

by Judy on Sep 12, 2018 • No Comments

Lobbying on a Shoestring offers a common-sense, practical approach to political action. Premised on the idea that real people should have a real impact on the development of public policy, this powerhouse of a paperback conveys truths about the legislative process and hard-won, strategic insights. The 2018 Revised Edition gets you...

advocacy / Featured

A Found Poem: from an official training PowerPoint for workers who screen shelter applicants.

by admin on Nov 22, 2012 • No Comments

THE CHILDREN AND I NEED SHELTER – LAST NIGHT WE SLEPT IN A CAR ( Massachusetts found poem)* Where were you sleeping before you slept in the car? How many nights have you spent in the car? Were your children with you? Do you own the car? Do you have the...

Featured / Resources / Trainings / Uncategorized

Organizing for Change – Reorganizing Your Internal Resources

by admin on Oct 15, 2012 • No Comments

I bet you can think of 10 MORE reasons why your organization might not want to spend the time and energy to reorganize you existing resources in order plan and implement a campaign to promote positive policy change in your town, in your county or in your state. I can...

Featured / Trainings

New Videos from Freedom House + past Highlights

by admin on Jul 13, 2012 • No Comments

Parents on the March: Organizing for Quality Education in Boston Public Schools, June 2012 Gail Snowden, from Freedom House, hosted the recent session on organizing for quality education in Boston and introduces two of Boston’s greatest education advocates and organizers Rep. Byron Rushing and Sarah-Ann Shaw. ...

Featured / Uncategorized

The most fun message training ever.

by admin on Jun 27, 2012 • No Comments

What kind of story do you tell? So far, the most “fun” on-site coaching event is a very lively, interactive message development session which helps volunteer activists and professional advocates learn how to turn a Chicken Little story that people ignore, into a Little Train that Could story, that makes people want to...

Featured / Trainings

What Does it Take to Promote Positive Change in Our Communities?

by admin on Jun 13, 2012 • No Comments

Answer: One person or organization, willing to be a part of a greater network, fueled by a common vision for the right solution. Individuals, organizations, communities learning from each other, drawing from a comprehensive library of public policy resources and organizing tools. Leadership Academy Training Programs: Be part of the Academy’s...

Featured / Resources

Do you have Real Clout?

by admin on Mar 30, 2012 • No Comments

There’s no secret for how to win the policy change you’re looking for, just a series of planning and organizing activities that add up to a campaign. Start by learning how the policy-making process works: the Real Clout textbook was written to serve as a how-to manual for community activists who,...

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The Senate Budget Process

by admin on May 21, 2012 • No Comments

Smart and savvy advocates got their amendments filed last Friday and are now trying to coax more Senators to email the Senate Clerk that they wish to be a co sponsor of their amendments. Advocates are also urging their Democratic Senator sponsors and co sponsors to attend this important event and speak up. SENATE BUDGET...

Featured

Consumers! Mind Health Care for All Please

by admin on May 14, 2012 • No Comments

Cost Control is on the Senate Agenda tomorrow and Thursday. The place will be crawling with “Special Interest Groups” like ours — meaning Health Care for All. They have done the research, they have found amendment sponsors, now they are asking us all to get to work and call our own Senators. So do...

Featured

House Vs. Senate Health Reform Plans: Let The Comparison Shopping Begin

by admin on May 10, 2012 • No Comments

Plain talk is what we civilians need here, and WBUR’s CommonHealth’s blog called Reform and Reality gets off to an excellent start with this entry. The Massachusetts House released its plan for cutting health costs on Friday. The Senate isreleasing its own plan today. And now begins the public “compare and contrast” period, the ingathering of input...

Featured / Uncategorized

Senior Citizens Disrupt Massachusetts Legislative Session

by admin on Apr 27, 2012 • No Comments

Best Chant to be seen in a video embedded in this article by State House News Service was “Today we March Tomorrow We Vote!” While most of the media led their stories with the protest around rising fares and reduced services at the MBTA, the State House News gave a few more details including the...

Uncategorized

Nearly 200 teenagers will lobby state lawmakers today

by admin on Apr 27, 2012 • No Comments

And they did!! Well, Erik Ariel Torres, from ABCD University High School said there were at least 60 of them. “There’s a real crisis with the levels of funding,” said Lew Finfer, an organizer for the Youth Jobs Coalition. “About 1,200 jobs are at stake.” in the Boston Herald on Wednsday the 25. ” Boston’s Thomas M. Menino and 20...

Featured / Uncategorized

The EBT Debate – the Video

by admin on Apr 27, 2012 • No Comments

This 35 minute debate was preceded by hours and hours of negotiations between Legislators who filed amendments to severely restrict the use of EBT Cards by welfare recipients to prevent fraud and Legislators who were concerned that the proposed solutions were unenforceable and threatened small businesses and certain professional services — carefully itemized on a 16...

Featured

History and Legacy of the Welfare Rights Movement Videos

by admin on Apr 27, 2012 • No Comments

And here is Claradine Cowell, a Leader in the Massachusetts Welfare Rights Movement telling her story. She is introduced by Lee Staples, a former organizer for Mass Welfare rights.

Featured / Uncategorized

Budget Debate Process — Nobody said it was going to be easy.

by admin on Apr 26, 2012 • No Comments

It was a lousy process for fans of transparency who long for the time we had 10 full days (and nights) of televised debate one line item at a time. Never mind there were huddles of legislators in the corners of the Chamber or (gasp) behind closed doors developing arguments and and counting votes in relative...

Featured / Uncategorized

Tired of WonkTalk about RomneyCare? Woops! ObamaCare?

by admin on Apr 21, 2012 • No Comments

Health reform advocates have a really hard time talking plain English. So, from HCFA’s resident wiseguy, I mean really smart guy, Ari Fertig…

Featured / Uncategorized

A Compelling Alert — Another Front on the War on Women? .

by admin on Apr 19, 2012 • No Comments

from Mass Law Reform and the Coalition for the Homeless The House Waysand Means Budget Would Erode the Shelter Safety Net for Homeless Children with Nowhere Else to Go! Support Rep. Wolf and Rushing’s Amendment #603 to Ensure Homeless Children Are Not Left on the Streets! For more information, contact the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute 617-357-0700 (Ruth...

Featured

Budget Amendments What’s Next #2 Leaving No Stone Unturned.

by admin on Apr 19, 2012 • No Comments

Leave no stone unturned. You’ve got through the weekend to contact Reps and ask them to get down to the Clerk’s office, sign up as cosponsors and send a little note to the Speaker and Chair of Ways and Means telling them they support your amendment. On Monday and Tuesday and throughout the week, savvy...

Uncategorized

Your Amendment is Filed — What’s Next #1

by admin on Apr 19, 2012 • No Comments

Congratulations!! You got through the first step –finding sponsors to file your amendments. Here is where you can find them all neatly numbered with a list of cosponsors Now remember there is still time to get more cosponsors. Reps can go down to the Clerks office and sign on to co-sponsor your amendment until just...