Thank You For Joining Us for #AEFLWeek 2021!
During Adult Education and Family Literacy Week (AEFL Week) we came together to celebrate successes and engage in many activities that raised the visibility of our collective work in the field of adult education.
Together we highlighted legislative champions at all levels (mayors, governors, and members of congress) on both sides of the aisles. Many programs and educators shared videos, ads, and ceremonies which were amplified on multiple social media channels.
COABE leadership held meetings with legislative committee members, issued a press release over paid wire about AEFL Week which was picked up by the Associated Press and 84 other news outlets with an estimated projection of 82 million viewers, worked together with our State Advocates for Adult Education Fellows (SAAEF Fellows) to publish op eds, press releases, schedule legislative meetings, engage in robust social media campaigns. COABE also designed and hosted multiple sessions three times each day, Monday through Friday, where we launched numerous new initiatives. Throughout the week, our daily eblasts were opened more than 36,000 times, and our combined social media impact including our Twitter Storm surpassed 250,000 impressions! We closed out the week with a Facebook Live with the Fellows session that has been viewed more than 1,300 times since Friday.
If you were unable to participate live during our special events, we encourage you to review the schedule at a glance and watch the videos here.
As we close out the month of September, we want to thank you for prioritizing and participating in this year's national Adult Education and Family Literacy Week!
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Led by COABE's Fellows, affiliate organizations and individual members promoted #AEFLWeek heavily across multiple social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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Watch for the VIP list of top amplifiers which will be published
as Part II of our Collective Impact Report on AEFL Week 2021.
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Legislative Champions
We thank the legislative champions that celebrated with us during AEFL Week to support our adult learners, our teachers, and our 2,000+ programs across the country.
Hear the legislators, in their own words, as they talk about their support of adult education when you view the Legislative Leadership Awards ceremonies.
Additionally, you can view the proclamations that were sent in, often due to state level engagement by the state director, state association leadership, and/or COABE's SAAEF Fellow.
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Representative John Yarmuth, KY “As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I am honored to stand with you in this fight. I will continue to do all I can to make sure that these priorities are well-funded, and that the transformative work that you are doing can continue, changing even more lives along the way.”
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Senator Todd Young, IN “Adult education is essential to ensure that all of our fellow citizens can realize that next step in their careers, support their families and lead lives of dignity.”
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Representative Raul Grijalva, AZ “Education is key. Education is power. Education is opportunity. And adult education has been providing that backbone to millions of Americans who otherwise would be left behind.”
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Senator Jack Reed, RI “Many adult education students live in the communities hardest hit by the pandemic, and many work in the hardest hit sectors of our economy... A real commitment to economic and social justice calls for a real commitment to expanding adult education opportunities.”
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Representative Dusty Johnson, SD: “We know what the building blocks of success are: hard work, training and education. And 1.5 million Americans, including 2,000 South Dakotans, enrich their lives with adult education.”
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Legislators Still Need To Hear From YOU and your learners!
COVID-19 Relief and Regular Appropriations Process is Underway
Ask the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to keep the $3.6 billion in the House #reconciliationbill funding for #AdultEd. Why? Adult Education moves millions of Americans out of poverty and into the workforce pipeline.
During AEFL week more than 300 members of congress heard from members all across the country about the need for funding. We need to keep the pressure up! Click the button below to send your email today.
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COABE kicked of AEFL Week with a special session delivered by Acting Assistant Secretary, Jen Mishory. OCTAE's engagement continued with a site visit to Penta Career Center Aspire by Dr. Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education. As part of his "Return to School Road Trip," Secretary Cardona visited an Aspire HSE math class and interviewed three Aspire ESOL students.
“When you have teachers that care and a welcoming environment, good things happen.” Dr. Miguel Cardona
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Adjusting to Change
Adult Education has undergone significant changes in the last year and a half. Programs have struggled with transitions to new teaching models, decreasing enrollment, and lower completion rates. For many programs this is the new normal.
COABE with the support of Essential Education will offer an ongoing series of field-based webinars that address the changes in adult education and how programs are successfully adapting to them.
Members completed a questionnaire to describe the areas of challenge and provided suggestions for solutions. Your answers will be used to bring in new grant opportunities as well as designing new instructional solutions.
The first 100 survey respondents have been selected to receive a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate donated by Essential Education.
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Programs Succeed when Learners Lead
Hosted by Kristin Hempel, Students as Leaders Chair, the "Programs Succeed when Learners Lead" session discussed ways that programs can engage adult learners in leadership positions. Watch the panel recording to hear Adult Learners, alumni, and program staff discuss their own experiences with Student Leadership.
The session also introduced our first-ever Programs Succeed When Learners Lead Incentive Grant! The inaugural $2,500 grant provides $1500 to support a Student Leadership project at one adult education program and $1000 to facilitate travel to and registration for COABE 2023, where the grant recipient will present on the process for creating and the results of their Student Leadership initiative.
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ROI Initiative
COABE announced that a groundbreaking research study to examine the adult education's return on investment in adult learners will be launched at COABE 2022 in Seattle, WA! With generous funding provided by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, discussion regarding the first of its kind, 3 year, longitudinal Return on Investment (ROI) initiative kicked off as the capstone of a special panel session of adult learners conducted by Alumni to the COABE Board of Directors, Dr. Meghan McBride.
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Workforce Funding and Partnership Opportunities for Adult Education Providers
Participants from around the country were the first to hear from leaders in the government, non profit, and corporate worlds regarding unprecedented funding and partnership opportunities for local programs.
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Economic Development Administration’s $2 billion American Rescue Plan Grant Opportunities, Available to Adult Education Programs by Department of Commerce
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$500 Million Good Jobs Challenge – This program is intended to get American workers the skills they need to secure quality jobs by investing in regional workforce systems and sectoral partnerships. This program can fund system development, and non-construction costs related to training program and implementation, including wraparound services for training participants (e.g., childcare, transportation, language support, career coaching).
$1 Billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge – This program aims to transform 20-30 distressed communities in our country with $25-75 million through investments in industry clusters, workforce, entrepreneurship and infrastructure projects.
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The National Governors Association assembled the State Equitable Recovery Coalition to drive sustainable, equitable recovery and growth after the economic disruptions of the pandemic through postsecondary education. You are invited to attend NGA's action lab on expanding SNAP E&T on October 19 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM EST. NGA's next action lab in this series will focus on Ability to Benefit and will be open to the public. Stay tuned for details!
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Has your local adult education program increased enrollment during the pandemic? During AEFL week, COABE hosted a webinar to update you on the wild success of the #MoveAheadWithAdultEd campaign that was developed to help local programs get "on the map" and boost enrollment. The webinar also provided results on the Google Ads national campaign and provided the opportunity to hear from several schools about how they have leveraged the campaign as a local lead generation strategy to boost enrollments to an even greater degree.
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