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Advocacy Matters: Transforming the State Together
Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 9:00 AM – Montpelier, VT
What would happen if the people devoted to serving Vermont’s most vulnerable people came together, created a shared vision and worked together to make that vision a reality?
What if we really could change the world?
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At this year’s conference we will work to uncover our connected interests, consider the concept of “intersectionality,” and commit to approaching our work in solidarity. Keynote speaker Karen Tronsgard-Scott will explore these possibilities and share a model for creating change in ourselves and in our world. Her framework will lead into a panel discussion that takes a closer look at intersectional issues in Vermont, and the need to resist pressures to fight for scraps or pit constituencies against each other. Next, we’ll move into an interactive World Café style exercise where organizers and advocates will share the models they use to advance their social justice missions.
At noon we’ve created an opportunity for solidarity by joining advocates for a vigil against homelessness on the steps of the Statehouse. Immediately afterward lunch will be served with a presentation from Dr. Megan Sandel, a nationally recognized expert on housing and children’s health. Participants will then choose between 3 afternoon workshop sessions to develop strategies for action.
Help us build bridges between advocacy movements and commit to collective impact.
Conference Agenda
8:30 Registration
9:00 Opening remarks
9:15 Keynote Address: Changing our World through a Shared Agenda | Karen Tronsgard-Scott, Executive Director, Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Karen is an internationally recognized speaker and trainer on coalition building for social change, organizational development and leadership coaching. She is currently a cohort member of Move to End Violence, an initiative designed to strengthen the collective capacity to end violence against women and girls.
10:00 Panel Discussion: Finding Intersections in our Work | Policy and Advocacy leaders delve more deeply into cross-cutting issues impacting Vermonters. Featuring: Paul Cillo (Public Assets Instiute), Infinite Culcleasure (Parents and Youth for Change), Debbie Ingram (Vermont Interfaith Action), Michelle Fay (Voices for Vermont’s Children)
11:00 Break
11:10 World Café: A Sampling of Organizing and Advocacy Models | Participants will rotate through interactive presentations on a variety of approaches to organizing and mobilizing Vermonters in support of social justice agendas. Featuring: Debbie Ingram (VIA), Dawn Moskowitz & Infinite Culcleasure (Parents and Youth for Change) Colin Robinson (Working Vermont), Ann Braden (Gunsense VT), Isaac Grimm (Rights and Democracy), Heather Pipino (Vermont Workers Center), Kelly Ault (VT Early Childhood Alliance)
12:00 Homelessness Vigil on the Statehouse Steps (optional)
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Lunch Presentation: Housing as a Vaccine – The Role of Social Determinants of Health in Children’s Wellbeing | Megan Sandel, MD, MPH. Dr. Sandel is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, the Medical Director of National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, and a Principal Investigator with Children’s Health Watch. She is the former pediatric medical director of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program, and is a nationally recognized expert on housing and child health.
2:00 Afternoon breakout sessions
3:00 A Call to Action – our commitment to each other to do things differently
3:30 Let’s go change the world together!
Afternoon workshop sessions
Designed to give participants additional strategies to use in your advocacy right now and in the future:
- SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH: Dr. Megan Sandel will continue to explore the role that social supports play in children’s health and wellbeing, and engage workshop participants to identify areas in Vermont where increased investments in housing, nutrition and other key family supports can improve the effectiveness of our health care spending.
- BUDGET POLICY: Paul Cillo, Executive Director of Public Assets Institute will discuss the successful effort to get a “current services budget” alongside the Governor’s budget proposal. The current services budget will show the cost to maintain the same level of services that were provided in the previous year for all eligible Vermonters. This is important baseline information advocates can use to evaluate the impact of the proposed budget and fight for a budget that – at a minimum – meets the basic needs of all Vermonters.
- COALITION FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT: Karen Tronsgard-Scott will lead a conversation about how advocates with a shared purpose can develop and sustain unbreakable ties based on the heart of the issue at stake.
Speaker Biographies
Keynote Speaker : Karen Tronsgard-Scott
Karen Tronsgard-Scott envisions a world in which all people, to the last girl, are valued and thrive and live lives free from gender-based violence. Karen is a non-profit leader who has worked to build inclusive communities and to end gender-based violence for the past thirty years. In 2007 she joined the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence as its Executive Director. She is currently a cohort member of Move to End Violence, a 10-year nationally recognized initiative of the NoVo Foundation designed to strengthen the collective capacity to end violence against women and girls. Karen is an internationally recognized speaker and trainer on coalition building for social change, organizational development and leadership coaching. Before joining the Vermont Network, Karen led Tri-County Help Center, an organization focused on serving survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and survivors of mental illness. She began her career in advocacy and non-profit leadership in the 1980’s at the Chitra Lane School for children with developmental disabilities in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Karen earned her Master’s Degree in Political Science with a certificate in Public Administration from Ohio University. She and her wife, having raised three feminist sons, now live with many pets in Hinesburg, Vermont.
Lunch Presenter: Megan Sandel, MD, MPH
Megan Sandel, MD MPH, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, the Medical Director of National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, and a Principal Investigator with Children’s Health Watch.
She is the former pediatric medical director of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program, and is a nationally recognized expert on housing and child health. In 1998, she published with other doctors at Boston Medical Center, the DOC4Kids report, a national report on how housing affected child health, the first of its kind, and over the course of her career, Dr. Sandel has written numerous peer reviewed scientific articles and papers on this subject.
She has served as a Principal Investigator for numerous NIH, HUD and foundation grants, working with the Boston Public Health Commission and Massachusetts Department of Public Health to improve the health of vulnerable children, particularly with asthma. She has served on many national boards, including Enterprise Community Partners, and national advisory committees at American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC Advisory Committee for Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention.
WHEN
Thursday, January 7, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM (EST) – Add to Calendar
WHERE
Capitol Plaza Hotel & Conference Center – 100 State Street Montpelier, VT 05602 – View Map
