https://coabe.org/pdwebinars1/ INTRODUCTION TO ADVOCACY: WHAT PROGRAMS AND ADULT LEARNERS SHOULD KNOW BEFORE BEING AN ADVOCATE DATE: Wednesday, April 21st, 2021 Time: 2:00–3:00PM (Eastern Time) Are you an Adult Learner who wants to become an advocate for Adult Education? Are you a program director or teacher who wants adult learners to advocate for your program? First, you’ll have to understand the common challenges that adult learners face as advocates – and how to solve those problems. Join our workshop and find out what you should know about your program before advocating, what parts of your story to share, and when to share it. Join our workshop; find out how to become an advocate for Adult Education and how to retain your student leaders. Register <https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SOKX4a2DQXCt9XQ5wr3Tcg> Presenters Marty Finsterbusch is the Executive Director of VALUEUSA. Marty Finsterbusch has made literacy a lifetime commitment. From his early childhood days, diagnosed with learning differences, he realized the need for a better way to educate and support people with learning differences. Marty became involved in adult literacy in 1986, and immediately recognized a vital need to draw on the wealth of knowledge from adult learners themselves. In 2001, he was hired as the first Executive Director for VALUEUSA, the only national nonprofit adult literacy organization in the United States governed and operated by current and former literacy students. Currently he is involved in conducting leadership trainings around the country through the Adult Learner Leadership in Education Services (ALLIES) research on adult learner involvement improving their program. Marty helped the organization develop and deliver leadership trainings throughout the U.S., conducting nine National Adult Learner Leadership Institute events, and achieve national prominence as the authority on learner involvement in adult literacy. Marty has served on Pennsylvania’s Adult Basic and Literacy Education Interagency Coordinating Council, having been appointed by three different Governors. During his National Institute for Literacy Fellowship in 2000, he studied adult learner involvement in all 50 states. Marty has served on the governing boards of several national and state organizations including the National Coalition for Literacy for six years as board member and two as president, Laubach Literacy Action (ProLiteracy), SCALE, and Pennsylvania’s State Coalition for Literacy. In 2009, he testified before the House Committee on Education and Labor’s Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness Subcommittee on improving our nation’s adult education and literacy system. Jessica Wabler spent the first decade of her adult education career working in DC as a program manager, teacher, volunteer coordinator, and more. While in DC, she was instrumental in founding the DC Adult & Family Literacy Coalition and still co-chairs its Best Practices Committee. Now, she coordinates the COABE Student Ambassador Program and works with multiple other organizations nationally to build empowering programs that help learners succeed. [image: image.png] -- Regina Suitt Consulting *Ad**vocacy, Leadership, Innovation * *suittregina@gmail.com <suittregina@gmail.com> * *1-520-237-6985*