AdvocacyNJ

Per the 2010 census, 2,022,136 children under the age of 18 years old make up the population of NJ. The services of AdvocacyNJ could be applicable to children in some capacity if participating in an educational setting, even without the need for special services.

Federal Data:
14%, 7 million (2018) out of 50.6 million (2016) of all public school students were receiving special education services ages 3-21. (addendum 4-5)

Approx 20% of children have a language based learning disability, 17% of children have a developmental disability, and 20% of children will experience a mental disorder any given year. (addendum 6)

All research agrees that the earlier intervention happens for developmental or learning disabilities, the greater outcomes.

Early Intervention infants and toddlers receiving services 1991 1.77% of population (194k), 2018 3.26% (389k) 0-5 years. Only 30 states have adopted an infant-toddler credential for individuals working with the 0-5 population. (addendum 7)

Each state has a parent resource center or organization that is provided funding. The feedback from our focus groups are:
Their services are limited or they are too busy to help.
They seem to only help “certain people” because of their funding parameters.
People do not know they exist.
They are providing out of date or incorrect information for various reasons.

Our main goal through AdvocacyNJ is to make a systemic impact in the education system across New Jersey. AdvocacyNJ is working to: provide advocacy services to families to ensure their children FAPE, provide a resource library with self advocacy resources, educational, and clinical resources, provide and/or sponsor educational training workshops.

1. Providing Advocacy Services
2. Resource Database Creation:
- agreement and/or training protocol with clinicians, doctors, therapists to be in active database related to effective collaboration between their work and the education system.
3. Scholarships
- Scholarship process to be created appropriate for each type being offered. Review of scholarship applications at monthly board meeting to approve funding. Child educational or clinical evaluations, Teacher training scholarships, Classroom supply scholarships
4. Educational Workshops
- Speaking/Training events to be coordinated with qualified professionals and/or other non-profit organizations to educate parents and professionals.

The goal will be to establish a pay-for-service model, donation income stream, and curriculum/podcast revenue to diversify the income and create a wider area of impact.

At this time, our board consists of capable individuals to target each area of service. An advisory board is currently being organized in order to further develop our strategic goals. The following areas will be addressed to move the organization forward.

Grants/Funding:
A primary focus of this position is to gather information and coordinate/write grant proposals for government, state, corporate, and foundation funds as applicable.
Research and identify potential individual, state, corporate, and foundation funding sources.
Ensure the development, writing, and submission of funding proposals and grant applications.
Establish timelines to complete the collection of relevant data/information for proposal content, internal routing and approvals, and submission to funding sources.
Maintain accurate and timely records of research activities, funding logs and reporting deadlines, grant funding resource materials and publications.
Monitor program compliance for continuity as related to contract/grant administration.

Editor:
Responsible for the writing of widespread development of communication vehicles possibly including fundraising, marketing, correspondences, proposals, presentations, etc.
Emailed newsletter monthly in collaboration with PR
Press releases as applicable to newspapers
Fostering community opportunities for PR in local print and news sources.

Events Coordinator/PR/Social Media:
Responsible for the ideation and execution of partnerships with potential supporters of AdvocacyNJ to organize events, PR opportunities, etc.
Management of social media accounts
Oversight of networking opportunities for Executive Director: cost/benefit of engagement.

Finance/Accounting:
Provide financial oversight and ensure transparency.

Advocacy Coordinator:
Provide oversight of the day-to-day operations of AdvocacyNJ.
Provide continuity of services to families and public contacts.
Act as liaison between Executive Director, Executive Board, and Advisory Board

Website:
Improve and update AdvocacyNJ website
Create content and changes regularly as needed
Assist with SEO rankings

Legal:
Provide legal insight for special education as needed and policy within the organization.

Education:
Provide insight into the current environment within education.
Represent AdvocacyNJ at conferences or community events as needed as a teacher liaison.

In 2019,
AdvocacyNJ directly advocated for 64 children. This resulted in:
- 8 collaborative out-of-district placements
- 12 initial IEPs or 504’s after being denied
- 5 mediation sessions with the state of NJ
- increased services/research-driven curriculum in the schools
- countless identified disabilities through clinical and professional referral,

- We reached approx. 3,400 individuals through social media, conferences, events, etc. with our various resources.

- Developed relationships with likeminded organizations across US which have widened our mission's effectiveness.

Our goal is to have more involvement from an advisory board to increase our effectiveness. And, promote an advocacy training to have more advocates to assist more families.