Requirements

What is required of programs that join the Advocacy Learning Center?
 
The Advocacy Learning Center provides programs the opportunity to reconsider the way you do advocacy with women/survivors and to re-think the role of advocacy in the larger movement to end violence against women.

We seek programs that are enthusiastic about improving advocacy and can meet the requirements.

2-year organizational commitment
Program team of key people
Staff time needed
About the cost
Participant FAQs

• About choosing a team
• About the cost
• About being an OVW grantee
• About the time commitment

Program team of key people
Your organization’s team should minimally include

• 1 front-line advocate or crisis counselor currently doing direct advocacy and
• 1 manager or executive director

Participation by decision-makers with authority to implement operational changes in your program is essential for success. Your team members will share what they are learning with other advocates in your program and will engage these colleagues in evaluating and modifying your organization’s advocacy practices.

Certain components of the course - such as audio conferences - will be open to all members of your organization.

At the end of 2 years, each member of your team will have finished the course. Based on what they've learned, your organization will have made operational changes that strengthen your advocacy.

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Staff time needed

To make it possible for busy advocates to complete the course, much of the curriculum is delivered through distance learning and self-study opportunities.

All team members will attend the in-person events: 5-day retreat and the 3-day institute. A non-local site visit will be conducted by 1 team member. Another team member will do a local site visit with an advocacy or organizing group near or in your own community.

Each month, team members will take part in at least one element of the course, which may be a self-study component, an audio conference or webinar requiring approximately 2-5 hours total.

During the 2 years, concepts and approaches will be introduced, analyzed, practiced, and reviewed in multiple ways in order to maximize participants’ learning.

About the cost
The course and all materials are free. There will be minimal costs for long-distance phone calls for audio conferences, and an Internet connection is necessary for webinars. You will contribute staff time and your team will need funds for travel by air to 3 events over 2 years.

All grantees of the federal Office on Violence Against Women are given training and technical assistance funds when they receive an award. These funds are intended to be set aside for grantees and their project partners to attend OVW-sponsored training such as the Advocacy Learning Center. Your program may receive OVW funds directly, you may be a project partner on an OVW-funded project, or you may be a sub-grantee of an OVW STOP award that goes to your state.

Once selected for the Advocacy Learning Center, we will discuss any subsidy needs you may have for travel expenses for your team, and we will work with you to determine if federal Office on Violence Against Women set-aside training funds are available. We ask programs to use OVW set-aside training funds whenever possible so the Learning Center can also be available to advocacy programs who do not receive OVW funds.

• If funded directly, we will ask you to designate use of these funds for all or part of your team’s travel expenses.
• If you are an advocacy partner in an OVW-funded project, we will ask you to contact the grant recipient to inquire about the use of these funds.
• If you are an advocacy program funded through an OVW grant to a Tribal government, we will ask you to contact the person administering the grant for the Tribe to inquire about travel funds.
• If you are a sub-grantee of a STOP grant in your state, OVW set-aside training funds won’t generally be available to you, but you may still apply.

If sufficient funds are not available, OVW will subsidize travel for your team. Subsidies will also be available to a limited number of advocacy programs that are not OVW-funded.

We do not want costs to prevent any advocacy program from applying. Contact us with any questions you may have about costs.

Not sure if you are a project partner on a federal OVW grant or if you have access to travel funds? We can help you figure this out. Call 651-699-8000, ext. 20, or email advocacy@praxisinternational.org.

 Download Estimated costs

If your organization's travel expenses are subsidized fully or partially, please become familiar with our
 Subsidy Guidelines for helpful information on making travel arrangements and receiving reimbursements for expenses.

At least two (a manager and a front-line advocate or crisis counselor), and three is good. In some cases we will accomodate four if your organization is especially large with many programs, or is geographically organized in such a way that it would make sense to include one person from each office, or another reason you may have. Subsidies will be limited to up to 3 team members. The number of team members you select will depend on the size of your advocacy program, the amount of staff time you can commit to the course and how many staff you’d like involved in a focused way on examining organizational changes to your advocacy. We will select about 18 programs (50 advocates) for each class, but one program may have a 2-member team and another may have 3 members.

What if we are a very small program and can’t send a team?

If at all possible, we'd like to have you send two people, but a very small program may only be able to send one. The important thing is that this be a key person who is able to make or influence change in your program.

Which advocates should we select?

Experienced advocates and crisis counselors who are enthusiastic about advocacy would make great team members. Also, if your program does more than one type of advocacy (for example, direct, systems, community, and other), it would be helpful to send advocates who represent the different types of advocacy your program provides. You may choose to include an advocate working in a government-based victim assistance program in your community, e.g. a prosecution or law enforcement advocate.

What if a team member leaves our employment?

We know you’ll make every attempt to select team members who will complete the 24-month course. However, if a team member leaves your program, we will work with you to help a replacement team member catch up with the class. Since we start a new class every 6 months, course activities will be repeated. A new team member would need to attend the next 5-day retreat, but your organization would need to cover the person’s travel costs if we had already subsidized your travel.

How will our staff members who aren’t on the team benefit from the course?

Although your program’s team will be immersed in consistent, focused exploration with the other members of their class, we also expect the team to engage your whole staff in discussion, consideration, and testing of new ideas and methods of advocacy. Interacting with their colleagues who are involved in the Learning Center experience over a 24-month period will be an effective way for the rest of your staff to contribute to and carry out organizational change. Audio conferences will be open to all program staff.

About the cost:

Can we really afford to do this?

The course itself is free. We will provide all course materials, including the e-learning course, self-study workbook, and reading material, or you will be able to download them from our website. Your team will participate in 1 to 3 long-distance calls every month, about 90 minutes each. You will need Internet access for webinars. The biggest expense will be travel costs—to the 5-day retreat, the 3-day institute, and the non-local site visit—and these costs will be subsidized by the Office on Violence Against Women if you do not have access to funds for these expenses. Download  Estimated costs.

How do the subsidies work?

If you have adequate OVW set-aside funds, or access to other funds, to cover all of your team’s travel costs you will be asked to designate those funds for this purpose. If you have enough funds to cover some travel, OVW will subsidize the rest. For example, if you can cover travel for your full team to the 5-day retreat but not the 3-day training institute or site visit, then subsidies will cover the remaining travel costs. If you can pay for travel for 2 team members to the 5-day retreat, but only 1 member to the 3-day training, then OVW subsidies will cover the cost for the remaining person, as well as travel costs for the site visit.

If you are an advocacy partner on an OVW-funded project or an advocacy program funded through a tribal government, OVW staff may be able to communicate with the official grantee of the project on your behalf, if necessary, to discuss possible support for your team to participate.

We will work with each selected organization to make sure you have the resources sufficient to meet your needs. Non-grantees will also be eligible for partial or full subsidies.

How can we gain access to federal OVW set-aside training funds?

If your organization has been awarded a grant directly from OVW, you will be familiar with the set-aside training funds that you receive and are required to spend on OVW-sponsored training. If selected for the Learning Center, you will be asked to use these funds for part or all of your travel expenses. Call your OVW program specialist with any questions about use of your travel funds in your grant.

If you are an advocacy partner of an OVW-funded project, you may not be familiar with these set-aside training funds. We will help you figure out whom to ask locally about the possible use of these funds. Also, OVW is communicating with grantees to encourage them to support local advocacy partners that wish to join the Learning Center by designating funds for a team’s travel costs.

About being an OVW grantee:

What if we don’t know if we are an advocacy partner on an OVW-funded project?

Contact us and we’ll help you figure this out.

What if we have a pending OVW application and won’t know for a while if we’re being funded?

Apply to the Learning Center now anyway. If you are not funded, a limited number of non-grantee advocacy organizations may also be selected for the course. Applying will not affect your pending grant award application.

What if our OVW-funded project is ending soon or ending during the 24-month course?

That’s okay; apply to the Learning Center now anyway. Participation in the course is not dependent on your grant’s time period.

About the time commitment:

How can we afford the time to do this?

This is a rare opportunity, but we also know it will be challenging to an advocacy organization to make this commitment of staff time while continuing to provide services to victims. To make it possible for busy advocates to complete the course, much of the curriculum is delivered through distance learning and self-study opportunities.

You will need to arrange for coverage at the office while your team attends the 5-day retreat and the 3-day institute, but beyond this the typical time required of Learning Center participants each month will be 90 minutes to 3 hours for audio conference calls. The independent learning courses can be completed as time allows. Your organization’s commitment of time and resources can yield immediate benefits to your advocacy staff and the women/survivors you work with as well as lead to significant progress in the long-term effort to end violence against women.

Download the complete  Course schedule and syllabus