An Update on Recent Geriatric Education Advocacy Efforts

The National Association for Geriatric Education (NAGE) has maintained consistent education and advocacy efforts since 2006. In recent years NAGE has implemented formal and grassroots advocacy strategies. At the federal level NAGE has increased collaboration with other aging advocacy organizations and coalitions. At the request of Congress, NAGE leadership and stakeholders have testified before Congress and regularly submit testimony to the House and Senate. NAGE staff maintain strong working relationships with congressional staff. Strategies for effective grassroots education and advocacy have been taught to members, and membership has mobilized to educate elected officials about the essential work of the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Programs across the country. This presentation will provide a thorough review of NAGE’s advocacy work over the past 4 years.

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Identifying Adaptive Solutions for Colorectal Cancer Screening in Underserved Communities

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically impacted numerous health and economic fronts. Because of the stay-at-home mandate and practice of physical distancing, nearly all preventive care measures have been halted, including colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. The health consequences of this temporary suspension are of great concern, particularly for underserved populations, who experience substantial CRC-related disparities. In this commentary, we describe challenges and opportunities to deliver COVID-19–adapted CRC screening to medically underserved populations receiving care in community health centers (CHC). This perspective is based on key informant interviews with CHC medical directors, teleconference discussions, and strategic planning assessments. To address the unprecedented challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, we identify 2 broad calls to action: invest in CHCs now and support equitable and adaptable telehealth solutions now and in the future. We also recommend 4 CRC-specific calls to action: establish COVID-19–adapted best practices to implement mailed fecal immunochemical test programs, implement grassroots advocacy to identify community gastroenterologists who commit to performing colonoscopies for CHC patients, assess cancer prevention priorities among individuals in underserved communities, and assess regional CRC screening and follow-up barriers and solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic may further exacerbate existing CRC screening disparities in underserved individuals. This will likely lead to delayed diagnosis, a shift to later-stage disease, and increased CRC deaths. To prevent this from happening, we call for timely action and a commitment to address the current extraordinary CRC screening challenges for vulnerable populations.

Improving a research culture in educational psychology to value transparency over novelty takes establishing new norms, grassroots advocacy, and top-down leadership

Many scientific disciplines are in the midst of reproducibility crisis. The cumulative harm of many seemingly modest sins are adding up to a diminished confidence in disturbingly large areas of research. These practices, which are enabled by a default towards opacity and by valuing statistical significance, impact, or novelty, undermine our credibility as a community that is expected to act in accordance with scientific ideals. Changing this reality can no longer be in the hands of the idealistic or privileged few, but must be the focus of every stakeholder in the scientific community. The field of educational psychology is well positioned to act toward this goal. This change is possible, and will transform the reproducibility crisis into a credibility revolution. It will take specific actions by both grassroots groups to build communities of practice plus the leadership of policy makers who can set standards for evaluating articles, grants, and hiring packets. These improved standards must ensure that transparency, rigor, and credibility are valued above novelty, impact, and incredibility. Grassroots groups advocate for change, share experience, and become an opportunity to create trainings so that the next generation of educational psychology researchers have the experience needed to sustain these early moves. We can take inspiration from other communities that have made shifts toward better practices, and can specifically prepare for this new world by modeling constructive evaluations of such open practices as those that take place through badging initiatives. These instances provide opportunities for emulating trail-blazers, training for new practices such as preregistration, and constructively evaluating or criticizing practice in ways that advances the reputation of all involved. This article is available as a preprint on EdArXiv:

Expanding Advocacy to the Grassroots Level: The New York State Model

New York State has achieved pharmacy practice advancement legislation more slowly than other states. Despite the benefits of pharmacy advocacy in shaping legislation, in New York State advocacy activities have generally been limited to once per year during Lobby Day. Implementation of a grassroots advocacy infrastructure has been able to organize and sustain legislative engagement among members of our professional organization, with more than 100 legislative visits completed since creation of the Grassroots Advocacy Committee. A committee with infrastructure including a buddy system and legislative visit tracking process and educational programs, such as simulation training, have reduced the perceived burdens of participation. Other pharmacy organizations who have identified advocacy as a priority can utilize these tools to organize their members to support legislative goals.

Venezuela in times of social, economic and political strife within TESOL affiliate grassroots advocacy initiatives: Implications for other contexts

Settling in a new region may imply a plethora of challenges for Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) and for any migrant or immigrant, no matter their background. Such challenges are as diverse as the individuals and their nationalities. Some SIFE have common experiences as immigrants relocating to a new country of residence, regardless of the status of migration. The range of constraints and situations that impact students’ access to formal education and/or its continuity in host countries is broad and deserves our attention as teachers and researchers. In this sense, the analysis of interviews conducted with SIFE from different universities and host countries has led to the consideration of particular difficult situations such as the reasons that pushed them to interrupt their studies and how it has impacted them personally, their access to employment, language, and home country return expectations. Taking into account the value of SIFE ́s own testimony obtained by means of interviews, this article addresses some of the diverse challenges they face in their host countries to raise awareness of the similarities and differences of their experiences, to promote socio-political advocacy for their needs, and to offer ELT educators ways in which they can respond to these special learners’ needs. It also in part can inform socio-political advocacy for SIFE who remain in their home countries of origin, as they often confront similar challenges as the local, regional or national context has been altered so much that they may also be in a context without adequate support.

Amending the Violence Against Women Act

This chapter studies the effort to reauthorize and expand the reach of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In September of 1994, after years of grassroots advocacy, U.S. Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and President Clinton signed it into law. VAWA provides federal funding for enhanced law enforcement, social services, and legal services for victims of domestic violence. The legislation was originally enacted with a sunset provision that required that Congress reauthorize it after five years, a feature that was repeated in subsequent reauthorization bills. When the law was due for reauthorization in 2011, however, the process did not go as smoothly as it had before. Instead, although VAWA had bipartisan support, advocates wanted to strengthen it with provisions they saw as essential to keeping all survivors of domestic violence safe. These additional protections were met with resistance in Congress. In advance of the 2012 presidential election, advocates sought to amend the legislation in ways that would strengthen the protections offered to Native Americans, undocumented immigrants, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) communities. In the last reauthorization battle, the ability of advocates to harness the medium, their networks, and their message provides a contemporary example of the social change matrix at work in the age of social media.

Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

An insurmountable amount of great research being done in academia rarely gets transformed into laws and policies. This can be attributed to the disconnect between academia, law/policy makers, and decision-making tables. A three-pronged approach to bridge the gap between academic scholarship, grassroots advocacy, and political activism could be instrumental in impacting socio-legal and policy reforms. Gender, as a social construct, has intersected since time immemorial with the way law and society have been organized. Law, as a hegemonic collection of practices and processes, has actively perpetuated a particular social order that did not go far enough in matching lived realities. This chapter begins with the author's efforts to examine family law and social inequality through a gendered lens by exploring marriage, divorce, and family entrepreneurship. It further outlines the ongoing debates about gender vs. diversity mainstreaming in policy realms. Lastly, it concludes with how these experiences drove the author's passion for grassroots advocacy, which finally led the author to political activism.