May COP Topic: “Building and Advocacy Army”
We are extending an invitation to communicators from every member charter school in Georgia to join our Communications Community of Practice. Our next meeting will take place virtually on Thursday, May 12, from 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m. This month’s topic is “Building an Advocacy Army.” Toolkits on engaging various stakeholders will be distributed to those in attendance.
If a representative from your school is interested in joining GCSA’s Community of Practice, contact Michelle Wirth, GCSA’s Senior Director of Communications.
The Communications Community of Practice will meet monthly to share messaging, best practices and the stories that will help us change the narrative for Georgia’s public charter schools. We recognize that not every school may have a full-time or even a part-time communications professional on staff or contract. But we believe that every school does have an advocate on staff who can participate in this community of practice to leverage the materials and supports we will provide.
Our request to each charter school leader is to identify someone from your organization who can participate in this work.
School communicator role and commitment:
- Participate in a 1.5-hour monthly meeting where we will share national and state updates, the association’s communications priorities and themes for the month, ready-to-use communications messaging and materials and the opportunity to share ideas with one another.
- Participate in periodic professional development meetings to hear about best practices in messaging, leveraging social and traditional media, engaging with lawmakers, and more.
- Share information, materials and calls to action with your broader charter school community through your existing communications activities.
- Share how your school is telling your charter school story and help us identify stories about your school we can amplify to key stakeholders.
GCSA role and commitment:
- Convene meetings to share timely and relevant information.
- Provide ready-to-use materials (e.g., talking points, newsletter articles, social media posts etc.).
- Provide guidance and advice to help your representative and school make use of best practices.
- Create opportunities for schools to tell their story individually and as a collective voice.
This work does not replace existing meetings that GCSA is hosting for school leaders nor the role of the school leader in being an advocate and communicator on behalf of the school and broader charter school sector. If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly.
