Stand for Children (Stand) utilizes the power of grassroots action by training member parents and teachers to become effective citizen leaders who join together to advocate for educational change. Stand strategically directs this powerful citizens lobby to push for long-lasting improvements for children at the state and local levels. By focusing on securing adequate funding for public schools and reforming education policies and practices, Stand helps create the opportunities children need to thrive academically and become successful, productive citizens.

Stand's model for citizen activism has been successful because of its three-pronged approach to mobilization. Stand organizers first enter a community and recruit parents and other concerned citizens to launch a local chapter of Stand. The most engaged among these members are selected to become Member Leaders, who are trained by Stand's staff to support the Chapter's advocacy agenda. Second, Stand works with members and other experts to find proven, cutting-edge policy innovations that can address education concerns in a state or local school district. Stand staff and members then draft a policy platform that local chapters ratify. Finally, Stand mobilizes members to lobby for the proposed legislation or policy changes in their communities and also directly in the state legislature. In election seasons, Stand also mobilizes members on behalf of candidates who adopt Stand's platform and have the potential to change the balance of power in favor of education reform. "An hour you spend with Stand is an hour you're going to get a lot done," said Mike Rosen, Chair of Portland's Stand for Children Chapter. "A lot goes into providing members with the tools they need to be effective, [so that] we get to the outcomes we want."

Mobilizing Citizens for Education Reform
New teachers struggle to succeed in a difficult profession with little support, and their students, often the neediest in each district, suffer a second-rate education. Teacher turnover costs Oregon taxpayers $45 million each year, with 40 percent of the state's new teachers leaving the profession within their first few years. Stand developed the Oregon New Educator Mentor Program to provide research-based, best-practice mentoring to new teachers and principals to give more students a top-notch educational experience. Stand also helped craft the legislation establishing the program, which will serve nearly 1,000 teachers and principals in 2008-09, and won support and initial funding for it from the governor and the legislature.

Replicating State Success at the National Level
Stand for Children was founded in 1996 after 300,000 Americans marched on Washington, D.C. for Stand for Children Day—the largest rally for children in U.S. history. Today the organization's six affiliates in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington have won more than 88 state and local victories, improving educational opportunities for more than 2.7 million children, and garnering more than $1.7 billion in new public funding for education and other children's programs.

Jonah Edelman, Co-Founder and CEO of Stand for Children, leads the organization, mobilizing members to hold legislators accountable for prioritizing children's needs. As he maps out Stand's growth for the future, Jonah will oversee the organization's plans to aggressively pursue expansion to 10 additional states by 2012. Believing that Stand's citizen-led constituency can bring a new voice to break the national gridlock between established interests and educational deficiencies, Jonah is also developing a long-term strategy for enhancing Stand's national political influence by applying the organization's model to national advocacy campaigns.