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We are pleased to announce that ACS policy associate Cassie Gaffney received the 2015 Excellence in Advocacy by an Up and Coming Practitioner Award at the Professional Women in Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C., for her work as an early childhood education and K-12 policy advocate. This year’s competition had more than 100 nominees. We […]

We are pleased to announce that Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS), was honored with a Platinum Award in the Communication Plan category of the MarCom Awards for its two-year strategic communication plan for PRE4CLE, Cleveland’s plan to expand high-quality preschool to all children in the city of Cleveland. An international creative competition that recognizes outstanding […]

ACS client, The Ohio 8 Coalition, released their 2015 Year-at-a-Glance Infographic that highlights the accomplishments and activity of Ohio’s eight city school districts. This year-at-a-glance document reflects The Ohio 8 Coalition’s commitment to support the unique educational needs of every student in each of their districts, no matter where they came from, the amount of […]

Cassie Gaffney, Policy Associate at ACS, is one of three finalists in the running for the Excellence by an Up and Coming Advocate Award presented by Professional Women in Advocacy, a national organization that strives to connect women in the advocacy field and promote excellence in their work. The winner of this award will be […]

What is the effect on urban neighborhood schools when a critical mass of well-educated, well-off people move in? That’s a topic The Atlantic tackled last week, citing a variety of news articles around the country. Unfortunately, in many neighborhoods around the country, gentrification, it turns out, usually stops at the schoolhouse door, according to the […]

ACS Vice President Scarlett Bouder provided closing comments for the BUILD Initiative’s national conference in Cleveland, Ohio on October 9th. She provided an outline of best practices when communicating to parents, policymakers and the community about early learning issues as well as perspective on the rapid growth of the early childhood field during the past […]

Child abuse and neglect is on the rise in Arizona: in 2013, there were more than 22,000 reports of child abuse and neglect in a six-month period of time, up from 16,000 in 2009. Despite this increase, child abuse is completely preventable. As of June 30, 2015, the backlog of child welfare cases sits at 14,946 and […]

NPR recently highlighted a story out of Akron Public Schools, which is not uncommon to many districts throughout the state of Ohio, particularly Ohio’s urban districts. Akron, and other urban districts across Ohio have been seeing more and more students who have immigrated with their families as a result of U.S. foreign policy decisions supporting […]

ACS, through its work with The Ohio 8 Coalition, strives to support students from all backgrounds in an effort to level the playing field and help all students graduate high school, start a career, and make positive life choices. The Ohio 8 Coalition, with the support of ACS, works to impact K-12 policy at the […]

A recent study by Brookings found that statistically younger workers (up to age 24) experience higher unemployment rates and less job stability than more experienced workers. This was exacerbated by the Great Recession of 2007-2009, which saw job opportunities drop substantially, especially for younger workers. Why is this important? Because work experience in the younger […]