Here are two samples of non-profit work for the Grassroots Advocacy team who work with Justice Ambassadors. Justice Ambassadors interface with legislators and the community to promote justice reform and second chances for men and women returning home from a period of incarceration.
Task-Based Training
I identified the critical behaviors for Justice Ambassadors and identified overlapping skills. I developed training and authentic learning experiences to encode and reinforce learning. Because of the similar skill sets required across tasks, learners experienced scaffolding and spiral learning as they moved from simpler to more complex training and activities.
Task-Based Curriculum
Participants used job aids and toolkit resources to research and plan advocacy tasks—hosting a film screening and conducting a lawmaker meeting. Then they explored they split into teams to research another task via toolkit resources and teach it to the larger group. Each toolkit contained a guide, task-specific resources, and job aids. There were five complete toolkits created for participants to use during the program and to utilize afterward:
- Hosting a film screening
- Conducting a lawmaker meeting
- Engaging a leader to support Second Chance Sunday
- Facilitating an Outrageous Justice Study
- Advocating in the digital space
Performance Support: Sample Toolkit Guide
Each toolkit contained a guide that followed the format of the sample below. As participants accessed and used the toolkits, they found the same format and type of content. This uniformity reinforced a foundational concept—advocacy tasks may seem very different, but require the same skillset. These are the guides I created to support this program:
- Film Screening Guide
- Lawmaker Meeting Guide (below)
- Second Chance Sunday Guide
- Outrageous Justice Guide
- Digital Advocacy Guide
Storytelling Training
Leaders requested a program focused on the skill of storytelling. I created a curriculum to equip participants to develop their story, plan to use their story as a tool in the advocacy setting, practice their story in the Rehearsal app, deploy their story in live simulations, and continue to grow their storytelling after the program.
The Storytelling Curriculum
Self-paced Storytelling Training
Participants completed a set of self-paced courses and learning activities in the LMS, asynchronously, prior to the in-person Storytelling Workshop. This eLearning course was the central activity. The learning artifact produced was the fillable Storytelling Template (seen below the eLearning course), which resulted in the complete story that they practiced and recorded for feedback at the conclusion of the workshop. The rest of the program was geared to tailor the personal story to various audiences and purposes related to advocacy tasks.
Performance Support Sample: Storytelling Template
This fillable document was the learning artifact produced during the Developing Your Story eLearning course. Creation of this document segmented the participant story into parts to demonstrate the story could be adjusted as needed to tailor it to a given context—we called this “using your story as a tool.” This process also accomplished two other objectives: it gave the cohort a shared vocabulary and gave individuals authorship over a narrative that had previously been written by the criminal justice system. This was always a powerful experience for participants.
Performance Support Sample: Mine Your Story
Participants were encouraged to use their story as a tool during advocacy conversations. The Mine Your Story activity encouraged them to find connections between their personal experiences and legislative priorities. These personal stories served as powerful illustrations of abstract concepts during committee hearings, media interviews, and meetings with lawmakers.
Performance Support Sample: Using the 5 A’s
This model—the 5 A’s—was created to support Justice Ambassadors during difficult conversations. In daily life, individuals with criminal records typically must navigate awkward exchanges, hostile discrimination, and pervasive stigma. This tool provided participants a way around a tricky topic or uncomfortable moment or a way out of the conversation, if needed.