To the Sheila Wellstone Institute:

I wanted send you a quick note to let you know how we built on the valuable information that we learned at Camp Sheila Wellstone to further our grassroots advocacy work here at Tubman.

Lesson one learned from Camp Sheila Wellstone: build a base of support and work with coalitions to achieve your goals. Well, we only sent a few people to Camp Shelia Wellstone, but those individuals -taking the lesson to heart--in turn recruited a Grassroots Advocacy Team of 20-plus staff and volunteers to lead our get out the vote efforts for November 2. What's more, our team has banded together with the Metropolitan Alliance of Community Centers and the Voter Participation Project to maximize our efforts.

Again, using the model outlined in the Camp's Action Planning Session, this self-selected Advocacy Team set goals, built messages, and developed timelines to plan the get out the vote activities among staff, volunteers, and clients.

From my standpoint, I see enormous long-term benefits of Camp Sheila Wellstone in helping push our overall concern for family and intimate partner violence to the top of the political agenda. By providing the practical skills and tools of base building, grassroots organizing, and message development to our front line advocacy staff, we in turn engage them in this wider effort.

Thanks again for a fun-filled, energetic, and VALUABLE program!