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You may have noticed something new about 50CAN.org. After six years of growth and a year and a half of planning—and one website crash along the way—we wanted to build a new portal to give a look into all the work the citizen advocates in our network are doing.
The goal of this new website is not just to look better (though we hope you’ll agree that it sure is nice!) but to go deeper into our work and share stories, resources, successes and setbacks from all across the 50CAN network. The new 50CAN.org is a hub for anyone who wants to get involved in education in their community; showing you all our advocates, all our policy wins, all our research. It’s a one-stop shop for education advocacy.
We’re committed to the idea of open advocacy: sharing what we’re learning, where we’ve seen success and how we could do better with everyone in real time. We also want to make it easier to take action, giving you tools and trainings on topics we’ve been working on for more than a decade.
We’ve got 113 pages (and growing!) to explore, but here are a few highlights that we think you’ll enjoy:
Our Network
We’ve been growing! This new section of the website gives a 30,000 foot view of our network and dives deep into individual profiles and stories. You can get to know a new member of the 50CAN network every month in the “Meet an Advocate” section, explore how we’re growing in our fellowships, partnerships and affiliates and stay up to date on the state CAN map.
Our Goals
Open advocacy isn’t just about tools and trainings—it’s about being transparent across the organization. On the new site, we’re bringing together all the goals our local advocates aim to achieve in their states. We’ll share new goals every year, provide regular campaign updates and wrap up the year with an honest look at how we did.
Policy Wins
In our first six years, we have run 127 issue campaigns. While it wasn’t always easy, together with the help of local and national partners, the citizen advocates of the 50CAN network secured 64 important policy wins that helped more than 15 million students across 11 states. You can use this section to explore what we’ve accomplished together for kids, sorting by year, by state or by policy area.
Take Action
While we love research reports and toolkits as much as the next wonk, sometimes you just want to jump in and get to work! In the Take Action section, you can always find the latest ways you can join the 50CAN network—whether that’s applying to a leadership program, taking a course, joining the team or bringing 50CAN to you.
We’re not done sharing new and exciting things from the 50CAN network. As we look forward to the next six years of work, we’ve got big plans to share. We hope you’ll visit our site to say hi, learn more and stay engaged.