Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1067015
SW Region President; and Rebecca Murray, Central Region President attended the NCUEA Fall Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. They attended training sessions such as "Sticks & Stones: Understanding Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, & Stereotypes", "I'll Make a World: Arts Education as a Foundation for Economic and Social Justice", "Messaging Practices for Organizing, Mobilizing, and Retaining Members," as well as regional meetings for strategic planning and policy discussions. They also heard keynote speeches from NEA leaders and recognized educational leaders such as Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Saul A. Rubenstein. John Fabela wrote a second proposal and received a 2018 NCUEA Urban Grant for $5,000 to continue leadership development and organizing, with a new campaign focused on racial justice and the needs of minority students. Rebecca Murray also received a 2018 Urban Grant for the Central Region which will fund organizing eff orts and training on recognizing and growing local association power. WEA leaders for other regions also plan to write proposals for the 2019 Urban Grant cycle in the hopes of funding organizing eff orts tailored to the needs of their regions. Attendees at the WEA Delegate Assembly in Casper at the end of March 2019 can expect to see displays about the work of NCUEA and the regions that have received Urban Grants. These leadership development and organizing eff orts will also be shared at the WEA Visionary Leadership Quest in July 2019. X 20 Winter 2018 | wyoea.edu Regional Leaders Bringing NEA Resources to Wyoming by Elise Robillard There's a new skip in the step of WEA's regional leaders. They are excited about the possibilities for building a stronger, more engaged state Association and connecting our members to amazing training, grant, and student growth opportunities available through the NEA. All of this renewed enthusiasm fl ows from WEA's regional leaders' involvement in the NCUEA. You may wonder, what is the NCUEA? The acronym stands for the National Council of Urban Education Associations. This is a special interest group within the NEA that formed several decades ago to address the problems found in urban areas such as poverty, crumbling infrastructure, lack of resources, high dropout rates, racial discrimination, violence, and devolving funding. Over the past few years, the NCUEA and the NEA have realized that these problems are not as unique to urban areas as once thought. We now recognize that rural states such as Wyoming often confront many of these same issues. The NCUEA hosts an annual fall conference and it also funds the NEA Urban Grant program. In 2017, WEA's Northwest Region joined the NCUEA and received a $5,000 Urban Grant focused on leadership development and organizing. This grant has had an immense positive impact of WEA's work in the Northwest. John Fabela, the NW Region President, has encouraged other regional leaders to use their regional funds to also join the NCUEA. In fact, most regions of WEA are now NCUEA members. At the end of November this year, four WEA regional leaders – John Fabela, NW Region President; Lannette Lahey, NW Region Representative; Lori Eggleston, (L to R) Lori Eggleston, Rebecca Murray, Lannette Lahey with John Fabela in the back Rebecca Murray speaking in a Mountain Region meeting at NCUEA with John Fabela listening in the background. Rebecca Murray speaking in an NCUEA general meeting with John Fabela in the foreground.