Case Studies

Due to financial concerns, in 2011 the City of Woonsocket was forced to cut full-day kindergarten to a half-day program. Seeking to restore this critical early learning program, the leadership of the Woonsocket Education Department engaged Advocacy Solutions to communicate the educational benefits of full-day kindergarten and the program’s affordability due to changes in the state’s school funding formula.

In the wake of being declared persistently low performing, Central Falls High School adopted a transformation model to reform the school’s culture and improve student performance. Following adoption of the transformation model, the school received national media attention and generated strong public opinions after a decision to fire the entire teaching staff.

Citing poor math performance and inadequate leadership, in June 2012, the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended the closure of the Academy for Career (ACE), Rhode Island’s first charter public school.

CLIENT: Mayor’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council ISSUE: With nearly one-in-four of Providence teens smoking cigarettes by the time of reaching their senior year in high school, the Mayo’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council (MSAPC) launched a city-wide public awareness and advocacy campaign to empower teens to say no to tobacco products and deceptive marketing efforts. CAMPAIGN:…

In the fall of 2014, the University of Rhode Island engaged Advocacy Solutions to serve as the general campaign manager for the Yes On 4 – Engineering Rhode Island’s Future campaign to win voter approval of Question 4, a $125 million bond to build a state-of-the-art new College of Engineering facility.

Providence Talks is an innovative early childhood intervention program designed to increase the number of words low income parents speak to their young children (birth to age 4). After a successful pilot phase, the program was ready to scale city-wide with a goal of recruiting 2,000+ parents to participate.

Faced with city plans to rezone their neighborhood to allow for incompatible mixed-use residential development, a group of marine and heavy industrial business in the Port of Providence turned to Advocacy Solutions to fight the plan and to educate the public and elected officials about the tremendous economic impact of Providence’s working waterfront.

During the 2016 General Election, Rhode Island voters were presented with a $50 million Housing Opportunity bond referendum (Question 7) for the construction of affordable housing across the state, and to help municipalities revitalize blighted and foreclosed properties.