CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC — The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has received a $3,693,787 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan for a four-year program to enhance the process of public policy formation at the state level by developing the leadership capacity of state legislators across the United States. Receipt of the grant was announced today by Linda Tarr-Whelan, CPA President and Chief Executive officer.

“Today’s issues and problems are landing squarely on state legislators, especially in these days of devolution of federal programs to the states,” said Tarr-Whelan. “CPA has been a resource for state elected leaders for over 20 years, and now they’ve asked us to give them fast access to good information and help them build leadership skills. The Kellogg grant is making that possible.”

The initiative will capitalize on the latest telecommunications technology to provide information on issues, share model legislation and open up new channels of communication with and among legislators. In addition, new connections will be built among legislators and community leaders through Community Leadership and Policy Forums. CPA has already launched a forum bringing together African-American legislators and community leaders in the southeastern states. The new grant will fund similar forum programs for Hispanics in the southwest and Women and Families in the western states.

For more than two decades CPA programs have encompassed both public policy and leadership development across the fifty states. Since 1996, when the devolution of power and responsibility to the states became federal policy, CPA has helped state legislators develop new policies to sustain families and communities. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has funded CPA’s Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute, which has provided year-long leadership programs for 102 state elected officials since inception in 1994.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 to “help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” Its programming activities center around the common visions of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities.

To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific focal points or areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education, and higher education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. When woven throughout these areas, funding also is provided for leadership; information systems/technology; efforts to capitalize on diversity; and family, neighborhood, and community development programming. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa.