Adam Fletcher
Biography
Short Version
Adam Fletcher has been a public speaker, writer, and consultant for youth-serving organizations, K-12 schools, and government agencies since 1997. The founder of the internationally-recognized Freechild Project and an expert on community engagement, Adam is the author of dozens of publications. His expertise focuses on youth engagement and re-envisioning the roles of young people throughout society.
From 1989 to 1999, he worked in community-based nonprofit organizations in Nebraska and Washington State, and from 1999 to 2001 he worked with national nonprofit organizations in Washington, DC, Taos, New Mexico, and Olympia, Washington. Adam has 5 years experience working as an education official in Washington State government. In 2002, Adam graduated from The Evergreen State College with a degree in education and youth studies, and later attended the University of Washington School of Education for graduate studies in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Adam was born in Calgary, grew up some in Omaha, and now lives in Olympia with his daughter, Hannah, and their cat, Mailbox.
Long Version
Adam Fletcher is an internationally recognized expert in community engagement and the President of CommonAction, a private consulting firm in Olympia, Washington. Among the organizations who have recently worked with him as a public speaker, writer, and consultant are the National PTA, the Alberta Ministry of Education, the American Institutes of Research, Seattle Public Schools, Action for Healthy Kids, and the Vermont Principals Association.
The founder of more than 50 national and international initiatives focused on positive youth development, Adam is the author of dozens of publications. His work and writing focus on re-envisioning the roles of young people throughout society. In 2010, Action for Healthy Kids named him a "Healthy Schools Hero" for his national leadership in connecting youth engagement to the Coordinated School Health model.
Adam's career has focused on positive youth development, including teaching drama to low-income African American children; directing a ropes challenge course; teaching environmental education; instructing foster, homeless, and runaway youth in independent living skills; and directing a teen center. Adam served two terms in AmeriCorps with Kurdish and Iraqi refugee students and as a high adventure program coordinator for inner city youth. He worked at the national level for the federal Corporation for National Service and the nonprofit Points of Light Foundation. He also worked in state government as the first student engagement specialist in Washington's state education agency, and as the Coordinated School Health manager for the state department of health. Adam was the co-chair for Washington Action for Healthy Kids, and engaged 400 high school students in improving school health through the Students Taking Charge program.
Currently Adam serves as an advisor for several local and national organizations and agencies, including the Institute for Democratic Education in America, the National Youth Rights Association, and the Patchwork School in Louisville, Colorado. He is a contributing editor for the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, an academic journal, and regularly contributes articles to educational publications around the world. Adam is an active volunteer at his daughter's school and throughout his local community. He enjoys living in Olympia, Washington, where he regularly bikes, hikes, and camps with his daughter Hannah, and their cat Mailbox
With an engaging, expert style, Adam excitedly teaches audiences about his interests through his keynote addresses. Speaking to crowds of 50 to 5,000 children, youth, and adults, Adam has challenged local, national, and international audiences to think differently on a variety of topics. He also facilitates professional development for teachers and youth workers, and leads a variety of training events for young people.
The Details
Drawing on more than 20 years experience in the arena of youth engagement, Adam Fletcher is one of the nation's leading advocates for meaningful youth involvement. An author, speaker, researcher, and facilitator, Adam draws on his experience working in education, nonprofits, government, and public health to promote a systemic, holistic perspective of community engagement for children, youth, and adults throughout society.
Adam's professional work with youth began in 1989 when he was 14 with a local nonprofit in North Omaha, Nebraska. He worked over the next 7 years teaching drama programs and leading after school programs and a basketball program. Adam's education includes a Bachelor's degree in critical pedagogy and youth studies from The Evergreen State College, and graduate work in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington College of Education.
Youth Activism
Adam's activism began when he was 15 when he started an environmental justice group at his high school as a protest against the existing science club. His community organizing and systems change efforts focused on meaningful youth involvement started when he was 17, when he started a neighborhood youth council. Adam participated in community projects focused on peace and nonviolence, African American history, and neighborhood beautification as a youth. He also volunteered at his local elementary school, in the community food bank, with Habitat for Humanity, and in neighborhood nonprofit organizations. When he was 22, Adam joined the ranks of Nebraskans for Peace in promoting alternatives to the military, and when he was 25 he became an adult ally for a youth rights group in Olympia, Washington. He worked with youth and adults across the country to start The Freechild Project on a voluntary basis in October 2001, and has supported it out-of-pocket since then. Today, Freechild is frequently cited as an important cache of information about youth action for young people and adult allies around the world.
Consulting
Since 1998 Adam has worked with approximately 50,000 children, youth and adults, focusing on youth engagement, meaningful student involvement, community organizing and service learning through a variety of speaking, professional development, training and program development activities. His activities have reached almost 250 elementary, middle and high schools, along with more than 300 nonprofit organizations across the United States and Canada, and in United Kingdom and Brazil. Adam has consulted more than 100 schools on how to effectively infuse youth voice in service learning. Aside from schools and nonprofits, he has also worked with foundations, government agencies, colleges and universities, publishing companies, and other organizations. Adam's writing has included more than 100 different items, including educational materials, website content, curricula, training manuals, promotional materials, grant proposals and evaluation reports. After founding The Freechild Project in 2001 and SoundOut in 2002 he began working with clients locally, nationally and internationally. He has written extensively for both websites, developing site navigation, content, and publications to offer specifically to their target audiences. Adam has used social media extensively for Freechild, incorporating technologies such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and delicious into the fray. He has designed projects, written guides, evaluated programs, and provided an array of public speaking, professional development, youth training, consulting and technical assistance to thousands of children, youth and adults since then. He founded a national nonprofit organization in 2007 that was focused on youth engaging, serving as the executive director for two years. Working with a variety of volunteers and professional partners, Adam obtained 501(c)3 status from the IRS, established a variety of local, national and international relations, upheld professional obligations, and secured a variety of funding supports.
Writing
As both a freelance writer and independent author, Adam has written several publications, including articles, monographs, guides, and curricula. His most popular pieces include the Firestarter Youth Empowerment Curriculum, the Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to Students as Partners in School Change, the Freechild Project Guide to Social Change Led By and With Young People, and the SoundOut Student Voice Curriculum. He has written publications for the National PTA, the American Institutes for Research, and Capstone Press, a children's library publisher. He has also had articles published in academic journals in the United States and Australia. Adam maintains a blog at www.youngerworld.org.
School Reform
Adam's work in the area of school reform has continued to grow over the last 10 years. After first working in Lincoln, Nebraska's public schools as a liaison for refugee students in the mid-90s, Adam rejoined his efforts in 2001 when he served as the first-ever Student Engagement Specialist at the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. There he developed and led a statewide action research project focused on engaging students as partners in education decision-making in state-level administrative processes and school improvement planning. Adam developed an introductory guide and a website for the state, as well. After completing his bachelor's degree focused on critical pedagogy, youth studies and community development at The Evergreen State College, in 2006 he began his graduate studies in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington College of Education.
Since founding SoundOut in 2002, Adam partnered with foundations, school districts, state education agencies, and nonprofit organizations across the United States and Canada. He has worked with more than 200 K-12 schools in 50 districts across North America, as well as state agencies in Washington and New York, as well as the provincial ministry of education in Alberta. Thousands of students, teachers, support staff, and community members have been trained in his "Frameworks for Meaningful Student Involvement", and his work has been cited by US Department of Education as one of the most important sources on student engagement.
As the Coordinated School Health Manager at the Washington State Department of Health between 2008 and 2010, Adam served as a liaison between the DOH and the state education agency, facilitating interagency collaboration focused on an array of school health issues. The agency's lead school health policy analyst, he led agency-wide reviews of state and federal legislation and rule-making. Adam's budget management activities, supported by an interagency agreement funded with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, included interagency agreements and external contracts, negotiations, sub-contracts, federal reports, program deliverables and evaluation. After co-founding the Washington State Coordinated School Health Network, he led professional development, technical assistance, and information-sharing activities for a variety of partners in K-12 schools, districts, within state agencies and at local health departments across Washington. He also co-coordinated of the Washington Youth School Health Cadre, served as the co-chair of Washington Action for Healthy Kids, and coordinated Washington Students Taking Charge, a student-driven school health improvement program working in several schools across the state.
National Service
Adam served several terms of community and national service. In 2000 he participated in a fellowship program for the Points of Light Foundation and was the Youth Engaged in Service Ambassador for Washington State. His terms as an AmeriCorps Member included an individual placement running a ropes challenge course on the Hood Canal for the Washington Service Corps out of Tacoma, Washington and as an AmeriCorps Member with the Changing Trends AmeriCorps Program in Lincoln, Nebraska. In that term he created a tutoring and mentoring program for Kurdish and Iraqi refugee students. Adam's service in AmeriCorps ended with a term as an AmeriCorps Leader with the Corporation for National Service, during which he worked with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in Taos, New Mexico.
Experiential Learning and Outdoor Education
Outdoor education, team building, and experiential learning were a major area of emphasis early in Adam's career. In his early 20s Adam worked for the Lincoln, Nebraska, parks and recreation department. His first work as a ropes challenge course director was for Boy Scout Camp Cornhusker in DuBois, Nebraska in 1996. For two years he worked as a Teacher/Naturalist at Pioneer Park Nature Center in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1996 to 1998. Adam was a Ropes Challenge Course Director Certification Instructor at the National Camping School in Spokane, Washington in 1998, and operated the COPE Course at Camp Hahobas in Belfair, Washington, for two years. He directed summer nature programs at Camp Cedars in Fremont, Nebraska, and Camp Kitaki in Louisville, Nebraska prior to that. Adam worked for the Tumwater, Washington, parks and recreation department as a youth center coordinator in 1999.
Social Media
An early adapter of social media, Adam has delved in usage of the Internet as an organizing tool since the mid-1990s. Today Adam has a reputation for capturing a significant audience throughout the arenas of youth work, school reform, and community engagement by using variety of platforms to reach a large international audience. Today he coaches a variety of clients and collaborators on how to use social media successfully to reach out to young people and adults.
Other Experience
Other youth work Adam has done has included operating a youth center for the City of Tumwater, Washington, in 1998 and 1999. From 1995 to 1997 he worked as an Independent Living Skills Instructor for the YWCA in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was a Teen Floor Attendant for a drug treatment facility operated by CentrePointe, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Professional Service
Adam has served a number of organizations as a committed volunteer and activist. He served as an advisor for the Olympia parks and recreation department, and for a local nonprofit organization called Partners in Prevention Education in Olympia, Washington. After 10 years of service to the National Youth Rights Association, Adam was named a director emeritus in 2009, and am a founding advisor of the Institute for Democratic Education in America. He am a contributing editor to the Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, an academic journal. He is also a board member for Kijana Voices, and serve as an advisor to the Patchwork School in Colorado. Adam has also been a volunteer teacher at the Olympia Free School and tabled for the Nebraskans for Peace Alternatives to the Military committee.
Contact
adam@bicyclingfish.com
+1 360-489-9680