Share Adam Fletcher's Experience

Adam Fletcher

Experience

Since he was 14, Adam Fletcher has been working with organizations at the local and national levels to promote youth engagement in a variety of ways. This is a short summary of Adam Fletcher's professional work experiences related to youth, schools and social change. Last updated January 2010.

Summary of Professional Experience

"My professional work with youth began in 1989 when I was 14 with a local nonprofit in Omaha, Nebraska called United Ministries of Northeast Omaha. I worked for them over the next 7 years in a variety of capacities, including teaching drama programs and leading after school programs and a basketball program.

"Since 1998 I have provided contractual services focused on youth engagement, meaningful student involvement, community organizing and service learning. Through a variety of speaking, professional development, training and program development activities I have reached approximately 50,000 children, youth and adults. My 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. I have consulted more than 100 schools on how to effectively infuse youth voice in service learning. Aside from schools and nonprofits, I have also worked with foundations, government agencies, colleges and universities, publishing companies, and other organizations. My writing has included more than 100 different items, including educational materials, website content, curricula, training manuals, promotional materials, grant proposals and evaluation reports. I have also developed and continue to maintain two internationally-recognized websites, www.freechild.org and www.soundout.org.

"I have worked as the Coordinated School Health Manager at the Washington State Department of Health since 2008. In that capacity I have served as a liaison between the DOH and the state education agency, facilitating interagency collaboration focused on an array of school health issues. In this capacity I am the agency's lead school health policy analyst, leading agency-wide reviews of state and federal legislation and rule-making. My budget management activities, supported by an interagency agreement funded with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, include interagency agreements and external contracts, negotiations, sub-contracts, federal reports, program deliverables and evaluation. As the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Washington State Coordinated School Health Network, I facilitate 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. I am also co-coordinator of the Washington Youth School Health Cadre, as well as the coordinator of Students Taking Charge, a student-driven school health improvement program working in several schools across the state.

"In 2007 I founded a national nonprofit organization focused on youth engaging, serving as the executive director for two years. Working with a variety of volunteers and professional partners, I 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. I coordinated programs, training and consultation activities for more than 50 youth, social work, education, government, and activist organizations across the United States, directly serving 2,000 young people and 1,500 adults.

"As the first-ever Student Engagement Specialist at the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, I 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. I developed an introductory guide and a website for the state, as well.

"I served several terms of national service. In 2000 I participated in a fellowship program for the Points of Light Foundation and was the Youth Engaged in Service Ambassador for Washington State. My service in AmeriCorps ended with a term as an AmeriCorps Leader with the Corporation for National Service lasted from 1999-00. In that capacity I worked with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in Taos, New Mexico. My 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 I created a tutoring and mentoring program for Kurdish and Iraqi refugee students.

"Outdoor education, team building, and experiential learning have been a major source of my experience. My first work as a ropes challenge course director was for Boy Scout Camp Cornhusker in DuBois, Nebraska in 1996. For two years I worked as a Teacher/Naturalist at Pioneer Park Nature Center in Lincoln, Nebraska from 1996 to 1998. I 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. I directed summer nature programs at Camp Cedars in Fremont, Nebraska, and Camp Kitaki in Louisville, Nebraska prior to that.

"Other youth work I did included operating a youth center for the City of Tumwater, Washington, in 1998 and 1999. From 1995 to 1997 I worked as an Independent Living Skills Instructor for the YWCA in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was a Teen Floor Attendant for a drug treatment facility operated by CentrePointe, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska.


Professional Service (abbreviated)


Education

Contact

adam@bicyclingfish.com
+1 360-489-9680