Amy Shollenberger

About Amy Shollenberger

Since I was eight years old, I’ve been a community organizer. Of course, I didn’t know…

Experience

1. Founder and CEO Working for Change and Acting from Hope

   Action Circles, Inc

   Sep 2010 — Present · US

   Action Circles, a political strategy firm, offers trainings in all aspects of strategy and campaigning giving clients guidance and assistance in growing power for their organizations, running advocacy campaigns, speaking their truth in a way that is heard, and getting to their happy ending or vision.Action Circles really began with a Letter to the Editor titled, “I Am a Welfare Queen,” telling of my experience in the welfare system since becoming a single mom at 17, at a time when there was a big push on welfare reform to change eligibility. The letter got picked up by a national paper and I was interviewed by USA Today. Nothing else happened, but if one letter had that much reach, I saw possibilities to make an impact and I found a master\'s program to help me learn.An internship for a consensus building project taught me to facilitate meetings, to build consensus among people who would not usually agree with each other, and to hone my writing skills.One principle of Action Circles is Truth vs. Fact: people’s lived experience is just as important as scientific data. For example, a scientist can say pollutants don’t seep in the soil past designated boundaries, but people who live on the land can say everyone within a specific distance of the pollutant area has cancer. We have worked over the past several years with clients to create change, with policies or budgets at a state level, or community-based changes.We help clients with political strategy and consensus building, while focusing on building capacity and power for the organization-On the organizational capacity side, our work leads to sustainable organizations that can keep pushing their missions forward-The building power side focuses on relationship building by enabling staff and clientele of the organization to talk directly to legislators and build relationships, not us.See link to website in Contact Info link above.

Education

• Lebanon Valley College

  BA, literature and philosophy

  1991 — 1996

Skills

• Grassroots Organizing
• Fundraising
• Strategy
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Social Media
• Political Campaigns
• Team Building
• Workshop Facilitation
• Grant Writing
• Capacity Building
• Public Speaking
• Grassroots
• Strategic Planning
• Policy
• Project Management
• Public Relations
• Volunteer Management
• Budgets
• Community Outreach
• Community Development
• Public Policy
• Volunteering
• Policy Analysis
• Event Planning
• Research
• Board Development
• Politics
• Program Management
• Nonprofits