Help HARO Speak at a Homeschool Convention!

Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (HARO) has the opportunity to speak at an upcoming homeschool convention—and they need funding to do it! I’ve been a blog partner of Homeschoolers Anonymous, a project of HARO, since its inception, and I fully support HARO’s mission and vision.

This is HARO’s first convention opportunity!

Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (HARO) has a vision: “Renewing and transforming homeschooling from within.” We are a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the wellbeing of homeschool students and improving homeschooling communities through awareness, peer support, and resource development.

Our hope is to develop partnerships with homeschooling communities and groups to bring awareness to, and empower homeschoolers to address, pressing matters such as child abuse and mental illness. HARO has recently received its first opportunity to present at a homeschool convention — the 2014 Great Homeschool Convention in Ontario, California.

This is an amazing opportunity for us. R.L. Stollar, Executive Director of HARO, will be speaking on “Facing Our Fears: How the Voices of Homeschool Alumni Can Help Homeschooling.” He will also be in the convention exhibitor hall at HARO’s booth for the three days of the convention. Before we can do this, however, we need to raise funds.

What We Need & What You Get

We need to raise $1250 to present at the GHC convention. While GHC does not charge speakers, they do require that speakers are also exhibitors. Their exhibitor fee is $500. We also need to cover lodging, transportation, and printing costs for the 3 days of the event. Every dollar raised from this fundraiser will go towards HARO’s presentation at the convention.

• Everyone that contributes at least $10 to this fundraiser will receive a free digital download of HARO’s convention presentation, “Facing Our Fears: How the Voices of Homeschool Alumni Can Help Homeschooling.” The presentation will be available to download no later than one week after the convention.
• If we don’t reach our entire goal, we will use what we have and seek other sources of funding as well.

GHC has become an increasingly popular convention destination for homeschoolers today. GHC is a convention company that holds conventions around the country and is fast edging out conventions held by state or local homeschool groups. This “for-profit” model has concerned some, but others have countered that the ones complaining are the ones demanding lockstep conformity. In other words, while GHC is explicitly conservative and explicitly Christian, they allow for a greater range of speakers than have many conventions held by state or local homeschool groups. This is what makes GHC such a good opportunity for HARO.

Please support HARO by contributing to the IndieGoGo campaign!