Advocating for Change

1. Advocating for Change Community Tool Box Curriculum Module 10 http://ctb.ku.edu

2. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • Advocate • Acts in favor of a cause • Usually calling for positive change • Often in the face of direct opposition

3. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • When to get involved in Advocacy: • You cannot achieve your goals another way • Goals not shared by others • You can carry it through • You are in for the long haul

4. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy DIALOGUE: Consider an advocacy effort that you could launch to serve your group’s goal. Are these conditions present? Which missing condition could cause you to forego an advocacy effort? Why?

5. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • Ingredients for effectiveness: • Rightness of the cause • Power of the advocates • Thoroughness of your research • Opposition and climate of opinion • Skill in using advocacy methods • Effective and varied tactics

6. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • Twenty Rules for Effective Advocacy • Accentuate the positive • Emphasize your values and accomplishments • Plan for small wins • Present or frame the issues the way you want others to see them • Develop your own public identity

7. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • The Twenty Rules (cont.): • Check your facts • Keep it simple • Be passionate and persistent • Be prepared to compromise • Be opportunistic and creative

8. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • The Twenty Rules (cont.): • Stay the course • Look for the good in others • Keep your eyes on the prize • Make issues local and relevant • Get broad-based support from the start

9. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy • The Twenty Rules (cont.): • Work within the experience of your members • Work outside the experience of your opponents • Make your opponents play by their own rules • Tie your advocacy efforts to related events • Enjoy yourself!

10. Twenty Guidelines for Effective Advocacy DIALOGUE: Consider an potential advocacy effort for your groups. Which of these rules do you see as particularly crucial to success? Why?

11. Living By the Rules for Effective Advocacy ACTIVITY 10.1: Apply the 20 rules to your situation: • Select the 5 rules that are most relevant • What will you do to apply the rule to your situation?

12. Living by the Rules Chart

13. “I am leaving this legacy to all of you…to bring peace, justice, equality, love and fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die—the dream of freedom and peace.” --Rosa Parks, Civic Rights Advocate

14. Preparing for Advocacy • Know the context: • How people feel about the issue • How the issue links or divides different segments of the community • Who and what influence your opponents to take the positions they do • What political forces might be influencing decision makers • What it will take for people to support your goals

15. Preparing for Advocacy • Have the essential facts: • Who is affected by the issue • What factors contribute to the problem • The consequences of the issue • The economic impact of the issue • The social impact of the issue • The barriers • The resources • The history

16. Preparing for Advocacy DIALOGUE: What do you know about your issue? What do you need to know more about?

17. Preparing for Advocacy • Conducting Advocacy Research • Different kinds of research for different kinds of answers: • Known fact • Support for your approach • Convincing policy makers • Evidence for harmful or illegal action

18. Preparing for Advocacy • Conducting Advocacy Research (cont.) • Different kinds of research: • Academic research • Interviews and conversations • Surveys • Studies • Investigations • Stories

19. Preparing for Advocacy • Conducting Advocacy Research (cont.) • General guidelines: • Ask for help • Find out if the research has already been done • Learn basic information and know it well • Make a clear decision why you want the information • Check everything twice • Be persistent

20. Assessing Advocacy Research Needs ACTIVITY 10.2b: Brainstorm the best type of research necessary to be able to advocate effectively.

21. 10.2b Assessing Advocacy Research Needs: DataSheet I-b Data Data By What Should Be Known to Begin an Advocacy Campaign: Type Source When ____ ____ ____ We have a good overall, general knowledge of the issue and its effects ____ ____ ____ How people feelabout the issue, and what they believe Data: ____ ____ ____ How the issue links or divides different segments Data: ____ ____ ____ Who and what influence opponents Data: ____ ____ ____ What political forces might be influencing decision makers Data: ____ ____ ____ What it will take to for people to support your goals Data:

22. 10.2b Assessing Advocacy Research Needs: DataSheet II-b Data Data By What Should Be Known to Begin an Advocacy Campaign: Type Source When ____ ____ ____ 1. Who is affected by the issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ Who is affected the most? Data: ____ ____ ____ Who loses, and what do they lose? Data: ____ ____ ____ Who gains, and what do they gain? Data: ____ ____ ____ 2. What factors contribute to the problem or goal? ____ ____ ____ What personal factors (e.g., Knowledge and skills)? ____ ____ ____ What environmental factors (e.g., opportunities and barriers)? ____ ____ ____ 3. What are the consequences of the issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ For the individuals mostly affected? Data: ____ ____ ____ For their families? Data: ____ ____ ____ For society? Data:

23. 10.2b Assessing Advocacy Research Needs: DataSheet III-b Data Data By What Should Be Known to Begin an Advocacy Campaign: Type Source When ____ ____ ____ 4. What is the economic impact of the issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ What are the economic costs of the issue, and who bears them? Data: ____ ____ ____ What are the economic benefits of the issue, and who benefits? Data: ____ ____ ____ 5. What is the social impact of the issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ What are the social costs of the issue, and who bears them? Data: ____ ____ ____ What are the social benefits of the issue, and who benefits? Data: ____ ____ ____ 6. What are the barriers? Data: ____ ____ ____ How can they be overcome? Data:

24. 10.2b Assessing Advocacy Research Needs: DataSheet IV-b Data Data By What Should Be Known to Begin an Advocacy Campaign: Type Source When ____ ____ ____ 7. What are the resources? Data: ____ ____ ____ What resources will we need to address this issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ Where and how can they be tapped? Data: ____ ____ ____ 8. What is the history of this issue? Data: ____ ____ ____ What is the history of the issue in the community? Elsewhere? Data: ____ ____ ____ What past efforts were made to address it? Data: ____ ____ ____ What were the results? Data:

25. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

26. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • State the Broad Goals of the Advocacy Effort, some examples: • Meet unmet needs • Reverse or correct a situation • Prevent the loss of a valued asset • Change public opinion

27. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals DIALOGUE: What are the broad and more specific advocacy goals relevant to your effort?

28. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • Set Objectives for the Advocacy Effort • Longer-Term Outcomes- where you want to be at the end of the advocacy effort • Intermediate Outcomes- these focus on new or modified programs, policies, or practices to help reach long-term goals • Short-Term Outcomes- they outline immediate steps that help modify policies or practices

29. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • Criteria for advocacy objectives (SMART+C), the objective must be: • Specific • Measurable • Achievable • Relevant • Timed • Challenging

30. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • Overview of Potential Advocacy Tactics: • Conduct advocacy research • Provide encouragement and education • Conduct a direct action campaign • Use media advocacy

31. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals Tactics for Advocacy Research • Conduct studies of the issues • Gather data on public opinion • Study the opposition • Request accountability • Demonstrate economic benefit or harm • Document complaints • Act as a watchdog • Organized audits • Conduct research to influence policy • Organize study circles

32. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals Providing Encouragement and Education • Give personal compliments and offer public support • Develop a proposal for change • Establish formal communication and request participation • Provide corrective feedback • Reframe the debate

33. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • Organize legislative advocacy • Develop and maintain ongoing relationships with legislators • Register voters • Conduct public hearings • Organize public demonstrations • Seek a negotiator, fact-finder, or mediator • Organize a boycott • Organize a strike • Postpone action Direct Action Tactics • Write letters to elected/appointed officials • Write letters to the editor • Criticize unfavorable action • File a complaint • Seek enforcement of existing laws or policies • Use personal testimony • Lobby decision-makers • Establish lines of communication with the opposition’s allies • Conduct a petition drive

34. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals Media Advocacy Tactics • Work with the media • Make friends with the media • Create news stories the media wants • Use paid advertising • Meet the media • Change the media’s perspective on community issues

35. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals DIALOGUE: Consider your group and opportunities for advocacy in your situation. Which of these tactics might you use? How?

36. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals • Discern the Base and Breadth of Your Power • Members • Money • Credibility • Appeal • Network • Reputation • Skills • Newsworthy

37. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals ACTIVITY 10.3: Reflect on your particular situation and goals, and how potential advocacy strategies and tactics can help achieve them. Use the following form to outline two potential tactics (and associated risks) for your advocacy goal.

38. Matching Advocacy Tacticswith Your Situation and Goals Our Situation: Our Strategic Advocacy Goal: Our Potential Tactics: a. (potential / associated risks): b. (potential / associated risks): c. (potential / associated risks):

39. Advocating for Change “Perhaps we should remind ourselves that the ultimate purpose of education is not to know, but to act.” --Johnetta B. Cole

40. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition • Review Whether the Selected Tactics Fit the Group’s Situation and Goals • Do the tactics fit the group’s overall style? • Do they make use of available resources and allies? • Do they minimize opposition? • Are the approaches flexible? • Are the tactics likely to work?

41. Assessing Whether Tactics Fit Activity 10.4a: Use the table on the next slide to assess whether the selected advocacy tactics fit the situation.

42. Tactics Assessment Worksheet

43. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition DIALOGUE: Which potential allies might be engaged in your situation? What will they be able to add to the effort?

44. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition • Identify Resources and Assets to be Used • The number and kind of people who are available and committed • The financial resources available • The communication technologies, facilities and other material resources available • The information and ideas that could be helpful • Other assets that could be used to support the effort

45. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition • Identify and Engage Potential Allies • Identify likely allies and how they could add to the effort • Indicate how allies might be engaged • Identify likely opponents and how they might resist or oppose the effort • Indicate how the opposition can be countered

46. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition Identify Opposition Tactics – the 10 Ds • Deflect • Delay • Deny • Discount • Deceive • Divide • Dulcify (appease) • Discredit • Destroy • Deal

47. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition • Identify ways to counter opposition • Understanding your opponent • Turning negatives into positives • Publicly stating your opponent’s strategy • Keeping opponents off balance • Learning from the past • Being willing to compromise, or accept the best possible alternative

48. Identifying and Counteracting Opposition ACTIVITY 10.4b: Consider forms of opposition the group may encounter and how to counteract that opposition.

49. Identifying and Counteracting Opposition Worksheet

50. Implementing Advocacy Tacticswith Allies and Against Opposition • Describe the Evaluation of the Advocacy Effort • Clearly state what indicators will signify “success” for your advocacy effort • Describe how measures of success will be obtained • Indicate how the initiative will make sense of the results • Describe how the information will be used to improve the effort