Chapter 10 – Principles of Advocacy
Section 10-1: What Is Advocacy?
| Learn how to actively promote a cause or principle involving actions that will lead to a goal your organization has selected. |
Before direct action comes planning, and before planning comes an understanding of what needs to be put in the plan. So first, here’s a reminder of what advocacy is (as well as what it’s not).
- Advocacy is active promotion of a cause or principle
- Advocacy involves actions that lead to a selected goal
- Advocacy is one of many possible strategies, or ways to approach a problem
- Advocacy can be used as part of a community initiative, nested in with other components.
- Advocacy is not direct service
- Advocacy does not necessarily involve confrontation or conflict
Some examples may help clarify just what advocacy is:
- You join a group that helps build houses for the poor–that’s wonderful, but it’s not advocacy (it’s a service)
- You organize and agitate to get a proportion of apartments in a new development designated as low to moderate income housing – that’s advocacy
- You spend your Saturdays helping sort out goods at the recycling center – that’s not advocacy (it’s a service)
- You hear that land used for the recycling center is going to be closed down and you band together with many others to get the city to preserve this site, or find you a new one. Some of you even think about blocking the bulldozers, if necessary – that’s advocacy
Advocacy usually involves getting government, business, schools, or some other large institution (also known as Goliath) to correct an unfair or harmful situation affecting people in the community (also known as David, and friends). The situation may be resolved through persuasion, by forcing Goliath to buckle under pressure, by compromise, or through political or legal action.
Several ingredients make for effective advocacy, including:
- The rightness of the cause
- The power of the advocates (i.e., more of them is much better than less)
- The thoroughness with which the advocates researched the issues, the opposition, and the climate of opinion about the issue in the community
- Their skill in using the advocacy tools available (including the media)
- Above all, the selection of effective strategies and tactics
For some people, advocacy is a new role. It may be uncomfortable–particularly if confrontation and conflict are involved. But, for others, advocacy is more attractive than setting up and running service programs in the community.
Advocacy can be glamorous: the David vs. Goliath image, manning the barricades, making waves. But the decision to put major resources into advocacy is not one to be taken lightly. If it doesn’t work–if you stick your necks way out and don’t succeed–not only will you fail, but you may do so in public, discrediting your cause, perhaps making conditions worse for the people you set out to help.
DOES ADVOCACY ALWAYS INVOLVE CONFRONTATION?
Advocacy can be confrontational, but conflict is usually a bad place to start. Good advocates know they must think very hard about any confrontation that’s going to be necessary. That’s one reason for careful planning of strategy and tactics. Even if the issue seems as clear as a bell, and your choice of actions seems just as obvious, it’s a good idea to take another long, hard look.
WHY AND WHEN WOULD YOU CHOOSE ADVOCACY?
Advocacy is best kept for when “routine” work such as gathering support for a cause, raising money, and recruiting members of a community initiative or program won’t get you where you want to go.
In most cases, it’s a good idea to think twice before launching yourselves (or your group) as advocates, because it’s a strategy that’s more effective if there isn’t too much of it around. Imagine a city where there were public demonstrations every day, where City Hall was besieged constantly by groups with special petitions, resolutions, and assorted agitations. The community would quickly develop advocacy fatigue. So would the advocates.
The best time to start planning for an advocacy campaign is:
- When your direct experience or preliminary research shows you cannot achieve your goals in any other way
- When you are sure you have (or will have) the capacity to carry it through
- When you have enough enthusiasm and energy to last for what could be a long haul!
This chapter will help you get launched. And this particular section will give you a taste of what’s coming up in the seven remaining sections of the chapter, where you will gain a deeper understanding of the issue, identify allies and opponents, plan out your strategy and tactics, and evaluate your efforts.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF ADVOCACY?
Each of these components is addressed in greater depth in the following sections of this chapter, but this is a broad overview of how to advocate for your issue.
SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR ADVOCATES
Once you go public with an advocacy campaign, you may draw the attention of a number of people, not all of whom will wish you well. If things go wrong, you could end up looking very silly in the local news, which would not be good for your future campaigns. Even worse, in some circumstances a wrong step could land you in court. At the very least, there’s a risk of spinning your wheels if you don’t go about the many tasks of advocacy efficiently.
For example, to look at a worst-case scenario, think of what could go wrong with a campaign to promote better health for the poor:
- You accuse the local hospital of turning away a sick patient, without checking your facts. The hospital proves that it treated the man, but he discharged himself early.
- You push your allies out of shape by launching a press release that uses their name, without checking the wording with them first.
- You announce a big demonstration outside the hospital, and only three people show up.
It’s amateur night!
In the next section of this chapter, we’ve gathered 20 tips that will help members of your group avoid disasters. They’ll be able to take on their tasks efficiently, confidently, and with a low risk of tripping over their shoelaces.
UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUE
You probably already have a pretty good idea of what the issue or problem is.
For example:
- You are aware of a growing problem of homelessness, particularly among people with small children
- You feel that not nearly enough is being done in your community to prevent youth smoking
- Your group is afraid that a new industrial park up river will pollute the water
However, it is important to develop a deeper understanding of the issue, including research to analyze of who has power. Remember, advocacy is about power–who can influence things that matter. You will need to know where the power of your opponents lies, and how you can most effectively influence or confront it.
RECOGNIZING ALLIES
If you are the only people in town who want something done about the problem you have identified, your cause could be in trouble. It’s one thing to fight city hall: much harder to take on a whole community of hostile or indifferent people. If there are only a handful of people on your side, it may be all too easy for those in power to dismiss you as the lunatic fringe. One of your jobs will be to make that “fringe” start to look like a representative slice of the whole population affected by the issue. Then people in power will take notice.
Somewhere, there are allies – people who can band together with you and give your cause bulk, visibility, and clout. You can use methods such as a “power grid” that will help you pinpoint those groups and agencies in town that have the power to help your group. This grid will also help you identify specific ways in which these potential allies can help.
Of course, you’ll need to be careful about who you invite on board–some allies may bring baggage that you don’t need. We’ll help you balance potential benefits against potential risks, and come up with some useful backers who will help, rather than hinder, your cause – whether you want to build a full-fledged coalition, or an informal alliance or network.
In addition to deciding whether other groups have an interest in your cause, it’s important to find out if an alliance with them is in your interest. For example, suppose you are planning to make life difficult for retailers who sell cigarettes to kids, and you know that the American Cancer Society, a couple of local youth groups, and a pair of enlightened churches have the same goals. Just how can you best help each other? Do you want a close relationship? Suppose these people are limited by their own charters in the type of action they can get involved in? Suppose they might want to take over the direction of the whole campaign? Suppose they are with your interests on some matters, and against you in others?
IDENTIFYING OPPONENTS AND RESISTANCE
Although it’s possible to advocate without having an opponent (for example, you may be working largely to overcome ignorance and inertia), most advocacy campaigns have a recognizable Goliath–or even several big (and potentially mean) kids on the block. Who are your opponents? Why are they putting up resistance? And what can you do about it?
Those questions should be answered together. There’s not much point knowing the names of your opponents unless you also know why they are opposing you. Sometimes, this may not be for the most obvious reasons, so you’ll need to know what’s going on.
Starting with the cause for resistance is often more fruitful than starting with a list of people you expect to be bad guys: you may get some surprises. For example, a big developer might turn out to support your drive for more low-cost housing, because he recognizes that the presence of homeless people in the neighborhood can deter rich people from buying his expensive houses. Similarly, people from whom you might expect support might turn out to oppose you. Perhaps a big agency that seems to share your goals is bent out of shape because you seem to be trespassing on their turf or accusing them of ineffectiveness in the past. You can’t take anything for granted.
ENCOURAGING INVOLVEMENT OF POTENTIAL OPPONENTS AS WELL AS ALLIES
Once you have a plan, you’ll know where you are going, and how to get there. That will give you confidence, and that confidence will give you clout. Armed with that, you may be able to approach certain groups or individuals whom you thought were opposed to you. Maybe they still are, but you may find that you can find help in unexpected quarters. Now that your plan makes you more business-like, people may decide to cut a deal. Or, now that your position can be made clear to others as well as to yourselves, you may find that although a certain group still may oppose you on some issues, you are on the same side of others.
DEVELOPING A PLAN FOR ADVOCACY
Planning for advocacy is often a complex program because we have to deal with power and opposition. As you know by now, an advocate will usually have to overcome obstacles much greater than “mere” inertia, or lack of funds, which are often the main barriers where other types of community development projects are concerned. In advocacy situations, there are likely to be well-prepared opponents waiting in the tall grass. And they will need to be out-planned.
You will need to develop a plan based on your knowledge of who those opponents are; and knowledge of who can help you.
For a useful analogy, we’ll invite you to think of the overall campaign as a building project:
- Your vision and mission is to provide a place to live that is warm and safe
- Your objective is to build a house
- Your strategy will take the form of blueprints for the house
- Your action plan will include the specifics: who will pour the concrete for the foundation, put up a frame, add the roof, et cetera, and when will they do it
And all will go together as part of one big action plan.
IN SUMMARY
Advocacy is exciting work. You get the pleasure of fighting the good fight, and sometimes, the thrill of victory. In order to have that, though, you need to get through all of the day-to-day details and specifics. You’ll need to keep an eye on the forest while working on the trees individually. By going through this chapter carefully, we think you will be better prepared to bring about the changes that matter to your community.
Online Resources
Community Advocacy: A Psychologist’s Toolkit for State and Local Advocacy is a science-based toolkit that highlights various advocacy strategies to inform policy at the state and local levels. It aims to build a community of grassroots psychologist advocates that can intervene to promote well-being in the communities in which they reside.
YouTube videos from Connecticut Network: Defining Advocacy – What does “advocacy” mean, and who qualifies to be an advocate? (2 min.), and Your Right to Advocate – Petitioning leaders at the national, state, city or neighborhood level, plus: the role of lobbyists. (6 min.)
Print Resources
Advocacy and Campaigning Course Toolkit (INTRAC). This online PDF provides theoretical and practical information for advocating and establishing a positive campaign.
Advocacy Toolkit (International Competition Network). The purpose of this toolkit is twofold: (1) Share and disseminate alternative approaches to advocacy across competition agencies; and (2) Provide a useful, practical guide to competition agencies looking to amend or refresh their current approach.
Altman, D., Fawcett, S., Seekins, T., & Young, J. (1994). Public Health Advocacy: Creating Community Change to Improve Health. Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention. Palo Alto,CA.
Article: Community Health Advocacy (U.S. National Library of Medicine). Loue, S. (2006). Community health advocacy. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 60(6), 458-463. This article addresses six key questions about advocacy and highlights the foundational issues of advocating for community health.
Avner, M., & Smucker, B. (2002). The lobbying and advocacy handbook for nonprofit organizations: Shaping public policy at the state and local level. Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. This book offers a clear step-by-step guide to implementing a successful advocacy program at both the state and local levels.
Bobo, K., Kendall, J., Max, S.(1991) Organizing for Social Change: a manual for activists in the 1990s. Minneapolis, MN. Midwest Academy.
10 Common Elements of Successful Advocacy Campaigns (PDF). This freely accessible PDF is Chapter 6 from the Lobbying Strategy Handbook. This particular chapter discusses steps 4-7 in the list of ten.
Community Health Advocates (from Community Health Advocates website) is a health portal to advocates who work to help their communities get, keep, and use health coverage. Through the portal, there is access to several publications designed to educate advocates and consumers on gaining health coverage.
Daly, J. (2012). Advocacy: Championing ideas and influencing others. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Practical knowledge for transforming advocacy ideas into practice are provided, emphasizing the power of action-oriented marketing. Daly draws off of current research in the fields of persuasion, power relations, and behavior change to explain how to successfully advocate for a cause.
How – and Why – to Influence Public Policy. (1996). Community Change. 17, 1-40.
How to Run an Online Advocacy Campaign (Network for Good Website). On this webpage, a blueprint is provided for designing and running an online advocacy campaign.
Libby, P. (2011). The lobbying strategy handbook: 10 steps to advancing any cause effectively. SAGE Publications, Inc.This book provides a 10-step framework that walks readers step-by-step through the elements of a lobbying campaign. Three separate case studies are used to show how groups have successfully employed the model.
Sen, R. (2003). Stir it up: Lessons in community organizing and advocacy. Jossey-Bass; 1st Edition. Sen goes step-by-step through the process of building and mobilizing a community and implementing key strategies to affect social change. Using case studies to illustrate advocacy practices, Sen provides tools to help groups tailor his model for their own organizational needs.
Understanding Advocacy (Article from International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC)) provides basic information about communication, action, and goals as they pertain to advocacy.
Section 10-2: Survival Skills for Advocates
| Learn effective guidelines for getting support for your cause and tested personal strategies for continuing your advocacy work despite obstacles you might face. |
In this section we discuss survival skills for the successful advocate.This list has been compiled from the experiences of many advocates, but it’s by no means complete. Not all of these skills may be relevant to your particular situation. However, we feel a review of them may help provide a solid basis for your advocacy campaign.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR ADVOCACY?
Advocacy survival skills are a set of general guidelines for pleading your cause–and for staying in the game long enough to be successful. They have been used effectively by other advocacy campaigns. You and your group may want to review and adapt them as you develop your strategy and tactics for community change.
WHY DO YOU NEED TO USE SURVIVAL SKILLS FOR ADVOCACY?
Success depends on much more than just dedicated people working for a common cause (although that’s one necessary ingredient!). This Tool Box section talks about the “Golden Rules” for advocacy – that is, how to be effective in promoting your cause while keeping your head about you.
HOW DO YOU USE SURVIVAL SKILLS IN ADVOCACY EFFORTS?
None of the survival guidelines are set in stone. They should be used to fit your situation and resources. They have benefited many previous advocacy groups, but are not necessarily a recipe for instant success. The important thing is to study these guidelines and use what you find useful; then get to work!
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE!
Keep your eyes open for positive events that happen in and around your community initiative or because of your group’s work.
- When you notice something great happening, even if it’s something small, recognize it publicly
- Thank others for their efforts. Pay them public compliments. This will help motivate people to contribute in the future, knowing that you appreciate their contributions!
- Being conscientious about thanking people will help set you apart from other groups that only complain
EMPHASIZE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S VALUES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO THE COMMUNITY
Always highlight the positive values and vision relating to your organization’s work. For example, you may ultimately be working towards improved community health, safe workplaces and streets, a clean community environment, or quality education. Everybody wants to experience these things, so it’s difficult for opponents or skeptics to argue against the kind of values you promote.
- Keeping public attention focused on values and principles that benefit everyone helps move your initiative along and prevents petty or wasteful arguments from sidelining your efforts
- Communicate to others your group’s accomplishments: the new programs, policies, and practices it helped bring about
PLAN FOR SMALL WINS
If members of your group aren’t able to see any progress after dedicating a lot of time and effort to your mission, their interest and motivation won’t last very long. People like to see results, no matter how small. Sometimes, significant progress on a particular community issue is slow to show itself. To break up the time that passes without major breakthroughs occurring, develop a plan of action that has some shorter term or intermediate goals.
For a long term goal of providing all necessary immunizations to 100% of children age 2 and younger; developing an outreach program for high risk mothers and children 12 months from now might be a good intermediate goal.
When each of the shorter term or intermediate goals is met, celebrate! Celebrations along the way to “the big win” will build the confidence and reputation of your group.
PRESENT THE ISSUES IN THE WAY YOU WANT OTHERS TO SEE THEM
A common strategy of opponents is to “frame” or present the issues in such a way that the people or communities most affected by the problem are held responsible for their unhappy situations. Instead of responding to criticism in terms set forward by your opponents, move support away from their perspective by framing the issue in your own voice.
The opposition claims that mothers on welfare take advantage of the system by having more babies to get “free money” from the government. Try to avoid responding to their framing of the issue; for example, by claiming that no woman could possibly profit from the small amount of extra money a month per child the state pays. Instead, reframe the issue by focusing on what contributes to mothers being on welfare in the first place: lack of employment opportunities, lack of adequate day care, etc.
DEVELOP YOUR OWN PUBLIC IDENTITY
Even if your particular organization is part of a larger movement, such as a nationally recognized group working to reduce drug use or teen violence, establish your own local public image. If you are too closely linked with a larger and better-known organization, the public may transfer its positive and negative image of the larger organization to your small group. This could overshadow whatever you really stand for and put your credibility as a non-biased, independent organization at risk.
CHECK YOUR FACTS
Understand your organization’s issues and actions inside and out. This involves being able to quote a source of information or point to reliable statistics for claims you make publicly. Facts should guide your actions and public statements. If you are caught with inaccurate information or documentation, you could seriously damage your organization’s reputation, embarrass yourself, and take attention away from important issues at hand.
- Document your claims. For example, if you claim that alcohol producers have targeted children for advertising campaigns, count and write down the location and content of the alcohol-related billboards and posters you find near elementary, junior high, and high schools.
- Collect data. Obtain accurate, high quality information from experts or those who most likely have current facts and figures about the issues and options you present.
- Verify your information. Use as many believable sources as possible. The more people who can say, “Yes, that’s right,” the more backup you’ll have if someone challenges your arguments.
- Practice using those facts and figures to explain why your organization does what it does. Be able to point to the source of your information. Most importantly, express information clearly, showing that you’ve done more than just swallow a bunch of facts–you understand them.
- Having solid documentation will protect you from counterattacks from your opponents and improve your reputation in the community.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Small successes help build morale and sustain commitment to the issues. They don’t always happen as a result of complex, super involved actions. Give simpler, short -term solutions that move toward a bigger solution a chance before you take a step up in complexity.
A workers’ strike protesting inadequate protection from hazardous materials may be premature unless simpler and less confrontational approaches have been tried first. A simpler, more effective starting point for this situation would be for workers to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
BE PASSIONATE AND PERSISTENT
Working for community health and improvement can be an uphill battle, because so often the solutions need to be the responsibility of everyone, not just of a few. It’s important to have the passion and persistence to overcome entrenched attitudes the public may have toward health and community problems, and possible public resistance to change.
- Passion lends energy to your movement. It can help sway undecided people to your viewpoint, and it helps you focus on your goals
- Persistence keeps your issues in the public eye, helps you follow through on commitments, and keeps your opponents scrambling to keep up with your kind of dedication
BE PREPARED TO COMPROMISE
Building healthy communities sometimes calls for compromise with groups whose goals may not be identical to your own.
- Although you want to stay true to your vision, be open to alternative plans of action or compromises that, although not ideal, may get you closer to your goals
- Your willingness to compromise fosters good will between you and your opponents by making you appear reasonable. This may encourage wider support within the community, as long as you are not too willing to compromise, which might be perceived as weakness.
Tobacco control advocates in San Francisco wanted to include bars in a smoking ban in public places. The advocates realized a ban on smoking in bars was considered too extreme by the general public, and including bars in the list of targeted establishments would greatly decrease support for the ban. The advocates decided to drop bars from their list of places to target. This was perceived as a reasonable compromise by the public, and the ordinance passed.
BE OPPORTUNISTIC AND CREATIVE
Look out for opportunities to promote your goals and seize them when they come along. This may involve lying in wait for an appropriate, “natural” time when you can capitalize on some event related to your objectives.
February is already strongly associated with Valentine’s day and hearts in the romantic sense, so the American Heart Association has long had an increase in cardiovascular and “heart health” promotion during this month.
STAY THE COURSE
Advocates have successfully gone head-to-head with some pretty powerful people, including politicians, CEOs of well-known businesses, and national lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association. Facing such influential opponents can be scary, especially when they will most likely have greater name recognition and resources to oppose you.
As an advocate for your community, you will have some credibility with the public–after all, you’re fighting for their well being; whether that’s safer streets, decent jobs, cleaner air, or more access to medical care. The public will recognize this!
The bottom line is this: if you are intimidated into inaction, your opponents will automatically win and nothing will change.
LOOK FOR THE GOOD IN OTHERS
When you encounter members from groups that disagree with your goals or viewpoint, don’t assume they are “out to get you” or ready to pick a fight.
- If an opponent criticizes your organization, begin by assuming the person doesn’t have the same understanding that you do and is speaking out of a lack of information
- Educate the person. You could even invite her to attend some of your organization’s functions to find out what your group is really about
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE
Opponents may try to distract you from your advocacy activities by attacking you personally. By responding to their name-calling, you waste precious energy and lessen your chances for future cooperation or compromise with these people. Also, your public image may suffer if the general public sees you involved in mudslinging. Instead of giving in to the temptation to fight back, stay focused on the really important issues at hand.
Advocates for increased enforcement of alcohol sales laws were once accused by the alcoholic beverage industry as being in favor of a police state, or of being anti-business
Sometimes it may be necessary to respond to their attacks in order to maintain your credibility in the eyes of the public. When you do, make sure your defense or counter attack is well documented with facts and/or data to back you up.
MAKE ISSUES LOCAL AND RELEVANT
When you bring your issues to the local level, you increase your chances for public support. Issues become relevant to community members when they are close to home. For example, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has been very successful in many communities because many people know someone who has lost a child to an alcohol related accident. Some ways to really bring issues home to people in your area include using statistics for the issue gathered locally, using such local role models as businesses or volunteers, or presenting the issues in a certain way to help community members understand how they will be affected.
- The state legislature plans to start selling lands for the development of a turnpike interchange. The interchange will only travel through one mile of your county, yet county residents will be charged an extra 55 cents to travel on it. In addition, the proposed development runs through lands used for Native American religious ceremonies. In addition to advocating to stop the destruction of the sacred grounds, your organization could publicize the extra cost to residents who use the interchange.
- Your organization works to build self-esteem and create life options for local teenagers. Invite local business people to speak to your organization on how they are working to create more part-time employment for teenagers and on what kind of skills they would like future employees to have. Perhaps you could create a mentoring pool where professionals from your community would work with students in developing their career goals.
GET BROAD-BASED SUPPORT FROM THE START
Sometimes it may seem as if becoming part of an advocacy movement automatically puts you on the “other side” from state and federal services, politicians, community leaders and private organizations.
Even though there may be some differences between your group and key segments of the community, you may all be more or less working towards the same broad goals of helping the community become healthier.
It’s important to include people from “inside the system” in your advocacy efforts. This helps you not only widen your perspective on the issues, but it helps you identify “ins” with key agencies and people who can provide valuable support and clout to your efforts.
WORK WITHIN THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUR GROUP MEMBERS
The actions that your group takes should agree with the experiences, values, and interests of individual group members. It’s important that you regularly monitor the preferences and limitations of group members in order to choose actions that members feel comfortable doing.
If your group of advocates wants to stage a protest that could result in getting arrested for trespassing or violating a city ordinance, make sure members are prepared to experience getting arrested or ticketed–especially if they have never been arrested before.
TRY TO WORK OUTSIDE THE EXPERIENCES OF YOUR OPPONENTS
A confused or unsure opponent is a weak opponent. When you have the ability to work outside your opponents’ experiences or field of expertise, do so. Most companies don’t plan in advance to deal with public opposition to their policies, actions, or products. Likewise, they don’t know how to respond to unexpected alternatives presented publicly to them by advocates.
An anti-tobacco advocate was invited to debate a tobacco industry representative on smoker’s rights. Instead of arguing against smoker’s rights as expected, he argued for the right of smokers to sue the tobacco industry for health costs.
MAKE YOUR OPPONENTS PLAY BY THEIR OWN RULES
Federal, state, and local agencies and governing bodies all have rules and regulations for how activities are carried out. Make sure you take advantage of those guaranteed procedures when dealing with these groups.
- Advocacy groups can use mandatory public hearings to show support for or opposition against proposed policy changes.
- Citizens’ groups can also file appropriate complaints with government agencies or organizations responsible for enforcing certain regulations. Once you are familiar with an organization’s procedures and protocols, exploit them to the benefit of your goals.
TIE YOUR ADVOCACY GROUP’S EFFORTS TO RELATED EVENTS
Watch for events that might be relevant to your group’s objectives or tactics. Linking to such events helps publicize your cause and strengthen your position in the community.
- Advocates wanting to increase public assistance for the poor, including adequate housing, could link their cause to the death of a local person who died of exposure during the harsh winter
- Opponents of nuclear power might link their claims about the dangers of nuclear power to an accident at a nuclear power plant
ENJOY YOURSELF!
Remember how we talked about celebrating successes to maintain commitment to your cause? That’s about having a good time, too. If members of your advocacy group don’t enjoy what they’re doing, then there’s something wrong.
Great! You’ve made it through our list of survival skills. We hope that a few, if not all, of these will provide you guidance as you prepare to take action. You may even want to refer back to these as your advocacy campaign progresses. Again, feel free to modify these to best suit your needs and situation.
Good luck and have fun!
Print Resources
Alinsky, S. (1971). Rules for radicals. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Altman, D., Balcazar, F., Fawcett, S., Seekins, T., & Young, J.(1994). Public health advocacy: Creating community change to improve health. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention.
Bobo, K., Kendall, J., Max, S. (1991). Organizing for social change: a manual for activists in the 1990s. Minneapolis, MN: Seven Locks Press.
Daly, J. (2012). Advocacy: Championing ideas and influencing others. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Throughout the book, Daly provides practical knowledge for how to transform advocacy ideas into practice, emphasizing the power of action-oriented marketing. Daly draws off of current research in the fields of persuasion, power relations, and behavior change to explain how to successfully advocate for a cause.
Libby, P. (2011). The lobbying strategy handbook: 10 steps to advancing any cause effectively. SAGE Publications, Inc.This book provides a 10-step framework that walks readers step-by-step through the elements of a lobbying campaign. Three separate case studies are used to show how groups have successfully employed the model.
UN Learning & Information Pack (World Bank). Though this resource was initially designed to advocate for gender mainstreaming, it was intentionally designed in such a way that its information can be adapted to other causes.
Online Resource
Advocacy Toolkit. This page has a downloadable toolkit link at the bottom of the page which provides general guidelines for advocating for yourself and your peers.
A YouTube video from the Connecticut Network: Advocacy Strategies – Learn some skills and attributes that can help you successfully champion your cause. (5 min.)
Section 10-3: Understanding the Issue
WHAT IS INVOLVED IN UNDERSTANDING THE ISSUE?
You probably already have a good idea about why your issue is important. You probably also know something about its history, and what brought the situation about. That’s great, but before you face the world in a big-time (or even small-time) advocacy campaign, you will need to be armed with quite a lot of extra knowledge about the background of your issue, as well as the way it affects your community.
WHY DO YOU NEED A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR ISSUE?
- You’ll need to have arguments at your fingertips that can convince your members that the issue is important and keep them fired up
- You’ll need to persuade allies to join your cause by presenting them with facts that they won’t be able to ignore or refute
- You’ll need to know why your opponents are taking the side they take, and what financial or other interests they may have in continuing to take that side
- With research, you’ll know better what needs to be done to correct a situation. Furthermore, you’ll know which of the necessary steps are fairly easy to take, and which may be a major stretch for your organization.
- You’ll know what strategic style is likely to work best, whether you’re going to run an “in your face” type of initiative, or act behind the scenes, or something in between
- When and if the dispute becomes public – as you may want it to do – you will have the answers. If a reporter asks you for a reaction, or shoves a microphone in your face, you will be sure of your facts.
- You’ll be ready with facts any time you are challenged by your opponent, by the establishment (such as City Hall), or by the media
- Because you’ll thoroughly understand the status quo from the beginning of your campaign, you will be able to plan your progress logically and, at the end, know just how far you have come
The bottom line is that before you proceed with the specific planning steps in the rest of this chapter, you will need a nice, solid, comforting layer of knowledge on which to base your plans.
WHAT SORT OF RESEARCH IS INVOLVED?
Other parts of the Tool Box deal with the collection of facts and statistics. There is no doubt that you must know the facts about your issue – in fact, you can’t operate without them. But you will need much more than a basis if you are to be a successful advocate:
- You’ll need to know how people feel about the issue, and what they believe
- You’ll need to know how the issue links or divides different segments of the community
- You’ll need to understand who is pulling the strings to make your opponents take the line they do
- You’ll need to know what forces might be at work in the local political scene to make officials drag their feet – or even jump in to oppose you
- You might need to know what it will take to make people give up the old way of doing things and try something else
- You might need to know the belief systems of people who oppose you on ideological grounds
STARTING POINTS FOR YOUR RESEARCH:
Who is affected by the issue?
- Who is affected the most?
- Who loses, and what do they lose?
- Who gains, and what do they gain?
What are the consequences of the issue?
- For the individuals mostly affected?
- For their families?
- For society?
What is the economic impact of the issue?
- What are the economic costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
- What are the economic benefits of the issue, and who benefits?
What is the social impact of the issue?
- What are the social costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
- What are the social benefits of the issue, and who benefits?
What are the barriers?
- What are the barriers to addressing this issue?
- How can they be overcome?
What are the resources?
- What resources will we need to address this issue?
- Where and how can they be tapped?
What is the history of this issue?
- What is the history of the issue in the community?
- What past efforts were made to address it?
- What were the results?
To put it another way, it’s helpful to find the root cause of the issue and what has happened since.
WHAT ARE THE BEST SOURCES OF INFORMATION?
You will probably need two main types of information:
GATHERING BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Getting accurate background information may be heavy lifting; you, or others in your group, may need to become experts in the field, or find existing experts to join or advise your group. For example, suppose your issue involves excessive logging and its effect on the environment. Your group should be somewhat knowledgeable about wildlife, watersheds, water quality, effects of logging on fish, the life-cycle of trees, the economics of the industry, the forestry regulations, and so on.
If your issue is health care for the poor, you may need to have a reasonable knowledge of a great many fields, including information about the economics of health care systems, the effect of medical neglect on poor families, and state and federal policies as they affect the indigent.
LIBRARIES
When you’re looking for background information, your local library is a great place to start. It will have many current subscriptions and back numbers of major newspapers, magazines, etc.. Special reports published by periodicals can be a valuable resource for information about the background of your issue.
In addition, many reference librarians are born to surf. They can guide you to reliable sites on the Web where you can get what you need.
Here are some specific places to look in the library:
- The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
- This will lead you to the names and dates of articles on your issue that have appeared in magazines in recent years. Many libraries will also be able to produce the back copies of the magazines. These articles can be valuable in giving you background information–but keep in mind that, although it’s not terribly common, incorrect (or outdated) information does occasionally find its way into print. To be on the safe side, verify what you learn with two or three independent sources.
- Almanacs and yearbooks
- Annual publications such as The World Almanac and Book of Facts, published by the Newspaper Enterprise Association may produce information you need. Yearbooks are more specialized. For example, The Municipal Yearbook and The County Yearbook are both published by the International City Management Association.
- Indexes and surveys
- Major newspapers often publish “indexes” which you can use to dig up stories from the archive, which the library may keep on microfiche or microfilm. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor are three useful ones. Surveys of events are compiled by various organizations. One of the most useful is Facts on File.
THE INTERNET
Get a good Internet directory, or put the right key words into a good search engine and you may find untold riches. For example, start with Fed World and it will lead you to dozens of Federal agencies and their oceans of data. Or try the Library of Congress.
While the Internet is full of good information, (for example, you found us!), you’ll want to keep a couple of things in mind. The Internet is not monitored, so the information you find may be outdated or even completely incorrect. Start with the web pages of national or state organizations devoted to your topic; you can feel confident that these will be accurate and up-to-date.
LEARNING FROM OTHER ADVOCACY GROUPS
In many cases, background research might already have been done by national advocacy groups, such as the Children’s Defense Fund or the Sierra Club. You may also be able to learn from smaller advocacy groups who may be tackling issues similar to yours. However, you’ll need to be careful about taking over facts and figures prepared by other organizations. In certain cases, these might not be accurate, or might give a different slant to the research than the one you need.
One thing that you can learn from other groups is their process–the way they went about their own research. For example, suppose a group in a neighboring community had a problem with a major industry dumping untreated waste into the river. Now, a similar problem seems to be developing with a pet-food processing plant in your community. You can find out what sources of information they used and what roadblocks they encountered in their efforts to remedy the situation.
You might want to use something similar to this form to get started:
| Need to know | Where to look | Useful? |
| Effect of paper mill waste on fish |
|
|
GATHERING LOCAL INFORMATION
You will need very specific information about the issue as it affects your community in order to plan your campaign and push the right buttons.
Some of the research methods that you use to gather background information may also be excellent for filling in the local angle. For instance, reference librarians often have an excellent knowledge of the community and where its archives or other background facts may be found.
The local media
If you have a local newspaper, try the clippings file. You may find valuable information about the origins of the problem you face. Television and radio may not keep archives systematically, but if there’s a reporter or researcher on staff who’s been around for many years, he or she might be glad to give you some guidance. For example: “I remember there was a zoning dispute… ” or “When that hospital was set up, there was some provision… ” Even unspecific memories and hints may lead you to the right corner of officialdom to dig out useful documents.
Remember that many local papers now have websites which are often stuffed with archival material.
Annual reports
Is your opponent a company that issues annual reports? These can provide useful statistics. Or you might find valuable information from special reports issued by groups such as public interest groups, business organizations, social services, and others that release information to the public. (Again, librarians might know where to look.)
Archival records
City Hall, or other government agencies, such as school boards, may have archival records that tell you what you want to know. For example, court records and real estate records may be loaded with information about past difficulties of opponents, the history of zoning decisions, and so on.
Another possible source to find information is through the Freedom of Information Act. Under this Act you can obtain information about federal government agencies. This may be about an outside agency or about your own. There are three exceptions: the Congress, the Federal Courts, and the Executive Office. Requests for information cannot be made to schools, state or local governments, and private businesses, organizations, or individual records.
Commercial sector
Often the business establishment of a community will gather facts and figures–for example, for use in a brochure that is designed to bring new business or new residents to the town. The Chamber of Commerce may be a good place to start.
FILLING THE GAPS
There may be some information that you just can’t get from written sources, whether paper or electronic. And if there are gaps in what you need to know, you may find that you can fill them best by asking questions.
For example, do you want to know whether a strategy you are considering is likely to win the support of the general public or their undying resentment? Ask!
Here are some suggestions for extracting the information you need from people in your community.
Interviews with community leaders
Set up a time to go and chat with people who are identified by members of the community as leaders. These people don’t have to be elected officials or people in power, but they should be respected and have influence. They might be:
- Church leaders
- Youth group leaders
- Respected local professionals
- Representatives of the business community
- Educators (i.e. school board members, school principals)
Usually these people are busy, so it pays to plan out your questions before you go in, and to make them specific. For example, “If you were in our situation, how would you… ?” Or, “Thinking back 15 years, can you remember how the community reacted to…?”
Remember that these leaders may be important to you later in the campaign, so be careful to keep them on your side! If they don’t yet want to open up about a certain topic, back off.
Interviews with community residents
You may be able to gather useful information about community knowledge and attitudes by reaching a sample of the residents, if your sample is big enough, and if it is really representative.
There are various techniques you can use, including:
- Intercept surveys (stopping people on the street)
- Telephone surveys (with numbers picked at random)
- Written surveys (sent to a sample picked at random)
You may get useful information from any of these methods, though the return rate on written surveys is usually very low and they’re very expensive. Just chatting to people in the street, or telephoning a sample to ask what they think about a certain topic may give you fresh insights, or bring to your attention problems you hadn’t thought about.
Just remember that you probably can’t quote facts and figures gathered in these surveys unless:
- You use a sufficiently large sample
- You are very professional about the way that the sample is chosen
- You are very professional about the way the questions are worded
- The results are carefully coded and analyzed
For example, if your group claims that “90% of the people in this town support us,” and it turns out you only telephoned your friends, or only talked to people in coffee shops, this will be easy for the opposition to dismiss–and they are unlikely to take your statistical claims seriously in future.
These can be useful in two ways:
- To “go fishing” for ideas and reactions from a fairly typical bunch of people
- To test out specific ideas
There is one caveat: most research from focus groups can’t be used to “prove” anything. You can’t say, “People in the community say that clean air is their highest priority – just on the basis of one focus group – it’s simply not a large enough sample. But focus groups can be very effective in suggesting lines of inquiry that you might not have thought of, and in giving reactions to ideas presented to them.
Guided discussions
This way of gathering information is something like doing focus groups one on one. Members of your group chat with members of the community, either face-to-face or by telephone. Interviewers follow a check-list of points you want covered in the course of the conversation, and questions you’d like answered, but you can also afford to let the conversation wander – and that can often produce some good insights into the issue.
Print Resources
Altman, D., Balcazar, F., Fawcett, S., Seekins, T., & Young, J. (1994). Public health advocacy: creating community change to improve health. Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention.
Cox, F., Ehrlich, J., Rothman, J., & Tropman, J. (Eds.). Tactics and techniques of community practice. (2nd ed.). Itasca: F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.
Legator, M., Harper, B., & Scott, M. (1985). The health detective’s handbook. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Mondross, J., & Wilson, S. (1994). Organizing for power and empowerment. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Principles of Community Change, Second Edition (Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry) is an online book that provides the principles for community engagement.
START “Simple Toolkit for Advocacy Research Techniques” (VSO International). This research guide was put together by VSO International based on their own experiences of low-cost, non-academic professional research.
Werner, D., & Bower, B. (1982). Helping health workers learn. Palo Alto, CA: The Hesperian Foundation.
Section 10-4: Developing a Plan for Advocacy
| Learn how to properly plan for advocacy to avoid surprises that might make you look ineffective, clumsy, or incompetent, in order to increase your chances of success. |
WHAT’S A PLAN FOR ADVOCACY?
Other sections of the Community Tool Box have covered strategic planning. How should planning for advocacy be different?
The answer is that in many ways the process will be similar — but it’s even more important to do it thoroughly, and do it up front. That’s because advocacy:
- Involves getting powerful individuals or organizations to make big changes that may not be in their short-term interest
- Often involves working in the public eye
- Often involves sticking out your neck, as you take a stand against a larger opponent
Planning will help you find out ahead of time where the major difficulties may lie, and to avoid surprises (including those surprises that might make you look ineffective, clumsy, or stupid).
In addition, as with any project, planning will help you to:
- Clarify your goals
- Clarify the steps that will take you to your goals
- Increase your chances of success
If you don’t plan, you may waste valuable energy, miss some opportunities, perhaps even antagonize people you need to keep on your side.
WHEN SHOULD YOU CREATE A PLAN FOR ADVOCACY?
It’s important to complete a plan before you start advocating, because, as you will find, each part of the plan can affect the others.
Normally, planning your goals comes first–but you may have to change those plans if you find, as you plan further, that the tactics you were hoping to use aren’t legal, or won’t work. When you plan everything together–and ongoing–you can both build support and make adjustments as you go.
Your goal might be to close down a refinery that had been guilty of dumping toxic chemicals in the community. You find, when you check into the list of possible allies, that the economic impact of closure would be devastating to the community. So you adjust your goal to one that would change safety practices in the refinery and permit closer community oversight.
If you had publicly stated your goal of closing the place, before talking with others or filling in the other steps of your plan, you could have antagonized many of those whose support you would need. These might include many people in the community who depended on the refinery financially. And it would have been hard to win them back, after publicly coming out against their interests.
MAKING YOUR PLANS
Planning is best done as a group activity. One way is to write up ideas on the chalkboard or on butcher paper. Then, after they’ve been debated, record the ideas you’ve chosen in a permanent place. The actual format of the plan is not important. What’s important is that you write it down in a form you can use, and that lets you check one part of the plan against the rest. A loose-leaf binder (or computer file) with separate sections for each category may be all you need.
GOALS (OR OBJECTIVES)
If you are asked what the goal of your advocacy campaign or group is, your answer may come out in the form of a mission statement: “Our aim is to create decent and affordable housing,” or “We intend to reduce pollution of the local waterways.” However, for planning purposes, goals should be split down into much more specific steps. Remember that it’s better to keep your focus on a relatively narrow, manageable group of issues, rather than letting yourselves try to cover too much ground, and lose strength in the process. It’s also important to split up the goals according to your time-frame.
Long-term goals spell out where you want to be, by the end of the advocacy campaign.
- Ten years from now, the supply of low-income housing in Bay City will have increased by 50%
- In four years, we will reduce the pregnancy rate among 12 to 17 year-olds in Bay City by 30%
- Five years from now, toxic dumping in Murray County will be eliminated
Intermediate goals get you much of the way:
- They focus on community and system changes – new or modified programs, policies, and practices in the local community or the broader system
- They provide concrete building blocks towards the ultimate goal
- They help the group to feel it is doing something. This can be helpful to maintain high levels of motivation over the long haul.
- They provide earlier “bench-marks” by which you can measure progress.
- In one year, the City Council will create six new low-income housing units
- In six months, we will have changed the hours of the clinic to increase access
- In nine months, two major businesses will have introduced flextime policies that permit adults to be with children after school
Short-term goals have some of the same functions as the intermediate kind. They help keep a group motivated, providing more immediate benchmarks in the form of action steps.
- By June, we’ll have signed up 10 new members
- In two months, we’ll hold the first public hearing
- By the November election, we will get 1,500 people out to vote
WRITING OUT YOUR GOALS
In terms of planning, it pays to examine each goal before you write it down, to make sure it meets certain criteria. Specifically, each goal should be SMART + C: Specific; Measurable; Achievable; Relevant; Timed; and Challenging.
Here’s how SMART + C goal-planning works:
- (S)pecific. The more specific you can be about what it is you want your group to achieve and by when, the better.
Instead of, “We’ll hold a meeting,” your goal should be: “We’ll hold a meeting for parents of teenage children in Memorial Hall to invite input on the initiative.”
- (M)easurable. Put your goals in measurable terms. The more precise you are about what you want to get done, the easier it will be to see what and how much your group has accomplished. This may prove to be essential if you are carrying out a systematic evaluation of your campaign (see related section of this chapter).
Not: “Smoking in our community will be reduced,” but instead: “The percentage of smokers in our community will decline by 30% by the year 2000.”
- (A)chievable. It’s great for you to be ambitious, but you should also remember to set realistic goals that your group can actually achieve. Real change takes time and resources. If you bite off more than you can chew, your group and the community may become prematurely disappointed or discouraged.
- (R)elevant (to your mission). You should be setting goals that will start your group on the path to successfully accomplishing its mission. If you stray too much from that path, you may lose sight of what it is you’re trying to accomplish.
- (T)imed. A date for completion should be set. Even if circumstances change and your date must be altered later, it’s much better to start off knowing when you can expect to achieve your goals, so you will know when it may become necessary to make adjustments.
- (C)hallenging. Goals should also stretch up. If we know we can get 500 people out to vote, but need 2,000–and can get that with extra effort–we should set the more challenging goal.
PLANNING YOUR GOALS
The simplest way may be to use a loose-leaf binder or computer file, with one page for each of your major goals. On each page, provide space for “short,” “intermediate ” and “long-term” objectives, with two or three objectives under each sub-heading.
Do you have the resources to reach those goals? That’s what you’ll pin down in the next part of the planning process.
YOUR RESOURCES AND ASSETS
Once you have your goals written down, it’s easier to make an inventory of the resources you’ll need, in terms of organization, money, facilities, and allies–and the assets you have already.
Resources for advocacy may be very different from those needed to run service programs in the community. You won’t be needing massive financial support over a long period of time, as would be the case if you wanted to open a day-care center, for example. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the sort of charitable foundation that might fund a day-care center most generously may not want to put any money at all into advocacy.
So? So you may not have much cash. But (good news again) you might be rich in other resources–especially people. Your list of available resources will vary, according to the size of your group and its needs, but might include any of the following:
- Funds (including in-kind contributions) balanced against expenses
- People who are already available (both staff and volunteers), and their skills
- People you expect to be available
- Contacts (e.g., with media resources)
- Facilities (e.g., access to transportation and computers, meeting rooms)
- Access to information archives or libraries
Since advocacy is stressful, make sure your assets are solidly in place. Do you have internal problems that need to be solved in your group, such as relationships between staff and volunteers? Disagreements about use of funds? These need to be sorted out now if possible, during the planning stage.
PLANNING YOUR RESOURCES AND ASSETS
The simplest way to plan is to write out a list of resources and assets in a binder (or computer file) so you can add new ones as you go along. Keep one section for each of the headings above: Funds, People presently available, People expected to be available, Useful community contacts, Facilities, and Access to other resources.
Did you come up short on the most vital resource of all–the people who are willing to help? Then the next section might help you build it up, as you survey the degree of community support you have now, and how much you might expect in the future. When you look into your community support, for the next part of your plan, you may find a few surprises.
YOUR COMMUNITY SUPPORT (AND OPPOSITION)
For this part of the plan, you will write down lists of expected allies and opponents. Part of this may be simple. For example, if you are planning to restrict the logging (and erosion-causing) practices of a big local lumber company, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that the owners and employees of that company are unlikely to be on your side, but local environmental groups will likely give you their support.
But sometimes it’s not so simple, which is why it will pay to do some careful planning, including personal contact and listening. It may be that people you expect to be opponents may also be allies under certain circumstances; and those thought to be allies may oppose your efforts.
You want to get a big strawberry grower in your community to cut down on the pesticide used on his fields. It’s getting into the river; and the farm workers and some of the people who live nearby claim it makes them sick. But the mayor of your community normally sides with business interests, no matter what. In the past, he has made statements hostile to many environmental causes. Furthermore, he’s an old golfing buddy of the strawberry grower. You naturally pencil him in as a possible opponent. But wait. This mayor owns land just downstream from the strawberry grower, and plans to put in a big development of expensive houses (“Strawberry Fields”). The last thing he wants is a cloud of pesticide upstream, and upwind. He may not want to tackle his buddy in public, but you find to your surprise that behind the scenes, he’ll be your ally.
PLANNING FOR COMMUNITY SUPPORT (AND OPPOSITION)
This can be as simple as making three lists on binder paper: one for allies, one for opponents, and one for unsure (possible allies or opponents). These lists will be useful as you approach the next part of the planning process: deciding specifically whose behavior you want to change, and who can help you do the changing.
TARGETS AND AGENTS OF CHANGE
For this part of the plan, it’s important to know very precisely what caused the problem your advocacy group is addressing.
Who are targets and agents of change? Let’s suppose you want to take on the many business people in town who are supplying cigarettes to kids.You know they are out there: you’ve already done an informal survey of kids smoking outside the junior high, and they tell you that buying tobacco is quite easy, in spite of the law.
- Your main targets of change will be the tobacco retailers. They are the ones who will need to alter their behavior if you are to achieve your goals.
- The agents of change are those who will cause the targets to actually make the change, by one means or another.
In many cases, it’s not that simple. For example, what about the police, who should be enforcing the law. Are they going to be targets of change, as you work on their enforcement of the law? Or are they to be agents–going in to make the bust?
Sometimes, there may be crossover from one status to another, such as:
- The police chief may be a target initially since there is little enforcement, but a delegation of kids against tobacco persuades him that he really needs to commit himself to their cause. He sanctions undercover buys by minors to get evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the merchants, and commits himself to enforcing the law vigorously.
- Even a tobacco retailer may turn out to be an agent, if she sees the light, and offers to influence the practices of other members of the local tobacco retailers association.
Although targets (or agents) are often institutions or groups, it may be easier to focus on one individual. For example, you might plan to change the thinking of one elected official or agency head at a time rather than going for a massive shift of opinion. Or it might seem feasible to tackle one senior executive in a company that’s not hiring local people who need decent jobs.
PLANNING YOUR TARGETS AND AGENTS OF CHANGE
You can simply write one list of targets, one of agents, and one of possible hybrids: people who could switch from one category to another.
At this point in the planning, you will have a fairly clear idea about what you want to achieve, what are the main obstacles, and what are the resources–in terms of money, facilities and people–that can help you reach the goals. The next steps involve drawing a clear road-map showing how you will get there from here.
PLANNING YOUR STRATEGY
In a sense, advocacy itself is a strategy–it’s the way you have decided to reach your particular goal, because you can’t get what you want without taking on some institutions and people who have power, and getting that power structure to change.
Now you need the specific strategies that will help you reach your goals. As an advocate, you will also have to make sure that your strategies:
- Make the best use of (and don’t antagonize) your allies
- Produce the kind of change you want in your opponents
Many people tend to assume that because you are involved in advocacy, your strategy will involve confrontation. Yes, it may – but often, that’s not the best approach.
For example, in a program aiming to curb youth smoking, you might decide on a mix of strategies, some of them quite adversarial, and some not.
Less confrontation / conflict:
- Increase public awareness through a media campaign
- Educate the merchants
- Gather data about violations of the law to encourage increased levels of enforcement
- Work through the schools
- Network with like-minded organizations
- Work for policy change in local government
More confrontation:
- Apply economic pressure on merchants through boycotts
- Arrange for kids to picket
Most confrontation:
- Blockade the entrances to specific stores
- Be prepared to be arrested for your act of civil disobedience
CHOOSING A STRATEGIC STYLE
As you can see, many different actions fit under the definition of “strategy,” and they may incorporate many different styles–from friendly persuasion to “in your face.”
Your choice of style will depend to a great extent on your knowledge of the community, and of what will work (as well as your knowledge of your members and allies, and what they can do best and most comfortably). The people and institutions of a community are connected in complicated ways, and people may see their own interests threatened if certain institutions seem to be under attack. Yes, you can change people’s attitudes – but this may take time. A raucous demonstration at the wrong time might solidify old prejudices, making it harder in the long run for people to change.
On the other hand, sometimes a public demonstration is essential to bring an issue to the attention of the public (and the media). In some circumstances, it can help fire up the enthusiasm of your members, and bring in new ones. The point is that you need to think hard about what effect it will have, based on your knowledge of the community, your targets and agents, and the root causes of the issue.
STAYING FLEXIBLE
Although it’s a good idea to do as much forward planning as possible, an advocacy campaign is likely to be dynamic, adjusting with changing circumstances. Obviously, not everything can be locked in.
For example, you might be all set to barricade a logging trail in an environmental cause, when you hear that a state senator is about to propose legislation that would go some way towards accomplishing what you want; your barricade might cause some senators to vote against him. Or you might hear rumors to the effect that your people would be met with massive force. Or you might be told that alternative old logging trails are to be opened up. Or that you had somehow overlooked another area of the watershed where logging could produce even more environmental damage.
Here are some things that you should keep in mind, as your advocacy campaign progresses, involving surprise developments from good news; rumors; unmet needs; or bad news.
| Good news | If something that your group applauds has happened in your community (for example, if some group has made a good policy change), you will want to reinforce it. |
| Rumors | You will need to stay ahead of developments by keeping your collective ear to the ground. If you hear that something contradictory to your aims is about to happen (for example, if you hear that a new housing development is not, after all, going to provide the low-income housing that was promised), you need to investigate. |
| Unmet Needs | If your studies of community needs turned up major gaps, (for example, if the immunization rate for infants is exceptionally low), then you would want to create plans to make sure those needs are met (for example, apply pressure for resources for mobile vans to promote access). |
| Bad news | You may need to be flexible, with the ability to deliver a quick response if something bad happens, such as the threatened demolition of low-income housing. |
PLANNING STRATEGIES
It may be useful to brainstorm strategies in the group, and write down those that you feel will help you attain your goals. In some cases, simply writing the chosen strategies in a form that you can store easily (for example, in a loose-leaf binder or computer file) is all you need. Others may prefer something more complex.
Here’s one possible format, which has a built-in double-check to make sure each strategy is on target.
| Goal: Funding for school-linked clinics | ||||||||
| Strategy | Does it: | Yes | ||||||
| Launch a lobbying effort to win over elected officials to fund school-linked clinics. |
|
x x x x |
||||||
Strategies are the broad strokes: they don’t spell out specifically how something will get done. That’s the job of the tactics (or action steps) that you choose? the next part of the planning process.
TACTICS
Tactics are the action steps. The icing on the cake. The finishing touch. The part that shows. Tactics can cover a wide range of activity, from writing letters to speaking up at City Council meetings, from filing complaints to setting up negotiations, from boycotts and demonstrations to carrying out surveys.
As you plan tactics, you will need to make sure that they:
- Carry out your strategy, and are appropriate for your goals
- Fit your style (one tactic out of control can wreck a whole campaign)
- Are doable and cost effective, within your resources, funds, allies and good will
- Make your group feel good about themselves, and what they are doing
You will find plenty of discussion of specific tactics in other parts of the Community Tool Box. Some of these relate to the development of programs, but some fit well under the rubric of advocacy – that is, they involve identifying specific targets of change, and encouraging that change for the good of the community.
HELPFUL QUESTIONS
As you plan tactics, it may be useful to ask yourselves these questions about each of them:
- What will be the scope of this action?
- Who will carry it out?
- When will the action take place, and for how long?
- Do we have the resources to make it happen?
- What resources are available?
- Which allies and constituents should be involved?
- Which individuals and organizations might oppose or resist?
PLANNING TACTICS
There are many different ways of writing out your tactical plans. For example, you may find it useful to attach your plan to each major objective. Here’s an example of one way you can do that:
Table: Turning goals into action steps
| Goal | Action Steps |
| By August 2013, provide the community with data on youth’s views about sexuality, including availability of contraception, methods of contraceptive use, and sexual activity. | By May 2013, the school subcommittee will secure support from school administrators and teachers to survey high school students on issues related to sexuality. |
| By May 2013, the school subcommittee will secure informed consent from parents and students to distribute the survey. | |
| By June 2013, the school subcommittee will prepare a survey to distribute to high school youth. | |
| By June 2013, teachers will distribute the survey to all high school youth. | |
| By July 2013, the staff will summarize the results and prepare a report. | |
| By July 2013, the chair of the school subcommittee will communicate the results of the survey to the school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and the general community. |
Here’s another approach, which will also bring your resources and opponents into the planning process.
| Goal | Action | By whom | By when | Resources and support needed | Possible opponents |
| Reduction of teen smoking by 40% | Tobacco-buying sting | Pete, jane, with kids | May 15, 2013 |
|
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PUTTING THE PLAN TOGETHER
The entire plan, covering all six of the above steps, should be formally written down. The process of writing will help clarify your thinking. The written version will be available to bring us back in line when “scope creep” occurs: we wobble away from our basic plan.
As we have suggested, some groups might be happy working with a loose-leaf binder, with separate sections for each of the main planning steps. However, others may prefer to get all the planning for one major action onto one “Campaign Planning Chart.”
In this example, budget cuts have been proposed that will affect the funding for a clinic that offers the only health care available to the poor in the neighborhood. Your group is advocating an increase in funding for the clinic, and opening a new clinic to serve an area now without health-care facilities.
| Goals | Resources & Assets | Support / Opposition | Targets / Agents | Strategies | Action Steps |
| Better health care for the poor in Jefferson County. | Personnel: 1 organizer, 50% time Secretary, 25% time 6 volunteers Need 5 – 8 more volunteers Budget:
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Allies:
Opponents:
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Possible targets of change:
Possible agents of change:
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Online Resource
Community Advocacy: A Psychologist’s Toolkit for State and Local Advocacy is a science-based toolkit that highlights various advocacy strategies to inform policy at the state and local levels. It aims to build a community of grassroots psychologist advocates that can intervene to promote well-being in the communities in which they reside.
Introduction to Advocacy Planning. This online PDF provides information on understanding the problem you are trying to solve, identifying an alternative aim, and breaking down the objectives as part of the advocacy planning cycle.
Print Resources
Advocacy Strategy Workbook – This resource goes step-by-step with worksheets to guide each of the stages of advocacy planning.
Advocacy Toolkit (UNICEF) – Chapter 3 of this toolkit provided by UNICEF is devoted to developing an advocacy strategy and gives an outline of questions that need to be asked. The chapter concluded with an advocacy planning worksheet.
Altman, D., Balcazar, F., Fawcett, S., Seekins, T., & Young, J. (1994). Public health advocacy: Creating community change to improve health. Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention.
Bobo, K., Kendall, J., & Max, S. (1996). Organizing for social change: a manual for activists in the 1990s. Chicago, IL: Midwest Academy.
Crafting Your Advocacy Strategy (UNICEF) provides information on how to go about crafting a strategy for an advocacy campaign.
Developing an Advocacy Plan (Victim Assistance Training) – This website provides a step-by-step guide to planning for advocacy with case studies and activities following each step.
Fawcett, S. B., & Paine, A., et al. (1993). Preventing adolescent pregnancy: An action planning guide for community based initiatives. Lawrence, KS: Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, The University of Kansas.
Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems. Advocating for policy change. San Rafael, CA.
Planning for Advocacy – This online PDF is a section from the Advocacy Toolkit for Women in Politics provided by UN Women. It provides a step-by-step process for planning for advocacy.
