Advocacy for
Community
Health
Stand Up and Be Counted:
You Can, and You Must
What is ‘advocacy’?
 ‘Advocare’—to
call to aid
 “An effort, with greater than zero probability of
success, aimed at actively supporting a cause
or constituency by attempting to change policy
and/or conditions.”
 Rallying others to your cause
 Addressing root conditions
 Changing the conversation
WILL
AWARENESS
OUTCOMES
ACTION
Not just lobbying
Lobbying
Litigation
Community Mobilization
Model Legislation
Coalition Building Regulatory Feedback
Community Organizing
Champion Development
Media Advocacy Political Will Campaigns
Public Will Campaigns
Communications and Messaging
Advocacy Capacity Building
Public Forums
Leadership Development
Voter Outreach
Demonstration Programs
Public Awareness Campaigns
Public Polling
Policy Analysis/Research
Public Education Influencer Education
PUBLIC
Policymaker Education
4
DECISION MAKERS
INFLUENCERS
AUDIENCES
Why advocacy?
 Your
programs need supportive contexts
 Changing the law can make your fight easier
 Bringing more people to your cause IS progress
(an end and a means)
 Rules can change behaviors, and acting can
change attitudes—equifinality and multiple
paths to change
 Advocacy can induce change all along
spectrum of prevention
Tasks and Skills for Advocacy

Media and messaging


Champion development

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United fronts for change
Advocacy capacity building


Make this an ‘issue’
Coalition building

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You need to preach to your choir until they’re all singing
Voter outreach and education


Building message boxes for nimble but consistent
communication
Enhancing your ability to build your cause
Community mobilization

Building your ‘army’ of advocates
Steps for your Advocacy—Media & Messaging
Message: To keep kids safe and communities healthy, marijuana must stay illegal.
Submessage #1: Legalizing marijuana
increases kids’ access.
• Proliferation of marijuana makes it
harder for parents to keep kids away
from drugs.
• Marijuana advertising will inevitably
seep into child audiences.
Submessage #2: Legalizing marijuana
sends a dangerous message about drugs.
• Legalization conveys acceptability, the
wrong message.
• Adolescents are initiating use at
younger ages and are more likely to
use on a daily basis.
Submessage #3: Communities can’t
keep up with proliferation of threats in
wake of legalization.
• After CO legalized marijuana, law
enforcement in surrounding states
are demanding reimbursement for
increased expenses for related
crimes.
• Denver Police Sergeant Andrew
Howard admitted, “It's like the wild,
wild West,"
Submessage #4: Given tremendous health
and safety risks of substance abuse,
Missouri should move to reduce access to
drugs, not throw the door wide open.
• Marijuana isn’t safe. In 2011, marijuana
was involved in 455,668 emergency
room visits nationwide, and is the
second most prevalent drug implicated
in car accidents.
Steps for your Advocacy—
Champion Development
 When
policymakers support your cause, give
them ways they can really support it




Author op-eds
Recruit colleagues
Sponsor measures
Appear at events
 Easier
‘ask’ for newer advocates than
confronting hostile opponents
 Raises issue profile and recruits new messengers
Steps for your Advocacy—Voter
outreach and education
 Turning

Using marijuana issue as opportunity to connect to
civic engagement
 Getting




voters to be your supporters
Making your issue political, but not partisan
Voting as an act of prevention
 Getting

causes into ‘issues’
your supporters to be voters
Breaking through the disillusionment
Registration is just the beginning
Making voting part of your cause’s ‘culture’
Steps for your Advocacy—
Coalition Building and Advocacy
Capacity Building
 Advocacy
TA process as opportunity to build
capacity
 Leveraging coalition strength for advocacy
impact
 Coalition participation as an advocacy ‘ask’
 Coalition logic model as strategic plan for
advocacy
 Steering your coalition towards advocacy
impact
Steps for your Advocacy—
Community Mobilization

Gathering people



Need a reason for them to engage—petitions,
signature campaigns, local ordinance fights,
legislative events
Creating volunteer advocacy opportunities, scaled to
prompt engagement (media monitoring, LTEs, lit
drops, signature collection, institutional endorsements)
Going where people are already gathered


Enlightened self-interest to connect to their existing
concerns
Tailoring your message without changing your tune
Next Steps
 What
do you need to get started?
 Resources to support your advocacy
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Bolder Advocacy, legal guides
AFJ Advocacy Capacity Tool
Advocacy Progress Planner
melindaklewis.com
 Questions?
Melinda Lewis
[email protected]
816-806-6094