for Advocacy: Contacting Your Policymaker NAMI Smarts for Advocacy: Contacting Your Policymaker Module Two NAMI Smarts for Advocacy Rev Oct 2013

Ground Rules Participate fully Help keep us on time To help everyone get the most out of this training, we ask you to agree to the following: Participate fully Help keep us on time Turn off cell phones

Agenda  Note: This training builds on skills from NAMI Smarts: Telling Your Story Importance of emails and phone calls Tips for emails and phone calls Listen to email examples What makes an email “work” Practice writing and sharing your email Listen to phone call demos What makes a phone call “work” Practice making a phone call

Why write emails and make phone calls? : Because every American who experiences mental illness deserves the opportunity for recovery

Yet, mental illness is a leading cause of disability in our country : Yet, mental illness is a leading cause of disability in our country

: Half of children and nearly two-thirds of adults who require mental health services aren’t getting the help they need

It’s time to change the statistics

Emails and phone calls make an impact :You can help... Emails and phone calls make an impact

:But, some emails and phone calls make more impact than others

:We’ll start with some tips… Numbers count

: Tip #2 Timing is everything

: Tip #3 Make it personal

: Tip #4 Make an “ask”

With our tips in mind, let’s get started… Find the “Action Alert” Listen to a personalized email Listen to a quick email Notice the impact of just a few lines

Let’s look at what makes an email effective… Look at the personalized email Compare it with your email checklist

Write your own email… Find your Email Practice Sheet Using the “Action Alert” as your scenario, write a personalized email Refer to your email checklist and sample emails for help

What was effective?

Elevator speech Listen to an elevator speech Compare it to your Elevator Speech Checklist

Prepare an elevator speech… Find your Elevator Speech Practice Sheet Add the personal components and your “ask”

Practice makes perfect… Find a partner Take turns practicing your elevator speech

Now, for phone calls… Listen to two common scenarios Note the elements in your phone call checklist

How can you make a phone call with impact? Prepare

Take a few minutes to… Read the phone script and insert your own words to personalize Describe how you are affected by mental illness Add an important highlight from your story Hint: Borrow from your email

Practice! Pair up and take turns practicing

What did you discover today? Congratulations! What did you discover today?

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Authors Angela Kimball Valerie Hunter NAMI National Consultant for Organizational Learning vhunter@nami.org