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

AUDIENCES OUTCOMES ACTION WILL AWARENESS Voter Outreach Public EducationPolicymaker Education Influencer Education Political Will Campaigns Litigation Media Advocacy Regulatory Feedback Public Forums Champion Development Model Legislation Policy Analysis/Research Demonstration Programs PUBLIC INFLUENCERS Not just lobbying Community Mobilization Coalition Building Community Organizing Public Will Campaigns Communications and Messaging Leadership Development Advocacy Capacity Building Public Awareness Campaigns Public Polling Lobbying 4 DECISION MAKERS

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  Building message boxes for nimble but consistent communication  Champion development  You need to preach to your choir until they’re all singing  Voter outreach and education  Make this an ‘issue’  Coalition building  United fronts for change  Advocacy capacity building  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 causes into ‘issues’  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 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  Bolder Advocacy, legal guides  AFJ Advocacy Capacity Tool  Advocacy Progress Planner  melindaklewis.com  Questions? Melinda Lewis