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Making Change Happen: Taking Leadership in Advocacy

Making Change Happen: Taking Leadership in Advocacy. Rick Lines Canada Riga, Latvia – April 2003. Those who profess to favour freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing up the ground.

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Making Change Happen: Taking Leadership in Advocacy

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  1. Making Change Happen:Taking Leadership in Advocacy Rick Lines Canada Riga, Latvia – April 2003

  2. Those who profess to favour freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) Former slave, African-American Abolitionist Leader

  3. Definitions of Advocacy Advocacy is pursuit of influencing outcomes - including public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions - that directly affect people's lives…[It] seeks to highlight critical issues that have been ignored and submerged, to influence public attitudes, and to enact and implement laws and public policies so that a vision of "what should be" in a just, decent society become a reality. Human rights - political, economic, and social - is an overreaching framework for these visions. David Cohen The Advocacy Institute, USA

  4. Definitions of Advocacy Advocacy means representing people’s rights and helping people to make choices and get services to which they are entitled. People are entitled to receive services which takes account of their sex, ethnicity, culture, religion, age, impairment, housing status, mental health and whether they are lesbian or gay. Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network

  5. What is Advocacy? • Advocacy is the process of working to make positive change happen. • Advocacy can take many different forms. • Advocacy can take place in many different contexts and environments. • Advocacy is based upon a fundamental respect for human rights. • Advocacy may be confrontational, but in most cases is not.

  6. Why Advocacy? • Law, public policy, and allocation of resources have significant effects on the political and social environment in which we work. • Fundamental human rights are often overlooked or seen as secondary concerns in these decision-making processes. • Positively affecting the creation or implementation of laws, public policies, or resource allocations can have significant beneficial outcomes for our constituencies.

  7. Who can be an Advocate? • Anyone can be an advocate. • Everyone has the ability to work to implement change. • Everyone has ideas, energy, or experience to contribute to the process of creating change. • Everyone has the responsibility to work to promote human rights.

  8. Where to Intervene?The Policy Cycle

  9. Effective Advocacy Requires Effective Communication • Communicate the specific nature and detail of the issue. • Communicate a specific solution or response to address this issue. • Communicate the urgency of the issue. • Communicate the potential consequences of failing to act. • Communicate with other stakeholders about the issue and your response.

  10. Steps in Advocacy • The What? • The Who? • The How? • Taking Action

  11. Assessing the Situation:The “What • Identify the problem/issue. • Collect necessary documentation and research. • Identify the specific change you want to accomplish.

  12. Targeting your Intervention:The “Who” • Who has the power to implement the change(s) necessary?

  13. Choosing Your Tools:The “How” • What are my options for influencing the person(s) with the ability to implement change? • What type(s) of action will be most effective? • What type(s) of action are available to me?

  14. Taking Action:The 3 Cs of Advocacy • CONVERSION • Letters • Formal meetings/Briefings • Information provision • Private influence • COMMOTION • Media work • Campaigns/Mobilizing other stakeholders • Protests/Demonstrations • Use of opposition politicians • COERCION • Legal remedies

  15. Basic Strategic Guidelines for Advocacy • Familiarize yourself with policy. • Clarify your objective. • Relate your means to your ends. • Have a “Plan B” (and “Plan C”). • Use calculated escalation of pressure. • Increase your leverage. • Follow through. • Analyze your outcomes. • Don’t despair.

  16. Sources Rick Lines. Pros & Cons: A Guide to Creating Successful Community-Based HIV/AIDS Programs for Prisoners (PASAN, Toronto: 2002). Dr. Gerald Thomas. JHSC Policy Analysis Enhancement Project Participant Handbook, Version 1 (John Howard Society of Canada, Kingston: December 5, 2001).

  17. Making Change Happen: Taking Leadership in Advocacy Rick Lines ricklines@yahoo.com

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