Category : Advocacy

Getting to the tipping point requires building consensus on strategy and outcomes. It requires shared and consistent messaging. It requires both persistence and the ability to be nimble—to react and respond to emerging threats and opportunities.

A long-haul advocacy approach recognizes that systems change often requires fluid planning involving a series of steps – with many fits and starts along the way. Small steps are usually needed to lay the foundation for larger ones. So what are some first steps for an aspiring long-haul advocate can take?

Maybe if we better understood our own motivations, we’d be more successful impacting others. Why do we think it is the facts that will motivate them when it is seldom what motivates us?

Most of us who work in the policy arena, at least initially, do so more out of necessity more than desire. Obstacles and barriers that are created at the system-level (often, but not always, unintentionally), must be challenged at the system-level, at the policy level.

We need to build “systems of advocacy” if we are going to hold the systems that impact our lives accountable.

There is no “science” to trying to change public policy. It is more of an art. An art that is constantly evolving and growing through the development and sharing of good ideas and lessons learned.