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Program tool 17. Tips for advocating for change

The following thoughts are taken from the Community Tool Box. This is an excellent resource for anything related to community groups – from working with volunteers to planning a program.

What does advocacy mean?

Advocacy is about influencing people with power. It means persuading them to use their power to make a difference related to your concern. For people who become advocates this means:

• Understanding the issues
• Being able to present the issues effectively
• Having the facts
• Being prepared to be involved over the long term
• Finding and working with others who believe in your cause
• Identifying and, when possible, working with people who have power

Advocacy does not necessarily mean confrontation, but it definitely means being informed and persistent. The following example follows the steps that you might take to get action on hazardous sidewalks around your centre.

Who should be involved?

Advocacy involves working with a wide range of people. Because numbers are important, it almost always involves connecting with other groups who share your concerns. To identify these groups, you need to look at your problem from as many perspectives as you can.

How does advocacy work?

Influencing people with power may involve several strategies. Most often, it includes public education, dialogue with decision-makers, and negotiations. However, when a major public policy issue is at stake or opposition is strong, it may also involve extensive research and legal challenges.

Usually groups start simply with the following steps:

1. Documenting the problem: Information is the foundation for all advocacy work.

• Where are the problems with the sidewalk?
• How many cracks are there?
• How many people use the sidewalk?
• Who are they?
• Do you have evidence that anyone has fallen?
• How can you gather this information?

2. Identifying allies who share your concern: Numbers help to influence people with power. Get support from as many individuals or groups as you can.

• Who else uses the sidewalk regularly?
• What do neighbours, child care centres, churches, doctors’ offices, or businesses think about the condition of the sidewalk?
• Would anyone from these groups be willing to help you make a case for a better sidewalk?
• Would they come to a neighbourhood meeting to talk about it?

3. Identifying who needs to be involved in resolving the problem.

• What do you know about how decisions are made to repair sidewalks?
• Does your community have a system for reporting hazards?
• How can you find out where to report a hazardous sidewalk and what happens when you do? (Hint – Start with your elected official.)

4. Talking with the people who can resolve the problem.

• Talking with the people who have the direct responsibility for sidewalk repair, may or may not, be simple, and may or may not resolve the problem. Sidewalk repairs compete with many other demands for time and resources. If staff have the resources to repair sidewalk hazards, but don’t know where they are, your needs and theirs are a match. If staff know where the hazards are, but don’t have the resources to repair them, your task is harder. This is when you need a strategy and a plan of action.

5. Developing a strategy. When it’s obvious the solution will not be quick, take the time to consider your strategy. You will need all the support you can find. You may need some resources to build your case and sell it to the community. You will probably want to use the media to help mobilize the broader community.

• “The city engineer responsible for sidewalks is very nice, but she has a long list of repairs. Repairs to our neighbourhood sidewalk are not on the plan until 2004. But, Mary tripped on the crack near the corner last week and broke her wrist. She is not the first one to fall there. What can we do?”

The answers to the question, “What can we do?” are the components of your advocacy plan. Consider how you might pursue the concern about poor sidewalks:

Give the problem of sidewalk maintenance a higher public profile

• Identify media contacts. Appoint key spokespersons from your group to deal with media. See Resources: Program Tool 15– Tips for working with the media.
• Make it easy for people to phone and write personal letters about the problem. Provide them with phone numbers and a letter template, names and addresses. See Resources: Program Tool 23– Template for a letter to city hall.
• Invite other groups to a meeting to discuss how you can support one another on this issue. Use this discussion to establish as wide a network of supporters as possible.

Continue to collect information

• Gather data about who has falls or trips on the sidewalk. See Resources: Handout 12– Hazard report form.
• Use a petition to gather names of people and businesses that are concerned.

Keep sympathetic elected officials informed

• Invite them to meetings.
• Ask them to help you identify key points of intervention in the system where you should target your efforts.

Maintain contact with the staff responsible for sidewalk repairs

• Ensure your campaign focuses on the issue not the people. City engineers don’t set the budget.
• Be available to elaborate on the problems caused by the poor sidewalk maintenance.
• Stress the importance of safe surroundings, not just to prevent falls, but also to encourage walking. Outline the wide range of health benefits safe walking can bring.

Advocacy is usually a long-term effort. A final word of advice from the authors of the Community Tool Box is, “Remember to “have fun!”

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Program tool 16

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Program tool 18