So You Want to Make a Difference: Advocacy is the Key (16th Edition) by Amidei Nancy

Author:Amidei, Nancy [Amidei, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OMB Watch
Published: 2010-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

Burns, who taught for many years

at Columbia University, used to

remind her students that compromise is part of politics; the trick comes in knowing when a compromise is acceptable. A small version of something good was usually all right, she argued, because you could always build on it in the future. But it is never good to agree to institutionalize something bad; once begun, bad practice is hard to stop.

■ Remember what motivates you. Some advocates have a tendency to cite one terrible statistic after another, piling up every grim possibility imaginable. You will need facts to be credible, but people are rarely moved by statistics, no matter how dramatic they may be. Michael Harrington, a great anti-poverty advocate, once wrote, “a fact can be rationalized and explained away; an indignity cannot.”

■ Humanize your facts. Talk about people you know, not faceless categories. Hardly anyone would say “yes” to helping a statistic, but the reverse is also true – most people have a hard time denying help to someone they feel they know.

■ And never forget to point out the good that will be accomplished; beating policy-makers up with bad news is more likely to paralyze than persuade.

What moves people is not just grim statistics but “a cocktail of fear and hope”. The bad news may all be true, but good advocates offer policy-makers and fellow-citizens the hope that something can be done to turn it around.

sUCCessFUl TeCHniqUes

As you may already have guessed, all through this manual you have been learning effective techniques to adapt for use in your own advocacy efforts. They have three broad purposes.

To Inform

You can use the Advocacy Quiz at the beginning of Part I to help others understand how natural it is to be engaging in advocacy. Use it when conducting a workshop on advocacy, or when trying to get others to join your advocacy efforts.

“Gimmicks generally do not work on their own, but they can be very effective as part of a larger, wellconsidered strategy.”

An easy variant on that idea is to develop a different sort of quiz, one based on the most common misperceptions of your issue. When you do presentations to community groups on your issue (as compared with presentations on advocacy), begin by having the audience take The Quiz, and then discuss the answers. If you want to develop materials to accompany your talk, you might consider the format used in a New York State pamphlet which began: “In 1492 everyone knew the world was flat. In 1917 everyone knew the Titanic was unsinkable.” “Today,” you might continue, “everyone knows …[and here you fill in a myth related to your issue].” “Myths die hard [insert the correct information here].”

To Get Action

If plans are already underway and legislation is already pending, but the legislators just are not paying much attention, you might try to devise an attention-getting gimmick like the ones described throughout this manual (for example, using Take Five Tables, or delivering paper cigarettes). Gimmicks generally do not work on their own, but they can be very effective as part of a larger, well-considered strategy.

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