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Question:
Hello,
We are 5 Fordham GSSS students looking to advocate for Bill S3215A. We need people to either write or call in to Senate and House committee members. Do you have any suggestions as to how we might reach out to the public? Would a PSA be effective? Who would we reach out to for this?
Thank-you very much!
Answer:

       Hello, Shelly and Colleagues --
        Thank you for writing to us with your question, and please excuse our delay in getting back to you.   We admire your advocacy interests and work.
         In any advocacy attempt, including legal advocacy, it is important to have a concrete action plan. This will depend in large part what your specific goal is, who should be the targets of advocacy, who should do the advocating, the resources you have available (people. money, and time), and the time frame you want to work in.  Once you have clarified these five variables, the actual actions you will need to take will become more clear, and can become part of your plan.  
         In your situation, if time were not a factor you could consider designing a long-range comprehensive campaign.  But if you want to complete your advocacy effort by a near date, a different strategy may be called for.  
         For example, if you know who your supporters or targets are, you could mobilize them through a planned series of phone calls and/ or emails, each of which would have a planned script to highlight your key talking points.  A PSA (and there are many kinds of these, and many media venues) would be more appropriate if you wanted to recruit new supporters. Of course, you would usually want to consider a social media strategy (e.g., active Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, and/or Instagram pages) both to recruit, to encourage sharing, and in general to publicize your efforts.
         For further information, you may wish to consult Chapters 30-36 of the Community Tool Box, whose different sections give many more details on advocacy campaigns. Chapter 33, Section 7 gives more specific information and guidance on lobbying decision-makers.   
          Thank you again for writing, and all best wishes for success in your important work. 
 

Question Date: اثنين, 11/28/2016