Chapter 30. Principles of Advocacy | Community Tool Box

What is advocacy?

Before direct action comes planning, and before planning comes an understanding of what needs to be put in the plan. So first, here's a reminder of what advocacy is (as well as what it's not).

• Advocacy is active promotion of a cause or principle
• Advocacy involves actions that lead to a selected goal
• Advocacy is one of many possible strategies, or ways to approach a problem
• Advocacy can be used as part of a community initiative, nested in with other components.
• Advocacy is not direct service
• Advocacy does not necessarily involve confrontation or conflict

Some examples may help clarify just what advocacy is:

• You join a group that helps build houses for the poor--that's wonderful, but it's not advocacy (it's a service)
• You organize and agitate to get a proportion of apartments in a new development designated as low to moderate income housing - that's advocacy
• You spend your Saturdays helping sort out goods at the recycling center - that's not advocacy (it's a service)
• You hear that land used for the recycling center is going to be closed down and you band together with many others to get the city to preserve this site, or find you a new one. Some of you even think about blocking the bulldozers, if necessary - that's advocacy

Advocacy usually involves getting government, business, schools, or some other large institution (also known as Goliath) to correct an unfair or harmful situation affecting people in the community (also known as David, and friends). The situation may be resolved through persuasion, by forcing Goliath to buckle under pressure, by compromise, or through political or legal action.

Several ingredients make for effective advocacy, including:

• The rightness of the cause
• The power of the advocates (i.e., more of them is much better than less)
• The thoroughness with which the advocates researched the issues, the opposition, and the climate of opinion about the issue in the community
• Their skill in using the advocacy tools available (including the media)
• Above all, the selection of effective strategies and tactics

For some people, advocacy is a new role. It may be uncomfortable--particularly if confrontation and conflict are involved. But, for others, advocacy is more attractive than setting up and running service programs in the community.

Advocacy can be glamorous: the David vs. Goliath image, manning the barricades, making waves. But the decision to put major resources into advocacy is not one to be taken lightly. If it doesn't work--if you stick your necks way out and don't succeed--not only will you fail, but you may do so in public, discrediting your cause, perhaps making conditions worse for the people you set out to help.

Does advocacy always involve confrontation?

Advocacy can be confrontational, but conflict is usually a bad place to start. Good advocates know they must think very hard about any confrontation that's going to be necessary. That's one reason for careful planning of strategy and tactics. Even if the issue seems as clear as a bell, and your choice of actions seems just as obvious, it's a good idea to take another long, hard look.

Why and when would you choose advocacy?

Advocacy is best kept for when "routine" work such as gathering support for a cause, raising money, and recruiting members of a community initiative or program won't get you where you want to go.

In most cases, it's a good idea to think twice before launching yourselves (or your group) as advocates, because it's a strategy that's more effective if there isn't too much of it around. Imagine a city where there were public demonstrations every day, where City Hall was besieged constantly by groups with special petitions, resolutions, and assorted agitations. The community would quickly develop advocacy fatigue. So would the advocates.

The best time to start planning for an advocacy campaign is:

• When your direct experience or preliminary research shows you cannot achieve your goals in any other way
• When you are sure you have (or will have) the capacity to carry it through
• When you have enough enthusiasm and energy to last for what could be a long haul!

This chapter will help you get launched. And this particular section will give you a taste of what's coming up in the seven remaining sections of the chapter, where you will gain a deeper understanding of the issue, identify allies and opponents, plan out your strategy and tactics, and evaluate your efforts.

What are the basic components of advocacy?

Each of these components is addressed in greater depth in the following sections of this chapter, but this is a broad overview of how to advocate for your issue.

Survival Skills for Advocates

Once you go public with an advocacy campaign, you may draw the attention of a number of people, not all of whom will wish you well. If things go wrong, you could end up looking very silly in the local news, which would not be good for your future campaigns. Even worse, in some circumstances a wrong step could land you in court. At the very least, there's a risk of spinning your wheels if you don't go about the many tasks of advocacy efficiently.

For example, to look at a worst-case scenario, think of what could go wrong with a campaign to promote better health for the poor:

• You accuse the local hospital of turning away a sick patient, without checking your facts. The hospital proves that it treated the man, but he discharged himself early.
• You push your allies out of shape by launching a press release that uses their name, without checking the wording with them first.
• You announce a big demonstration outside the hospital, and only three people show up.

It's amateur night!

In the next section of this chapter, we've gathered 20 tips that will help members of your group avoid disasters. They'll be able to take on their tasks efficiently, confidently, and with a low risk of tripping over their shoelaces.

Understanding the Issue

You probably already have a pretty good idea of what the issue or problem is.

For example:

• You are aware of a growing problem of homelessness, particularly among people with small children
• You feel that not nearly enough is being done in your community to prevent youth smoking
• Your group is afraid that a new industrial park up river will pollute the water

However, it is important to develop a deeper understanding of the issue, including research to analyze of who has power. Remember, advocacy is about power--who can influence things that matter. You will need to know where the power of your opponents lies, and how you can most effectively influence or confront it.

Recognizing Allies

If you are the only people in town who want something done about the problem you have identified, your cause could be in trouble. It's one thing to fight city hall: much harder to take on a whole community of hostile or indifferent people. If there are only a handful of people on your side, it may be all too easy for those in power to dismiss you as the lunatic fringe. One of your jobs will be to make that "fringe" start to look like a representative slice of the whole population affected by the issue. Then people in power will take notice.

Somewhere, there are allies - people who can band together with you and give your cause bulk, visibility, and clout. You can use methods such as a "power grid" that will help you pinpoint those groups and agencies in town that have the power to help your group. This grid will also help you identify specific ways in which these potential allies can help.

Of course, you'll need to be careful about who you invite on board--some allies may bring baggage that you don't need. We'll help you balance potential benefits against potential risks, and come up with some useful backers who will help, rather than hinder, your cause - whether you want to build a full-fledged coalition, or an informal alliance or network.

In addition to deciding whether other groups have an interest in your cause, it's important to find out if an alliance with them is in your interest. For example, suppose you are planning to make life difficult for retailers who sell cigarettes to kids, and you know that the American Cancer Society, a couple of local youth groups, and a pair of enlightened churches have the same goals. Just how can you best help each other? Do you want a close relationship? Suppose these people are limited by their own charters in the type of action they can get involved in? Suppose they might want to take over the direction of the whole campaign? Suppose they are with your interests on some matters, and against you in others?

Identifying Opponents and Resistance

Although it's possible to advocate without having an opponent (for example, you may be working largely to overcome ignorance and inertia), most advocacy campaigns have a recognizable Goliath--or even several big (and potentially mean) kids on the block. Who are your opponents? Why are they putting up resistance? And what can you do about it?

Those questions should be answered together. There's not much point knowing the names of your opponents unless you also know why they are opposing you. Sometimes, this may not be for the most obvious reasons, so you'll need to know what's going on.

Starting with the cause for resistance is often more fruitful than starting with a list of people you expect to be bad guys: you may get some surprises. For example, a big developer might turn out to support your drive for more low-cost housing, because he recognizes that the presence of homeless people in the neighborhood can deter rich people from buying his expensive houses. Similarly, people from whom you might expect support might turn out to oppose you. Perhaps a big agency that seems to share your goals is bent out of shape because you seem to be trespassing on their turf or accusing them of ineffectiveness in the past. You can't take anything for granted.

Encouraging Involvement of Potential Opponents as well as Allies

Once you have a plan, you'll know where you are going, and how to get there. That will give you confidence, and that confidence will give you clout. Armed with that, you may be able to approach certain groups or individuals whom you thought were opposed to you. Maybe they still are, but you may find that you can find help in unexpected quarters. Now that your plan makes you more business-like, people may decide to cut a deal. Or, now that your position can be made clear to others as well as to yourselves, you may find that although a certain group still may oppose you on some issues, you are on the same side of others.

Developing a Plan for Advocacy

Planning for advocacy is often a complex program because we have to deal with power and opposition. As you know by now, an advocate will usually have to overcome obstacles much greater than "mere" inertia, or lack of funds, which are often the main barriers where other types of community development projects are concerned. In advocacy situations, there are likely to be well-prepared opponents waiting in the tall grass. And they will need to be out-planned.

You will need to develop a plan based on your knowledge of who those opponents are; and knowledge of who can help you.

For a useful analogy, we'll invite you to think of the overall campaign as a building project:

• Your vision and mission is to provide a place to live that is warm and safe
• Your objective is to build a house
• Your strategy will take the form of blueprints for the house
• Your action plan will include the specifics: who will pour the concrete for the foundation, put up a frame, add the roof, et cetera, and when will they do it

And all will go together as part of one big action plan.

In Summary

Advocacy is exciting work. You get the pleasure of fighting the good fight, and sometimes, the thrill of victory. In order to have that, though, you need to get through all of the day-to-day details and specifics. You'll need to keep an eye on the forest while working on the trees individually. By going through this chapter carefully, we think you will be better prepared to bring about the changes that matter to your community.

You understand how advocacy is different from other types of strategy:

___It involves actions that lead to a selected goal

___It usually involves getting government, an agency or private business to correct an unfair or harmful situation

___It is not the same as direct service

___It may or may not involve confrontation

You understand what you need for successful advocacy:

___Your cause needs to be right

___Your group should have some power in numbers and/or clout

___You should have thoroughly researched the issue, the opposition, and the climate of opinion in the community

___You should be skilled in using the tools available to you (including the media)

___You should pick your strategy and tactics carefully

When is advocacy appropriate?

___When a powerful agency, institution or company needs to change but will not

___When nothing else will work

___When you know you have the capacity to carry it through

Other sections of this chapter can help you with different aspects of preparation for advocacy

To understand the issue:

___Research the root cause of the problem

___Conduct an analysis of the power structure

To bring others into your campaign:

___Learn to recognize potential allies

___Choose them (and bring them on board) with care

To identify (and stand up to) opponents:

___Start with the cause for resistance, and from that identify the people or groups who are likely to oppose you

___Once you have identified opponents, prepare for opposition, and plan to counteract it

To make sure you conduct your advocacy campaign efficiently:

___Use the survival tips that will help you achieve your goals and stay out of trouble

To put it together:

___Make a master action plan that lets you consider all aspects of your campaign at once, so you can adjust different elements to fit

___Include your mission and objectives, your allies and opponents, your targets and agents of change, and your strategies and detailed action plan

When you look around for help:

___Check into groups that might normally be against you, but who may help with at least part of your goals

To make sure you are on track:

___Do a careful self-assessment to make sure you are reaching all your objectives and sticking to your timetable

___Check up on the process, to make sure your group is efficiently working together

 

In this section we discuss survival skills for the successful advocate.This list has been compiled from the experiences of many advocates, but it's by no means complete. Not all of these skills may be relevant to your particular situation. However, we feel a review of them may help provide a solid basis for your advocacy campaign.

What do you mean by survival skills for advocacy?

Advocacy survival skills are a set of general guidelines for pleading your cause--and for staying in the game long enough to be successful. They have been used effectively by other advocacy campaigns. You and your group may want to review and adapt them as you develop your strategy and tactics for community change.

Why do you need to use survival skills for advocacy?

Success depends on much more than just dedicated people working for a common cause (although that's one necessary ingredient!). This Tool Box section talks about the "Golden Rules" for advocacy - that is, how to be effective in promoting your cause while keeping your head about you.

How do you use survival skills in advocacy efforts?

None of the survival guidelines are set in stone. They should be used to fit your situation and resources. They have benefited many previous advocacy groups, but are not necessarily a recipe for instant success. The important thing is to study these guidelines and use what you find useful; then get to work!

Accentuate the positive!

Keep your eyes open for positive events that happen in and around your community initiative or because of your group's work.

• When you notice something great happening, even if it's something small, recognize it publicly
• Thank others for their efforts. Pay them public compliments. This will help motivate people to contribute in the future, knowing that you appreciate their contributions!
• Being conscientious about thanking people will help set you apart from other groups that only complain

Emphasize your organization's values and accomplishments to the community

Always highlight the positive values and vision relating to your organization's work. For example, you may ultimately be working towards improved community health, safe workplaces and streets, a clean community environment, or quality education. Everybody wants to experience these things, so it's difficult for opponents or skeptics to argue against the kind of values you promote.

• Keeping public attention focused on values and principles that benefit everyone helps move your initiative along and prevents petty or wasteful arguments from sidelining your efforts
• Communicate to others your group's accomplishments: the new programs, policies, and practices it helped bring about

Plan for small wins

If members of your group aren't able to see any progress after dedicating a lot of time and effort to your mission, their interest and motivation won't last very long. People like to see results, no matter how small. Sometimes, significant progress on a particular community issue is slow to show itself. To break up the time that passes without major breakthroughs occurring, develop a plan of action that has some shorter term or intermediate goals.

 For a long term goal of providing all necessary immunizations to 100% of children age 2 and younger; developing an outreach program for high risk mothers and children 12 months from now might be a good intermediate goal.

When each of the shorter term or intermediate goals is met, celebrate! Celebrations along the way to "the big win" will build the confidence and reputation of your group.

Present the issues in the way you want others to see them

A common strategy of opponents is to "frame" or present the issues in such a way that the people or communities most affected by the problem are held responsible for their unhappy situations. Instead of responding to criticism in terms set forward by your opponents, move support away from their perspective by framing the issue in your own voice.

The opposition claims that mothers on welfare take advantage of the system by having more babies to get "free money" from the government. Try to avoid responding to their framing of the issue; for example, by claiming that no woman could possibly profit from the small amount of extra money a month per child the state pays. Instead, reframe the issue by focusing on what contributes to mothers being on welfare in the first place: lack of employment opportunities, lack of adequate day care, etc.

Develop your own public identity

Even if your particular organization is part of a larger movement, such as a nationally recognized group working to reduce drug use or teen violence, establish your own local public image. If you are too closely linked with a larger and better-known organization, the public may transfer its positive and negative image of the larger organization to your small group. This could overshadow whatever you really stand for and put your credibility as a non-biased, independent organization at risk.

Check your facts

Understand your organization's issues and actions inside and out. This involves being able to quote a source of information or point to reliable statistics for claims you make publicly. Facts should guide your actions and public statements. If you are caught with inaccurate information or documentation, you could seriously damage your organization's reputation, embarrass yourself, and take attention away from important issues at hand.

• Document your claims. For example, if you claim that alcohol producers have targeted children for advertising campaigns, count and write down the location and content of the alcohol-related billboards and posters you find near elementary, junior high, and high schools.
• Collect data. Obtain accurate, high quality information from experts or those who most likely have current facts and figures about the issues and options you present.
• Verify your information. Use as many believable sources as possible. The more people who can say, "Yes, that's right," the more backup you'll have if someone challenges your arguments.
• Practice using those facts and figures to explain why your organization does what it does. Be able to point to the source of your information. Most importantly, express information clearly, showing that you've done more than just swallow a bunch of facts--you understand them.
• Having solid documentation will protect you from counterattacks from your opponents and improve your reputation in the community.

Keep it simple

Small successes help build morale and sustain commitment to the issues. They don't always happen as a result of complex, super involved actions. Give simpler, short -term solutions that move toward a bigger solution a chance before you take a step up in complexity.

 A workers' strike protesting inadequate protection from hazardous materials may be premature unless simpler and less confrontational approaches have been tried first. A simpler, more effective starting point for this situation would be for workers to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Be passionate and persistent

Working for community health and improvement can be an uphill battle, because so often the solutions need to be the responsibility of everyone, not just of a few. It's important to have the passion and persistence to overcome entrenched attitudes the public may have toward health and community problems, and possible public resistance to change.

• Passion lends energy to your movement. It can help sway undecided people to your viewpoint, and it helps you focus on your goals
• Persistence keeps your issues in the public eye, helps you follow through on commitments, and keeps your opponents scrambling to keep up with your kind of dedication

Be prepared to compromise

Building healthy communities sometimes calls for compromise with groups whose goals may not be identical to your own.

• Although you want to stay true to your vision, be open to alternative plans of action or compromises that, although not ideal, may get you closer to your goals
• Your willingness to compromise fosters good will between you and your opponents by making you appear reasonable. This may encourage wider support within the community, as long as you are not too willing to compromise, which might be perceived as weakness.

Tobacco control advocates in San Francisco wanted to include bars in a smoking ban in public places. The advocates realized a ban on smoking in bars was considered too extreme by the general public, and including bars in the list of targeted establishments would greatly decrease support for the ban. The advocates decided to drop bars from their list of places to target. This was perceived as a reasonable compromise by the public, and the ordinance passed.

Be opportunistic and creative

Look out for opportunities to promote your goals and seize them when they come along. This may involve lying in wait for an appropriate, "natural" time when you can capitalize on some event related to your objectives.

February is already strongly associated with Valentine's day and hearts in the romantic sense, so the American Heart Association has long had an increase in cardiovascular and "heart health" promotion during this month.

Stay the course

Advocates have successfully gone head-to-head with some pretty powerful people, including politicians, CEOs of well-known businesses, and national lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association. Facing such influential opponents can be scary, especially when they will most likely have greater name recognition and resources to oppose you.

As an advocate for your community, you will have some credibility with the public--after all, you're fighting for their well being; whether that's safer streets, decent jobs, cleaner air, or more access to medical care. The public will recognize this!

The bottom line is this: if you are intimidated into inaction, your opponents will automatically win and nothing will change.

Look for the good in others

When you encounter members from groups that disagree with your goals or viewpoint, don't assume they are "out to get you" or ready to pick a fight.

• If an opponent criticizes your organization, begin by assuming the person doesn't have the same understanding that you do and is speaking out of a lack of information
• Educate the person. You could even invite her to attend some of your organization's functions to find out what your group is really about

Keep your eyes on the prize

Opponents may try to distract you from your advocacy activities by attacking you personally. By responding to their name-calling, you waste precious energy and lessen your chances for future cooperation or compromise with these people. Also, your public image may suffer if the general public sees you involved in mudslinging. Instead of giving in to the temptation to fight back, stay focused on the really important issues at hand.

Advocates for increased enforcement of alcohol sales laws were once accused by the alcoholic beverage industry as being in favor of a police state, or of being anti-business

Sometimes it may be necessary to respond to their attacks in order to maintain your credibility in the eyes of the public. When you do, make sure your defense or counter attack is well documented with facts and/or data to back you up.

Make issues local and relevant

When you bring your issues to the local level, you increase your chances for public support. Issues become relevant to community members when they are close to home. For example, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has been very successful in many communities because many people know someone who has lost a child to an alcohol related accident. Some ways to really bring issues home to people in your area include using statistics for the issue gathered locally, using such local role models as businesses or volunteers, or presenting the issues in a certain way to help community members understand how they will be affected.

• The state legislature plans to start selling lands for the development of a turnpike interchange. The interchange will only travel through one mile of your county, yet county residents will be charged an extra 55 cents to travel on it. In addition, the proposed development runs through lands used for Native American religious ceremonies. In addition to advocating to stop the destruction of the sacred grounds, your organization could publicize the extra cost to residents who use the interchange.
• Your organization works to build self-esteem and create life options for local teenagers. Invite local business people to speak to your organization on how they are working to create more part-time employment for teenagers and on what kind of skills they would like future employees to have. Perhaps you could create a mentoring pool where professionals from your community would work with students in developing their career goals.

Get broad-based support from the start

Sometimes it may seem as if becoming part of an advocacy movement automatically puts you on the "other side" from state and federal services, politicians, community leaders and private organizations.

Even though there may be some differences between your group and key segments of the community, you may all be more or less working towards the same broad goals of helping the community become healthier.

It's important to include people from "inside the system" in your advocacy efforts. This helps you not only widen your perspective on the issues, but it helps you identify "ins" with key agencies and people who can provide valuable support and clout to your efforts.

Work within the experiences of your group members

The actions that your group takes should agree with the experiences, values, and interests of individual group members. It's important that you regularly monitor the preferences and limitations of group members in order to choose actions that members feel comfortable doing.

If your group of advocates wants to stage a protest that could result in getting arrested for trespassing or violating a city ordinance, make sure members are prepared to experience getting arrested or ticketed--especially if they have never been arrested before.

Try to work outside the experiences of your opponents

A confused or unsure opponent is a weak opponent. When you have the ability to work outside your opponents' experiences or field of expertise, do so. Most companies don't plan in advance to deal with public opposition to their policies, actions, or products. Likewise, they don't know how to respond to unexpected alternatives presented publicly to them by advocates.

An anti-tobacco advocate was invited to debate a tobacco industry representative on smoker's rights. Instead of arguing against smoker's rights as expected, he argued for the right of smokers to sue the tobacco industry for health costs.

Make your opponents play by their own rules

Federal, state, and local agencies and governing bodies all have rules and regulations for how activities are carried out. Make sure you take advantage of those guaranteed procedures when dealing with these groups.

• Advocacy groups can use mandatory public hearings to show support for or opposition against proposed policy changes.
• Citizens' groups can also file appropriate complaints with government agencies or organizations responsible for enforcing certain regulations. Once you are familiar with an organization's procedures and protocols, exploit them to the benefit of your goals.

Tie your advocacy group's efforts to related events

Watch for events that might be relevant to your group's objectives or tactics. Linking to such events helps publicize your cause and strengthen your position in the community.

• Advocates wanting to increase public assistance for the poor, including adequate housing, could link their cause to the death of a local person who died of exposure during the harsh winter
• Opponents of nuclear power might link their claims about the dangers of nuclear power to an accident at a nuclear power plant

Enjoy yourself!

Remember how we talked about celebrating successes to maintain commitment to your cause? That's about having a good time, too. If members of your advocacy group don't enjoy what they're doing, then there's something wrong.

Great! You've made it through our list of survival skills. We hope that a few, if not all, of these will provide you guidance as you prepare to take action. You may even want to refer back to these as your advocacy campaign progresses. Again, feel free to modify these to best suit your needs and situation.

Good luck and have fun!

Try these survival skills for advocacy:

___Accentuate the positive

___Emphasize your organization's accomplishments to the community

___Plan for small wins

___Present the issues in the way you want others to see them

___Develop your own public identity

___Check your facts

___Keep it simple

___Be passionate and persistent

___Be prepared to compromise

___Be opportunistic and creative

___Stay your course

___Look for the good in others

___Keep your eyes on the prize

___Make issues local and relevant

___Get broad based support from the start

___Work within the experiences of your group members

___Try to work outside the experiences of your opponents

___Make your opponents play by their own rules

___Tie your advocacy group's efforts to related events

___Enjoy yourself!

What is involved in understanding the issue?

You probably already have a good idea about why your issue is important. You probably also know something about its history, and what brought the situation about. That's great, but before you face the world in a big-time (or even small-time) advocacy campaign, you will need to be armed with quite a lot of extra knowledge about the background of your issue, as well as the way it affects your community.

Why do you need a thorough understanding of your issue?

• You'll need to have arguments at your fingertips that can convince your members that the issue is important and keep them fired up
• You'll need to persuade allies to join your cause by presenting them with facts that they won't be able to ignore or refute
• You'll need to know why your opponents are taking the side they take, and what financial or other interests they may have in continuing to take that side
• With research, you'll know better what needs to be done to correct a situation. Furthermore, you'll know which of the necessary steps are fairly easy to take, and which may be a major stretch for your organization.
• You'll know what strategic style is likely to work best, whether you're going to run an "in your face" type of initiative, or act behind the scenes, or something in between
• When and if the dispute becomes public - as you may want it to do - you will have the answers. If a reporter asks you for a reaction, or shoves a microphone in your face, you will be sure of your facts.
• You'll be ready with facts any time you are challenged by your opponent, by the establishment (such as City Hall), or by the media
• Because you'll thoroughly understand the status quo from the beginning of your campaign, you will be able to plan your progress logically and, at the end, know just how far you have come

The bottom line is that before you proceed with the specific planning steps in the rest of this chapter, you will need a nice, solid, comforting layer of knowledge on which to base your plans.

What sort of research is involved?

Other parts of the Tool Box deal with the collection of facts and statistics. There is no doubt that you must know the facts about your issue - in fact, you can't operate without them. But you will need much more than a basis if you are to be a successful advocate:

• You'll need to know how people feel about the issue, and what they believe
• You'll need to know how the issue links or divides different segments of the community
• You'll need to understand who is pulling the strings to make your opponents take the line they do
• You'll need to know what forces might be at work in the local political scene to make officials drag their feet - or even jump in to oppose you
• You might need to know what it will take to make people give up the old way of doing things and try something else
• You might need to know the belief systems of people who oppose you on ideological grounds

Starting points for your research:

Who is affected by the issue?

• Who is affected the most?
• Who loses, and what do they lose?
• Who gains, and what do they gain?

What are the consequences of the issue?

• For the individuals mostly affected?
• For their families?
• For society?

What is the economic impact of the issue?

• What are the economic costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
• What are the economic benefits of the issue, and who benefits?

What is the social impact of the issue?

• What are the social costs of the issue, and who bears these costs?
• What are the social benefits of the issue, and who benefits?

What are the barriers?

• What are the barriers to addressing this issue?
• How can they be overcome?

What are the resources?

• What resources will we need to address this issue?
• Where and how can they be tapped?

What is the history of this issue?

• What is the history of the issue in the community?
• What past efforts were made to address it?
• What were the results?

To put it another way, it's helpful to find the root cause of the issue and what has happened since.

What are the best sources of information?

You will probably need two main types of information:

Gathering background information

Getting accurate background information may be heavy lifting; you, or others in your group, may need to become experts in the field, or find existing experts to join or advise your group. For example, suppose your issue involves excessive logging and its effect on the environment. Your group should be somewhat knowledgeable about wildlife, watersheds, water quality, effects of logging on fish, the life-cycle of trees, the economics of the industry, the forestry regulations, and so on.

If your issue is health care for the poor, you may need to have a reasonable knowledge of a great many fields, including information about the economics of health care systems, the effect of medical neglect on poor families, and state and federal policies as they affect the indigent.

Libraries

When you're looking for background information, your local library is a great place to start. It will have many current subscriptions and back numbers of major newspapers, magazines, etc.. Special reports published by periodicals can be a valuable resource for information about the background of your issue.

In addition, many reference librarians are born to surf. They can guide you to reliable sites on the Web where you can get what you need.

Here are some specific places to look in the library:

• The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature
  • This will lead you to the names and dates of articles on your issue that have appeared in magazines in recent years. Many libraries will also be able to produce the back copies of the magazines. These articles can be valuable in giving you background information--but keep in mind that, although it's not terribly common, incorrect (or outdated) information does occasionally find its way into print. To be on the safe side, verify what you learn with two or three independent sources.
• Almanacs and yearbooks
  • Annual publications such as The World Almanac and Book of Facts, published by the Newspaper Enterprise Association may produce information you need. Yearbooks are more specialized. For example, The Municipal Yearbook and The County Yearbook are both published by the International City Management Association.
• Indexes and surveys
  • Major newspapers often publish "indexes" which you can use to dig up stories from the archive, which the library may keep on microfiche or microfilm. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science Monitor are three useful ones. Surveys of events are compiled by various organizations. One of the most useful is Facts on File.

The Internet

Get a good Internet directory, or put the right key words into a good search engine and you may find untold riches. For example, start with Fed World and it will lead you to dozens of Federal agencies and their oceans of data. Or try the Library of Congress.

While the Internet is full of good information, (for example, you found us!), you'll want to keep a couple of things in mind. The Internet is not monitored, so the information you find may be outdated or even completely incorrect. Start with the web pages of national or state organizations devoted to your topic; you can feel confident that these will be accurate and up-to-date.

Learning from other advocacy groups

In many cases, background research might already have been done by national advocacy groups, such as the Children's Defense Fund or the Sierra Club. You may also be able to learn from smaller advocacy groups who may be tackling issues similar to yours. However, you'll need to be careful about taking over facts and figures prepared by other organizations. In certain cases, these might not be accurate, or might give a different slant to the research than the one you need.

One thing that you can learn from other groups is their process--the way they went about their own research. For example, suppose a group in a neighboring community had a problem with a major industry dumping untreated waste into the river. Now, a similar problem seems to be developing with a pet-food processing plant in your community. You can find out what sources of information they used and what roadblocks they encountered in their efforts to remedy the situation.

You might want to use something similar to this form to get started:

Need to know	Where to look	Useful?
Effect of paper mill waste on fish	Library College - Professor Smith, Zoology Department Ask group at Milltown	Yes - ask for Jane No - consults for company! Great - have a lot of stuff they'll share

 

Gathering local information

You will need very specific information about the issue as it affects your community in order to plan your campaign and push the right buttons.

Some of the research methods that you use to gather background information may also be excellent for filling in the local angle. For instance, reference librarians often have an excellent knowledge of the community and where its archives or other background facts may be found.

The local media

If you have a local newspaper, try the clippings file. You may find valuable information about the origins of the problem you face. Television and radio may not keep archives systematically, but if there's a reporter or researcher on staff who's been around for many years, he or she might be glad to give you some guidance. For example: "I remember there was a zoning dispute... " or "When that hospital was set up, there was some provision... " Even unspecific memories and hints may lead you to the right corner of officialdom to dig out useful documents.

Remember that many local papers now have websites which are often stuffed with archival material.

Annual reports

Is your opponent a company that issues annual reports? These can provide useful statistics. Or you might find valuable information from special reports issued by groups such as public interest groups, business organizations, social services, and others that release information to the public. (Again, librarians might know where to look.)

Archival records

City Hall, or other government agencies, such as school boards, may have archival records that tell you what you want to know. For example, court records and real estate records may be loaded with information about past difficulties of opponents, the history of zoning decisions, and so on.

Another possible source to find information is through the Freedom of Information Act. Under this Act you can obtain information about federal government agencies. This may be about an outside agency or about your own. There are three exceptions: the Congress, the Federal Courts, and the Executive Office. Requests for information cannot be made to schools, state or local governments, and private businesses, organizations, or individual records.

Commercial sector

Often the business establishment of a community will gather facts and figures--for example, for use in a brochure that is designed to bring new business or new residents to the town. The Chamber of Commerce may be a good place to start.

Filling the gaps

There may be some information that you just can't get from written sources, whether paper or electronic. And if there are gaps in what you need to know, you may find that you can fill them best by asking questions.

For example, do you want to know whether a strategy you are considering is likely to win the support of the general public or their undying resentment? Ask!

Here are some suggestions for extracting the information you need from people in your community.

Interviews with community leaders

Set up a time to go and chat with people who are identified by members of the community as leaders. These people don't have to be elected officials or people in power, but they should be respected and have influence. They might be:

• Church leaders
• Youth group leaders
• Respected local professionals
• Representatives of the business community
• Educators (i.e. school board members, school principals)

Usually these people are busy, so it pays to plan out your questions before you go in, and to make them specific. For example, "If you were in our situation, how would you... ?" Or, "Thinking back 15 years, can you remember how the community reacted to...?"

Remember that these leaders may be important to you later in the campaign, so be careful to keep them on your side! If they don't yet want to open up about a certain topic, back off.

Interviews with community residents

You may be able to gather useful information about community knowledge and attitudes by reaching a sample of the residents, if your sample is big enough, and if it is really representative.

There are various techniques you can use, including:

• Intercept surveys (stopping people on the street)
• Telephone surveys (with numbers picked at random)
• Written surveys (sent to a sample picked at random)

You may get useful information from any of these methods, though the return rate on written surveys is usually very low and they're very expensive. Just chatting to people in the street, or telephoning a sample to ask what they think about a certain topic may give you fresh insights, or bring to your attention problems you hadn't thought about.

Just remember that you probably can't quote facts and figures gathered in these surveys unless:

• You use a sufficiently large sample
• You are very professional about the way that the sample is chosen
• You are very professional about the way the questions are worded
• The results are carefully coded and analyzed

For example, if your group claims that "90% of the people in this town support us," and it turns out you only telephoned your friends, or only talked to people in coffee shops, this will be easy for the opposition to dismiss--and they are unlikely to take your statistical claims seriously in future.

Focus groups

These can be useful in two ways:

• To "go fishing" for ideas and reactions from a fairly typical bunch of people
• To test out specific ideas

There is one caveat: most research from focus groups can't be used to "prove" anything. You can't say, "People in the community say that clean air is their highest priority - just on the basis of one focus group - it's simply not a large enough sample. But focus groups can be very effective in suggesting lines of inquiry that you might not have thought of, and in giving reactions to ideas presented to them.

Guided discussions

This way of gathering information is something like doing focus groups one on one. Members of your group chat with members of the community, either face-to-face or by telephone. Interviewers follow a check-list of points you want covered in the course of the conversation, and questions you'd like answered, but you can also afford to let the conversation wander - and that can often produce some good insights into the issue.

Before you plan out the details of your campaign, you may need to fill gaps in your knowledge:

___You don't need to know everything, but a good understanding of the issue is essential

___It is important not only to know the facts, but to understand the beliefs of the people you serve, and of your opponents. It is also important to know how they came to those beliefs

A thorough understanding of the issue will help you to:

___Convince your members the issue is important

___Persuade allies to join your cause

___Understand your opponents

___Be precise in your planning

___Educate the public

You will need to know:

___How people in different segments of the community feel about the issue

___What makes the opponents tick

___What it will take for the political structure of the community to make and/or accept change

The information you need will probably be of two types:

___General background information

___Specific information about the issue as it affects your community

Getting general information to educate yourselves about the issue:

___May involve working in libraries

___May involve surfing on the Web

___May involve digging in archives, annual reports, and yearbooks

___May involve recruiting experts

Gathering information about the issue as it affects your own community may involve:

___Using media archives

___Using City Hall archives

___Getting information from local business interests

You can fill in the gaps by getting information from:

___Community leaders

___Representatives of the business community

___Educators (i.e. school board members, or school principals)

 If you need more information about the thoughts and feelings of local residents, you can make a start with:

___Surveys

___Focus groups

___Guided discussions

Tool: Investigation Worksheet

Use this table to list possible sources of information for investigating your topic, and determine how useful each source might be.

Information you need to know	Where to look	Useful?

 

 

What are allies?

Allies are people or groups of people who have the same interests as you, or the capacity or resources to help you. Allies are essential because you can accomplish much more if there are people who believe in the cause supporting you.

Why do you need allies?

Allies can help you achieve your mission. They may be willing to share their resources and information with you to achieve a common goal, and the community is more likely to pay attention if more people are working towards that goal. In other words, the more help and support you have, the more you can get accomplished.

How do you find allies?

The easiest way to start recruiting allies is to determine if there are already groups in the community working on your issue or working on similar topics, who might be interested in working with you.

For example, if your issue is improving the nutritional value of school lunches, the American Heart Association might be interested in helping your group--or they may already be working to achieve the same outcome.

One method to help identify these groups is a community resource inventory or directory. Many resource inventories are available through private organizations such as the United Way, or from local government organizations.

Some other places you might find information on local resources are:

• The local library
• Neighborhood assistance services
• Chamber of commerce
• City hall

If you can't find an existing resource directory for your issue, you and your group can always create your own.

Some things you'll want to ask:

• Who is doing something about the issue in the community already?
• What are they doing?
• How is it going?
• Which strategies did they find effective?
• Is there some way we could collaborate with them?
• Who else do we know who might be interested in this issue, even though they may not be acting on it now?

To expand this list further, you can use the "snowball technique," by asking your known allies to list several other groups who are either already working on your issue or who might be interested in helping your group. This technique continues by asking each of the allies to identify more potential partners.

Another method might be for you and your group to write down various sectors of your community, such as religious organizations, businesses and health care, and then identify organizations within each sector who might be potential allies.

Do you and your allies care about the same things?

Once you have identified potential allies, the first question you'll want to ask is which of them cares about the issue enough to want to help your organization. The more a group benefits from your success, the more willing they will be to cooperate with your group. Likewise, a group with a lot to lose will naturally do their best to oppose you.

Of course, groups might have both something to gain and something to lose by helping you. The question is, do the benefits of helping you outweigh the costs? Costs here are not just money but could also include group identity, prestige, or time.

An Allies' Risks vs. Benefits Table will help determine who your strongest potential allies are, by taking into consideration what they may win or lose if they decide to support your cause.

When using the table, ask yourself:

• Whose problem is it? List as many groups as you think may be affected by the problem.

For each of these groups, ask yourself:

• What are the benefits? What do they gain by helping you?
• What are the risks? What might they lose?

You can now approach these groups as potential allies. Having an idea of the risks and benefits they face makes it easier to downplay or eliminate the risks and emphasize the benefits.

Even groups that do not have a direct connection to your issue may have an indirect interest, which can can be advantage.

One way to think of indirect allies might be to think of you and your allies as being in the hub of a bicycle wheel. Think of the rim as the rest of the community and the "spokes" of the wheel as the links and ties that your immediate allies have to others in the community.

The following questions concern links to your allies:

• Who does business with these people?
• Who lends and borrows their money?
• To which organizations and churches do they belong?

Happy Valley High School is facing increasing violence among its students. Your group wants to hire a security guard as part of a program to reduce violence at the school. Using the risks vs. benefits table, you determine who is more likely to become an ally among teachers, students, parents, and the local education board.

The group that has the most direct connection to the issue you're trying to address would be the students themselves. They're directly threatened by the violence at their school and would benefit from having violence reduced or eliminated.

The insurance company that covers the school might have interests. They could lose money if students or teachers get hurt at school, or if school property is damaged. Thus, your group could approach them as a potential ally, using saving money as the incentive.

Using your allies

Cooperation with allies presents a powerful, unified image to the community, and demonstrates that the issue is important enough to compromise and put aside differences to solve the problem. The more allies your group has voicing the same concerns about the issue, the more likely you are to be successful.

Your group is concerned about the growing number of adolescent pregnancies in your community, and you feel a significant factor is adolescents' lack of access to birth control. In your community, there is a group of churches that is also concerned about the adolescent pregnancy issue, but which does not support the idea of access to birth control without parental consent. These churches have received a large donation from their members to do something about the problem, while your group has many volunteers willing to work, but limited financial resources.

You realize the church's money and experience in counseling would be a great help, but convincing the churches to agree to your strategies will be difficult. Instead, you might compromise by creating a series of youth workshops to discuss birth control. You would be working together to make progress on the issue of reducing adolescent pregnancies, and the church group would benefit without giving in to what they might consider being extreme or radical measures.

Which ally should you contact first?

One way to prioritize your list of potential allies is to rank them by how much power they can potentially bring to your group.

A group's power is a measure of how effective that group will be in helping you achieve your goals. As your project progresses, you may find that you need an ally with some kind of specialized expertise, or that has a particular bargaining skill. All you need to do is go back to your Community Resource Inventory and pick groups as required.

Ally Power Grid

The use of an Ally Power Grid may help your group recognize what power a potential ally has and which allies are most useful to your group.

First, let's run through a list of the types of power allies may possess, and some examples.

Type of Power	Rationale	Example
Members: How many members does the group have?	The more members a group has, the less likely it is to be ignored.	A group with 500 members shows up at a school board meeting.
Money: Will they donate money to your issue?	Donated money and other resources are always welcome in achieving your group's goals.	The local teachers' union donated money to your group.
Credibility: Do they bring exceptional credibility?	A group with strong positive recognition in your community will help bring credibility to your group.	A respected clergyman from a local church speaks on your behalf.
Appeal: Do they have unique appeal?	Some groups of people have universal appeal. If your group connects with them, it will help your image as well.	A poster child is used to promote an emotional response.
Network: Are they part of an extensive, organized network?	A group that has lots of other groups in its network is going to have financial resources, credibility, and some political power.	The local chapter of the United Way offers staff support to your group.
Reputation: Do they have a reputation for toughness?	Groups with a tough reputation may discourage opponents.	The local law enforcement officers' union says they'll support policy changes for improved safety.
Skills: Do they have special abilities?	An ally may bring technical, business, or legal skills to your group.	Smith, Jones, & Brown's law firm donates free legal support.
Newsworthy: Are they particularly newsworthy?	Some groups may have a reputation or connections in the media that make them newsworthy. If they align with you, that might give positive media attention to your cause.	An activist group for children's rights that recently won a significant victory offers to give your group technical support.

How do you use a Power Grid?

• Use a separate grid for each ally whose power you wish to examine.
• For each type of power, assess how much of it your ally has and give an example.
• Determine the most effective allies by looking at which have more categories of power, or by identifying which allies have the ability that is most relevant to your specific needs. That is, if what you need is an ally with money, then an ally with the most appeal may not be as particularly useful at this stage.

Example of an Ally Power Grid

Type of Power	Power Appraisal: How much of this power do they have?	Give an example:
Members	They have a lot.	The group has 200 active members.
Credibility	Very credible.	Last year they were responsible for $100,000 in improvements made to the neighborhood park.

This grid is helpful for all allies, but if time is limited, you can do it for allies you are unsure of, or to compare them based on a specific need.

Use a blank Ally Power Grid to find the best allies for your organization, and feel free to add your criteria for power to the grid.

Now that you've found some potential allies, you can concentrate on the best ways to contact them and convince them to join your effort.

What are allies?

___You understand that allies are people, or groups of people, who have the same interests as you, or the capacity or resources to help you

Why do you need allies?

___Allies can help you achieve your mission

___They can share their resources and information to achieve a common goal

___The community is more likely to pay attention if there are more people working towards that goal

How do you find allies?

___Use a community resource inventory/directory

___Use the Yellow pages 

___Use a local social service directory 

___Use neighborhood assistance services 

___Ask the Chamber of Commerce 

___Ask City hall 

___Ask your group members, friends, colleagues

___Use the "snowball technique," by asking your known allies to list other potential allies and then asking each of those groups to identify more potential allies

___Identify allies by examining various sectors of your community such as religious organizations, businesses and health care, and identifying organizations within each sector who might be potential allies

How do you choose which ally to contact first?

___You know if you and your allies care about the same things

___You know to consider your allies' risks vs. benefits

___You know how to use the Ally Power Grid to determine which allies you should contact first

___Contact Your Allies

Example: "Stoplights Don't Stop Us!"

“Stoplights Don’t Stop Us!” tells the story of how people with disabilities in Emporia, Kansas, living in a high-rise apartment complex near a dangerous intersection, came together as allies to advocate for change in their community. The changes they achieved enhanced their ability to more fully and safely participate in the community. (The video is also available with audio description.) To learn more about this process for making change to support independent living for all, visit the free publication: Your Action Planning Guide for Promoting Full Community Participation Among People with Disabilities: A Resource for Independent Living Centers and Other Community-based Initiatives.

Tool 1: Community resource inventory for recognizing allies

Completing this table will help you determine who your allies might be for your advocacy campaign and what they are doing, or could be doing, about the issue.

Sources of Allies	Potential Allies	What are they doing? (or what could they be doing on the issue)?	Contacted?
Who is already working on the issue in your community?
Possible other allies based on general information sources
Yellow pages
Social service directory
Neighborhood assistance groups
Chamber of Commerce
City Hall
Members of your own group, colleagues, and friends
Others

Tool 2: Potential allies risks vs. benefits exercise

This table will help you recognize the risks and benefits each potential ally faces when considering joining your group. Knowing these is important when contacting potential allies to join you.

The following table shows how a group of people who organized to reduce school violence might go about determining who cares about their issue.

The Problem: Increasing violence between students at Happy Valley High School. Your group wants to hire a security guard as a part of a program to reduce violence at the school.

Ask yourself:	Examples	What are the benefits? What do they gain if you win?	What are the risks?
Whose problem is it?	Students	- Safer schools - A better learning environment	- Stricter rules/codes at school - less freedom
	Teachers	- Safety for themselves and students - Increased job satisfaction	- Might get blamed for stricter rules
	Parents	- Children are safe - Better education for their children	- Might lead to a tax increase - Other financial costs
	Local education board	- Increased community support	- May be expensive, which might decrease political support, especially if the program is not successful

 A blank Potential Allies Risks vs Benefits form for you to fill out for your allies:

Ask yourself:	Examples	What are the benefits? What do they gain if you win?	Whar are the risks? What might they lose?
Whose problem is it?

Tool 3: Ally Power Grid

This table will help clarify the power(s) a potential ally may bring to your group, and thereby help identify which allies will are the most valuable to your group.

Type of Power	Power Appraisal: Do they have a lot of it or not?	Give an example
Members: How many members does the group have?
Money: Will they donate money to your issue?
Credibility: Do they bring special credibility?
Appeal: Do they have special appeal?
Network: Are they part of a large, organized network?
Reputation: Do they have a reputation for toughness?
Skills: Do they have special skills?
Newsworthy: Are they particularly newsworthy?
Other:

 

 

Who are your opponents?

When you're moving toward your goal, it sometimes feels like everyone supports what you are doing. If you are raising money for a new wing of the hospital, or writing a grant for a new branch library, everyone in the community may sing praises to you. This is wonderful. But it is also relatively rare. Much of the time, you are likely to encounter some resistance or some open opposition to what you are doing.

There are several different forms of opposition that you may encounter. Sometimes your opponents are visible and public. These opponents are sometimes easier to deal with, because you know what you're up against. It can be a lot tougher when your opponents are less visible, because it's harder to be sure who your opponents are.

This is especially the case when people appear to support you but then withhold support, or even oppose you, when it really counts. The bottom line is, you need to become skilled at recognizing the type and degree of opposition in addition to simply identifying your opponents.

Who might your opponents be? Well, much like potential allies, the answer is just about anyone. It just depends on how much other people or groups stand to lose by your victory. In this section we'll take a closer look at the sources of that opposition, and how it can be overcome.

Why should you want to identify your opponents?

As with allies, there are opponents to just about every issue. If you stand for one thing, someone may challenge you and stand for something else. Here are two important reasons to identify opponents before you implement your campaign:

• You can anticipate the type and degree of opposition or attack you will encounter
• You can effectively direct your resources towards weakening or eliminating your opposition

In other words, identifying your opponents and anticipating their opposition should increase your chances of success.

How do you identify your opponents?

The first step in determining who your opponents might be is to again ask yourself "Who cares about your issue?". In this case, the best answer to your question is: "Anyone who might lose something from your success."

It will help to create a list of opponents, including all the people, groups of people, and organizations that may have something to lose, directly or indirectly, if you win. They will be the ones actively trying to stop you from winning. A simple example might be if your group was trying to get restaurants in your area to ban cigarette vending machines. One opponent would certainly be cigarette-makers, because they would be losing money from sales, and they would be losing an important marketing instrument. Other opponents might be restaurant owners or tavern keepers who might lose money if the machines are removed.

It stands to reason that the people with the most to lose are going to fight your group the hardest. You should ask yourself: What specifically will they lose? Money? Time? Prestige? Staff? The answer is likely to be several of these things.

How do you determine the power of your opponents?

Now that you've listed all the groups and individuals that might lose something if you win, you should probably start thinking about "What are they going to do to stop us?" Possibly everything within their power; so you need to find out what power they have. This is similar to determining the potential power of your allies - just develop a table listing your opponents and the types of power they may have.

By filling out a table of your opponents and their power, you can see the kind of strategies and tactics they might try to use against you. For example, they might try to tie you up in a legal battle, or try to portray you in the media as extremists who don't care about people's jobs.

How do you recognize your opponents' tactics?

So now you've identified your opponents, and you know what they are capable of doing to your group. You need to have some way of recognizing their tactics, and of responding.

Some tactics your opponents may use are:

• Deflect - they could divert the issue to a lesser, side issue; or could "pass the buck" to a lower official who has no real power.
• Delay - your opponent could make you think they are addressing the issue, when nothing is really being done. For example, forming a "study commission" that has no real power to give you the change you want.
• Deny - your opponent may say your claims and your proposed solutions, or both, are invalid.
• Discount - your opponent may try to minimize the importance of the problem, question your legitimacy as an agent of change or both.
• Deceive - your opponent may deliberately try to make you and your group feel like they are taking meaningful action, when they in fact have not; they may never have had any real intention to consider your issues.
• Divide - your opponent may sow the seeds of dissent into your group's ranks, and use a "Divide and Conquer" strategy.
• Dulcify - your opponent may try to appease or pacify your group, or people who are undecided about the issue, through offers of jobs, services, and other benefits.
• Discredit - your opponent may try to cast doubt on your group's motives and methods.
• Destroy - your opponents may try to destabilize or eliminate your group through legal, economic, or scare tactics.
• Deal - your opponent may decide to avoid conflict by offering a deal, working with your group towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Surrender - the opposition may agree to your demands. If this is the case, you should remember that the victory is not complete until the opposition follows through with its promises.

These are the most common tactics your opponents may use. But you can never be too sure of what they might do. In real life, people stall or waffle because they can't make up their minds. Sometimes they get intimidated by more powerful opponents, or they have some fear you have not yet identified. The next paragraph deals with some general approaches for neutralizing your opponents' tactics, whatever they may be.

How can you deal with opposition?

All right, you know that your opponents have several ways they can try to make your cause a tough one to achieve. Your opponents could use one of the previously mentioned tactics, or they could use a combination of several to thwart your efforts. The lingering question is: "What can you do about it?" Luckily, you have a lot of options to neutralize their attacks. In general, you don't want to use an "overkill" approach, as it may cause you to lose a chance for negotiation. What you do want to do is use a strategy that corresponds both to the type and level of resistance from your opponents.

Here are some very useful techniques for responding to your opponents:

Prevention

One of the best ways to prevent opposition is to plan in advance what you're going to do, and convince potential opponents to either join you, or at least to not actively oppose you.

You and your group know that the local hospital won't like your group starting a new prenatal clinic in your community, but you could convince them that the hospital will benefit from it.

Meet with your opponent

Discuss your differences, it could be the opposition is caused by miscommunication or a lack of understanding about the issue.

 Some community members may oppose a sexuality education program at the local grade school because they think it's about teaching sexual techniques to the kids. You might explain that this is not the case, the class is about decision-making skills, refusal skills, life skills and relationships with family, friends and others in their lives.

Develop win-win solutions

You can focus on a solution that meets both of your shared interests.

 You might work with a local grocer to offer low fat food choices, while you promote a low-fat, heart-healthy diet.

Turn negatives into positives

Often times, what may at first be seen as a negative situation can be used to your advantage.

If your group is being sued, your group could counter sue. This would put your opponent on the defensive. Or, you may use their attack to gather sympathy with the community. For example, you can say your right to free speech is being suppressed.

Labeling your opponent's tactics

Your opponent's tactics lose power when those tactics are openly identified.

 Your opponent is trying to use the "divide and conquer" tactic on your group. If you recognize that this is what your opponent is doing, and label it openly, it may refocus your group and direct anger against your opponent instead.

Or, perhaps your opponent makes "token" concessions. If you publicly recognize them as "mere tokens" and reject them, it assures the public and your group that a better outcome is expected than what was offered.

Let others know about tactics your opponent is using at your meetings, through the media, etc.

Frame the debate on your terms

Convey the issue in terms of how your group thinks about it; you don't want to be constantly on the defensive, only responding to your opponent's arguments.

If the issue was banning smoking in indoor public places, you would want to say it protects the rights of people to breathe clean air rather than talking about the rights of people to smoke cigarettes.

Balance and Illusion

You should respond to your opponents' counterattacks with a variety of strategies, so they don't have time to anticipate and prepare for your moves. Similarly, if you can trick your opponent into wrongly guessing your intentions, it also gives you an advantage in keeping your opponent off-balance.

In one debate between the tobacco industry and a public health advocate, the advocate argued for the right of the smoker to sue tobacco companies for health damages, rather than arguing against smoker's rights, which is what usually occurs in these debates.

Consider your opponent's psychology

Your opponent may be seeking solutions to the problem; if so, your group may be able to join in the effort.

 A company may be aware that emissions from its factory are too high, but doesn't know how to reduce them. Perhaps your group has some expertise in industrial health and could help.

In these situations you can define the problem, but don't immediately suggest solutions. This way you let your opponent keep their autonomy. Eventually, your group might suggest solutions for a "trial period," so as to leave the opponents with other options.

Turning your opponent's assets into liabilities

Your group might be in a situation where your opponents' power greatly outweighs your own. Generally, this method involves your group persisting with nonviolent strategies until the opposition responds heavy-handedly out of frustration.

Eventually, this can result in a shift of support and sympathy towards your group and your cause. Previously uninvolved observers who see a group being severely repressed because of their belief in a principle may move toward that group. Usual supporters of your opponent may question the use of violence against your nonviolence and may begin to question your opponents' overall motivation.

 Your group has picketed for many months outside a company known for dumping toxic waste illegally. The company president got sick of you all, and decided to have everyone arrested for trespassing. This might gather support of uninterested people who thought you were harmlessly expressing your right to free speech.

Concentrate strengths against weaknesses

It's that obvious, use your strengths against your opponent's weaknesses.

 Anti-smoking advocates have substantial scientific and medical evidence supporting their claims of the dangers of cigarettes, while tobacco industry "scientific" data on the health hazards of smoking is shady at best.

Know when to negotiate

In most cases, when you settle your dispute with your opponent, there will be a compromise. Your group should be aware of signs that might indicate such a negotiation is possible. These signs are often hidden in statements by the opposition.

Let's suppose your opponent's spokesman was quoted referring to your group saying: "Since they are so irresponsible, I doubt they would consider meeting with us." In this case, your opponent may be offering an opportunity to meet, even though their language is somewhat negative.

On the other hand, you may not want to offer negotiations, as this can make your group appear weak.

In Summary

While many health and community building efforts may attract opposition, anticipating and analyzing that opposition can prepare you to deal with it successfully. The best ways to neutralize opponents involve turning them into allies by finding win-win alternatives to hard and fast positions. Even when this ideal isn't possible, however, you can counter opposition tactics by recognizing whom you have to deal with, the amount and nature of the power they can bring to bear, and how your own strengths and weaknesses might affect the conflict. If you analyze the situation carefully and accurately, and have some empathy for your adversaries, you should be able to overcome most opposition.

___You know why it is important to identify your opponents

___You know how to identify your opponents

___You know how to discover what your opponents might lose

___You know how to determine your opponents' power

You can recognize the following tactics your opponents may use:

___Deflect

___Delay

___Deny

___Discount

___Deceive

___Divide

___Dulcify

___Discredit

___Destroy

___Deal

___Surrender

You know how to use the following tactics to deal with your opponents:

___Prevention

___Meeting with opponents

___Develop win-win solutions

___Turn negatives into positives

___Label your opponents' tactics

___Frame the debate on your terms

___Balance and illusion

___Consider your opponents psychology

___Turn your opponents' assets into liabilities

___Concentrate strengths against weaknesses

___Know when to negotiate

Tool 1: Worksheet for identifying potential opponents

Completing this table will help you determine who might oppose your advocacy campaign and what they have at stake. This is an important first step to developing strategies for your advocacy campaign.

Example: Violence has been increasing between students at Happy Valley High School. Your group wants to implement a youth education program, along with hiring a security guard and an extra counselor trained in conflict resolution.

Ask yourself:	Potential Opponents	What might they lose if you win?
Who might lose something if you win?	Taxpayers Association	Money - higher taxes
	Chamber of Commerce	Image - recognition of the problem may give the community a bad reputation
	Students	Respect, dignity
	School Administration Staff	Loss of image for the school

 

A blank Potential Opponents form for you to fill out:

Ask yourself:	Potential Opponents	What might they lose if you win?
Who might lose something if you win?

Tool 2: Worksheet for Recognizing Your Opponent's Power

This table will not only help you recognize what power your opponents have, but also how they might use that power against you.

Example: How can you determine the potential powers of possible opponents to a group wanting to ban transporting chemical waste through their community? Just fill in the table.

Potential opponent	What's at stake for them?	Power the opponent has:	Potential strategies your opponent may use:
Casey Jones' Rail Transport Company	- Money - very expensive to re-route trains - Jobs	- They have lots of financial and legal resources - Strong lobbying group	- Tie you up in a long, costly legal battle
Karl's Carcinogens, Inc.	- Money - Time - Jobs	- Financial resources - Newsworthy (major regional employer) - Credibility - several scientific "experts" who say their products aren't "that toxic"	- Try to portray your group as extremists to the media

 

 A blank Worksheet for Recognizing your Opponent's Power and Potential Strategies for you to fill out:

Potential Opponent	What's at stake for them?	Power the opponent has:	Potential strategies your opponent may use:

 

What do we mean by involving opponents?

It seems obvious that you would want to involve your allies in your group's plans. However, you probably haven't considered involving your potential opponents as well. The idea may sound far-fetched, to say the least; it may even seem harmful to your group's goals.

But think again. Maybe your opponents can indeed help you, in unexpected ways. As you will find out, collaborating with people with different goals and values - at least partially different--can be beneficial to you, and also to them. Both of you can win.

Why should you want to involve an opponent?

Collaboration with people you might otherwise think of as opponents can give you and your group several advantages, such as:

• You might be removing, or neutralizing, a potentially harmful critic.
• You might gain insight into the workings of your opponent.
• You might gain access to a group that has been previously closed to you.
• You could acquire new resources to solve a common problem (to solve tough problems, the energy of many groups may be required).
• You can find common values and beliefs you didn't know were there.
• You can get to know your opponents as people.
• You can build a base of trust that might be helpful to you in the future.
• Involving your opponents can change the status quo and help you make progress.

Are they really my opponents? Some useful facts about opposition

• Opponents come in varying degrees. Not everyone who might oppose you will defend his position until his dying breath. Those who are slightly or mildly opposed are potential targets for change. And some people may oppose you because they don't understand your issue, or simply out of habit--they're just not used to agreeing with you! When you talk with them further, you might find they are not your opponents at all.
• Opposition depends upon the issue. Someone may be opposed to you on issue A; but that doesn't mean they will be opposed on issue B. On issue B, they could be your strongest ally. So be careful about making generalizations.
• Opposition is not forever. Your opponents' position may change over time. Your position may change. This means that keeping polite (if not necessarily friendly) relations with your opponents is a good idea more often than not. You never know when it might pay off.

Here's a basic point to keep in mind: Someone who disagrees with you is not necessarily an opponent!

When should you involve opponents?

Three good indicators are:

• When the lines of communication are still relatively open - and especially when you believe your opponent is willing to talk with you
• When you see common values and opportunities - even if your opponent doesn't see them yet
• When, from your opponent's point of view, the cost of getting involved with you is not too great

When not to involve opponents: Some red flags

But not every situation calls for collaboration. Sometimes involving your opponents would be very difficult, if not also damaging to your efforts. For example, when:

• There is a history of distrust, or actual deception, between you and your opponent
• Your respective positions on this particular issue are strongly held, deeply entrenched, and completely opposed to each other
• Your opponents are unwilling to talk with you
• The time and energy costs in collaborating with your opponent on this issue would be just too great

On some issues, it's certainly possible to "agree to disagree" in a respectful way. Remember, though: this doesn't mean you will be disagreeing the next time around.

How can you involve opponents?

Suppose you decide that it might not be such a bad idea to involve your opponents in your cause. It's good that you're open to the idea. But since you may be on unfamiliar territory, just how should you go about doing this? What do you do first?

We suggest you consider using the following steps as a guide:

• Decide that you want to involve your opponents. This is the first and possibly most important step; you need to make that basic decision before you can proceed further.
• Narrow your targets. Whom would you like to involve? Probably not all opponents, rather only certain ones. But which ones? Try these criteria:
  • Those who have the power to help you get what you want
  • Those who have cooperated with you in the past
  • Those who agree with at least some of what you stand for
  • Those who could sway other opponents
  • Those who seem approachable, and whom you feel comfortable approaching

Some careful thinking ahead here is worth your while.

Clarify your goals

What do you want to accomplish through your involvement attempt? What would you like to see happen as a result? You probably don't want to shoot for the moon, but you can aim for some closer target on earth. This could mean:

• An agreement that your opponents will not oppose you publicly
• An agreement to try your ideas for a limited time, followed by impartial review
• An agreement to work together on a related issue

Or some other specific achievement you can count as a win - or, better yet, as a mutual win.

Make the commitment

Are you personally ready to work with your opponents? It may not be easy. It may be a bumpy ride. You may fail. So are you truly prepared to invest the real time and energy to make this outreach attempt? Take a pause here - because in a moment, you'll be plunging in.

Identify other stakeholders

That is, other people in the community will be affected by the issue or problem you care about - it's not just you and your opponent. We often call these people "stakeholders." For example, if the issue is the cleanup of a polluted river, there are many possible polluters, just as there are many river users. Both groups (and possibly others) are stakeholders in the condition of the river.

It's best to keep in touch with stakeholders and consult with them at the beginning. Why? Because (a) they may have sound insights into the problem, as well as good ideas for solutions; (b) if they aren't consulted, they can disrupt the process or the outcome; and also because (c) they will have to live with any solutions that are adopted - so they should legitimately have a voice. Therefore, ask: "Who else is involved? How can we learn about and utilize their ideas?"

Make the contact with your opponent

Get some discussion under way. But this will not be ordinary talk or casual conversation; it will be planned-in-advance talk, with specific goals in mind.

As you start, are there some basic techniques you can use? There certainly are. Each situation is different - and take a close look at yours - but some of the techniques below might apply:

Establish ground rules

These are agreements on how you and your opponents will interact, before any interaction actually takes place. Ground rules can remove some of the uncertainty of participants, and lower the chance of misunderstandings. Some common examples: the meeting site; the meeting time; the people attending. More possibilities: media relations; confidentiality; use of outside experts. And finally: setting an agenda.

Set an agenda

This is one of the most important ground rules, which can and usually should be done in advance, together. The agenda specifically includes the items you plan to discuss; but more broadly, it also implies the goals of the meeting and suggests the general spirit in which the meetings will be conducted.

Organize subgroups

If your issue is very broad or complex, it may help to create subgroups or task forces. This will take more time and effort -- but the advantage is that you can approach and deal with several distinct issues simultaneously. The subgroups can later report back to the main group. One key to effective subgroups is keeping them diverse, so that a wide range of input can be collected on an issue.

Search for information

More times than you'd think, groups oppose each other because they don't have access to the facts. Both groups think they know what the facts are - but both could be wrong. The "facts" could be incomplete, out-of-date, misinterpreted, or all of the above. So ask, "Do we have enough information to understand the issues and arrive at solutions?" You and your opponents might decide to review data together, or gather new data, perhaps using unbiased experts. This can give you a common basis for discussion.

Find a mediator

A mediator, facilitator, or other outside person can sometimes be helpful in your discussions. This is especially so if both sides really do want to talk, but when distrust has run high; when emotions might slip out of control; when you don't trust your own one-on-one communication skills; and when a good mediator is in fact available.

Involve other stakeholders

The most common discussion format is one-on-one, but that's not the only way to get the job done. Other concerned groups can get in on the discussions too. (A good mediator here can definitely make things easier.) A variation of this would be to have one-on-one discussions at the beginning, then to open things up to other groups as the discussions proceed or move to a conclusion.

Hold an exploratory meeting

If the issue is particularly difficult or complicated, you and your opponent can begin just by talking about the issue, and your feelings surrounding it--without making any requests, or any commitments whatsoever. Such an exploratory meeting can lay the groundwork for a more business-oriented meeting later on.

Meet more than once

Depending upon the people involved, your own goals, and the complexity of the issue, your discussions may take more than one meeting. It's fine to arrange another time to talk some more, especially if the matter is important to you and you sense signs of progress.

There's more to say about making the contact. Here are some more brief "talking points" that will apply to most situations you run across.

Talking points for dealing with possible opponents

• Think in advance about your opponent's interests and values. You won't agree on everything; but look for areas where you have interests and values in common. You'll probably find some.
• Go in with the expectation that you are going to get something done, that you can in fact do some business together.
• Start slowly. Don't expect too much at the beginning.
• Be cordial and polite. Treat the other person as you would like to be treated.
• Begin with some small talk, to build rapport, and to set the tone for the more serious work ahead.
• Engage in some informal conversation about the issue. Do some sounding out. This will give you a clearer idea of what strategies are likely to work.
• Make some specific propositions. Don't be hesitant about saying what your interests are and what you want.
• Show how your proposals will meet the other person's interests. Those others will think, or say, "What's in it for me?" You should have a good answer. So look for proposals where you both can win.
• Listen very attentively to what the other person has to say - and how it gets said.
• Be willing to compromise.
• Have some back-up ideas in mind, in case your original proposals are rejected.
• Make sure a variety of options have been explored before choosing any alternatives.

For more detail on these points, check out the classic book by Roger Fisher and William Ury, Getting to Yes, especially the chapter, "Invent Options for Mutual Gain."

Close the deal

The last step in your discussions is to reach agreement and close the deal, if you have one. What kind of deal are we talking about?

• The best kind is a commitment to a particular course of action. For example, your former opponent agrees to endorse your anti-violence program, or to lend its name to an ad in the paper, or simply not to take sides on an issue. These victories may be small in themselves (or maybe not so small), but they might also be precedent-setting.
• If you can't get an action commitment, then you can agree on some general values and goals. Your former opponent says, "We will work toward reducing youth violence in our community." Or, "We support the expansion of affordable housing programs."
• If you can't get that far just yet, another variation is to "agree in principle" on a general framework, from which details of agreement can be worked out later. For instance, "We agree that affordable housing is a real concern in our community, and we hope to be part of future discussions on how it can best come about." More talk will be necessary, but even getting this much agreement (in some cases) can mean you have come a long way.

The best way to express agreements, especially among people who have been opponents, is to put them in writing. The printed word lowers the chances of miscommunication. More than that: it gives both sides a sense of clarity and security. Your written agreement can be in the form of a one-paragraph note, or a longer "memorandum of understanding," or whatever name you both wish to give it. But both sides should sign it, with copies all around. Handshakes, too. Even a small bow.

If multiple issues are to be decided, you can use a "building block" approach where you make separate agreements (or commitments) on separate issues, tackling the easiest issues first.)

Now you've got the involvement of your opponent on paper, but your work is not quite over. This is because you have to persuade others that the involvement you have obtained--and any agreements you have reached--are good deals all around. And then you need to see that everyone (yourself included) lives up to their end of the bargain.

Sell the deal

The deal is made. Now you need to convince others to support you. This means three types of groups in particular:

• First, your own supporters, particularly supporters not part of the earlier discussions. Of course, they should have been made aware that those discussions were going on. But now you need to show them that you got the best possible deal, and why. They need to know why trade-offs (if any) were made, and that any agreements made will be beneficial to everyone concerned. Otherwise, you run the risk of your supporters backing you grudgingly, or not at all -- and then you will truly be out on a limb.
• Second, other stakeholders. Convincing your supporters -- or at least getting them to go along -- is probably the easy part. But others will be concerned too, such as the stakeholders. Are these stakeholders crucial to your success? Absolutely, because it's these people who will be implementing the agreements you have reached. They are on the front lines; they have to buy in.

Suppose you and corporation X agree on local minority hiring targets. Fine; but what about local businesses Y and Z down the road, who are next in line to be approached? In this case, they are stakeholders, whose support-in-principle (at the least) is very desirable before you knock at their door.

• Third, the general public. They may naturally wonder why you and your opponents are now working together. They may be suspicious, and think something is up. (They are correct.) They deserve an explanation, on practical grounds if for no other reason. That is, the general public too will need to understand and live with any agreements you reach.

In building support for any agreement, clear communication is the key to success.

Structure the agreement

Now that you have a final plan, do you have a structure to support it, both in the short and long term? That is, how do you know the agreements won't fall through? What's going to prevent your former opponents from wiggling out at the last moment, or backing out altogether, or even opposing you all over again? To avoid these consequences, and to prevent your deal from collapsing, you need some kind of structure to keep it standing up. In other words, you want to "institutionalize the deal."

How to do it? You could have regular meetings every so often for a little while. Or possibly open meetings, with others involved. Or the involvement of a third party, if desired, upon request of either group. Or a formal review of the situation a few months later. These are examples of agreement-maintaining (or institutionalizing) structures, which can and should be built into the agreement during the time of the original discussions. Doing so can save you a lot of grief later on.

Monitor the agreement

That structure is good; but you've also got to check on events, and monitor the agreement to make sure things are going according to plan. Somebody has to use those structures to make sure things are heading in the right direction. Specifically: You need to watch your former opponent's actions, not just their words. Are their actions open for public inspection? Are they really doing what they said they would do? To verify this, you can keep notes and records - and this monitoring process can be built into the original agreement itself.

In Summary

If you've followed the above steps, chances are good that you can arrive at some agreement with your former opponent, and some common actions as well. The chances are good, too, that your former opponent will comply. (Of course, you need to comply just as diligently, and perhaps go the extra mile in showing good-faith effort.)

In that case, congratulations for doing good community work! -- work that may not only lead to good outcomes now, but which can build a foundation for other collaborative action together in the future.

You understand reasons why you should want to involve an opponent:

___To remove or neutralize a potentially harmful critic

___To gain insight into the workings of your opponent

___To gain access to a group that has previously been closed to you

___To acquire new resources to solve a common problem

___To find common values and beliefs you didn't know were there

___To get to know your opponents as people

___To build a base of trust that might be helpful in to you in the future

___To help you make progress

___Because involving opponents can help you (and them) in unexpected ways

You understand when you should involve opponents:

___When the lines of communication are still relatively open, and you believe your opponent is willing to talk with you

___When you see common values and opportunities

___When the cost of getting involved with each other is not too great

You understand when you shouldn't involve your opponents:

___When there is a history of distrust or deception between you and your opponent

___When your respective positions are strongly held, deeply entrenched, and completely opposed to each other

___When your opponents are unwilling to talk with you

___When the time and energy costs in collaborating with your opponent would be too great

You understand how to involve opponents:

___You have decided that you want to involve them

___You have narrowed your targets

___You have clarified your goals

___You have made the commitment

___You have identified the stakeholders

___You have made contact with your opponent

___You have established ground rules

___You have set an agenda

___You have organized subgroups

___You have searched for information

___You have found a mediator

___You have involved other stakeholders

___You have held an exploratory meeting

___You have met again

___You understand the twelve "talking points"

___You have closed the deal

___You have sold the deal to your supporters, other stakeholders, and the general public

___You have structured the agreement

___You have monitored the agreement

Example: Finding a common goal to work towards with opponents

One excellent example of how opposing groups can work together comes from a famous study in social psychology by Muzafer Sherif and his colleagues. At a summer camp, two groups of boys were intense competitors for trophies and prizes. Their opposition became so strong that the "Eagles" burned the "Rattlers'" flag; the Rattlers retaliated by vandalizing the Eagles' cabin. Matters might have gotten out of hand, except that the camp truck broke down on a trip; both groups had to join forces to get it started. The common goal ("superordinate goal" was the technical term used) helped restore harmony between the two groups.

The moral of the story is to look for things you have in common with your opponents, rather than on the differences you have.

Tool: Collaboration Self-Assessment

This is a worksheet to help guide your collaboration efforts with your opponents, adapted from materials from the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas.

Your group:	Yes	No	Collaborator	Yes	No
Problem Setting
1. Common definition of the problem  Do the parties define the problem in overlapping terms? Is the definition of the problem sufficiently broad to incorporate the interests of the opponents? Outcomes are rooted in interdependence?			Is your definition included? Can you reach your goals with the others?
2. Parties are committed to collaborate Does the present situation fail to serve each party's interest? Will collaboration produce positive outcomes? Is it possible to reach a fair agreement? Is there parity among the opponents? Will all sides agree to collaborate?			Does the present situation fail to serve my interests? Will collaboration produce positive outcomes for me? Is an agreement possible that is fair to me? Am I an equal player? Will the other side agree to collaborate?
3. Opponents are identified Have those who have a right or capacity to participate, have important expertise, or can disrupt the process been identified? Have disputes about legitimacy been settled? Is the process open? Have size and manageability of the group been determined? Has the internal legitimacy of groups been determined? Are the interests of those not at the table represented by those who are?			I am affected by the problem, have the capacity to participate, have important expertise, or can disrupt the process.I view the others as legitimate stakeholders. The size of the group allows my active participation.  I will participate at an appropriate level. My group has consensus.
4. Convenor is appropriate Is there an already existing umbrella organization? Can the convenor bring opponents to the table? Does the convenor have a reputation of trust? Is the convenor an unbiased expert on the problem? Does the convenor have appropriate skills? Is (s)he perceived as having authority to organize collaboration? Does (s)he have a vision of purpose and appreciates collaboration? Can (s)he create and sustain a process of bringing opponents together?			I will meet with the convenor. I trust the convenor. I believe the convenor has appropriate skills and no bias. I agree with the vision of purpose and collaborative process. I will work with the convenor.
5. Resources have been identified and are adequate. Are resources available? Can adequate resources to allow everyone to participate equally be secured?			I have available resources.
Direction Setting
1. Ground rules have been established. Are all parties are involved in outlining acceptable and unacceptable behavior? Do all parties agree on ground rules?			I was involved in developing ground rules. I agree to abide by the ground rules.
2. Agenda is set. Does the agenda reflect the interests of all parties? Are there rules for adding or deleting items of special concern?			The agenda reflects my interests. I am able to influence the agenda.
3. Subgroups are formed if necessary. Should subgroups be formed to address distinct issues (particularly if more than enough people are available)?  Is membership on subgroups diverse enough to get a wide range of input?			I will work with a subgroup.
4. Information is sought jointly. Do parties agree on facts supporting problem definition? Do parties search for facts together? Do parties mutually examine data? Are technical experts and expert witnesses used for controversial issues?			I agree with the facts supporting problem definition. I worked with others to find the facts. I examined the facts with others.
5. Multiple options are explored. Have multiple options been explored before choosing alternatives? Are subgroups used to examine options more closely? If appropriate, are outside experts used to generate options?			I have examined multiple options.
6. Reaching final agreement. Are all parties committed to a single option or package of options?			I am committed to the final option(s).
Implementation
1. Dealing with constituencies. Do opponents' constituencies understand the rationale for tradeoffs and ultimately support the agreement?			Does my constituency understand the rationale for tradeoffs? Does my constituency support the agreement?
2. Do those needed to implement the agreement support it? Do all parties support the agreement? Will all parties work to implement the agreement?			I support the agreement and will implement it if necessary.
3. Extent of effort is determined. Is a structure in place to permit a gradual institutionalization of the agreement reached? Are there long-term structures to support collective effort? Is there an ongoing forum for future problem-solving? Is there a framework for regulating the group's efforts?
4. Compliance is monitored. Are the opponents following through with the agreements? Are there opportunities available to work through cultural differences, historical conflicts, and others barriers to implementation? Are monitoring responsibilities clearly spelled out? Are sanctions needed?

 

• Option A: How would you use this information to become an effective collaborator?
• Option B: How would you use this information to ensure more effective collaboration?

 

What's a plan for advocacy?

Other sections of the Community Tool Box have covered strategic planning. How should planning for advocacy be different?

The answer is that in many ways the process will be similar -- but it's even more important to do it thoroughly, and do it up front. That's because advocacy:

• Involves getting powerful individuals or organizations to make big changes that may not be in their short-term interest
• Often involves working in the public eye
• Often involves sticking out your neck, as you take a stand against a larger opponent

Planning will help you find out ahead of time where the major difficulties may lie, and to avoid surprises (including those surprises that might make you look ineffective, clumsy, or stupid).

In addition, as with any project, planning will help you to:

• Clarify your goals
• Clarify the steps that will take you to your goals
• Increase your chances of success

If you don't plan, you may waste valuable energy, miss some opportunities, perhaps even antagonize people you need to keep on your side.

When should you create a plan for advocacy?

It's important to complete a plan before you start advocating, because, as you will find, each part of the plan can affect the others.

Normally, planning your goals comes first--but you may have to change those plans if you find, as you plan further, that the tactics you were hoping to use aren't legal, or won't work. When you plan everything together--and ongoing--you can both build support and make adjustments as you go.

Your goal might be to close down a refinery that had been guilty of dumping toxic chemicals in the community. You find, when you check into the list of possible allies, that the economic impact of closure would be devastating to the community. So you adjust your goal to one that would change safety practices in the refinery and permit closer community oversight.

If you had publicly stated your goal of closing the place, before talking with others or filling in the other steps of your plan, you could have antagonized many of those whose support you would need. These might include many people in the community who depended on the refinery financially. And it would have been hard to win them back, after publicly coming out against their interests.

Making your plans

Planning is best done as a group activity. One way is to write up ideas on the chalkboard or on butcher paper. Then, after they've been debated, record the ideas you've chosen in a permanent place. The actual format of the plan is not important. What's important is that you write it down in a form you can use, and that lets you check one part of the plan against the rest. A loose-leaf binder (or computer file) with separate sections for each category may be all you need.

Goals (or objectives)

If you are asked what the goal of your advocacy campaign or group is, your answer may come out in the form of a mission statement: "Our aim is to create decent and affordable housing," or "We intend to reduce pollution of the local waterways." However, for planning purposes, goals should be split down into much more specific steps. Remember that it's better to keep your focus on a relatively narrow, manageable group of issues, rather than letting yourselves try to cover too much ground, and lose strength in the process. It's also important to split up the goals according to your time-frame.

Long-term goals spell out where you want to be, by the end of the advocacy campaign.

• Ten years from now, the supply of low-income housing in Bay City will have increased by 50%
• In four years, we will reduce the pregnancy rate among 12 to 17 year-olds in Bay City by 30%
• Five years from now, toxic dumping in Murray County will be eliminated

Intermediate goals get you much of the way:

• They focus on community and system changes - new or modified programs, policies, and practices in the local community or the broader system
• They provide concrete building blocks towards the ultimate goal
• They help the group to feel it is doing something. This can be helpful to maintain high levels of motivation over the long haul.
• They provide earlier "bench-marks" by which you can measure progress.

• In one year, the City Council will create six new low-income housing units
• In six months, we will have changed the hours of the clinic to increase access
• In nine months, two major businesses will have introduced flextime policies that permit adults to be with children after school

Short-term goals have some of the same functions as the intermediate kind. They help keep a group motivated, providing more immediate benchmarks in the form of action steps.

• By June, we'll have signed up 10 new members
• In two months, we'll hold the first public hearing
• By the November election, we will get 1,500 people out to vote

Writing Out Your Goals

In terms of planning, it pays to examine each goal before you write it down, to make sure it meets certain criteria. Specifically, each goal should be SMART + C: Specific; Measurable; Achievable; Relevant; Timed; and Challenging.

Here's how SMART + C goal-planning works:

• (S)pecific. The more specific you can be about what it is you want your group to achieve and by when, the better.

 Instead of, "We'll hold a meeting," your goal should be: "We'll hold a meeting for parents of teenage children in Memorial Hall to invite input on the initiative."

• (M)easurable. Put your goals in measurable terms. The more precise you are about what you want to get done, the easier it will be to see what and how much your group has accomplished. This may prove to be essential if you are carrying out a systematic evaluation of your campaign (see related section of this chapter).

Not: "Smoking in our community will be reduced," but instead: "The percentage of smokers in our community will decline by 30% by the year 2000."

• (A)chievable. It's great for you to be ambitious, but you should also remember to set realistic goals that your group can actually achieve. Real change takes time and resources. If you bite off more than you can chew, your group and the community may become prematurely disappointed or discouraged.
• (R)elevant (to your mission). You should be setting goals that will start your group on the path to successfully accomplishing its mission. If you stray too much from that path, you may lose sight of what it is you're trying to accomplish.
• (T)imed. A date for completion should be set. Even if circumstances change and your date must be altered later, it's much better to start off knowing when you can expect to achieve your goals, so you will know when it may become necessary to make adjustments.
• (C)hallenging. Goals should also stretch up. If we know we can get 500 people out to vote, but need 2,000--and can get that with extra effort--we should set the more challenging goal.

Planning your goals

The simplest way may be to use a loose-leaf binder or computer file, with one page for each of your major goals. On each page, provide space for "short," "intermediate " and "long-term" objectives, with two or three objectives under each sub-heading.

Do you have the resources to reach those goals? That's what you'll pin down in the next part of the planning process.

Your resources and assets

Once you have your goals written down, it's easier to make an inventory of the resources you'll need, in terms of organization, money, facilities, and allies--and the assets you have already.

Resources for advocacy may be very different from those needed to run service programs in the community. You won't be needing massive financial support over a long period of time, as would be the case if you wanted to open a day-care center, for example.That's the good news. The bad news is that the sort of charitable foundation that might fund a day-care center most generously may not want to put any money at all into advocacy.

So? So you may not have much cash. But (good news again) you might be rich in other resources--especially people. Your list of available resources will vary, according to the size of your group and its needs, but might include any of the following:

• Funds (including in-kind contributions) balanced against expenses
• People who are already available (both staff and volunteers), and their skills
• People you expect to be available
• Contacts (e.g., with media resources)
• Facilities (e.g., access to transportation and computers, meeting rooms)
• Access to information archives or libraries

Since advocacy is stressful, make sure your assets are solidly in place. Do you have internal problems that need to be solved in your group, such as relationships between staff and volunteers? Disagreements about use of funds? These need to be sorted out now if possible, during the planning stage.

Planning your resources and assets

The simplest way to plan is to write out a list of resources and assets in a binder (or computer file) so you can add new ones as you go along. Keep one section for each of the headings above: Funds, People presently available, People expected to be available, Useful community contacts, Facilities, and Access to other resources.

Did you come up short on the most vital resource of all--the people who are willing to help? Then the next section might help you build it up, as you survey the degree of community support you have now, and how much you might expect in the future. When you look into your community support, for the next part of your plan, you may find a few surprises.

Your community support (and opposition)

For this part of the plan, you will write down lists of expected allies and opponents. Part of this may be simple. For example, if you are planning to restrict the logging (and erosion-causing) practices of a big local lumber company, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that the owners and employees of that company are unlikely to be on your side, but local environmental groups will likely give you their support.

But sometimes it's not so simple, which is why it will pay to do some careful planning, including personal contact and listening. It may be that people you expect to be opponents may also be allies under certain circumstances; and those thought to be allies may oppose your efforts.

 You want to get a big strawberry grower in your community to cut down on the pesticide used on his fields. It's getting into the river; and the farm workers and some of the people who live nearby claim it makes them sick. But the mayor of your community normally sides with business interests, no matter what. In the past, he has made statements hostile to many environmental causes. Furthermore, he's an old golfing buddy of the strawberry grower. You naturally pencil him in as a possible opponent. But wait. This mayor owns land just downstream from the strawberry grower, and plans to put in a big development of expensive houses ("Strawberry Fields"). The last thing he wants is a cloud of pesticide upstream, and upwind. He may not want to tackle his buddy in public, but you find to your surprise that behind the scenes, he'll be your ally.

Planning for community support (and opposition)

This can be as simple as making three lists on binder paper: one for allies, one for opponents, and one for unsure (possible allies or opponents). These lists will be useful as you approach the next part of the planning process: deciding specifically whose behavior you want to change, and who can help you do the changing.

Targets and agents of change

For this part of the plan, it's important to know very precisely what caused the problem your advocacy group is addressing.

Who are targets and agents of change? Let's suppose you want to take on the many business people in town who are supplying cigarettes to kids.You know they are out there: you've already done an informal survey of kids smoking outside the junior high, and they tell you that buying tobacco is quite easy, in spite of the law.

• Your main targets of change will be the tobacco retailers. They are the ones who will need to alter their behavior if you are to achieve your goals.
• The agents of change are those who will cause the targets to actually make the change, by one means or another.

In many cases, it's not that simple. For example, what about the police, who should be enforcing the law. Are they going to be targets of change, as you work on their enforcement of the law? Or are they to be agents--going in to make the bust?

Sometimes, there may be crossover from one status to another, such as:

• The police chief may be a target initially since there is little enforcement, but a delegation of kids against tobacco persuades him that he really needs to commit himself to their cause. He sanctions undercover buys by minors to get evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the merchants, and commits himself to enforcing the law vigorously.
• Even a tobacco retailer may turn out to be an agent, if she sees the light, and offers to influence the practices of other members of the local tobacco retailers association.

Although targets (or agents) are often institutions or groups, it may be easier to focus on one individual. For example, you might plan to change the thinking of one elected official or agency head at a time rather than going for a massive shift of opinion. Or it might seem feasible to tackle one senior executive in a company that's not hiring local people who need decent jobs.

Planning your targets and agents of change

You can simply write one list of targets, one of agents, and one of possible hybrids: people who could switch from one category to another.

At this point in the planning, you will have a fairly clear idea about what you want to achieve, what are the main obstacles, and what are the resources--in terms of money, facilities and people--that can help you reach the goals. The next steps involve drawing a clear road-map showing how you will get there from here.

Planning your strategy

In a sense, advocacy itself is a strategy--it's the way you have decided to reach your particular goal, because you can't get what you want without taking on some institutions and people who have power, and getting that power structure to change.

Now you need the specific strategies that will help you reach your goals. As an advocate, you will also have to make sure that your strategies:

• Make the best use of (and don't antagonize) your allies
• Produce the kind of change you want in your opponents

Many people tend to assume that because you are involved in advocacy, your strategy will involve confrontation. Yes, it may - but often, that's not the best approach.

For example, in a program aiming to curb youth smoking, you might decide on a mix of strategies, some of them quite adversarial, and some not.

Less confrontation / conflict:

• Increase public awareness through a media campaign
• Educate the merchants
• Gather data about violations of the law to encourage increased levels of enforcement
• Work through the schools
• Network with like-minded organizations
• Work for policy change in local government

More confrontation:

• Apply economic pressure on merchants through boycotts
• Arrange for kids to picket

Most confrontation:

• Blockade the entrances to specific stores
• Be prepared to be arrested for your act of civil disobedience

Choosing a strategic style

As you can see, many different actions fit under the definition of "strategy," and they may incorporate many different styles--from friendly persuasion to "in your face."

Your choice of style will depend to a great extent on your knowledge of the community, and of what will work (as well as your knowledge of your members and allies, and what they can do best and most comfortably). The people and institutions of a community are connected in complicated ways, and people may see their own interests threatened if certain institutions seem to be under attack. Yes, you can change people's attitudes - but this may take time. A raucous demonstration at the wrong time might solidify old prejudices, making it harder in the long run for people to change.

On the other hand, sometimes a public demonstration is essential to bring an issue to the attention of the public (and the media). In some circumstances, it can help fire up the enthusiasm of your members, and bring in new ones. The point is that you need to think hard about what effect it will have, based on your knowledge of the community, your targets and agents, and the root causes of the issue.

Staying flexible

Although it's a good idea to do as much forward planning as possible, an advocacy campaign is likely to be dynamic, adjusting with changing circumstances. Obviously, not everything can be locked in.

For example, you might be all set to barricade a logging trail in an environmental cause, when you hear that a state senator is about to propose legislation that would go some way towards accomplishing what you want; your barricade might cause some senators to vote against him. Or you might hear rumors to the effect that your people would be met with massive force. Or you might be told that alternative old logging trails are to be opened up. Or that you had somehow overlooked another area of the watershed where logging could produce even more environmental damage.

Here are some things that you should keep in mind, as your advocacy campaign progresses, involving surprise developments from good news; rumors; unmet needs; or bad news.

Good news	If something that your group applauds has happened in your community (for example, if some group has made a good policy change), you will want to reinforce it.
Rumors	You will need to stay ahead of developments by keeping your collective ear to the ground. If you hear that something contradictory to your aims is about to happen (for example, if you hear that a new housing development is not, after all, going to provide the low-income housing that was promised), you need to investigate.
Unmet Needs	If your studies of community needs turned up major gaps, (for example, if the immunization rate for infants is exceptionally low), then you would want to create plans to make sure those needs are met (for example, apply pressure for resources for mobile vans to promote access).
Bad news	You may need to be flexible, with the ability to deliver a quick response if something bad happens, such as the threatened demolition of low-income housing.

Planning strategies

It may be useful to brainstorm strategies in the group, and write down those that you feel will help you attain your goals. In some cases, simply writing the chosen strategies in a form that you can store easily (for example, in a loose-leaf binder or computer file) is all you need. Others may prefer something more complex.

Here's one possible format, which has a built-in double-check to make sure each strategy is on target.

Goal: Funding for school-linked clinics
Strategy			Does it:			Yes
Launch a lobbying effort to win over elected officials to fund school-linked clinics.			Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?			x x x x

Strategies are the broad strokes: they don't spell out specifically how something will get done. That's the job of the tactics (or action steps) that you choose? the next part of the planning process.

Tactics

Tactics are the action steps. The icing on the cake. The finishing touch. The part that shows. Tactics can cover a wide range of activity, from writing letters to speaking up at City Council meetings, from filing complaints to setting up negotiations, from boycotts and demonstrations to carrying out surveys.

As you plan tactics, you will need to make sure that they:

• Carry out your strategy, and are appropriate for your goals
• Fit your style (one tactic out of control can wreck a whole campaign)
• Are doable and cost effective, within your resources, funds, allies and good will
• Make your group feel good about themselves, and what they are doing

You will find plenty of discussion of specific tactics in other parts of the Community Tool Box. Some of these relate to the development of programs, but some fit well under the rubric of advocacy - that is, they involve identifying specific targets of change, and encouraging that change for the good of the community.

Helpful questions

As you plan tactics, it may be useful to ask yourselves these questions about each of them:

• What will be the scope of this action?
• Who will carry it out?
• When will the action take place, and for how long?
• Do we have the resources to make it happen?
• What resources are available?
• Which allies and constituents should be involved?
• Which individuals and organizations might oppose or resist?

Planning tactics

There are many different ways of writing out your tactical plans. For example, you may find it useful to attach your plan to each major objective. Here's an example of one way you can do that:

Table: Turning goals into action steps

Goal	Action Steps
By August 2013, provide the community with data on youth's views about sexuality, including availability of contraception, methods of contraceptive use, and sexual activity.	By May 2013, the school subcommittee will secure support from school administrators and teachers to survey high school students on issues related to sexuality.
	By May 2013, the school subcommittee will secure informed consent from parents and students to distribute the survey.
	By June 2013, the school subcommittee will prepare a survey to distribute to high school youth.
	By June 2013, teachers will distribute the survey to all high school youth.
	By July 2013, the staff will summarize the results and prepare a report.
	By July 2013, the chair of the school subcommittee will communicate the results of the survey to the school administrators, teachers, parents, students, and the general community.

Here's another approach, which will also bring your resources and opponents into the planning process.

Goal	Action	By whom	By when	Resources and support needed	Possible opponents
Reduction of teen smoking by 40%	Tobacco-buying sting	Pete, jane, with kids	May 15, 2013	Kids for undercover buys Permission from police chief	Tobacco retailers Chamber of Commerce?

Putting the plan together

The entire plan, covering all six of the above steps, should be formally written down. The process of writing will help clarify your thinking. The written version will be available to bring us back in line when "scope creep" occurs: we wobble away from our basic plan.

As we have suggested, some groups might be happy working with a loose-leaf binder, with separate sections for each of the main planning steps. However, others may prefer to get all the planning for one major action onto one "Campaign Planning Chart."

In this example, budget cuts have been proposed that will affect the funding for a clinic that offers the only health care available to the poor in the neighborhood. Your group is advocating an increase in funding for the clinic, and opening a new clinic to serve an area now without health-care facilities.

Goals	Resources & Assets	Support / Opposition	Targets / Agents	Strategies	Action Steps
Better health care for the poor in Jefferson County.	Personnel: 1 organizer, 50% time Secretary, 25% time 6 volunteers Need 5 - 8 more volunteers   Budget: $2000 Need additional $1000	Allies: Poor People's Alliance Medical Watch of Jefferson County   Opponents: County Health Care Agency	Possible targets of change:   Key members of the health care committee - Smith and Kosdek   Possible agents of change: Dr. Rogers The Medical Association	Educate community about need	Hold meetings Identify and contact sympathetic media representatives

 

What's the best way to plan?

___Planning is done as a group

___Plans are recorded in a way that is easy to get at and use later

What should we plan?

___Planning is done under six headings: goals; resources and assets; supporters /opponents; targets and agents of change; strategy; and tactics

How do we plan for goals or objectives?

___Planning is done for long-term, intermediate, and short-term

___Objectives are SMART + C: Specific; Measurable; Achievable; Relevant; Timed; and Challenging

How should resources and assets be included in the plan?

___The following resources are included: funds; people currently available, and likely to be available in the future; important contacts; and facilities

How should degrees of community support be included in the plan?

___Make an inventory of allies and opponents

___Check to see if people who are normally opposed to you may support you and if those who normally support you may oppose this goal

Which specific people or agencies should be included as targets or agents of change?

___Refer to your work in digging up the root causes of the problem

___Identify the person (or agency) who absolutely needs to make a change if your goals are to be achieved

___Think about people who can be agents of change - include those who at first sight might look like targets for change, but may be able to be "turned," so they become agents for the group's goals

How should you plan your strategy?

___Decide on your strategy

___Prepare to be flexible, reacting to changing needs and conditions

___Make sure that each strategy you consider will help reach your goals; will suit your style; will use your allies appropriately; and will work

How should you plan your tactics?

___Pick those that best carry out your strategy

___As you plan each tactic, decide who will do it, when, with what resources, using which allies, and ponder what opposition and resistance it might meet

How should you put it all together?

___You have a loose-leaf binder or computer file in which to store the separate sections

___Or make big charts showing the plans for each action across different sections

___Or both

Tool 1: Strategy Checklist

Strategy	Does it:	Yes or No
1.	Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?
2.	Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?
3.	Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?
4.	Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?
5.	Help us reach our goals? Use our allies? Minimize our opposition? Suit our style?

 Tool 2: Turning goals into action steps

Goal	Action Steps
	By __________
	By __________
	By __________

Tool 3: Planning Tactics

Goal:

Strategy:

Action	By whom	By when	Resources and support needed	Possible opponents

Tool 4: Campaign Planning Chart

Goals	Resources and Assets	Support / Opposition	Targets / Agents of Change	Strategies	Action Steps