Shared Five Tools You Can Use to Fight for your Cause
In December, 25 brave souls came out on a dark and stormy night to learn about how to fight for their cause. The seminar “Democracy Needs You! Five Essential Advocacy Tools that will Shape Your World” was facilitated by professor and long-time community activist Nancy Amidei at the UW School of Social Work. She covered the basic functions of our three branches of government, how a bill becomes a law, and gave effective advocacy tools.
So what are the five tools to make your voice heard amongst our elected officials? Here’s a quick recap if you weren’t able to make it*:
1) Sign up for good “alerts”- Identify an advocacy group that works on issues you care most about and get on their legislative alerts in order to stay in the loop.
2) Use the telephone or write to your elected officials about what you want them to do related to your issue.
3) Help others by making cards with websites, telephone numbers, and dates when legislature is in session for either local, state, or federal government. Give them out to everyone you encounter and have them pledge to make one toll-free call or email every week the legislature is in session.
4) Advertise your issue. Anytime you are around elected officials wear or carry something that identifies you with your issue or agency.
5) Talk. Mention key bills, issues, and budget items at every opportunity. Talk to anybody who will listen. Get your key issues on other voters radar screens.
Want to attend future free seminars like this? Contact Wendy Watson at the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods about getting on our seminar notification list. wendy.watson@seattle.gov.
The People’s Academy for Community Engagement (PACE) is a civic leadership development program of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods that builds the skills of emerging community leaders. Applications for this fall’s 2015-16 program will begin this spring.
(*adapted from Nancy Amidei’s materials from the Civic Engagement Project)
