How do you make change? By building advocacy capacity and carrying out a plan. But how do you build advocacy capacity? NPAction suggests using the National Council of Nonprofit Association's (NCNA) toolkit for building public policy capacity as well as the lessons learned in New Voices at the Civic Table. This project, conducted by the Alliance for Children & Families in 2006, demonstrates that there are powerful possibilities often buried and rarely uncovered in our nation's most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. If you would like to influence key structures or policies, then this article provides just the information you will need to begin laying the groundwork for increased advocacy/participation in public policy.

About the New Voices Pilot Project:

The New Voices at the Civic Table project (New Voices) provided ten mini-grants to six human service organizations seeking to increase the civic engagement of their “consumers.” The results suggest that long term integration of civic engagement amongst the recipients of various human services can lead to:

• more effective services

• accountability in the public arena

• improved quality of life for recipients of services

Just as these organizations were able to expand their ability to engage in public policy, so too can your organization. You must first, however, figure out how to stimulate increased interest in public policy.

Laying the Foundation :

Where to begin? All New Voices participants began their quest to increase civic participation and advocacy by establishing clear objectives. These objectives included goals as varied as generating and improving self efficacy to creating a group of informed/well-spoken citizen leaders. Each participating group then established sub-steps and action items to achieve their stated objectives. Clearly, this first step of establishing goals and taking action oriented sub-steps jumpstarts the journey towards increased advocacy and public policy participation.

Acquiring the Resources to Increase Advocacy:

Achieving the established goals of your organization will more than likely require expending more time and resources. Although the participants in the New Voices project all received $10,000 grants from the Alliance to help defray costs associated with increasing public policy participation ( i.e. training expenses, etc), your organization can reduce such costs by collaborating with other agencies, re-allocating current resources, raising funds by demonstrating the effectiveness your programs or simply applying for grants. One organization, Family & Community Service of Delaware (FCSDC), used the Alliance grant to hire a consultant to teach their HIV constituents strategic advocacy skills, for seven months. Because FCSDC was able to demonstrate the effectiveness of investing extra money into hiring additional staff, county officials decided to foot the bill on hiring two co-facilitators. The two co-facilitators, who were actually clients before the consultant arrived, are currently paid a nominal fee of approximately $10 per hour. As evidenced by FCSDC’s experience, demonstrating the need for additional resources (as well as the possible benefits) can be a crucial first step towards attracting key funders, which will likely increase your organization’s engagement in public policy

Longevity Needed for Success:

Commitment is the fuel that will drive your organization’s pursuit of increased advocacy. It will also determine the frequency and sustainability of success. The New Voices project not only increased civic participation for the duration of the one year project but created the basis for ongoing efforts among all participating organizations. In fact, consumers (mental health patients) at the Family Services Center of Western Pennsylvania continued their increased participation in public policy by speaking out against plans to reduce bus routes in their area. If these consumers did not speak up, many would have experienced increased difficulty commuting to the Family Services center. However, because of their continuous and heightened advocacy efforts, local officials dropped plans to slash bus routes in the areas of concern. Today, the consumers' uninterrupted bus routes stand as a testament of their increased advocacy efforts. In addition to the lobbying days scheduled during the New Voices project, consumers at the Family Services Center have also added two more lobbying days. This month, a busload of participants will travel approximately 200 miles to the state capitol of Harrisburg to make their concerns known to elected officials.

Although the consumers in western Pennsylvania were able to experience results in a relatively short period of time, results are not always achieved so quickly. When the end goal seems far away, organizational commitment becomes even more important. The New Voices Hmong project at Family & Children’s Service in Minnesota is a prime example of how organizational commitment can be the glue that bonds ambitious goals and attainment together, in the long run. Although the Hmong refugee participants (Hmong refugees with less than six months in the U.S.) have yet to see the results of their advocacy efforts to acquire more affordable housing, increased funding for English-as-a second language programs, or improvements of their state welfare program—they have yet to give up on their ambitious goals. A New Voices Hmong staff member states, "The effort is going to be ongoing. If it doesn't get approved this year, we'll re-attack next year." Clearly, increasing public policy participation is an ongoing uphill battle that requires persistence.

Overcoming Challenges:

The road to increased public policy participation can be checkered with challenges, both big and small. However, flexibility plays a key role in determining your organization’s ability to overcome such impediments. Recalling the challenges of getting more parents involved in the fight for more affordable childcare, Edith Holzer of the Council of Family & Child Caring Agencies, in New York states, “You have to build the confidence of the people first.” Since the majority of the parents at the Council were Hispanic, advocacy training sessions were conducted in both English and Spanish and first time speakers were constantly encouraged to tell how the lack of affordable childcare has affected their lives. Edith also found that although many parents were able to tell their stories in English, their emotionalism (in particular anger) severely hampered their message. “Sometimes what they’re saying is just anger. They have to speak in a way in which they’ll be heard.” says Edith. The Council also used technology to provide on-the-spot translations during advocacy training sessions.

As the parents became more skilled in their ability to communicate their stories, confidence grew but another ubiquitous problem plagued the Council-- childcare. “How do they go to anything unless their children are taken care of?” says Edith. The Council resolved this issue by providing various activities for children at their meetings (and even relying on their interns for additional help from time to time). Notice that the Council did not take the easy way out—only teaching advocacy skills to English speaking parents with childcare. While considering ways to improve the advocacy capacity of your organization, you should also consider whether or not the easiest route is the best route. Although your organization may not face the same obstacles the Council faced, being flexible and thinking about the needs of your constituents --instead of taking the quickest route to success-- may pay off in the long run with more expansive results.

Closing Comments:

Increasing participation in public policy requires change. Time spent on civic engagement and public policy initiatives will have to increase as will expenditures for related resources. Organizational commitment towards engaging in public policy must change from casual consideration to deliberate implementation. Once these changes have occurred, your organization should be well on its way towards expanding its ability to effectively engage in public policy, with even more voices at the civic table.