At the same time as this crisis, the region was faced with a 64 percent decline in its federal and state housing subsidies and the dissolution of redevelopment agencies in the state. It became increasingly apparent that Abode Communities needed to commit more of its resources to policy and advocacy efforts to increase awareness and bring much needed resources to the work of producing and preserving housing for low-income Angelinos.
The board adopted a Board Policy and Advocacy Plan to outline the organization's commitment to advocating for change and to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of residents and communities. The organization's advocacy efforts have resulted in the passage of two major state ballot initiatives to support the production of permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness and the preservation of key housing programs at the federal level.
Nonprofit organizations can engage in advocacy in a variety of ways. Any time there are public policy decisions that could positively or negatively affect your organization and the people and communities you serve.
Even if your organization does not have its own policy expert, you can activate your network by tapping into insights and strategy from coalitions or other organizations with similar missions or priorities. How this type of engagement in advocacy helped highlight and celebrate a successful program. The National Older Worker Career Center NOWCC had a successful model for engaging experienced workers in work within a federal agency, but was eager to scale the model through partnership with other agencies.
NOWCC launched an effort to highlight and celebrate the value of the experienced work program, which resulted in a legislative win to authorize a program beyond the first agency. Analyzing how specific policy issues impact or would impact the community you serve.
When a set of issues needs to be better understood or documented in a way that creates a compelling case for public policy change. Illinois had the weakest civic education requirements in the country, which was creating what the Citizen Advocacy Center CAC considered to be a civic health crisis.
Efforts were successful, and civic education in Illinois public schools has been transformed as a result. When there is a clear case for a public policy change, but decision makers are not necessarily well-informed about the issues or impact on the community. How advocacy reversed a decision that would have hurt youth living in shelters.
New state guidelines would have made the Anacortes Family Center AFC ineligible for state funding, based on broad application of a philosophy that requires organizations to keep their programs open to all.
But as an organization serving children who have experienced trauma, AFC felt strongly that it needed to bar participation from individuals with convictions for crimes against children, sex crimes, or violent felonies — a restriction that would have made it ineligible for continued funding. AFC worked to educate state officials on the impact of this policy change, which resulted in the state removing the restriction.
Bringing community leaders together to jointly identify community needs and challenges and build shared priorities for public policy change.
When broad buy-in is necessary or helpful in establishing priorities and a shared strategy. More voices equals more power. How advocacy enabled diverse stakeholders to solve problems together.
LA County was in need of a robust public transportation system, the issue that Move LA was formed to tackle. Move LA understood that its mission would require widespread support and engagement and worked to create a policy table big enough to fit the broad diversity of voices in LA County in the discussion. Child advocacy centers play an essential and state-mandated role in all child abuse allegations, investigations, treatment and prosecution.
Despite this role, the most significant challenge faced by Children's Advocacy Centers of Tennessee was that very few, if any, of the elected officials knew who the organization was or the key role that the each center served in their local communities. No one understood how child abuse cases were brought to prosecution nor how victims of abuse were cared for, protected and counseled after the abuse became known.
It was incumbent upon the board to educate the state's legislators about the child advocacy center model, its statewide impact, and the government mandate to coordinate the child protection investigative team in each judicial district across the state of Tennessee. Unfortunately, and I suppose inevitably, not everyone gets a fair share of these advocacy efforts.
As with so much else in our society, the bulk of this effort is directed exclusively to those who are the most beautiful, handsome, strong, rich, influential, powerful and so on. While those who are not rich, strong and beautiful have to make do with much less.
Amazingly, the rich, strong and beautiful contingent get their advocacy without asking for it or needing it. Wolf Wolfensberger, who is responsible for so much of the clear thinking which informs and guides the actions of advocacy organizations, puts it so well when he points out that….
The presence of organised and funded efforts to provide advocacy to people with disability is not therefore a measure taken solely because people with disability have greater need for advocacy, or that they are more likely to need expert help, or that they are always getting into bad situations.
It is rather a response to the unwelcome reality that people with disability are often marginalised, devalued and disadvantaged, and therefore do not attract the attention of those who are focussed so much on advocating for the rich and famous. When a group of citizens are motivated to come together and build an organization which acts to protect and defend the rights of people with disability, they are taking action to redress a serious imbalance in the way that our community functions.
Over the years, something really important has been lost. Much of the routine, unremarkable willingness to speak out on behalf of people who are being unfairly treated has been set aside by a community who seemed to be focussed on other, more selfish pursuits. We need to be always aware that advocacy is something that people with disability miss out on, while other people get it in abundance. If you have any concerns about anything on this site please get in contact with us here. Report a concern.
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