Advocacy
Legislative Chair
Tibisay A. Guzman The Arc of Weschester |
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Developing a Legislative Advocacy Survival Kit
As members of APSE we have learned that it is critical that we present a strong voice to politicians about our needs. It is critical that they hear about the needs and wants of individuals with disabilities. The only way our mission can be effectively relayed is if we are prepared. Every year we are faced with challenges that prevent our vision from moving forward; however, we there is also a tremendous amount fo energy and attention being placed on improving employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Now is the time to embrace this energy, and work with our legislators and government partners to make this vision a reality.
NYS APSE suggests the following to help you in building your own survival kit for effective legislative advocacy:
1. Cultivate and Develop Support
At APSE we are familiar with our representatives. However, often we do not know their major contributors, or their friends, or business partners. These individuals have significant influence and might be willing to help relay APSE's message if they were asked.
It is easy to develop this list of individuals. At your agency many of these influential people are already friends of APSE by:
- Serving on your board
- Currently working or volunteering
- Being the relative/friend of someone that is a consumer
Start talking in your agencies about who knows who and make a list. If we all work on cultivating these relationships across the state we will increase our advocacy efforts.
2.Timing is Important
In order to have influence over what is in the Governor's budget, it is important to begin advocacy efforts prior to January. Since the Governor releases his budget at the end of January we need to make contact early in order to affect change at this level.
Advocacy efforts with the legislature should begin any time in January and continue.
3. Develop A Written Strategic Plan
It is important that we are clear, concise and knowledgeable about our concerns. An effective way to ensure this is to develop a strategic plan which should include:
- A Statement of Issues - The statement of issues should identify the problem that you want to address and the solution that you are requesting.
- Desired Outcomes - What is the outcome that you want to achieve by meeting with a representative? If you are clear about the outcome he/she will be too.
- Action Plan - How are you going to advocate? Are you going to do mailings, visits, phone calls? Who are the friends that you have identified? Who will contact these friends and ask them to reach out to the politician? All of these questions should be answered in the action plan. This will help guide you and your agency with the implementation of your advocacy efforts.
- Talking Points - Develop a short list of information and facts about your message. Share this with everyone that will be advocating. It is important that the message is consistent so that it gets heard loud and clear.
These are just a few tools that you can add to your survival kit. Add more tools as you discover them. Share tools with fellow APSE members. Together we will not only have the best defense, but also be able to successfully create change.
A special thank you to ACCES-VR for many of the tools for the survival kit.
For more information, contact Julia Kelly at jkelly@renarc.org or Tibi Guzman at tguzman@westchesterarc.org
