AEE 595 - Lesson 3

Lesson 3
Advocacy - What is It?
Who Does It? How is it Done?

Introduction:

So, just what do we mean by “advocacy?” When many people think of advocacy, they automatically think of “lobbying.” But, advocacy is much more than lobbying decision makers. The National Council for Agricultural Education’s 10x15 Advocacy Task Force has defined advocacy for school-based agricultural education as follows:

Advocacy for agricultural education builds support for the agricultural education program on local, state and national levels. Building support for agricultural education involves organized, sustained efforts to build relationships, secure positive public opinion, influence legislative and policy outcomes, and garner support for program priorities. To be effective, advocacy must be coordinated through a clear strategy with well-defined objectives, organized grassroots mobilization, persuasive messaging and sufficient human, financial and technical resources.

Generally speaking, advocacy is all about “building relationships” with a desired outcome in mind. As such, every agricultural education professional … every extension professional … every individual who works in a given profession, must be an advocate for that respective profession. Advocacy is not accomplished only by lobbyists; advocacy is accomplished by many, many people building relationships with decision makers so that those decision makers will exert their influence to support the respective profession.

An effective advocacy program might include retaining a professional lobbyist … but it certainly cannot stop there … and it might not include a professional lobbyist at all. Effective advocacy includes many planned activities and initiatives that are designed to teach and inform decision makers and to engender their support so that when you need their support, you’ll have it. Relationships with decision makers must be established before there is a crisis in which you need the help of decision makers.

Learning Objectives:
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Define “advocacy” in the context of the program for which you have direct responsibility to include local, state, and national levels.
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Determine who should be included in an advocacy program to ensure public support for your program.
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Describe components of advocacy programs that can be effective in teaching and informing decision makers and building quality relationships.

Instructional
Activities:
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bullet Conduct an Internet search on “advocacy” and review at least 10 sites that include an advocacy section. Look for differences and similarities in how these sites define or address advocacy. Use the similarities you discover to help frame your viewpoints on advocacy.

bullet Contact by telephone or e-mail a state or federal legislator, or a key staff person of a state or federal legislator, and interview him/her regarding who they are most likely to listen to and respond to on critical issues. How do they rate communications from professional lobbyists compared to constituents (voters) from their home districts? (Feel free to use the NAAE Legislative Action Center (http://capwiz.com/naae/home/) to identify your state and federal legislators, and/or their staff persons.)

bullet Review previous issues of the “Washington Beat” column of NAAE News & Views (http://www.naae.org/about/newsandviews/) and review suggested activities and initiatives to assist with building meaningful relationships with decision makers.

bullet Review some web-based advocacy tool kits to explore possible activities and initiatives to assist with building meaningful relationships with decision makers. (Some examples of web-based advocacy tool kits can be found at http://www.naae.org/advocacy/advocacytools/, http://www.acteonline.org/issues.aspx ... but don’t limit yourself to these sites.)

bullet While advocacy is much more than lobbying, one should understand the world of lobbying. Therefore please read Chapter 1 “The True Nature of Lobbying” in the class text.

Lagniappe:
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Would you believe there are a whole series of cartoons about advocacy? http://www.grantland.net/lobby.htm

Assignments: Icon of note pad

Your assignment for this week is to explore “advocacy” and to consider, in the context of your current teaching, extension, or administrative assignment, on the local, state, and national levels, the following :

1. What is advocacy?

2. Who could/should be an advocate?

3. How should advocacy be accomplished?

(If you are a now a full-time student, complete this assignment as if you were working in either a teaching or extension assignment.)

Your writing assignment will probably be no more than five (5) double-space typed pages. Please cite the sources of your information (you probably will have several citations from the sites you visited as part of the learning activities section of this lesson). Please send this assignment as an e-mail attachment to Jay Jackman at JJackman.NAAE@uky.edu. This assignment is due no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 12.

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