Advocacy and Policy: Creating Legislative Change
The American Planning Association held it's sixth State Legislative Summit in Des Moines, Iowa this past week. The two-day event began with a morning bootcamp covering strategies and information to successfully lobby and champion good legislation at the state level. By waiting for legislation to pass and report the results, we lose a valuable opportunity to shape the laws that impact how we operate and provide services. Understanding the process, preparing, and then reaching out to legislators on bills that will impact the profession are key to shaping a better future for cities.
Often, the words policy and advocacy are used interchangeably, however they are not the same. Policy is the what, while advocacy is the how. We draft new policy or edits to existing policy, then advocate to ensure that policy is adopted. Effective advocacy is a year-round process across multiple issues. Regular and consistent connection with legislators, partners, and cohorts is needed to ensure that when the time comes to make policy decisions, the groundwork has already been laid.
Grassroots advocacy is not a new term, however the topic of grasstops was a newly introduced concept. A grasstop advocate is a pre-existing relationship that provides quick access to discuss an issue. They could be a professional connection or personal but are someone you are familiar enough with to call on when an issue arises that they could help advance. I’m definitely an advocate in a number of fields, but I wonder if I’ll ever end up as someone’s grasstop advocate.
With any outreach however, it’s important to be prepared and find common ground. Doing homework to understand the audience and what motivates them provides an opportunity to craft a personal story that will get their attention. What drives them, worries them, what committees they are on, and where they land on the political spectrum are all important pieces of information to have when walking into a meeting where you are asking for support on your issue.
Communication is key to gaining support for legislative priorities. Framing the issue, creating a narrative, messaging consistently, and developing a story are all key components. The story is an element often overlooked that has incredible power to gain support. Humans remember details far better when conveyed within a story. Data alone is often forgotten, which works against a strategy to get elected officials on board with your policy changes. Stories have the effect of humanizing a pitch and are easier to relate to and envision the potential positive outcome.
We had an Iowa representative talk to our group during lunch and one comment he made stuck out to me. He said he is more turned off on an issue when he gets hundreds of emails from constituents all in the same cookie cutter template that an organization put together for them to add their name and click send. On the one hand, it shows there are hundreds of people that have some sort of interest in the issue, but on the other hand it lacks the story and personal connection that would move a person to action. I’ve definitely been one to add my information and hit send without much though, but on issues that are really important I take these letters and add how the issue impacts my work personally with real world examples.
I have always been interested in the world of advocacy and policy, but never really jumped in head first. This gathering of experts with far more experience than me really opened my eyes to all the work necessary to track hundreds of bills, meet with legislators, testify at hearings, and draft messaging campaigns for followers to easily join the charge to make legislation better or stop bad legislation from seeing the light of day.
