CPJ's Advocacy Toolkit / Table of Contents
CPJ’s Advocacy Toolkit
Getting Started
Developing an Advocacy Strategy
Advocacy How To’s
- Forming Relationships with Policy-Makers
- Calling Your MP
- Meeting With Your MP
- Writing a Letter to Your MP
- Writing a Letter to a Cabinet Minister
- Meeting with civil servants
- Writing a One-Page Brief
- Preparing and Submitting a Petition
- Organizing a Public Meeting
- Organizing a Demonstration
- Working with the Media
- Writing a Press Release
- Using Social Media
- Engaging Younger Generations
Additional Resources
After researching your concern, you will be able to define clear objectives for your advocacy work. Your research will help you choose both your direction and targets.
- Direction: Your direction is the concern you decide to focus on. There are many different issues, so your research will help you narrow down your interests.
- Targets: After you have a clear direction, the next step involves making short-term and long-term goals (or targets). Formulating these targets is an important early step. This will bring meaning and consistency for you and your group.
Keep in Mind: Advocacy Targets.
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Getting Started
Begin by writing down the problem, the current responses from the government, and the solutions you propose. Think carefully about what you would like to see happen and feasible ways to make it happen. For feasibility, think about ways to “break down” the problem (and solutions).
Example: If the problem you want to address is poverty, consider different aspects of poverty that you are concerned with (such as unemployment, homelessness, hunger, low educational attainment, etc.). Next, begin researching and thinking critically about these different aspects of poverty and come up with some possible solutions.
If you are concerned with unemployment, you could begin to research and think about:
- How to define and measure unemployment.
- To what extent is unemployment a problem in Canada?
- How is the government responding to the problem of unemployment?
- What should both the government and citizens be doing differently to respond to the
unemployment problem?
Once you have clear direction and targets, you are ready to choose your advocacy tactics.