Early childhood product

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Guided Notes

Choosing Strategies and Staying the Course

Strategies and tactics refer to actions that you take to accomplish your advocacy goals. There are many different types of strategies and tactics that you can use.

Educational strategies are used when you want to inform the general public and help them gain awareness or a better understanding of an issue. All advocacy agendas generally require educational strategies. Fact sheets and briefs are designed to inform the reader about an issue in a quick, easy-to-read document that organizes general facts. These need to be readable and clear and provide links for more information. Websites are another common educational strategy designed to provide additional information. Reports provide a general overview of a particular issue that often include the history of the problem, statistical analysis, and a review of related information. Position papers outline an organizations philosophy on a particular issue. Position papers provide essential information that can be used to develop backseats to educate policymakers. Letters to the editor and editorials are another educational strategy—these are short and to the point and designed to educate others. Multimedia presentations are also designed to educate in an engaging, informative format that presents and highlights information.

Persuasive strategies are used when your objective is to promote or display the development of specific rules or policies. Often, we need to educate individuals as well as persuade policymakers about accompanying policies around our targeted issue. Persuading policymakers requires knowledge of five different kinds of positions that they might take: champions, who are already dedicated to the cause and will lend their effort in support; allies, who were generally on your side but can be influenced to do more; fence sitters, who are uncommitted on your issue; mellow opponents, who work against your issue when it comes up; and hard-core opponents, who are leading are aligned with your major opposition. Lobbying can be accomplished via visits, letters, e-mails, phone calls, or testimony. Your expertise within your role is particularly important. Drawing on personal testimony, as well as facts, becomes important within your presentation. One effective strategy is hosting policymakers, where you invite policymakers to be a part of program visits where they can see firsthand the importance of your early childhood program practices.

Mobilization strategies are designed to get your message out and keep your message alive in the minds of policymakers and the general public. Is essential that you evaluate whatever strategy you have put into place and follow up with additional strategies based on initial effectiveness.

Advocacy can be most effective when you work with others. Groups have more power, visibility, and greater capacity to get things done. Advocacy groups can be essential to accomplishing your advocacy agenda. Many advocacy efforts are grassroots, where ideas for change begin with the people who are most involved, not the policymakers.

Managing an advocacy effort requires many essential steps. Individuals need to begin with recruitment, researching the problem and solution, defining goals, developing strategies, choosing effective tactics, and creating informative and persuasive materials.

Often, groups of advocacy organizations will combine and form a coalition, representing an organization of organizations. Coalitions might form around specific issues or to accomplish a specific goal.

When advocating around an issue, it is important to keep several key concepts in mind. Having a media contact list and organize material that includes a press release and different mediums to connect with different kinds of media is essential. Implementing an advocacy agenda requires that you understand your issue, have a clear understanding of your stakeholders, clearly understand where your policymakers stand on the issue, that you know who you are targeting for your issue, that you understand who you could work with, and that you have a clear understanding of the different tactics you can utilize.

Adapted from: Kieff, J. E. (2009). Informed advocacy in early childhood care and education: Making a difference for young children and families. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.