|
Rights. Respect. Responsibility.®—The Fix the GAP Campaign Toolkit [PDF]
Identifying and Building Support
Once you are working with an organization, you should begin identifying additional support. This support is crucial to achieving your goals as people bring many resources with them, including voting power.
Identifying Allies, Constituents, and Opponents
Your allies and constituents are the people and organizations that you can move to support you in some way—ranging from signing a petition to helping plan and put on a major event. When identifying allies and constituents, ask yourself, “Who cares about this issue?” Then, make a list of everyone who cares and why. Identify them as allies and constituents.
List these allies and constituents as they are already organized or grouped. It will usually be easiest to reach people who belong to a particular organization, live in certain areas or dorms, or are on the same listserv, etc. List them by these categories. By doing so, you begin to build a list of allies and the mechanism by which to reach them most easily.
Note: don’t try to simplify your work here by writing that “everyone” cares, because you can’t reach “everyone”. The idea is to identify groups that you can easily reach and who will help you easily reach their members.
Constituents
Constituents are those who are directly affected by the issue and can actually be a part of your organization or coalition. For example, if your organization is a campus student group, then your constituents are the youth on campus who are directly affected by policies on sex education. If you are working in coalition with many groups, your constituents may include most or all of the organizations in the coalition as well as anyone who might join those organizations.
Allies
Allies are the people who support your issue but, for some reason, cannot be a part of your coalition. Allies might include other people and organizations, on and off campus, who are willing to help you in some way, such as passing out a petition or making a phone call. Potential allies might include (but are not limited to) community health organizations, local Planned Parenthood affiliates, local HIV and AIDS service organizations, gay and lesbian organizations, and local youth groups Don’t forget those people who may not be directly affected by your issue but who might support your work, nonetheless.
Opponents
Opponents are the individuals and groups that will ACTIVELY oppose your work and will probably organize against it. When separating out the groups on campus into constituents and allies, be sure also to identify the groups you want to neutralize (keep inactive) or keep away from your activities. You may find that some groups on campus oppose the Campaign. Don’t worry; this can work in your favor. It means your issue is pertinent and vibrant. Such issues often generate media coverage and capture the public’s attention.
Two final points on identifying opponents: 1) Don’t waste time writing down anyone and everyone that may, on some level, oppose your work. Just be clear about those who will act to oppose your campaign. 2) Remember not to get caught up fighting with the opponents. Don’t get sidetracked by the opposition. Direct your time and energy at your target—the one who can give you what you want.
Tips for Successful Outreach to Allies and Constituents
- Involve and Empower Students. The more people involved, the more power the Campaign will generate. Don’t wait for people to come to you; take active steps to draw them into the Campaign.
- Appeal to People’s Self-Interest. Everyone has different interests and motivations. People won’t get involved just because you want them to or because they feel they should. Typically, people get involved when they are affected by the problem, when working on it gives them a sense of fulfillment, and/or when they want to work with others who have similar beliefs and interests.
- Develop Your Message. What do the students on campus worry about? What messages resonate? Connect the problems that students see and experience to your campaign. Frame your message in terms that allies and constituents will understand.
- Set Specific Objectives. Set specific objectives for each outreach activity you undertake. For example: to increase student awareness of the Fix the GAP Campaign, chalk the sidewalk or send a mass e-mail. To increase understanding about the problems with PEPFAR and abstinence-until marriage policies, hold a community forum. Outreach alone will not ensure that more folks get genuinely involved. You need to reach lots of people and educate them and then motivate them to get involved.
- Recruit for Events, Not Meetings. When recruiting, always have specific actions that people can take immediately—for example attending a rally, writing a letter, or making a phone call. Recruit to events or to specific work, like tabling; never recruit people to attend a meeting. Develop entry-level efforts that new people can participate in where they can meet other people and undertake meaningful activities that do not take a lot of experience or knowledge.
- Be strategic in Outreach Activities. Tabling at evening events or at dinner in the dining halls can be very effective. Plan class raps for when you have a chance to connect with interested students. Knocking on doors is one of the most under-utilized outreach tactics and one of the most effective. Develop a “rap” and knock on doors in the dorms during times when students are most likely at home.
Writing a Rap
In writing a rap, include five parts.
- Introduction—In the introduction, say your name, your organization, and what you are fighting for and ask if you can come in and talk for a few minutes.
- The Problem—This is the part in the rap where you ask questions in order to start a conversation about the issue. For example: “Did you know that comprehensive HIV prevention education is under attack?”
- Agitate—This is the most important part of the rap, because people get involved if they get angry about an issue. Agitate by asking questions and sharing information. For example, share that the United States' international policy is abstinence-until-marriage. Ask how they feel about censorship.
- Solution—During this part of the rap, you take the energy away from the problem and direct it toward a solution by painting a vision of how this problem can be solved. For example: “We need to change the policy by providing an alternative. Accurate, honest HIV prevention education is a basic human right.”
- The Ask—After someone has bought into your vision, you ask him/her to: sign a postcard or petition; write a letter; make a phone call; or sign up to help out at your next event.
Example Rap
Hi, my name is ___________ and I’m with ____________. How are you doing today? Do you have a minute that I can come in and talk with you about a campaign we are working on to stop the U.S. government from denying young people in countries ravaged by AIDS their right to comprehensive HIV prevention?
Did you know that comprehensive HIV prevention education—education that includes information about both abstinence and also contraception—is under attack? Currently as part of the U.S. global AIDS initiative, the federal government is spending millions of dollars on programs that only teach abstinence and don’t mention condoms as an important method to prevent HIV infection. Yet, young people in many of these countries are getting infected with HIV at incredible rates.
I’m working with a group of other concerned students to reach out to members of Congress, urging them to stop exporting anti-condom programs and to support U.S. global funding for comprehensive HIV prevention. We also want to educate the American public on the reality of the United States’ global AIDS policy and about young people’s need for comprehensive HIV prevention.
Would you be willing to sign this petition urging the national government to listen to young people and to include them in leadership positions in the battle against HIV and AIDS?
Would you be interested in joining our campaign to ensure that young people everywhere have the right to comprehensive HIV prevention?
Building a Coalition
The issue of comprehensive sex education actually affects most people, either directly or indirectly. The Fix the GAP Campaign is a great way to mobilize people who are or may be interested in comprehensive sex education. Partnering with supportive organizations will generate and demonstrate wide support. Here are some tips for getting other groups involved in the Campaign.
Principles for Coalition Building
- Identify Like-Minded Groups or Organizations. Make a list of potentially supportive groups or organizations. These could include: peer health educators; teachers’ unions; gay/straight alliances; students of color alliances; sororities; fraternities; HIV and AIDS service organizations; and political groups.
- Be Strategic. Think strategically about how to build a coalition. Don’t assume the coalition will come together naturally. Important issues include whom to ask, how you ask, and whom to ask first, second and third. Some groups won’t join unless they are asked first. Some organizations don’t work together, and you won’t be able to enroll both. Take into account your own goals and organizational considerations and the need for a diverse, representative coalition.
Be wary of any partnership that will undermine the issue. For example, an organization that opposes teaching young people about contraception might be very strong in your community; working with it would increase the coalition’s visibility. However, its inclusion would be a strike out for the very reason you are building a coalition in the first place.
Final note: Avoid building a coalition based on agreements to exchange help. Organizations cannot readily commit their members to work on some other group’s program, and no group will feel that it got its share of the benefits out of the coalition.
- Choose a Unifying Strategy. To get other organizations invested, develop the strategy collectively. Work together for a strategy that makes sense for everyone and to identify tactics that all members of the coalition will support.
- Understand and Respect Each Member Group’s Self-Interest. Groups may join because of the opportunity: 1) to work toward a common goal; and/or 2) to reinforce the organization’s own objectives, membership, and/or interests. Learn about the organization(s) you approach. How would participation in this coalition strengthen the individual organization? Your organization often grapples with questions about whether it makes sense to join a coalition. Other organizations have the same questions. Be sensitive to the organization’s needs and priorities. Ask if the issue affects the organization’s members and if they want to be involved.
- Play to the Center with Tactics. Develop tactics that are acceptable and appealing to most coalition members. Some groups might prefer a low profile, while others might want a higher and/or more aggressive profile. Try to find the middle ground—a place that the majority of groups will approve.
- Recognize That Contributions Vary. Each organization will have something different to offer, and all contributions can be important, whether in membership, meeting space, funds, technical or in-kind support, or reputation. Be creative and open to the different ways that people and organizations can contribute.
Make sure that members of the coalition sign explicit agreements regarding what they will provide. Make sure members understand their rights and responsibilities within the coalition. Coalitions can accomplish goals that one organization, working alone, could hardly accomplish. But that means everyone working together, as they have agreed to do.
- Distribute Credit Fairly. The coalition’s name should be most prominent in press releases and other information that is distributed. But organizations and individuals also deserve credit for their work.
- Structure Decision Processes Carefully. This can be tricky. “One group, one vote” is usually the best way to go, but problems can still arise. For example, lot of small groups might consistently vote down the concerns or decisions of important, larger organizations that contribute a lot to the campaign. Or, a large organization might want most of the credit all of the time. Or, if your coalition is made up both of individuals and organizations, the individuals may vote to frustrate the organizations. If any of these problems arise, think of ways to overcome the problem. For example, important decisions could be made by a board of directors, composed of representatives of the most important member organizations in the coalition; or, an organization could have votes based on the number of members it has or the amount it contributes to the coalition.
 Send this page to a friend >>
|
