advocacy

Like other parents, I fell into the travel-soccer trap. I spent a lot of time thinking about the ins and outs of soccer all those countless hours watching their games from the sidelines. One day, it struck me that there's a lot of overlap between their sport and the "sport" of advocacy. I realized that there are three lessons that soccer can teach us about advocacy.

In 2002, I started a new job as the Manager of Policy and Advocacy for the National Youth Employment Coalition. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which had revamped the nation's job training system, was nearing its five-year expiration. So it was an exciting time to be a workforce development advocate.

The tea leaves indicated that the process would be bipartisan and fairly short. Fast forward to 2014, 11 years and six Congresses since the law had expired – workforce system advocates finally celebrated the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act's long-overdue enactment.

When Congress is slow to advance legislation or when issues are technical, it creates challenges for professional advocates.

Have you been running an advocacy program for 3+ years and looking to breathe new life into your messaging strategy and enhance outreach using real data? This June 15 Advocacy Leaders Network workshop is for serious, seasoned practitioners and as far away from a basic program as we could develop. Not a discussion for the faint of heart!

In the critically-acclaimed Broadway musical, Hamilton, "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" is a powerful conclusion to a musical that encapsulates the power of storytelling through the lens of several fascinating characters. The qualities that make Hamilton's characters so compelling – empathy, determination, persuasion – are also traits that make an effective advocate both on and off the Hill, complete with a story to tell.

During "Fly-Ins: Catch Them in DC and Back at Home," political and grassroots advocacy experts gathered for an event hosted by the Congressional Management Foundation, produced by Beekeeper Group, and sponsored by VoterVoice. Weighing in on topics ranging from organizing efficiently to maintaining year-round momentum, panelists from the American Heart Association, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and other organizations offered guidance and best practices for successful fly-ins.

The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) has been a leading researcher in citizen engagement with Congress for decades and in January, after Donald Trump’s inauguration, something rather extraordinary started to happen in the U.S. We chronicled a rare increase in in citizen-advocacy. Just as the Tea Party movement of 2009 rocked the Congress, the Trump protest movement rose up and exercised its First Amendment rights to petition their government for a “redress of grievances.”

This summer, Rasmussen Reports conducted a public opinion survey that found that only 21% of voters feel that most members of Congress care what their constituents think. There's plenty of blame to go around as to the cause for voters' cynicism. Highly polarized politics, partisan rhetoric, the media, and shows like House of Cards serve to reinforce the misperception that power in Congress is limited to just a few Members in leadership positions and constituents don't matter.

The Advocacy Leaders Network workshop on November 17 considered another contributor – Bad writing!

I admit it. I launched my fair share of grassroots advocacy email campaigns in the two decades I spent working as a professional advocate for national nonprofit organizations. Once a campaign was launched, my government affairs team would track success measures that reflected our ability to mobilize our supporters to take action. Metrics included click-through rates, open rates, and the number of letters sent.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a good way to measure how well our citizen advocates' emails were influencing decisions made by their Members of Congress.

If you agree that citizen engagement is a cornerstone of our democratic foundation, I've got some good news and I've got some bad news.

The good news: Congress is experiencing citizen engagement at record levels.

The bad news: Congress is experiencing citizen engagement at record levels.

How can I possibly assert that record-high citizen engagement is a double-edged sword? My title is "Director of Citizen Engagement," for Pete's sake!