My Communities

Everything is great. The course is amazing.

Все замечательно!

My personal pet project that I am trying to work through with this course is this... I work at a community college in Texas. I work in the Office of Student Life and Engagement and work directly with student clubs and orgs. Over the last few years there has been a HUGE shift in resources that have been allocated to student life and in particular clubs. There is however, one group on campus that has gained more support through funding than any single other group at all. This is an honor society and I am not saying that these students don't deserve the funds. But if them getting $350K a year means other groups don't get anything, I have a problem. My advocacy goal is to convince our upper administration that funding for the lower achieving students is still needed and in fact can help to boost their GPA. They have plenty of money. There is no reason that other groups shouldn't get some kind of funding.

Other things that I need to consider when I approach my administration are:

• what are my student's current grades (we will be compared so I need to be able to address the issue)
• what do my students need funding for?
• what time of the year am I asking? Is this an election year? What Trustees truly support my groups?
  And the big one - What statistical data can I bring to the administration to support my request?

On of the biggest challenges that I have to face is that many of the upper administration didn't have to go to a community college. They came from well-off families that sent them straight to a university. Since they didn't live the life of a community college student and they very rarely work with the students, what do I need to show them to make them understand?

Understanding...thank u

On organisation they should also study for advocacy as well

Other things to consider in changes especially under will when building advocacy theories are; opinion (people must take a position on an issue), intensity (people need to hold their opinion strongly), salience (though people hold their opinion strongly they will act on issues relevant to them), capacity (the know-how to take action when called upon), and willingness(whatever it takes to express an idea).

The module is more complex than 1 and 2. I have to read all over again get the points.

I agree with you on this, carefully selecting of audiences is so important.

The framework is quit deep, one would need to review it more often to get a better understanding of how to apply it.

I had a hard time conceive the out come

One really needs a proper attention to digest all of it.

I found module 3 a difficult to understand I also failed my quiz n you get only a single time to do it, so for me it's give in more time reading, I think listening to the podcast to will give better understanding.

t is important to maintain integrity in developing and implementing an advocacy strategy.

I found this module to be heavy difficult

I never realized the important role decision/policy makers have in the catalyst for change. This has been very informative and the Mapping an Advocacy Strategy figure is very helpful!

I think that when you are considering an advocacy strategy, you always need to look at what else is going on in the landscape. Timing, other factors, outside influences, willingness of partners etc... are all things that you need to consider. I also think, as the reading suggested, that interim outcomes can be good sources of knowing if you are on track or off track. Much advocacy work is lengthy and feels like you are spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere. This is why interim outcomes or "little wins" can be important to keep your focus or to keep you on track.

There are other things to consider in advocacy work apart from desired changes, context, audience and related strategies, as well as organizational capacity;

1. one has to consider the organizations role which sets limits within which advocacy activities can be carried out. As such it is important to look into the organization's constitution to find whether the advocacy activities falls within their scope.
2. An organization must have sufficient and detailed research and knowledge about the issue they are passionate about to persuade others or change their attitude or behavior through building credible and compelling case.
3. Apart from the political context, an organization should also consider the socio-cultural context within which they operate which affects their ability to build alliances with or make entry into communities in which they want to help.
4. It is essential that advocacy goals and objectives be conceptualized within the SMART framework which is critical for result measurement of the activities, intermediate, and long time outcomes.
5. In terms of communication, an organization should consider the diverse platforms and target audience for effectiveness. For instance, young people can sometimes be effectively reached through available platforms. The audience also determines how to package information.

Strategy is highly essential for a successful advocacy

Designing advocacy tactics should be done with the ultimate impact in mind, that is where the theory of change serves as a spine through out the process. One need to take into cogniznce the communication needs of the audience, the problem the advocacy seeks to solve, offer solutions through a call to action. this is because advocacy should pass from awareness, to will to the ppint of taking action.

Nice and interesting topic. If we follow this pattern on described here then all things being equal progress is certain

The reading is really helpful to provide better understanding of each targets having suitable strategies and tactics to target.

all parameters should be duely checked before a strategy can be identified.

This one seemed a bit all over the place and hard to understand. I felt so confident in my understanding after the first two, but this one left me a little lost, and I failed my quiz on this one. I think that's mainly because i like to have examples for the question, and know details to be able to give a more confident answer.

I found the Advocacy Strategy Framework to be incredible useful and surprisingly time-relevant.

English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, originally spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England.[3][4][5] It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated from Anglia, a peninsula on the Baltic Sea (not to be confused with East Anglia in England), to the area of Great Britain later named after them: England. The closest living relatives of English include Scots, followed by the Low Saxon and Frisian languages. While English is genealogically West Germanic, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of French (about 29% of modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), as well as by Old Norse (a North Germanic language).[6][7][8] Speakers of English are called Anglophones.

English
Pronunciation
/ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/[1]
Ethnicity
English people
Anglo-Saxons (historically)
Native speakers
360–400 million (2006)[2]
L2 speakers: 750 million;
as a foreign language: 600–700 million[2]
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
North Sea Germanic
Anglo-Frisian
Anglic
English
Early forms
Old English
Middle English
Early Modern English
Writing system
Latin (English alphabet)
Anglo Saxon runes (historically)
English Braille, Unified English Braille
Signed forms
Manually coded English
(multiple systems)
Official status
Official language in
59 countries
27 non-sovereign entities
Various organisations
United Nations
European Union
Commonwealth of Nations
Council of Europe

You have completed this assignment. Your final grade will be available when the assessments of your response are complete.

You have completed this assignment. Your final grade will be available when the assessments of your response are complete.

The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th centuries. Middle English began in the late 11th century after the Norman conquest of England, when considerable French (especially Old Norman) and Latin-derived vocabulary was incorporated into English over some three hundred years.[9][10] Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots into English, concurrent with the introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and plays of William Shakespeare.[11][12]

Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States of America. Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation and law.[3] Modern English grammar is the result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent-marking pattern, with a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order, to a mostly analytic pattern with little inflection, and a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order.[13] Modern English relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses, aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation.

English is the most spoken language in the world (if Chinese is divided into variants)[14] and the third-most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish.[15] It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states. There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers. As of 2005, it was estimated that there were over 2 billion speakers of English.[16] English is the majority native language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand (see Anglosphere) and the Republic of Ireland, and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.[17] It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch. There is much variability among the many accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions in terms of phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and spelling, but it does not typically prevent understanding by speakers of other dialects and accents, although mutual unintelligibility can occur at extreme ends of the dialect continuum.

I am not sure if the targeted persons will be as responsive as my analysis maybe be, and also thinking about which other entry points i can use. They may be some level of draw back because of different admin shuffles that happen in some of the different government offices that we want to influence change with.

THE PODCAST IS TOO COMPLEX

Try it later ,weather conditions.are been favourable to you

I hope to get the best out of this course

Is Ballé Emmanuel

I was also having a hard time understanding.

I feel the same way,it's hard applying the same tactics organisation's problem especially because the problem is not as big.

Context where advocacy conducted.

Advocacy for children's.

I am delighted to understand the Advocacy Strategy framework and to see how they connect with one another, some strategies intersect in a way that they can serve the public and influencers and others can serve influencers and decision-makers. organizations just need to understand what their activities are about in terms of your activity promoting just awareness to who? will to who? and action to who? for advocacy to be effective. I have also learned that we need to know our strengths/capacities and limitations as well as those of the organizations around us or those we would like to consider working with so that advocacy is done with joint efforts.

The Advocacy Strategy Framework is a helpful tool for selecting the appropriate advocacy tactics, but despite reading and listening to podcast, still is hardly understandable. Need to be simplified a bit please.

In this session I have learnt more on tactics to apply on choosing an advocacy strategy and appropriate advocacy tactics for an effective advocacy intervention.

Other things to consider can be ethnicity on several issues in that particular area, District or region you're targeting. We should always consider their political,educational, religious, cultural, tribal affiliations.

there are other things to consider apart from the strategy framework which may lead to the success of advocacy

I feel the other thing to another to consider when developing new policies is to ensure that people with lived experience have a seat the table and their voices are heard and respected; for example marginalized groups, those effected by substance abuse and domestic violence, the disabled, the unhoused, Twin Spirit, and members of the LBTGQ+ community.

I feel the other thing to another to consider when developing new policies is to ensure that people with lived experience have a seat the table and their voices are heard and respected; for example marginalized groups, those effected by substance abuse and domestic violence, the disabled, the unhoused, Twin Spirit, and members of the LBTGQ+ community.

One important aspect to consider when mapping the audience intrisic and or extrinsic motivations is to try to figure out the hidden motivations, those that are not easy to identify but can have an important impact on the advocacy strategy success.

I found the reading on Advocacy Strategy Framework - A Tool for TOCs very enlightening and complementary to the podcast. Recommend the reading.

from what have learnt, i think media advocacy is a powerful tool for advocacy tactics. it has helped in carrying out information to the public.

@ChidinmaOnukogu said in Module 3 Discussion: Other Things to Consider:

It is important to maintain integrity in developing and implementing an advocacy strategy. An advocacy organisation has to maintain independence even in its bid to provide support to government officials and organisations. This will ensure that they do not pass off to the public as government moles or two sided.

I agree. When carrying out advocacy, being independent and open minded is important

I really liked the graphic presented that showed the different advocacy groups and strategies.

What area do you not understand?

I completely agree with you

Where can I find that again pls?

Exactly. Their voices hit differently. Decision makers are forced to understand the gravity of the issue face-to-face.

Yes. Otherwise they will not be compelled to take any action.

I understand dear. Try reading the transcript and viewing the slides side by side. It might help.

Try downloading the transcripts instead. You can read at your pace and make simplified notes. Hope that helps?

I agree with you. Advocacy was always so complex to me until now

I agree. Try learning at your pace.

I agree , the size and level of education of the target audience is key to formulating a good strategy .

Very true

I am not sure I understood this module quite well.

Break down the process.

well said !

How working with a multidisciplinary team can help to plan a complete advocacy strategie

Besides the key role of the Advocacy Strategy Framework , it important take into consideration other things like assumptions and belief when you deal with multiple audience for a problem or issue .

The implications of multiple voices working on the project.

This module makes sense, I hope that I can refer back to it when I need to actually practice what the class teaches, because naturally I will not remember everything right out of my head.

Taking the interlocutors' religious beliefs into account will be helpful.
Thanks to DREJIOFOR for this idea.

Not really sure where the discussion is intended to go. However, this module really helped me understand that there are a variety of tactics to advocate especially when the issue or topic the advocate is reaching for is specifically targeted.

Social impact refers to the positive or negative effects that a particular action, policy, or event has on society and its members. Social impact can be measured in various ways, such as changes in social behavior, economic conditions, health outcomes, or environmental conditions. Positive social impact may include improvements in people's quality of life, increased social equity, or the reduction of negative externalities such as pollution or inequality

The Advocacy Strategy Framework A tool for articulating an advocacy theory of change - This article was an excellent read.

I liked module 3 a lot.

The Framework is a great tool and while I enjoyed reading it, I got my responses to the quiz wrong. It helped to be able to review my responses against the responses provided at the end. On carefully reflecting, depending on the local context, it may just be the case that responses may not necessarily be wrong as there is a subjective aspect to the decision on deploying specific tactics.

Since there is no prompt that I can see, I suspect that the most difficult part of the other things to consider is your own investment. Often, we can overestimate our abilities or our engagement and resources when we are trying to advocate for something we believe in passionately. I think we often also get stuck in the "I am helping" mindset that we forget to include and engage with the often marginalized groups we are advocating for in meaningful ways. For example, many studies have shown that a housing first model is the best way to fight homelessness. But there are so many homeless that are overwhelmed by the idea of housing, that they would rather not participate, even if they want to work towards the goals that precipitated their homelessness. But including this group into the planning and consideration stages might identify either a secondary policy to advocate for (supportive housing) OR how the policy might need to be modified to accommodate to provide the greatest good.

Collaboration is key

Meanins the things related to Advocacy dimensions

it is very important to really research not only about the policy or situation you're trying to change, but too consider the country's historical background, cultures, beliefs, ensure you get your audience on your site, and Justity the change in policy with examples, researchers, and always offer solutions and example of solutions perhasps what had been already done elsewhere and how it would work within the country cultural and political settings.

putting together a thorough strategy that details your strategies, timetable, and resources. Determine your most important stakeholders and supporters, then think about how you might form alliances and partnerships to spread your message.
Additionally, develop a succinct, clear message that conveys your objectives and connects with your audience. Think about how you can support your argument with statistics and narrative.

There are so many information in this course. They are very insightful

I need help to understand the key points summary on the advocacy strategy framework...thanks

There are so many information in this course. They are very insightful

well said.

Correctly tailoring your message to your audience's chief concerns can have a significant impact on making your advocacy strategy a success.

I am having a little bit of difficulty understanding this module properly

This module was helpful in adding to my understanding of proper advocacy

Hi am really having difficulty with this module

This module has a lot to take in but is very helpful. Thank God it is in a PDF format so I can download and review for future reference.

Although this was quite a challenging module, learning about the different actions an organisation needs to take, actors they need to invole and audiences they need to cater to, as well as the various risks that they may face by various parties involved such as the government, highlights the significance of targeting specific audiences to achieve certain political objectives that benefit your policy strategy.

It's a very interesting though tricky course, it just needs great level of attention.

#$ variable

I am having difficulties understanding this as well.

I'm glad to hear that you've gained insights into more strategic ways to approach advocacy, motivation, timing, and framing. These elements can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your efforts. Remember that successful advocacy often requires a thoughtful and well-rounded approach. Here's a brief recap:

Advocacy Approach:

Tailor your message to your target audience's needs, concerns, and values.
Utilize data, personal stories, and compelling narratives to make your case.
Engage in respectful conversations to address objections and concerns.
Collaborate with like-minded individuals, organizations, and communities to amplify your impact.
Motivation:

Identify the emotional triggers and aspirations of your audience.
Use storytelling to create a personal connection and evoke empathy.
Highlight the positive outcomes and benefits of your cause.
Timing:

Capitalize on current events, legislative sessions, or relevant milestones.
Be aware of your audience's schedules and preferences for communication.
Align your advocacy efforts with moments when your message will have the most impact.
Framing:

Choose messaging that resonates with your audience's values and concerns.
Present facts and data in a clear, accessible, and compelling manner.
Address potential counterarguments by offering well-reasoned responses.
Continuously refine and adapt your approach based on feedback, insights, and the changing landscape. Advocacy is an ongoing process that requires flexibility, persistence, and a willingness to learn from both successes and challenges.

Remember that empathy, respect for differing opinions, and a commitment to positive change are essential components of effective advocacy. By incorporating these strategic elements into your advocacy efforts, you can make a meaningful impact on the issues you care about.

Continuously refine and adapt your approach based on feedback, insights, and the changing landscape. Advocacy is an ongoing process that requires flexibility, persistence, and a willingness to learn from both successes and challenges.

Collaborate with like-minded individuals, organizations, and communities to amplify your impact.

I think one can also consider the size and possibly level of education of the target audience while choosing an advocacy strategy and voter outreach.

It is important to know how each audience obtain their information, and for each activity that will be carried out, the resources for carrying out the activity to completion should be determined. There should be a stipulated time frame assigned for each audience and what task they are responsible for. Data collected should be evaluated and analyzed if desired objectives are achieved.

References
National Council for Social Studies. (N.d). Advocacy planning: Your 10-step plan. National Council for Social Studies.
https://www.socialstudies.org/advocacy/advocacy-planning-your-10-step-plan-0

I agree with you. The advocacy framework is an easy to monitor approach that tells you step by step what you need to do based on your goal. The audiences distinct audiences and changes aligns with the respective strategy which makes it even easier for leadership development and collaboration with effective followup.

Hi Tobimcmillan,

What a detailed suggestion on parameters to consider. Paying attention to what other influencers bring to the table is very important as this may open other avenues of concerns that were not initially known or identified.

Collecting data should be systematic and strategies used to evaluate these data is also an important aspect for the presentation of appropriate interventions to influencers and policymakers.

It's really an important topic. Audience identification is important.