Please share this webinar with anyone who may be interested! Watch all our webinars: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4dDQscmFYu_ezxuxnAE61hx4JlqAKXpR After this webinar, you will: ● Better appreciate the importance of utilizing key advocacy tools to effect change. ● Understand the practical development and implementation of some of those key tools, including advocacy packages, petitions, postcards and collective letters. ● Understand the practical steps to hosting a “Day at the Legislature”, one of the most impactful advocacy tools an organization can utilize. View the video: https://youtu.be/F6dIjdG73Xs Follow our social media accounts: Twitter - https://twitter.com/survivornetca Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CanadianSurvivorNet Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/survivornetwork YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/Survivornetca

1. Developing an Advocacy Toolkit
Ryan Clarke
Monday, November 21, 2016

2. Overview
• Review and context
• Events with politicians/bureaucrats
• Advocacy packages
• Collective letters
• Petitions
• Postcards

3. Review and Context
• Review of effective advocacy strategies
– Key message development
– Development of your tools
– Development of your one ‘ask’
• The timing of your tools is important
• Their use should create a ‘layering effect’, one on
top of another, over time

4. Events
• Can take various forms:
– Advocacy Day at the legislature
– Caucus meetings
– MLA breakfast
– Roundtable discussion with bureaucrats
– ‘Lunch and Learn’ with political staffers
– Late afternoon reception inviting politicians, political
staffers and bureaucrats

5. Events
• Objectives:
– Raise awareness and educate decision-makers about your
issues
– Put a face on your organization
– Start to build relationships
– Give your supporters experience interacting with
decision-makers
– Request change/action
• There may/may not be an ‘ask’ associated with
such events

6. Events
• Selecting a date:
– Governments may be more likely to act on issues brought
to their attention shortly before or after an election
– Avoid holiday seasons because many elected
representatives will be unavailable
– Avoid dates on which other events are happening in the
legislative buildings that might provide competition
– If possible, have the event coincide with other related
issues i.e. World Cancer Day
– Elected representatives are also more likely to be
available at the start of the week

7. Events
• Selecting a date:
– Most importantly, go with the best legislative date
– This is most likely to be when the legislature is sitting, as
many of the elected officials return to their ridings when
the legislature is not in session
– There are constituency days and weeks when MPPs/MLAs
are in their home ridings; for example, in Ontario the
legislature does not sit on Fridays
– It is also a good idea to avoid a time when critical matters
are being debated

8. Events
• Engaging your supporters:
– They can help determine what the issues are that you will
present to the government representatives i.e. through a
survey
– They may be able to provide contacts in the government
and/or they may have met with different elected
representatives or members of their staff on previous
occasions
– They can attend and tell a first-hand story of how the
issue at hand affects their daily lives and give personal
support to the importance of the issue being addressed

9. Events
• Inviting government officials:
– Provide an introduction to your organization
– Provide an explanation as to why you are requesting a
meeting (if part of your event)
– Request a meeting on the day of your advocacy event
– Provide any personal information you may have gathered
from your survey of supporters that might aid you in
securing the meeting
– Provide a contact name and number i.e. the person
writing the letter
– Provide a date by which you will contact their office

10. Events
• Logistics and flow:
– Accommodation
– Site visit
– Transportation
– Having a Coordination Centre
– Training
– Creating presentation and training packages
– Provide tips for visiting elected representatives
– Provide tips on conducting a successful meeting i.e. key
messages, meeting script, one ‘ask’ (if applicable)
– Follow-ups and thank-yous

11. CCSN Event
On October 5, 2016, the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network
welcomed MPPs, staff, prostate cancer patients, survivors and
caregivers and community partners at its fifth annual
Legislative Reception at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

12. Advocacy Packages
• Seven distinct documents typically included:
– Introduction to advocates
– Letter to your elected rep asking for a meeting
– Meeting script outline
– Key facts
– Meeting report back form
– Letter from your elected rep to the Minister
– Letter to the Minister

13. Advocacy Packages
Introduction to Advocates:
– Meant to serve as the ‘instruction manual’ for the rest of the materials
– Needs to be written in language that compels the reader to take
action by doing what is asked of them
– Outline:
• Background of the issue
• Describe why you need the reader to engage
• Outline the contents of the advocacy package (i.e. what you’re asking the reader to
do)
• List contacts for the reader if they need further information

14. Advocacy Packages
Letter to you elected rep asking for a meeting:
– Letters can take three basic forms:
• Blank sheet of paper – the reader is asked to draft their own letter based on some
background information provided – everyone drafts and sends their own unique
letter
• Form letter – the reader simply inserts their elected representatives contact
information, their own contact information and ‘signs’ their name – everyone sends
exactly the same letter
• Hybrid letter – the reader is asked to insert a brief paragraph about their own
circumstances as it relates to the issue, but the rest of the letter is consistent –
everyone drafts some unique content, but sends letters that are largely the same

15. Advocacy Packages
Letter to you elected rep asking for a meeting:
– Outline of a hybrid letter:
• First paragraph – who you are (always note that you are a constituent) and why you
are writing to your elected representative (your ‘ask’)
• Second paragraph – a brief paragraph outlining the person’s personal story and
their link to the issue
• Third paragraph – a combination of your three key messages and some key facts
about the issue
• Fourth paragraph – restatement of your ‘ask’ (in bold)
• Fifth paragraph – I will be in touch shortly to arrange a time to meet – thank-you

16. Advocacy Packages
Meeting script outline:
– For people to use during their meetings with elected reps
– Can be anywhere from a general outline to a very detailed, almost
line-by-line script
– Again, a hybrid approach may be most suitable
– May also be beneficial to ask your supporters what they need in order
to ensure that as many of them as possible visit their elected
representatives

17. Advocacy Packages
Meeting script outline:
– Introduce yourself and the people you are with
– Explain why you are there (generally) and your one ‘ask’
– Deliver your three key messages
– Tell your personal story in the context of the issue
– Review some of your key facts
– Deliver your one ‘ask’ again
– Engage in dialogue to ensure that your elected representative fulfills your one
‘ask’
– Conclude by saying thank you and commit to following up shortly

18. Advocacy Packages
Key facts:
– Typically no more than a page
– To be used by people as background information about the issue AND in
their meeting with their elected representative
– But people need not deliver every key fact in their meeting
– Depending on how the document is drafted, it could even serve as a leave-
behind with the elected representative
– Any province specific information is always good (as opposed to just
national facts/figures)

19. Advocacy Packages
Meeting report back form:
– Names of the people who attended
– Name of the elected representative visited and date
– How long was the meeting and who attended with the elected
representative?
– Did the elected representative seem receptive?
– Did he/she agree to your one ‘ask’?
– When and how will you be following up?
– Other comments or impressions

20. Advocacy Packages
Letter from your elected rep to the Minister:
– On many occasions, the one ‘ask’ of your elected representative will
be to write a letter to the relevant Minister outlining your concerns
about the issue
– This is often the most effective ‘ask’ of an elected representative
because it puts your concerns in writing, it requires a written response
and it can be done by both government and opposition members
– The content should be crafted along the same lines as the letter to
your elected representative asking to meet, minus your personal story
(usually)

21. Advocacy Packages
Letter to the Minister:
– Important for the relevant Minister to hear directly from people
affected by the issue
– Again, you can do the blank sheet of paper, form letter or hybrid letter
– If you choose the hybrid letter approach, it takes the same format as
the letter to your elected representative asking to meet
– For your one ‘ask’, ask directly for the change that you need

22. Advocacy Packages
Using these packages:
– Only effective if you can get them into the hands of as many people as
possible
– Post on web sites, e-mail to supporters, post mail to people, hand out
paper copies at events
– Make sure that you draft the material so that it appeals to the
maximum number of people (i.e. not just patients)
– Track progress – ask people to copy you on the letters they send and
forward their completed report back forms

23. Advocacy Packages
Samples:
• http://www.ahuscanada.org/advocacy-support/advocacy-packages
• http://canpku.org/provincial-advocacy-package
• http://www.phacanada.ca/en/get-involved/advocacy/advocacy-packages

24. Collective Letters
• Usually used with groups of health care professionals (i.e.
physicians), who want to make their unified voice heard to a
key decision-maker in government
• Could certainly be done with patients and caregivers, too
• Important to have one or two authors
• They then e-mail the letter to their colleagues asking them to
‘sign on’ by responding and providing their name, credentials,
affiliation and where they work

25. Petitions
• There are two types of petitions – on-line and paper
• On-line petitions can be very effective at gathering a lot of
names, very quickly
• You can often set them up for free (although some web sites
will charge you a fee once you go over a certain number)
• The names can then be e-mailed to a decision-maker, printed-
off to be delivered in person or you can just refer them to the
web site where the names are listed

26. Petitions
• Paper petitions are more typically used because they can be
introduced into a provincial legislature
• Each legislature has it’s own format that must be followed or the
petitions will not be accepted
• http://thoughtundermined.com/2012/02/21/how-to-petition-
canadian-legislatures/
• Every sitting day has an agenda item called ‘Petitions’ during which
time members can read petitions they have received from
constituents into the record (i.e. Hansard)
• You can then go on-line and print a copy of your petitions being
read (tangible proof of its introduction)

27. Postcards
Canadian Mental Health Commission
Needed Now!

28. Postcards
The Honourable Tony Clement, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Health
Minister’s Office, Health Canada
Brooke Claxton Building, Tunney’s Pasture
Postal Locator: K1A 0K9
Dear Minister Clement:
As a person affected by mental illness, I am
writing to urge the immediate establishment
and funding of the Canadian Mental Health
Commission. During the 2006 election
campaign, your party promised that “a
Conservative government will ensure such a
commission is established”.
Now is the time to put these words into
action. Thank you
Name: _____________________________
Address: ___________________________
___________________________
Phone:
© Schizophrenia Society of Canada

29. Advocacy Solutions®
Contact Information:
Ryan Clarke, LL.B.
t. 905.891.0311
f. 905.891.0366
ryan@advocacysolutions.ca
www.advocacysolutions.ca

30. Canadian Cancer Survivor Network
Contact Info
Canadian Cancer Survivor Network
1750 Courtwood Crescent, Suite 210
Ottawa, ON K2C 2B5
Telephone / Téléphone : 613-898-1871
E-mail jmanthorne@survivornet.ca or mforrest@survivornet.ca
Web site www.survivornet.ca
Blog: http://jackiemanthornescancerblog.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @survivornetca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CanadianSurvivorNet
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/survivornetwork/