« December 2013 Issue
Roadmaps Grantees Score Advocacy Wins
From helping to override a mayoral veto of legislation that will advance a paid sick days policy, to working with private corporations to expand an early-childhood education program, to getting a commitment from a national company to remove criminal record questions from initial job applications, 2013 has been a banner year for the Roadmaps to Health Community Grantees.
The Roadmaps to Health Community Grants project brings together 30 coalitions working to create positive policy or systems changes that address community issues affecting health. While they work on a diverse set of issues, each campaign deploys common advocacy strategies– including coalition building, community organizing and communications – that help foster success. With guidance from the Roadmaps to Health Community Grants team, the grantees are building on these capacities to create more effective campaigns.
“Our goal is to take existing campaigns and make sure they are drawing on all the advocacy components we know work,” said Phillip Gonzalez, Roadmaps to Health Community Grants project director.
Community Catalyst leads the Community Grants project and, along with M+R Strategic Services, Spitfire Strategies and Working Partnerships USA, serve as a technical assistance team to bolster the grantees’ work, helping them analyze their strategies and create systems of advocacy that help them advance their projects on multiple fronts.
“Our technical assistance providers essentially become extended members of the grantees’ coalition,” said Gonzalez. “They help them assess everything from strategies and tactics to relationships and power dynamics.”
In one powerful example of Roadmaps to Health Community Grants advocacy, the New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents, led by the Osborne Association, is working to keep children connected to their incarcerated parents and minimize the trauma of parent-child separation, which is a risk factor for negative health outcomes. The Initiative is working to implement the use of family responsibility statements – assessments written to convey to a judge how the children and family of a person convicted of a crime will be affected by sentencing decisions – before sentencing to help judges understand that incarceration affects the entire family. The Osborne Association’s collaborative partners were committed to the work; however, the coalition didn’t have a formal structure. Without identified and agreed-upon core decision-makers and a rapid response process, the coalition’s work flow was unclear and decision making was difficult.
After their technical assistance provider worked with them, the coalition surveyed their membership, responded to member feedback and input, and created a formal leadership structure. The coalition has seen increased efficiency and participation as a result. Since implementing the structure, the Osborne Association has successfully worked to have family responsibility statements accepted at the local probation level and made significant progress at the state level as well, helping law enforcement and court officials better understand the impact of incarceration on children and families.
In addition to working with their technical assistance provider, the grantees also learn from each other’s experiences and areas of expertise. The Roadmaps to Health Community Grants team brings the grantees together on a regular basis to share their experiences and provide examples of how different advocacy capacities have bolstered the campaigns. Through a yearly convening and monthly webinars, Community Catalyst has worked to build a community where the advocates can share the challenges they face and celebrate victories.
The Community Service Society (CSS) of New York has taken their shared learning even farther. The group, which successfully worked to advance paid sick day legislation, gained so much support for the campaign in New York City, that the policy survived a mayoral veto and will become law in April of 2014. CSS has shared this success with their fellow Roadmaps to Health Community Grantees, and is also working to share their campaign as an inspiration for other cities and states working to move paid sick day policies.
Through the grantees’ work, González says he has seen Community Catalyst’s system of advocacy effectively applied to new issues.
“There has been clear take up and recognition that this works,” he said. “We’ve taken our system of advocacy model and seen a similar advocacy infrastructure on issues beyond health access.”
- Christine Lindberg, Digital Communications Specialist