Finding Your Next Step

Once you’ve picked your issue, you’ll need to find your allies.

At this point, you face a fork in the road. You might work within your community, or you might work with — but outside of — it to accomplish change. Most times, that means going to your legislature.

Before you make this important decision, it’s helpful to survey the advocacy landscape around you. Then you’ll have all the facts in hand to choose which path to take.

Within the Community

You might visualize research as a pyramid. At this point, you’ve already built the base of your pyramid — a foundation of general knowledge about your issue. Now, you can start working on building the next, and narrower, layer: gathering more granular information on how your issue affects your specific community, and who in the community is already developing solutions.

Building the Pyramid

It took 20 years to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Fortunately, this pyramid will require far less time — but it will still have a monumental impact on your advocacy journey.

To start filling in the next tier of detail, answer the following questions:

Take a look at your answers to these questions, and ask yourself one more: Given the information you now have, is there an opportunity for advocacy — or for supporting existing advocacy efforts — within your community?

If the answer is “no,” then your most promising advocacy opportunities may exist at the state or federal level.

Going to Your Lawmakers

That means it’s time to approach your lawmakers.

To make your conversations as productive as possible, take some time to refresh yourself on the basics of the legislative process. By understanding what your lawmakers do on a daily basis, and how you fit into that work, you can ensure your helpfulness to them — and theirs to you.

Visit the Advocacy Building Blocks section to learn more!