Advocating for justice, organizing for power: Legislative advocacy, community organizing, and policy change

Homelessness is a direct result of unjust public policies that benefit some at the exclusion of others. As members of the Health Care for the Homeless community, you have the experience, expertise, and knowledge to change these policies and enact others that ensure the experience of homelessness is brief and rare. Public policy change includes both legislative advocacy and community organizing that builds ‘people power.’ Without ‘people power,’ legislative advocacy has limited power; without legislative advocacy, ‘people power’ has limited outlets for change. This workshop will demystify the process of legislative advocacy and provide tools to help develop a legislative advocacy strategy. Participants will also deepen their knowledge of various models of community organizing used to engage and organize communities to overcome marginalization and build collective power. The workshop will combine presentation and hands-on exercises where participants will learn to use both legislative advocacy and community organizing tools to effectively advocate for public policy change.