Advocate on issues that are important to you
Advocacy is one of many ways you can be involved in actively pursuing changes that help the community as a whole.
Advocacy usually takes the form of a campaign that is made up of organised activities with the specific purpose of obtaining support for the project, policy or program.
The City of Whittlesea is committed to supporting community-led advocacy. We have developed a toolkit to support your advocacy on important causes in your community.
You can also raise awareness of your cause by contacting your local Member of Parliament.
Planning your campaign
Before you start planning your campaign it’s important to understand what’s involved in creating a worthwhile campaign. You should be able to answer these questions:
- What do you want to secure (your goal)?
- Who are your supporters?
- What evidence exists to support the need?
- What counter arguments exist?
- Who is the target that can help you secure what you set out to do?
Steps for developing a campaign
- Research the issue so you have solid base from which to develop your campaign
- Define and explain in one sentence what you want to secure
- Gather research as evidence for your campaign
- Confirm your advocacy target is the correct target for the campaign
- Raise the profile of the issue (for example, via social media or community outreach)
- Identify influencers (higher profiles can attract more supporters)
- Craft your message to be clear and easy to understand
- Develop an advocacy campaign plan
- Implement the plan, sticking to the original core message
- Evaluate the campaign, whether it is successful or not. Make improvements or learn from mistakes made.
Advocacy Toolkit
Our Advocacy Toolkit is aimed at making it as easy as possible to develop and implement advocacy campaigns of any size. It includes:
- An activity checklist to track progress
- Tips for dealing with media and journalists
- A list of local media contacts
- Tips on how to prepare a media release
- Methods for community outreach
- Advice on effective communication and public relations
- Use of social media channels to promote your campaign
- Writing advocacy letters to politicians
- Advice on meeting with politicians
- A list of stakeholders and their level of involvement in the campaign
- A campaign calendar
- Case studies to demonstrate past successful campaigns.
Download the Advocacy Toolkit