Rev. Susan Guy, Associate Minister of Service, Social Justice and Adult Ministries at Walnut Hills United Methodist Church, presented an advocacy workshop to approximately 25 members and friends of the JHAH coordinating team on Saturday, February 18, at Central Presbyterian Church, Des Moines, IA.

Susan began the workshop by asking participants to introduce themselves and to tell what they wanted to learn from the workshop. Some of the responses were:

“I want to become comfortable with advocacy.”
“I want to learn advocacy skills.”
“I want to know what methods of advocacy are effective.”
“I want to know how to more effectively advocate in my community.”
“I want to know specific ways to help people help themselves.”

Susan explained that advocacy has two pieces:
 
The first piece is charity – people giving money and other donations in great times of need (e.g. Hurricane Katrina) or on a regular basis (e.g. to their local food pantry). This is important and must be an ongoing piece of advocacy. And, she said, most people are good at this piece. The second piece – the justice piece, i.e., asks the question - Why? Why are there hungry people – anywhere? Why – when there is enough food to feed all the people of the world – do we have people who are hungry – anywhere? And, this is the piece that is much harder for people and makes them more uncomfortable. This is not easy work.

Justice advocacy, Susan said, has two components -- education and action.

The first is crucial.  People need to understand the issues. People won’t go any further in the process if they don’t understand an issue. Action involves grassroots lobbying and can be accomplished in many ways. You need to ask those you educate to take action, she said.

Susan then addressed what she believes to be the most effective ways in which to take action with state or local government issues:

1. Send an original, handwritten and faxed letter. There was a time when you could mail such a letter but that is no longer true.
2. Send an original e-mail message.
3. Make a phone call to a senator or representative’s office.

Many in the group expressed, for a variety of reasons, a reluctance to make a phone call. Susan responded that it has been her experience that callers only speak with aides. She says she has always been thanked for calling and believes that her opinion is passed along.

4. While any contact is valuable, a form letter or form e-mail letter will not be as effective as the previous methods.
 
5. Even if it is late in the debate and the vote on a bill is imminent, multiple (perhaps hundreds) of calls to vote for or against the bill can be very effective as well.

Susan added that government officials generally consider the opinion of one constituent contact to equal the opinion of 500 other constituents who didn’t contact them.

She went on to explain how crucial it is to understand the US budget cycle if you want to influence a vote on spending of US dollars. A citizen’s instinct is to contact the budget chair (in February) to ask for more money for a particular line item. It is not the responsibility, however, of the budget committee to determine appropriations. The budget committee determines a bottom-line dollar figure for the 13 key accounts in the budget.

It is effective, however, to contact key persons of the appropriations committee (May – October) as they make decisions about actual dollars to be appropriated for line items.
Susan added that requests for items outside the 13 key budget accounts (tsunami aid, for example) are supplemental and do not come out of the budget. They will be added to the US budget deficit.

Susan suggested that another effective way to contact legislators is to ask for more dollars to be added to his or her wish list. Also, pick sources you trust to get your ongoing information. She uses results.org, among several others, for reliable information. <
She then shared a handout of numerous advocacy resources which she had prepared.

The last segment of Susan’s workshop centered on the question “How do you educate your congregations about social justice advocacy?” Several participants suggested the following:

establish a social justice committee if one isn’t currently in place;

personally recruit members to social justice committees rather than waiting for volunteers;

introduce fair-trade items, for example, as a tangible way for members to become aware of social justice issues.

Susan concluded the workshop with a discussion of the “ladder of engagement.” The goal, she explained, is to move people up the ladder. Also -- understand that it is necessary to engage people in different ways. Today's young people, she believes, are not “joiners” but do embrace technology and will participate electronically in the process. Lastly, people  move up the ladder at different intervals - and not all will make it to the top.

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