Lobbying and Advocacy: Start Here
Welcome to the Lobbying & Advocacy topic in the Commons Social Change Library. This article guides you through a wide range of materials to inform the public in relation to lobbying, advocacy and policy-making.
Role
Advocate
What Makes a Brilliant Advocacy Strategy?
What are the key elements of building a powerful coalition? Here are 3 tips to become a great coalition builder.
Planning your First Campaign: Everyday Activism Handout Pack
Are you planning your first campaign? This Handout is designed to give you the skills and confidence to run your first campaign.
The Advocates: Women within the Australian Environmental Movement
This book features nine never-before-told stories of remarkable women and their courageous pursuits of climate justice in Australia.
Changemaker chat with Randi Weingarten: Teachers and Education reform
Teachers’ union activist Randi Weingarten discusses her experiences of social change and educational reform.
Changemaker Chat with Andrés Bernal: Advisor to U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Curious about the remarkable rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and policies like the Green New Deal? We talk to Andrés Bernal about both.
Change Maker Chat with Michelle Meagher: How to Change Market Power
Michelle Meagher discusses her experience as a corporate lawyer, and lessons on reducing corporate market power.
Changemaker Chat with Tyson Yunkaporta: Indigenous Thinking
Tyson Yunkaporta discusses Indigenous thinking on power, change, being and coping with chaos.
ChangeMaker Chat with Danielle Celemajer: How Changemakers can walk with crisis and harness the power of storytelling
Danielle Celemajer discusses her book Summertime about the Black Summer fires and how she learned to cope with crisis
Iceberg Worksheet: What’s the root cause of the problem?
Drill down into the root cause of a problem a campaign aims to address. Shift focus from the event into underlying societal structures.
Call to Action Worksheet
Use this worksheet template to determine how you will talk about your campaign to inspire and motivate people to take action.
Books to Read About Social Change in 2021
Looking for some inspiring reading for 2021 for yourself or as a gift? Here is a list of books on activism and organising to get you thinking.
A Preface to Advocacy: What You Should Know as an Advocate
Practical tips from experienced advocates. Collated by Erin Gilmer to empower any person entering the advocacy space to have the knowledge they need to make the biggest impact.
ChangeMaker Chat with John Robertson (Labor Party Minister): Inside Politics
Hear from John Robertson, ex Australian Labor Party leader, about the real pressures and backroom deals that make change so hard.
Windows and Cycles: How Policy gets Made
This article helps advocates understand and intervene in policymaking more effectively by understanding the two main models of policymaking.
Principles for a policy response to COVID-19
Five principles that must guide policymakers in the face of the unprecedented public policy challenges posed by COVID-19.
How to present a petition to Parliament
A guide developed by ActionStation to support community members with petitions. Some information is specific to the New Zealand parliamentary system and OurActionStation petition platform but many of the steps are relevant for other circumstances.
How to get more petition signatures
A guide developed by ActionStation to support community members to run successful petitions, including notes on strategy, tips for getting more signatures, and example campaigns.
Changemaker Chat with Fiona Lee: Bushfire survivor and Climate Change Advocate
When the 2019 Bushfires burnt her home, Fiona Lee did what most would find hard – she became an advocate for climate change. Three days after her house burnt down, Fiona and her family stood at NSW Parliament House calling for serious action on climate change as creating the context for these catastrophic fires. What is her story? How did she do this? And what did she learn about the power of her own voice in this moment.
10 things to know about how to influence policy with research
10 tips about how to influence policy with research from the Overseas Development Institute. e.g. what, who, when to influence, politics, networks, etc.