Learning Objectives: Understand the community policy making process and effective advocacy skills. Demonstrate participation skills in order to educate decision makers about tobacco issues.
Abstract: Many tobacco control activists are interested in advocating for tobacco policies at the local level, but do not feel comfortable stepping into the political arena, even in their home town. This workshop is designed to provide information about policy environments and policy makers at the local community level, strategies for assessing community readiness for tobacco policy initiatives, structuring an advocacy campaign, and role-play application of this information in a Mock City Hall exercise. The workshop is based on research that was conducted with local level policy makers in Arizona, and grassroots advocacy experiences in a wide range of communities. It is meant to provide participants with skills to organize a community advocacy effort and interact with policy makers. Topics to be discussed include building grassroots and assessing community readiness, understanding how local level policy makers think about tobacco issues, how local level policy makers are influenced and who influences them, the types of information and information formats that are preferred by policy makers, and how to create an advocacy campaign that takes these things into account. Approximately half of this workshop will be didactic instruction and informal discussion and half will be the Mock City Hall exercise.
Empowering Comm for Local Policy Action - natnl - slides.ppt (612.0 kb)
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