Summary
Many of us feel increasingly powerless against an economic system that extracts resources to feed an ever-growing consumer society, at the expense of providing for our basic needs. In this seminar we'll learn all about supporting legislation for resource sustainability — developing skills to effectively advocate for economic democracy with our elected representatives.
CURRICULUM
Session 1: Introduction to the seminar. Discover the basic concepts for effective advocacy work. Learn to navigate among EDA’s education, research and advocacy teams for the greatest impact.
Session 2: Thinking about our individual bioregion in terms of basic needs: Identify your local bioregion and find the indicators to help you evaluate resource sustainability in your community. Determine one or two critical issues impacting your bioregion.
Session 3: How EDA’s biocapacity research can be a useful tool in advocating for positive change: Understand EDA’s biocapacity research and its usefulness in providing measurable data for advocacy. Learn how you can use this information as a persuasive advocacy too.
Session 4: Getting to know your legislators: Get to know your local elected officials, so that you’ll be able to partner with them. Learn to strategically frame your message to influence and inspire them to work with you.
Session 5: Using local legislation to formulate the ‘ask.’ Become familiar with EDA's new State Legislative Tracking database—our online tool that helps you research legislation where you live. This introduction to legislative research will help empower you to create an effective and inspiring ‘ask’.
Session 6: Developing a dynamic personal story: Your personal story makes the information you've compiled come alive, motivating your legislator to respond to your ‘ask.’
Session 7: Preparation for the meeting with your legislator: Pulling it all together; organizing your advocacy meeting road map. Now that you’ve identified your legislator, learned something about their history and interests, and you’ve gathered the data, you’re now ready to talk to your legislator. Here’s how to do it.
Session 8: Practicing your lobby visit: In our final session, we review the process and demonstrate through roleplay of a typical lobby visit. Finally, we will review the important steps to take to reinforce your relationship with your legislator to ensure future collaboration on issues that are important to you.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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