Each week the AIT community receives #TakeActionTuesday with tips for creating impactful change in their community and beyond. From new online tools, to pending policy updates, subscribe today to make sure you don’t miss these action-oriented recommendations.
The first step towards effective advocacy is setting your issue priorities. In the midst of rapidly shifting news cycles, the task of selecting and focusing on the issues that matter most to you can feel difficult. However, by choosing to concentrate on 1-3 specific issue priorities, you will have the opportunity to dive deeper and go beyond the daily headlines, while avoiding a reactionary approach and minimizing your risk of feeling overwhelmed.
This #TakeActionTuesday, set your priorities by identifying a couple issues that fit within the following criteria:
- Passion. Think about your voting issues. What are your most important issues when determining whether or not you will support a candidate? You can also consider the ways that you choose to spend your free time. Which causes have you volunteered for or donated to in the past? Choosing issue priorities that you are passionate about is crucial, because this will sustain your efforts, even when time is scarce and advocacy feels most difficult.
- Experience. Think about the issues that impact you. Personal stories help legislators understand and convey to their colleagues how specific issues impact real people. Remember, you do not need to be an academic or professional expert to have experience. Your personal experience with an issue qualifies you to advocate for others like yourself.
- Urgency. Think about whether this issue is time-sensitive. Is there legislation currently being debated in Congress? Is there an impending vote or hearing? Is this issue being overlooked? Determining how time-sensitive an issue is will help you to prioritize which issues demand your immediate focus. This will prevent you from becoming distracted by the news of the day.
Tell us how you set your issue priorities at info@aitogether.org.
