Advocacy

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Advocacy

• Promoting your program up and down the
  communication ladder
• Candance Gabel, MS, RD, LD
• FNEP State Coordinator

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Education vs. Lobbying

• Educating - All employees and volunteers should
  educate and inform decision makers about
  University of Missouri Extension.
• We can communicate
• What we do
• Why we do it
• How we do it
• What difference it makes

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Education vs. Lobbying

• Lobbying
• Involves communication and interaction to
  influence a legislator or decision maker to make
  a particular decision on specific legislation.

4
Who is important in advocacy

• To you everyone
• Your staff
• Your boss
• Your council
• Your commissioner/county board member
• Other agencies with whom you work
• All local and federal legislators

5
Manage Up and Manage Down

• Politics is about relationships
• It really is about who you know
• All politics are local
• Always be thankful
• Build Social Capital

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• Make friends when you dont need them
• Lyndon Johnson

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Stakeholder Advocacy

• A stakeholder is someone who is involved with an
  organization and therefore has responsibilities
  toward it and an interest in its success.
  Extension stakeholders are decision makers who
  have ownership for supporting extension programs
  and who along with their constituents benefit
  from those programs. They have the capacity to
  generate goodwill and obtain resources to support
  the University of Missouri Extension mission.

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Stakeholder Advocacy

• Stakeholders include, but are not limited to,
  state and federal legislators county
  commissioners and other county office holders
  city office holders local, state and national
  program partners and community leaders.

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Two most important Questions in Politics

• 1. How many of you know your legislators, policy
  makers, and/or influencers?
• 2. How many of your legislators, policy makers,
  and/or influencers know you?
• It is equally important for you to know them and
  them to know you.

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Who are your stakeholders?
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Who are your stakeholders
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Stakeholders and Concerns
Stakeholders Concerns



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Stakeholder Advocacy

• Have clarity in your message
• Use common language
• Be concise
• Have your stump speech 3 points 7-10 minutes
• Have your elevator speech 30 seconds
• Protect those above you
• Connect your priorities to their priorities
• Make your agenda their agenda

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Know what is important to them

• Know their interests
• Do you homework
• This is not about you it is about them
• Find something or someone that you have in common
• Use volunteer advocates from the area that they
  represent
• Training and preparation is the key
• Be careful what names you drop
• Figure out where real POWER is
• Could be a staffer or a friend or a family member

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Public Value Approach

• The work of Dr. Laura Kalambokidis, University of
  Minnesota Extension, has been key in the
  development of public values statements in
  Missouri.
• Public value is the value of a program to those
  who do not directly benefit from that program.
• The public values approach is a tool to secure
  upport for activities with strong public value.

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Public Value Statements MU Extension

• Threat of 50 budget cut for fy10
• Governors impression that MU Extension wasnt
  considered a part of the University of Missouri
• Involved Stakeholders
• Learned how to share our successes focusing on
  outcomes.

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Public Value Statements and MU Extension

• In-service training
• System in place to develop and share statements
• Legislative Day
• Continued work

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Public Value Statements

• Financial Education program, participants spend
  and borrow responsibly, save more and gain
  control over their financial health. These
  behaviors benefit other community members by
  reducing predatory lending, reliance on public
  assistance programs and crime.

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Public Value Statement

• Stay Strong, Stay Healthy program, participants
  increase their physical activity. This behavior
  leads to reduced risk of falls, heart disease and
  osteoporosis decreased stress and improved
  weight control and overall quality of life.
  These health benefits decrease the likelihood of
  a participant entering a nursing home, which
  costs on average 24,455 per year in Missouri.

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Public Value Statement

• Relationship Education program, participants
  learn to strengthen their relationship.
  Consequently, this decreases the likelihood of
  divorce by 50. For every couple that remains
  married, Missouri saves 30,000.

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How does an Extension program create public
value?

• Does it narrow an information gap?
• Does it address a crucial concern about fairness?
• Does one persons participation benefit people
  who do not participate in the program?
• Does one persons participation reduce costs for
  others?
• Does the program improve upon the market outcome?

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Demonstrating Extensions public value
Program participants
have been shown to change their behavior in
specific ways
that have been shown to lead to specific outcomes
that directly benefit the participants.
that generate public value.
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Participants in a nutrition education program
have been shown to increase their consumption of
fruits and vegetables,
which has been shown to reduce the incidence of
diabetes,
which directly improves quality of life for
participants.
which reduces public health costs for all
community members.
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Participants
Changes
Outcome
Private benefits
Public value
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Participants
Learn
Changes
Outcome
Private benefits
Public value
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Demonstrating public value

• Choose a program to work on.
• Choose a stakeholder.
• Worksheet
• Identify some changes program participants make.
• Identify some outcomes that result from those
  changes.
• How do those outcomes benefit the participants?
• How do those outcomes benefit others (create
  public value)?
• Which public value will be most important to this
  stakeholder?

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A public value message

• When you support ______________program,
• ?participants will ____________________,
• (changes)
• ?which leads to ______________________,
• (outcomes)
• ?which will benefit other community members by
• __________________________________.
• (public value)

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Generally, a public value message

• is directed to a specific stakeholder
• focuses on the outcome that matters to the
  stakeholder
• uses the stakeholders language
• is free of jargon and empty words
• is believable
• is short
• is about a specific program
• doesnt focus on the learning step
• doesnt focus on the programs private benefit
• does focus on the programs public value
• tells us how non-participantsthe greater
  community, state, worldbenefit from the program
• makes the case for public funding

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• The public value approach is not just about the
  message its about doing the work that justifies
  the message.

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Next Steps

• Teach the public value approach to your
  colleagues.
• Refine your public value message.
• Specific stakeholder?
• Matters to the stakeholder?
• Stakeholders language?
• Free of jargon and empty words?
• Believable?

Building Extension's Public Value U. of MN
Extension
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Next Steps

• Refine your public value message continued
• Short?
• Specific program?
• earning step? No.
• Private benefits? No.
• Public value? Yes!
• How do non-participants benefit?
• Makes the case for public funding?

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Next Steps

• Apply your public value message.
• Communication strategy
• Use in marketing materials, grant proposals,
  legislative visits
• Implement your research agenda.
• Contact people who can help
• Program evaluation
• Collect indicators
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Economic impact analysis
• Use public value concepts to prioritize your
  organizations work.

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References

• MU Extension http//extension.missouri.edu/staff/p
  ublicvalue
• Dr. Laura Kalambokidis, University of Minnesota
  Extension
• Dr. Robin Orr, University of Illinois
• Marshall Stewart, NCSU