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Learning From Campaigning and Advocacy: There's Method in the Madness
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| Presenter(s):
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| Laura Roper,
Brandeis University,
l.roper@rcn.com
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| Abstract:
In the international arena, campaigning and advocacy are becoming an increasingly important aspect of creating an enabling environment for addressing issues of poverty, health, and humanitarian crises. Campaigning and advocacy tends to be a non-linear process driven by influencing opportunities, shaped by contingencies, involving multiple actors, with a rolling set of goals. Culturally, advocates/campaigners have limited patience with evaluation because they are almost always over-extended, almost exclusively forward-looking, and opportunity-driven.. This paper presents a simple tool for helping advocates and campaigners walk through their work, making explicit what is often (but not always) a well-developed implicit theory of change. When applied it can help advocates/campaigners make more strategic choices in responding to opportunities, while keeping their “eyes on the prize” of achieving policy change and implementation that will have significant impact on people's lives
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Developing a 'Community of Practice' in Advocacy Evaluation
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| Presenter(s):
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| Kristin Kaylor Richardson,
Western Michigan University,
kkayrich@comcast.net
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| Abstract:
Advocacy and social activism are two related areas of practice that play a significant role within a number of disciplines, including social work, education, community psychology, health care and public policy. Although there is a long history of evaluating social service programs and policies, evaluating advocacy and activist approaches to creating policy change is a relatively undeveloped field of practice. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap through a critical examination of the unique aspects of advocacy and social activism, offering considerations for developing a comprehensive evaluation approach within this emergent field of practice. Three related topics are explored: 1.) reasons why advocacy and activism deserve greater recognition as legitimate areas of focus within the broader area of policy evaluation; 2.)a review and critique of historical and contemporary advocacy evaluation models;3.)recommendations for designing and conducting evaluations of multidisciplinary advocacy and activist efforts, activities and initiatives.
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