Clearing the Air – Delivering Advocacy Workshops to Encourage Partner Participation

Audience: Tobacco control professionals generally wear an “Advocate” hat at some point in their work, but advocates may come from any number of backgrounds. This session will be particularly relevant for attendees who encourage colleagues and others to become involved in advocacy and policy-maker education efforts. Key Points: The Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco (PACT) is a statewide coalition dedicated to strengthening tobacco control laws across Pennsylvania. In fall 2010 and 2011, PACT delivered “Clearing the Air” workshops focused on advocacy and communication techniques. Each workshop was tailored for a region, allowing participants to discuss political insights and coordinate legislator education and other advocacy efforts. Presenters included PACT and American Lung Association tobacco control and advocacy experts, a local political expert and a data use specialist. Key points on how workshops benefited advocacy efforts include: 1) Interactive workshops helped existing partners gain confidence in and resources for advocacy participation; 2) Regular training facilitated a uniform message across audiences and geographies; and 3) Workshop discussion informed tool development and use. These findings were established using participant surveys, presenter reflection and follow-up feedback. Educational Experience: This session will review workshops content and summarize participant feedback. There will be interactive discussion with the audience on how the format could be adopted for different issues, audiences and political environments. Benefits: Discussion will provide a successful example of advocate education, offer a forum for engaging a broad(er) audience in advocacy efforts and open a dialogue about using workshops to facilitate future efforts.