GEAR Components

Getting Equity Advocacy Results means not only working toward a major equity goal, but also successfully achieving important steps for equity along the way.

GEAR provides advocates a way of thinking about their work, as well as a tangible and straightforward means for navigating the markedly nonlinear practice of equity advocacy.

GEAR includes four major parts: gray gears, color gears, an interwoven chain, and benchmarks.

Organizing, capacity building, research, and communications — the gray gears — are ongoing and critical components of advocacy campaigns for equity. They promote community inclusion in determining outcomes, and drive advocates from one stage of a campaign to another.

The four stages of equity advocacy — the color gears — each focus on different advocacy activities, and produce different equity results. The major stages are to: Build the Base, Name and Frame the Equity Solutions, Move the Equity Proposal, and Build, Advance, and Defend. Campaigns may involve one or several stages, and advocates might move between them in different sequences.

Build the Base

Equity campaigns are characterized by four major stages. The four stages of equity advocacy each focus on different developments in a campaign, and each produces different kinds of equity results. Campaigns may involve one or several stages, and advocates might move between them in different sequences.

Get Ready: BUILD THE BASE

Changing the challenging conditions that affect low-income people and communities of color requires a “grassroots to treetops” approach that connects the experiences of people on the ground with the decisions about policies that shape communities. Any campaign for equity – whether proactive efforts to change organizational rules, defensive efforts to block inequitable legislation, or strategic efforts to place community leaders in positions of power – must stem from the experience and engagement of those directly affected. Effective organizing and a strong base of popular support lie at the heart of every successful equity campaign, and are critical as both steps and outcomes for advocacy.

Equity advocacy efforts to BUILD THE BASE include four key components: issue identification, community visioning and organizing, initial power analyses, and planning the advocacy strategy. Benchmarks for each of these areas, and guiding questions to navigate them, are available for download.

Name and Frame the Equity Solutions

Get Set: NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS

Equity advocacy efforts require a great deal of preparation before a campaign for equity can be undertaken. To achieve policy change, equity advocates must develop a clear understanding and description of the problem, and develop policy change objectives that engage and satisfy multiple stakeholders. Careful attention to developing and vetting a communications strategy, with a focus on language and messages, as well as an approach to social and traditional media, have important consequences for the final outcome of the campaign and the advances toward greater equity achieved along the way.

Equity advocacy to NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS includes four key components: research and identification of the problem and policy change objectives, framing the problem and policy change objectives, identification and cultivation of stakeholders and allies, and identification and development of strategies for decreasing opposition. Benchmarks for each of these areas, and guiding questions to navigate them, are available for download.

Move the Equity Proposal

Go: MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL

Opportunities to advance equity abound in the numerous activities associated with different advocacy efforts. Organizing, base building, and capacity-building activities expand community leadership, increase power, and build momentum to address important equity issues. Research and communications activities illustrate and disseminate important information about issues, reaching important policymakers and thought leaders.

Efforts to MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL for equitable policy change include five major components: negotiations to develop the change proposal, introduction of the policy change proposal, launch of the campaign for policy change, movement and modification of the change proposal, and success, redirection or failure of the change proposal. Benchmarks for each of these areas, and guiding questions to navigate them, are available for download.

Build, Advance and Defend

Go: BUILD, ADVANCE, AND DEFEND

Equity advocacy does not — and should not — cease when a favorable policy outcome is first reached. In fact, it is through the continued effort of equity advocates, champions, and their allies that policy changes to promote equity are implemented and imbedded into practice. Just as strong community leadership and engagement, effective uses of power and influence, strategic research and communications are crucial components to seeding change, they are also essential elements for bringing that change to fruition.

There are four general components of advocacy to BUILD, ADVANCE, AND DEFEND equity: implementation, enforcement, and monitoring of the adopted change; influence of the proposed change on other equity issues and objectives; further development of equity leadership; and cultivation and protection of equity improvements. Benchmarks for each of these areas, and guiding questions to navigate them, are available for download.

Organizing

The progress of equity advocacy is driven by several ongoing activities: organizing, capacity building, communications, and research.

Thoughtful, purposeful organizing must be in place at the outset of a campaign, and must be revisited throughout the campaign. It ensures that the community voice is loudly driving change, and that a strong infrastructure is available for ongoing advocacy and monitoring. It involves forming a collaborative of community members, their allies, and new partners early in a campaign to address a common problem. It requires ongoing work to maintain collaborative functioning and to ensure that campaign actions are guided by both technical expertise and authentic community wisdom. The identification of common objectives, collective assets, and shared power across a collaborative allows for the development of impactful strategy. The creation of a clear governance structure and the building of trust among partners and allies allows for smooth and efficient decision making and coordination throughout the campaign.

Examples of related benchmarks include:

At the BUILD THE BASE stage:
There is a strong and ongoing commitment among collaborative members to one another and to advancing the community vision.
At the NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS stage:
The structure of the campaign and the leadership of the collaborative are assessed upon selection of the policy change objectives and adjusted to ensure authentic community experience, diverse representation, and technical capacity.
At the MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL stage:
Collaborative strength and capacity is sustained through respect to collaborative members’ non-negotiable elements, regular checks of members’ comfort level with strategies, and transparent governance and leadership accountability.
At the BUILD, ADVANCE, and DEFEND stage:
Opportunities for community members to learn about the equity issue and community conditions and to develop skills related to organizing, research, communications, and capacity building are more available and utilized more following implementation.

Capacity Building

The progress of equity advocacy is driven by several activities: organizing, capacity building, communications, and research.

Advocacy capacity must be present from the outset of a campaign, but can be built throughout a campaign by developing community understanding of the policy process and strategies for engagement in the policy process, deepening knowledge of policy facts, and refining skills of strategizing and negotiating with policymakers. A successful campaign also requires leadership savvy to facilitate diverse partnerships, nimbly navigate changing processes, and broker external agreements. Campaign leaders must understand policy processes, have connections to powerful leaders, decision makers, and other key players, and be willing to take risks and make strategic decisions.

Examples of related benchmarks include:

At the BUILD THE BASE stage:
Paths to leadership within the collaborative are transparent, available to, and endorsed by members of the collaborative.
At the NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS stage:
Community knowledge and expertise and academic and professional research are combined to understand the problem and develop possible policy change objectives.
At the MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL stage:
Enhanced advocacy leadership and the cultivation of new leaders through capacity-building activities expand advocacy for the proposal and support for the overall effort.
At the BUILD, ADVANCE, and DEFEND stage:
Community members gain power through election, appointment, invitation, or other engagement in decision-making entities and processes.

Research

The progress of equity advocacy is driven by several activities: organizing, capacity building, communications, and research.

Research is an ongoing task throughout a policy campaign, and also serves an important purpose in defining the strategy, and potential success, of a policy initiative. The purpose of research in a campaign is twofold. Externally, research is a crucial ingredient to educate the public, the media, and individual policymakers, answering key questions about the problem and the efficacy of the proposed solution. Reliable data and facts about the issue and the conditions contributing to inequity are important to influence and convince policymakers of the need for change. Research is also important internally for sustaining advocacy activities. Internal research, like power analyses, which assess the political landscape to identify winnable issues, helps advocates determine the appropriate scale and targets for policy change.

Examples of related benchmarks include:

At the BUILD THE BASE stage:
Initial power mapping reveals individuals, organizations, and interest groups that have the power, both formally and informally, to make, influence, or block decisions regarding possible policy change objectives.
At the NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS stage:
Data and information to understand the problem and possible policy change objectives are disaggregated (e.g., by population, place, race, etc.) and analyzed frequently during the campaign to illuminate the equity dimensions (e.g., consequences for people of different race, class, or gender) of the possible policy change objectives.
At the MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL stage:
Research and information regarding the problem and the proposal are written and shared strategically (e.g., research papers, issue briefs, educational materials, etc.) with target audiences.
At the BUILD, ADVANCE, and DEFEND stage:
Traditional and community-based research reveal increased traction of community input in decision making.

Communications

The progress of equity advocacy is driven by several activities: organizing, capacity building, communications, and research.

Equity advocates must make important decisions about how and when to strategically publicize their message, and to whom. Effective communications advocacy delivers the right message to the right audience by the right messenger at the right time. This requires a communications strategy that weaves in and out of each stage of a campaign to address different needs and goals using the right medium – which could be anything from informational flyers and postcards to printed opinion pieces to TV news segments or social media. At the outset of a campaign, communications supports base-building activities by publicizing the issue and recruiting key allies and partners. Before a policy is introduced, traditional and non-traditional media play a key role in naming and framing the issue, and activating support. During a campaign, media-framing analyses provide insight into the changing perceptions of the issue and policy among target audiences, and social media analytics can help advocates track the effectiveness of their online advocacy approaches. Thoughtfulness around the campaign messaging and dissemination strategies ensures that ideas and information regarding the issue and the policy solutions are reaching policymakers and other strategic stakeholders to advance equity.

Examples of related benchmarks include:

At the BUILD THE BASE stage:
The collaborative is committed to implementing and leveraging a strategic communications plan to sharpen its advocacy strategy.
At the NAME AND FRAME THE EQUITY SOLUTIONS stage:
Communications activities (e.g., fact sheets and other written materials, commentary, articles, media interviews, staged media events, etc.) promote awareness and understanding of the problem, and help to broaden understanding and support for the policy change objectives among target audiences.
At the MOVE THE EQUITY PROPOSAL stage:
The framing and messaging employed by the collaborative regarding the problem and the policy change objectives are repeated and used by policymakers in the decision-making process.
At the BUILD, ADVANCE, and DEFEND stage:
Media and framing analyses reveal increased and improved prominence of the equity issue in the public discourse following the introduction and adoption of the policy proposal.