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How to Advocate

What is an Advocate?

Advocacy Pointers

Contacting Your Legislators

How to Write to Your Legislator

How to Follow a Bill

North Carolina's Senior Tar Heel Legislature

North Carolina Advocacy Groups

What is an Advocate?

An advocate is a person who pleads a cause for another. Why are advocates needed? Some of our most vulnerable citizens - frail older adults - are not capable of advocating for themselves. They need representation when key decisions are being made that will affect their quality of life and/or their ability to remain independent within their own homes.

Older adults who are active need to evaluate the needs of seniors in North Carolina, as a group, and work within the legislative system to get needs met. Your elected legislators speak for you in the General Assembly where laws are made that directly affect your quality of life as well as those of other North Carolinians. If you don't let them know what you think, they will have no choice but to do what they think is best.

There are many avenues to make advocacy successful. To follow is a list of points that a successful advocate might follow to effect legislative outcomes in a positive way.

Advocacy Pointers

• letters and phone calls matter to legislators

• find out who represents you and start with them

• if you are supporting a particular bill, find out who sponsored it and contact them directly

• become familiar with the legislative process so that you will know how to keep up with activity related to your issue and will know when and if it is appropriate to contact your legislators

• form letters don't carry as much weight as a letter written from the heart and individually signed

• be really honest about why you feel the way you do

• understand the position of those who might not agree with you; indicate in your correspondence who will not like the proposal/issue and why; and, indicate why your view differs from theirs

• legislators are busy people with many people vying for their time; the more work you can do for them, the more likely they will be able to fully understand your point

• the bottom line is important; if possible, indicate how much your issue will cost, what outcomes are likely, and why it will make a difference

• if there are groups that might have the same point of view as you do, get with them and support the effort together

• don't forget legislative staff; they have the ear of each legislator and can help or hurt your effort; give them respect, and develop a relationship with them, if possible

• make sure your information is accurate

• be realistic

• remember that it takes a long time to effect change; don't be discouraged if your issue does not pass or is not considered

• find out what efforts related to your issue have already been tried and when those efforts happened; who supported the efforts?; who did not?; where do they stand now?; are there any new "players"?

• find others who also support your issue and understand their points, concerns, remedies, etc.; they may have thought of something you haven't and/or they may have connections and influence that you don't

• find out who has influence with a legislator - who do they listen to and who's opinion do they respect?; try to get that person to speak on your behalf

• county commissioners, mayors, and city council members often carry great weight with legislators; can you get them on your side?; will they be willing to speak on your behalf?

• be respectful, non-threatening, non-demanding, and be really honest about what you feel and why without being confrontational

Follow these points and you will have a good chance of being successful.

Contacting Your Legislator

Who Represents You? will take you to the General Assembly website where you may search for your representative by county, by N.C. district, by U.S. Congressional district, or by zip code.

Direct Links to Region J Representatives will take you to the Triangle J website page where you may choose your representative and the link will take you directly to their website.

Room/Phone/E-Mail for the House and Senate will provide you with an easy to read chart providing contact information for each representative.

E-Mail Addresses of Legislators will take you to the General Assembly website where you can send an e-mail to all the House members, all the Senate members, and/or all the Legislators at one time.

Leadership of the State of North Carolina will take you to the General Assembly website where you will find contact information for state leadership, starting with the Governor.

How to Write to Your Legislator

Writing your legislator should not be hard if you follow a few simple steps.

• address the letter properly; send to:

The Honorable (name of Senator or Representative)
North Carolina General Assembly
c/o State Legislative Building
Raleigh, NC 27611

• start your letter with "Dear (Senator _____ or Representative ______)"

• identify yourself and any organization you might be representing

• if you are a Veteran or are a member of some other easily identifiable group, state that as well

• briefly include any information about yourself that might help the legislator relate to you as a person

• be sure to let the legislator know if you are in his or her district; this is very important; legislators are elected; if you have the capability to vote for or against a legislator, it matters

• if you are writing regarding a specific bill, include the bill number and any other identifying information; it would help the legislator to understand your views if he or she has this information; if you don't have identifying information, try and get it by using the "Bill Search" section of the General Assembly website (See "How to Follow a Bill" section below)

• state your views clearly, briefly, and honestly

• write the letter in your own words

• don't be intimidated

• put your views in human terms that will touch the heart of the legislator

• be sure to discuss, briefly, why you feel the way you do

• if you have any cost information related to the bill, discuss that as well

• if you know that there are going to be opposing views on the issue, get them out front and discuss them and why your views should be supported

• make absolutely sure your information is accurate and not based on rumors or what someone else told you

• do your homework related to the bill so you know your facts and can discuss them accurately and well

• again, be brief and to the point, be honest, be yourself when you write, and put your views in personal terms so that a legislator can fully understand your issues and can understand the need to support your view

How to Follow a Bill

Bills Related to Aging is a list of aging related bills, with corresponding numbers, provided by the North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services.

Bill Look-Up By Number will take you to the General Assembly website where you can use the bill numbers to search for the full text of the bill and it's status.

Bill Search By Text will take you to the General Assembly website where you can find all bills that include specified text. This can be useful if you know what a bill is about but do not know the bill number. This can also be useful in finding other introduced bills that may relate to your area of interest.

Simple Bill Inquiry will take you to the General Assembly website where you may search for a bill by various means.

Last Action on Bills will take you to the General Assembly website where you are able to see a list of the bills with an indication of where they are in the legislative process. (Under "Bill Reports")

North Carolina Advocacy Groups

The North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services has compiled a list of Advocacy and Advisory Groups working on issues related to older adults. Contact information is provided. Representatives are sensitive to the number of individuals and the number of influential groups that support an issue. It may be more beneficial to support a group effort that is in line with your views than to try to influence your representatives as an individual. Talk to the contact person for the group to help decide which avenue might work best.

Triangle J has identified major aging issue priorities of some of the more organized advocacy groups in North Carolina.

All this information is provided with the hope that you will become involved in making your community a better place to live.