toolkit

You have already signed the petition and contacted your legislator.  Now you want to organize other people to take some action.  Maybe you want to:

• Get others to sign the petition or contact their legislators,
• Meet face-to-face with your state legislator,
• Find out what sex education is happening in your community,
• Hold a forum to educate others on this issue
• Improve sex education in your local school

Now is the time for action.  And this is the place for resources.  Below are five things you can do right now to get started.  Throughout this website are many tools you can use to make your voice heard and create change in your community.  But it's your ideas and creativity that will make any action in your community or school successful. 

NEW!  Web buttons for your site!  Help us spread the word by linking to us from your personal or organizational website.  Click here for images and links you can download and post.

Keeping checking this page for new tools.  Throughout the campaign, we will add new and useful resources for you to use to make the difference you want to see in your community. 

If you have questions, want more information, or simply want to join the campaign, don't hesitate to contact us. 

Top Five Things to Do RIGHT NOW!

1. Gather petitions from friends, family, and community.  This could be done in all sorts of settings.  You can do this while at church or school.  You can carry it around in your purse or backpack and collect signatures any time the moment seems right.  Find out ideas of how to do this here.

2. Hold a forum in your community or on your campus.  This word can seem much scarier than the reality of the event.  A forum is simply an opportunity to gather people together for education and conversation.  Forums can be fun and do not have to be stuffy.  Have a potluck after church one Sunday afternoon and pull everyone together to talk about the issue.  Click here for some ideas on who to invite, or Contact The Campaign to have someone assist you in planning this.

3. Write a letter to your local newspaper.  Again, this is much easier than you think.  Getting something published in the paper can reach a great deal of people in your community and really stimulate some dialogue.  You might as well submit something.  There are even sample letters you can use.

4. Contact your State Senator.  Legislation has been introduced, but professional lobbyists can do only so much.  You have already contacted your state senator through the Take Action Center.  You can meet with your state legislator to help them understand how important this is for your community.

5. Sign up to receive updates on the Campaign, we will let you know about upcoming opportunities.

Collect Petition Signatures

Petitioning is just about the easiest advocacy activity you can do. The best thing to do is gather up a few friends, some clipboards, extra pens, and plenty of energy and set out for your location. You can get a table and sit down in an area where people will walk by and hope they will stop (which is likely on many school campuses), or get out the clipboards and hit the streets. Both methods can be very effective.

Always be prepared to answer questions.  People have them, and you need to make sure you can deal with them.  You can start with the Get Informed Section of this website for information to respond to questions.  If you would like to go further, you can Conduct Research of your own.  Writing out your own talking points in your own language from the materials you gather will be especially useful in preparation as well.  Also, you may want a "palm card" with your contact information for people who want to get more information and/or get involved with the work you are doing locally.

Ideas for collecting petitions:

• Find a local printer or organization that will make copies of the petition.  You can download a copy here, or contact the campaign for copies.
• Set up a table in a high-traffic area.  This may be in a central place in town or on campus.  Have a sign that draws people to you.  Have a one- or two- sentence statement about the petition.  Have some candy to give to people once they sign.
• Set up a lemonade stand that sells lemonade and collect petition signatures while you are at it.  This is a fun and engaging way to draw people to your table.
• Post the petition with a pen tied to a string on your dorm room or office door and let people sign as they walk by.
• Stand outside public transportation, office building, or busy restaurant with clipboards and ask people to sign.
• Pass around the petition at any meetings you attend.
• Walk around with the petition in your backpack or purse so you are prepared whenever the time is right.
• Be creative with signs or theatrical events that will draw people to you and build interest in your petition and the issue.

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Meeting with Your State Legislator

Face-to-face meetings are the most in-depth form of advocacy with the longest-lasting impact.  In these meetings, you get the opportunity to explain your position, hear the legislator's response, and engage them in conversation about the issue.  Oftentimes, you will have the opportunity to clear up misinformation or provide them with new information.  You always have an opportunity to put a human face on the issue which is much more visceral than any written or phone correspondence.

The Set-Up

Choose if you want to meet them in your home district or if you want to go to Springfield.  If meeting in your home district, you can go to their office or meet them somewhere in the community.  If they are in session, you will want to go to Springfield to maximize impact of your visit.  To set up an appointment, you can call first or fax a request and then make a phone call to follow up.  Once on the phone, get a specific time and place. 

The Plan

You want to decide how you would like the meeting to go.  If you don't plan out your meeting, you may not be able to get your point across.  The legislator may take the meeting in a different direction if you are not prepared.  If you have other people attending the meeting with you, split up roles so it is not chaos when you are in the meeting.  And finally, practice what you are going to say.  You can role-play with a friend or family member how the meeting might go.  Practice finding agreement and finding opposition so you are prepared for whatever you find.  Also, prepare any materials you want to leave behind for the legislator.

The Greeting

Be sure to arrive on time and dress professionally.  Be cordial and relaxed.  Remember, this person is just a member of your community.  If you have identified something you have in common, bring it up.  Did you attend the same school?  Do you know one of their family members?  Did they grow up in your neighborhood?  Is there a picture of kids on their desk?  Ask about them.  Bring something up.  This will put you and them at ease and help open them up to you.  Be sure to spend enough time there but don't get lost in this conversation.  You may want to say, "Well, let me tell you why I set up this appointment."

The Pitch

This is something you will want to write out and practice before you get in there.  You want to tell them what you would like from them with some supporting reasons.  Start out with our Get Informed Section for ideas on points to drive home.  Personal stories help bring the issue home.  Specific application to your home district helps make it a priority for the legislator.  Statistics and research can be useful – within reason.  Too much information gets lost.  Pick two or three pieces of information that resonate with the interests of the legislator and really drive the point home.  Be sure to be clear about what you want the legislator to do.  Finish your pitch by asking if the legislator will act on your request.

The Discussion

This last question will lead to discussion.  This is where you need to be prepared with additional information and ideas.  Printing off information from the Get Informed pages will help with this.  Be sure to be strong on your request.  Don't back down, but be respectful.  The legislator may have reasons they cannot support your opinion.  Listen to them and think of ways around these barriers.  Realize you may not change their mind right then, but after they give it some thought and you follow up, they may.  Maintaining respectful and thoughtful conversation will aid this.  If they ask a question to which you do not know the answer, tell them you will do some research and get back to them.  MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THIS.

The Wrap-Up

When the time comes, be sure to thank the legislator for their time and consideration.  Repeat your request and anything you promised to do as follow up.  If they need time to consider what you mentioned, tell them when you will call to follow up and get their answer.  Leave something behind with information about the bill, issue, and your contact information.

The Debrief

As soon as you leave, take fifteen minutes to de-brief.  If you have people with you, do this together.  Write down what issues were discussed, what was decided, and what you are going to do as follow up.  Be specific with this plan.  Who will do the research?  When will you do it?  Who will call back or visit the office to drop off the information?  When will you do it?  Contact the Campaign to let us know what happened so we can track legislative progress.

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Get Support in Your Community

As you are starting your organizing, you may want to get some support locally.  This is going to look very different depending on who you are, where you live, and what you are hoping to accomplish. For some, this may mean pulling together some friends or family members to work with you.  It may mean pulling together youth groups in your school, church, or general community, or pulling together a more formal collective of interested groups and individuals in your community.

Common Allies

Building community support can aid you in really making a difference in your community.  Community support can build momentum, increase effectiveness, and increase your resources.  These resources can include more people, funds, influence, space for meeting, and materials.  When you choose supporters to work with, you need to ascertain their position on sex education before asking them to join you.  While differing views can help make a better process, people opposed to the foundational belief in a comprehensive approach to sex education can stop your work in its tracks.

Common allies include:

• Churches – churches can often offer access to church members, space for meeting, materials for flyers, respect within the community and with leaders, spiritual perspective on the issue, and much more.  If the church is not interested in joining you as a whole, the youth group or another group within the church may be interested in joining your effort, even if for certain events.
• Youth groups (church, school, or community) – youth groups bring perspectives from the young people directly impacted by sex education.  They also bring their members, fresh perspectives, creativity, access to youth-only spaces and schools, and resources from their sponsoring organizations.
• HIV/AIDS organizations (service, advocacy, or education) – these organizations often are very interested in this issue as comprehensive sex education has great impact on HIV/AIDS prevention.  These groups are often connected to elected officials, bring the HIV/AIDS perspective, have access to educational materials, and bring wisdom after years of organizing around a controversial issue.
• Educators – teachers and faculty can provide a great perspective and know the players in the school system.  They also may be the ones who ultimately implement the sex education program.  Joining them in your effort may make success flow more easily.
• School administrators – administrators have access to the decision-makers or are the decision-makers themselves.  If they are not involved, they can use this as an opportunity to subvert the work you are trying to accomplish.
• Medical professionals and public health organizations – these organizations offer the medical perspective and often have access to research and resources.  They include local doctors, nurses, medical unions, community health centers, Planned Parenthood clinics, city and county departments of health, and advocacy organizations.
• Parent groups – parents are the greatest concern for school officials when dealing with the issue of sex education.  Even though anywhere from 75-98% of parents in most polls on sex education would like schools to teach about both abstinence and contraception, their voices are often not represented in the debate.  Including them in your work, especially if they are your own parents, can have great impact.  These groups include parenting classes, Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA), Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and more.
• LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) groups – because gay and lesbian people are the only people who cannot legally marry, they are excluded and ignored from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.  LGBTQ people are often excluded from comprehensive curricula as well because people fear talking about issues related to them.  These groups include Gay-Straight Alliances, PFLAG, and LGBTQ youth drop-in centers.
• College groups – groups such as Young Democrats, VOX, Feminist Majority, and Choice USA, can help mobilize communities, hold forums, and collect petition signatures.  Many of these groups already have sex education as a priority.

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