2013-2014 Collegiate Advocacy Guidebook 1
Guidebook Outline: Section 1: Advocacy & the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) What is Advocacy? What is ACS CAN? Section 2: Advocacy through Colleges Against Cancer A Perfect Fit The Advocacy Chair Advocacy Post-Graduation Section 3: Advocacy Goals Major Campaigns Top Priorities Section 4: ACS CAN & Advocacy Recruitment ACS CAN Membership Recruitment Advocacy at Relay For Life Section 5: Advocacy Tools CAC Advocacy Toolkit E-Advocacy & Social Media Websites & Other Resources Section 6: Advocacy Best Practices Federal Priorities Best Practices ACS CAN Promotion & Membership Best Practices Relay Advocacy Best Practices Other Advocacy Event Ideas Section 7: How to A Legal Guidance How to Hold Effective Events How to Contact your Elected Official How to Communicate with Elected Officials Legal Guidance 2
Section 1: Advocacy and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) What is Advocacy? An advocate is someone who actively supports or speaks out against an issue or cause. By taking part in something you believe in, you are participating in advocacy. In regards to Colleges Against Cancer (CAC), we want you to take part in legislative advocacy, meaning engaging in activities that will change laws, policies, or legislation at the local, state, or federal level. The goal of legislative advocacy is to positively impact the lives of individuals touched by cancer. Cancer is a political issue, not just a health issue. How does involvement in politics help fight cancer? Well, our government can fund cancer research, awareness campaigns, and prevention programs, provide access to quality care, and eliminate health disparities in cancer screening and treatment., but this can only be done if we make it a priority. We want to make sure actions like this are on the government s radar through advocacy! Some examples of advocacy include: Writing/signing petitions Fighting for insurance coverage for cancer patients Communicating with public officials via mail, email, phone, or fax Raising awareness on your campus Sharing your story What is ACS CAN? The ultimate conquest of cancer is as much a public policy aspiration as it is a scientific and medical challenge. - John R. Seffrin, PhD CEO, ACS CAN The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) are independent organizations that share the same goals: to save lives and diminish suffering from cancer. ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the Society. ACS CAN supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem as well as encourages elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top nation priority. ACS CAN is leading a nationwide, grassroots army that is working to ensure that the 10.5 million survivors of this disease are seen and heard by our lawmakers. Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) participants are an integral part of this grassroots army! ACS CAN is taking action by creating a smoke-free country, educating lawmakers and citizens on a variety of cancer issues, guaranteeing patients across the U.S. have access to health insurance, cancer screenings, and treatment, and ensuring that all college students are able to take medical leave from their coursework without affecting their insurance coverage. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training tools they need to make their voices be heard. As the Society s advocacy affiliate, ACS CAN provides the muscle necessary to bring attention to issues related to research funding, access to quality care, prevention, early detection, and treatment. ACS CAN also works to get every lawmaker and candidate on the record in support of laws and policies that help people fight cancer and save lives. ACS CAN gives hope and power to everyone who cares about cancer and wants to see government action. 3
Section 2: Advocacy through Colleges Against Cancer A Perfect Fit CAC is a nationwide collaboration of college students, faculty, and staff dedicated to eliminating cancer by initiating and supporting programs of the ACS and ACS CAN on college campuses. CAC has four pillars: Relay For Life, Survivor and Caregivership, Cancer Education, and Advocacy. Each pillar enables college students to battle cancer on their campuses through different venues- organizing a Relay For Life event, giving hope to survivors and caregivers teaching students about cancer prevention, or conducting letter writing campaigns to elected officials. Everyone can be affected by cancer and has the potential to help cure it through advocacy. Young adults, especially CAC advocates, are important members in the fight against cancer. By fighting for laws that protect cancer patients and fund cancer research, college students can help make a difference in millions of peoples lives. Colleges Against Cancer chapters allow students voices and concerns on cancer control issues to be heard at local, state, and federal levels. The Advocacy Chair One way to maintain an advocacy presence in your CAC is through your Advocacy Chair. The Advocacy Chair aims to increase awareness of ACS CAN legislative priorities by developing projects and events suitable for the campus community as well as your own CAC committee. Some examples of advocacy events follow in Section 6. As an incentive to continually focus on advocacy, CAC chapters extremely dedicated to advocacy efforts throughout the school year are eligible to become an Advocacy Chapter of the Year. More information about National CAC Awards can be found in the Year End Reports at College.RelayForLife.org. Advocacy Post Graduation Advocacy on cancer-related legislation does not need to end when you get your diploma! ACS and ACS CAN events happen in communities across the country. Becoming a member of ACS CAN is a great way to stay involved in advocacy efforts, no matter where you end up. You can get involved in advocacy by serving as a part of an Ambassador Constituent Team in your congressional district. Talk to your staff member for more ideas on how to stay involved! 4
Section 3: Advocacy Goals Today, over 70% of all Americans live in a smoke-free community. - But millions are still forced to work in smoke-filled workplaces. Today, advances in cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, and care mean that we are winning the war on cancer. - But Congress has frozen or cut funding for cancer research and programs for the past five years. Today, women have better access to mammograms. - But millions of women, men and children are uninsured and millions more are underinsured, with little or no access to life-saving screenings and treatments. ACS CAN is the nation s leading cancer advocacy organization and is working every day to make cancer issues a national priority. Many of the most important decisions about cancer are made outside of your doctor s office. Instead, they are made by your state legislature, in Congress, and in the White House. ACS CAN empowers everyone be a part of the growing national movement that is fighting back against cancer. ACS CAN is engaged in a multitude of federal legislative campaigns to geared towards eliminating suffering and death from cancer. ACS CAN also has many state-level campaigns. Head to www.acscan.org to find up-to-date ways to take action on both the federal and state levels! The following two pages will lay out ACS CAN s 2013 Federal Agenda. 5
2013 Federal Agenda Major Campaigns Appropriations for cancer research, prevention, and early detection: ACS CAN will advocate for robust funding for research at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as the cancer prevention and control programs of the Center for Disease Control, including the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Access to health care for patients, survivors, and their families: ACS CAN will advocate for an overall balance that protects low and middle income and elderly cancer patients who rely on Medicare and Medicaid for their health care. ACS CAN will advocate for timely implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), full expansion of Medicaid to all states as envisioned by ACA, and sufficient funding to establish and operate the market-based insurance exchanges through which many cancer patients and survivors will gain access to health care coverage beginning in January of 2014. Advancing patient and survivor quality of life: Cancer patients deserve access to team-based care that treats the whole patient, not just their cancer. The Quality of Life/Palliative Care initiative would improve the lives of cancer patients by coordinating patient care and treating pain and symptoms to increase patient and family satisfaction. Palliative Care focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. ACS CAN will support passage of the Cleaver-Bachus Patient Centered Quality of Life Act and the Wyden-Engel Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act pending in the House and Senate. In addition, ACS CAN will advocate for legislative and regulatory change to make coordinated palliative care available to all cancer patients and survivors in all care settings. ACS CAN legislation would address patient barriers to palliative care in three key areas by: 1) ensuring s sufficient numbers of specialists to teach doctors and nurses to provide high quality palliative care; 2) investing in research on ways to improve patient quality of life through palliative care; and 3) by delivering high-quality palliative care in hospitals, and later expanding that care to other community sites where cancer patients are treated. 6
2013 Federal Agenda Top Priorities Cancer prevention and early detection breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer: Protect funding and authorizations for the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and the National Colorectal Cancer Control Program. Tobacco Control Domestic: Support Federal Drug Administration (FDA) implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Oppose legislative efforts to restrict the act by exempting certain tobacco products like cigars. Support every opportunity to expand cessation services for smokers. Support every opportunity to increase the federal tobacco tax. Tobacco Control Global: Advocate for provisions in future international trade treaties to eliminate the worldwide tobacco industry s ongoing ability to mount legal challenges against effective domestic tobacco control policies enacted in the U.S. and other nations. Disparities: Support initiatives that reduce disparities in cancer incidence and mortality faced by minorities and the medically underserved. ACS CAN will continue to advocate for health disparities research, prevention programs, and patient navigation concepts that optimize outreach, care coordination, and disease management. Nutrition and Physical Activity: Support initiatives that promote better nutrition, physical activity, and improved fitness as a cancer prevention strategy. 7
C o l l e g e s A g ainst Cancer Section 4: ACS CAN & Advocacy Recruitment ACS CAN Membership Recruitment: Recruiting ACS CAN members on college campuses across the country is an important goal within CAC. We need to make sure that students are well represented and included in the ACS CAN grassroots army determined to win the war against cancer. Many ACS CAN successes could not have been achieved without the help of college students! ACS CAN is a membership organization, which means that its efforts are supported by membership dues used to fund legislative campaigns to increase funding for cancer research, prevention, and treatment programs. Membership dues also provide ACS CAN with funding to issue advertisements and create constituent voter guides to put pressure on elected officials. Becoming a member is easy, and it is only $10! You can sign up through the membership brochures that you receive with the CAC Advocacy toolkit (more information on page 9), or you can sign up easy online at www.acscan.org/donatecenter. With the $10 membership, members receive a legislative welcome kit that includes a membership card, personal legislative profile, guide to taking action, and a calendar. Members will receive email action alerts when Congress and state legislatures are debating critical cancer legislation, as well as invitations to special ACS CAN events, like candidate forums. Don t forget to renew your membership each year! Advocacy at Relay For Life Relay For Life is the ideal situation to get college students involved in advocacy. Your Advocacy Chair should provide advocacy updates at Relay committee and team captain meetings along with including advocacy activities at the Relay event. There are also special benefits if your Relay can achieve CAN Club status (recruit at least 40 ACS CAN members per Relay)! Ask your staff partner for more details on this incentive plan. Refer to Section 6 for some advocacy activity suggestions, ranging from handing out petitions to implementing a Fight Back ceremony. More information on Advocacy during Relay For Life events is available in the Relay For Life Advocacy Guidebook located at www.acscan.org/resources. 8
Section 5: Advocacy Tools Because we know you are students first and cancer advocates second, we hope to provide you with the guidance and materials you need to make your advocacy events a success! Included in this section are some tools, instructions, and materials to make advocacy a priority on your campus. CAC Advocacy Toolkit We have CAC specific ACS CAN advocacy materials for you to use at your advocacy events and Relay For Life. The toolkits are free and available to order through your local advocacy or Relay/CAC staff partner. The toolkit will include the following items: Petitions Stickers Brochures Pens Yard Signs These materials will help your chapter in promoting and hosting advocacy events! Please send copies of your completed petitions to ACS CAN, 555 11th Street NW, Suit 300, Washington, DC 20004. Use the originals to decorate your advocacy tent, post on Facebook, or coordinate a sending of the petitions to your local legislators with your staff partner. E-Advocacy & Social Media We know that college students are tech-savvy, and an easy way to get them involved is through e-advocacy and social media! E-Advocacy includes online petitions/action alerts, social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), text message alerts, and much more. Students may find it easier to sign an online petition or email a representative from the comfort of their home or school. E-advocacy is a great way to market your group and events, as well as building a network of easily accessible advocates. You can always check out acscan.org for the latest e-advocacy developments. ACS CAN has mobile messaging alerts that you can receive by texting FIGHT BACK to 30644. Text message alerts give you current updates and ways to take action. Ask your committee members, team captains, and other campus advocates to join the mobile network to stay informed about the latest action in cancer legislation. Standard text messaging rates apply. Another avenue for E-Advocacy and ACS CAN recruitment is by creating an I CAN page. I CAN pages act like a personal website where you can tell your cancer story, take action on legislative priorities, excite others to take action, recruit new members to ACS CAN, and urge others to join the movement! Go to acscan.org/personalpages to create a page! 9
http: // twitter.c om/ ACS Websites & Other Resources ACS CAN, ACS, and CAC also have important websites that are filled with information, resources, and guidebooks to create successful advocacy activities. Explore the following sites to find any other information you may need! And don t forget, you can always email cac@cancer.org with any specific questions you have! Acscan.org/cac College.RelayForLife.org RelayNation.RelayForLife.org Facebook.com/CACRFL Facebook.com/ACSCAN 10
Section 6: Advocacy Best Practices Please refer to the Advocacy Best Practices Calendar for more ideas on how to integrate advocacy into your events! Federal Priorities Best Practices There are many ways you can become involved in advocacy on your campus. We ve included some examples of past successful campaigns to get you started! In general, advocacy could range from presenting advocacy information and petitions on campus to attending a lobby day at your state congress. The opportunities are endless! Funding for Life-Saving Research: Easy: Petition signing for increased cancer research funding. Participate in online/texting alerts. Moderate: Be a Life Saver Pass out Life Saver candies to students with facts about cancer research funding cuts. Intricate: Support the Ones You Love Day Wear pink or red in the month of February and visit your local lawmakers office to urge them to support increased funding for cancer research. Tobacco Legislation: Easy: Be Thankful You Have a Voice cards Urge your lawmakers to support anti-tobacco legislation because those who have passed away from lung cancer no longer have a voice. Moderate: Create your own cigarette boxes Write your cancer story on cigarette boxes and send them to lawmakers urging them to support anti-tobacco legislation. Intricate: Anti-Tobacco Event Fill an area on campus with black flags to represent those who are affected by lung cancer. On an area of pavement, write all 69 cancer causing ingredients in cigarettes so people can be aware of what goes into their body when they smoke cigarettes. Invite campus officials, local legislators, and students to campus to witness the effect tobacco has on college students. Encourage lawmakers to take action by voting on anti-tobacco legislation. Urge other attendees to sign petitions and contact their legislators. Ensure Access to Quality Care: Easy: Participate in Action Alerts on Quality of life legislation when you receive them. (Note: You only receive action alerts if you are a registered ACS CAN member.) Moderate: Host tables with handouts and quality of life to me means petitions. Take pictures of the people holding heir petition up and post on social media. Intricate: Host a palliative care/quality of life forum Feature patients that have had palliative care as well as those who have not to show the difference of quality between the two care methods. 11
C o l l e g es Against Cancer Expand Prevention, Treatment, and Survivorship: Easy: Valentine s Day Cards Send cards to legislators to remind them to increase funding for cancer screenings to support your loved ones. Mother s Day Cards Send cards to campus, city, and state officials to remind them of the importance of funding cancer screenings for breast and cervical cancer. Moderate: Health Week Host a health week, and for one of the five days, set up laptops in the student center and ask students to send colon cancer action alerts to their legislators to urge screenings for early detection. (March is colorectal cancer awareness month.) Intricate: Bra Drop By Drop off a bras (or send bra templates) to a lawmaker s office with information about increasing funding for early detection and screening programs as well as facts on breast cancer. You can alter the number of bras and number of visits for greater impact. ACS CAN Promotion & Membership Recruitment Best Practices: Easy: Display ACS CAN ads around campus Ask all committee members to become ACS CAN members. T-Shirt Fundraiser Sell t-shirts with catchy cancer and advocacy messages such as I Put Out, Save Second Base, or I <3 Boobs. Donate proceeds to ACS CAN. Try to have the t-shirts donated for an even greater profit! Moderate: Play ACS CAN promotional videos in student areas. Recruit ACS CAN members at your Relay team captain meetings. Recruit survivors to join ACS CAN. Intricate: Make your goal BIG! Try to become a CAN Club Relay by recruiting 100 ACS CAN members over the course of your Relay planning year and at your Relay event. Make a VIP tent for people that are ACS CAN members with free food, drinks, and games. Give people access to the tent as an incentive to get them to sign up to be ACS CAN members before or at your Relay For Life. Relay Advocacy Best Practices: Easy: Include advocacy updates at your committee meetings, team captain meetings, and/or participant emails. Moderate: Advocacy Tent Have a tent dedicated to advocacy at your Relay where attendees can fill out petitions, take online action, learn about what is going on in their state legislature, and sign up to be an ACS CAN member. Intricate: Fight Back Ceremony This is a powerful ceremony that serves to inspire Relayers to take action. Pick a talking point, either a federal campaign, state campaign, or something that may be going on at your school. Encourage participants to make a commitment to save a life by signing a banner, filling out a pledge card, and informing them of their state Lobby Day opportunity. 12
C o l l e g e s A g ainst Cancer Other Advocacy Event Ideas Easy: Photo Campaigns: Pick a campaign that may be going on in your state or campus, have people fill out petitions, take photos, and send that picture to their legislator. Back to School Activities Fair Host a CAC table at your schools back to school or student org. fair. Sign up new CAC members, sign petitions, and recruit ACS CAN members. Food for Thought Pass out a healthy snack with advocacy information. Include the ACS CAN website. Moderate: It s Not Politics, It's Cancer Campaign Play the State of the Union address on projectors at a central location on your campus and have ACS CAN information available for students who pass by. Help students understand that advocacy is an important part of the fight against cancer and should not be a partisan issue. Great American Smoke Out Participate in the American Cancer Society s Great American Smoke Out. Add an advocacy component by having students sign petitions to raise the tobacco tax or make your campus a smoke-free campus. Pass out suckers with tobacco facts and give out Kiss Me, I m Smoke-Free stickers. Intricate: Participant In Your State s Lobby Day Almost every state has its own Lobby Day to advocate and lobby on a pressing issues that are relevant to that state. Invite CAC members and other students to inform lawmakers and urge them to take action about the legislation at your Lobby Day. 13
Section 7: How to A Legal Guidance How to Hold Effective Events Publicize! For every event you hold, try to gain as much media attention as possible. Send alerts to campus and community radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers. Use social media and e-advocacy to invite your student body to the event and to take action. Hand out fliers on popular areas of campus! Work with other clubs and organizations on your campus. Coordinate with other CAC chapters in your state for lobby days, petition drives, and other state-wide events Create relationships with your local leaders and legislators. Always invite public officials to your events! Always have information! Make sure you have accurate facts, statistics, and stories that go along with your advocacy goals. Have multiple ways for people to get involved. How to Contact Your Elected Official: Three Main Ways By Letter - Keep your letter short and to the point. - Let your lawmaker know how the issue affects you personally. - Include your full address so they know you live and vote in their district. - Ask for a reply. By Phone - You can call your legislator toll-free by dialing 1-888-NOW-I-CAN. You most likely will not speak directly to your lawmaker, but calls are the fastest, easiest way to let your lawmaker know you care about cancer. - Give your name and address so the person is aware you live in the lawmaker s district. - Be brief and clear. Say exactly what you want. - Ask where the lawmaker stands on the issue. By Email - Go to acscan.org, and click on the Action tab. There, you can take action on federal action items and you can insert your state in the top right hand corner to take action on state issues. The process is very easy! - Always add a personal message including why you care about cancer. 14
How to Communicate with Elected Officials When communicating with or writing to a legislator, remember to utilize these three items: 1. Hook: Tell the official who you are. Make sure they know that you are a constituent of their district. 2. Line: Tell the official your personal cancer story, why you are passionate about the fight against cancer, and why you care about the issue at hand. 3. Sinker: Make you legislative ask. Ask the lawmaker to support your cause. Be very specific. This is the main reason you are meeting with the lawmaker or writing to them! When referring to a bill, be as specific as possible by using both the bill s name and number. 15
Legal Guidance The American Cancer Society s tax status as a public charity prohibits it from supporting or opposing candidates for public office or political parties. ACS CAN s bylaws prohibit it from doing the same. 1. ACS, ACS CAN, and volunteers of the two organizations may not endorse or oppose any political candidate. 2. No one can campaign at any CAC event. 3. You may invite elected officials to ACS events under certain circumstances, but please coordinate with your staff partner and the ACS CAN Advocacy Legal Team before doing so. 4. Candidates can be invited to attend CAC events under certain circumstances: Equal opportunity must be given to all viable candidates, ACS must not indicate support or opposition for any candidate, and no campaigning may be done at the event. Please contact your staff partner and the ACS CAN Advocacy Legal Team when asking a candi date to speak at an event. 5. When volunteering your own time or giving your own money to a candidate, do not hold yourself as a representative of ACS or ACS CAN. 6. Candidates may not place campaign signs at any CAC event, even their own tent at Relay. 16
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