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When you’re trying to make a change in the policy world, it’s especially important to craft a plan early and thoroughly. Policy advocacy involves a lot of coordination, challenges, and surprises. You need to be prepared and adaptable to effectively mobilize around your issue and avoid being caught off guard. This section will help you do that! Here you’ll find resources to plan and execute a effective campaign on an issue that’s deeply felt and widely felt by your community, and to build a strong coalition. 

Plan for a campaign that keeps going, and going, and going…until you win!

Learn from this PWN hosted webinar about what an advocate is. For more light reading on long-term campaign planning, click here.
Download the slides here.

We know there are a lot of issues that need our attention, so you’ll have to narrow the list and choose your campaign issue(s) carefully.

Download the slides here.

You can watch the recorded webinar to find out how to make campaign strategy charts and learn how to identify and engage key stakeholders.

Download the slides here.

Learn who the players are with whom to do advocacy and how to start building relationships with policy makers.

Get grounded and build power with grassroots and community organizing!

Women living with HIV have played a prominent role in the grassroots HIV movement, and we know you will too! You can learn more about it, and take in strategies to develop your own grassroots campaign. Or if you have some time, check out this comprehensive toolkit.

Unfortunately, all campaigns need money, so be sure to brush up on grassroots fundraising for success with our webinar below. (And here’s a great article on the power of grassroots advocacy.)

Download the slides here.

Know your rights for police encounters and protesting as you’re building the movement for justice and equity. Need something more? Check out Indivisible, a movement with resources to support and amplify groups or campaigns mobilizing for progressive change. You can also find crowd-sourced information on dangerous governmental policies and learn resistance techniques with the Resistance Manual.

Community organizing may sound daunting, but in a nutshell, it means taking your passion for the issue you are working on and taking it to the community impacted by that issue to get their buy-in and support. To be an effective community organizer, you have to know, understand, and have the trust of the community you’re working in; have understanding of the issue you’re working on (both the problem and the desired solution) and a passion for it; and be willing to talk to people, even those who may disagree with you at first. You never know whose mind and heart you may change!

In the videos below, you’ll hear from two master community organizers on the who, what, when, where, why, and how of organizing!

Here’s PWN Membership Engagement Coordinator Evany Turk on what community organizing is, what an organizer does, what challenges she’s faced in her work, how people living with HIV who aren’t comfortable disclosing can still get involved, and how YOU can get involved:


And here is Toni-Michelle Williams of Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative in Atlanta (SNaP Co) on what community organizing means to her, what lessons she’s learned in her work, and what her greatest victory has been so far:

Build out a powerful and sustainable coalition

Coalition building is critical to a strong, inclusive campaign, and the video below explains why.



Speaking of inclusivity, learn about centering the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV (MIPA) in coalition spaces with these slides from PWN-USA. Nothing about us without us!

The Community Toolbox has helpful information on long-term coalition and partnership building from the ground up.

You can also browse some simple steps to make a coalition sustainable and successful.

Engaging in advocacy as a young person

You can get involved with the Center for HIV Law & Policy’s Youth Advocacy Corps or start an URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity) chapter. There are also helpful resources to boost your knowledge base, like the Young HIV Advocates Cookbook: Recipes for Taking Action Online and the Advocates for Youth HIV portal.

Here is PWN member and superstar advocate Tiffany Marrero on her experience with advocacy: how she got started, what (and who) has helped her get involved and hone her skills, and her advice for young aspiring advocates.

Check out these excellent resources on youth-adult partnerships and community participation, a movement in the public health field that respects the rights and responsibility of community members—including youth—to diagnose the root causes of a community problem and to actively engage in addressing it.

All good with Part 3? Click here to move on to Part 4: Getting Your Message Out There

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