CPJ's Advocacy Toolkit

What is an advocacy toolkit?

Have you ever been faced with injustice, but have felt powerless to do anything about it? When it comes to changing something in the political sphere, we may do nothing because we think that politicians are too busy, that our issue may not be important compared to other issues, or that we aren’t knowledgeable enough to speak out.
This toolkit is designed to show you that you have the power to influence the legislative process. It is a matter of knowing where the access points are, whom to contact, and what to say. This toolkit provides useful information on different methods of advocacy, when to use each, and how to get your voice heard most effectively.

We hope that this resource will be helpful to you in exercising your privilege to be an active and engaged Canadian citizen!*

Toolkit Highlights:

• To help make this toolkit user-friendly, we have created a Glossary of Advocacy Terms [1].
• In order to know which action to take on a specific issue, see our Choosing Tactics Chart [2].
• To know at which point in the legislative process to speak up, see the section on The Legislative Process and Advocacy [3].
• The Example of a Successful Advocacy Campaign [4] will give you a real-life example of advocacy in action.
• Samples: We have also included a sample letter [5], sample petition [6], sample one-page brief [7], and sample press release [8].

*While we refer mostly to advocacy at the federal level in this toolkit, the principles and suggestions found inside can be applied to any level of government.