Public Interest Policy Coordinated Grassroots Advocacy Campaigns

Keysha Brooks-Coley, legislative aide responsible for HIV issues in Senator Mikulski's (D-MD) office and Javier G. Salazar.

Begun in the fall of 2003, PPO successfully organized coordinated advocacy campaigns for diverse APA public interest governance committees to lobby Senate offices in their home states on several hot legislative topics.

The coordinated advocacy campaigns highlight the need for APA grassroots outreach to members of Congress and emphasize the importance of establishing relationships with members of Congress and their staff. What sets this campaignapart is its emphasis on developing relationships with members of Congress, both within and outside the Capital Beltway, in their home states.

Participating members agree to recruit at least two of their colleagues in their home states to attend meetings in the local offices of their members of Congress (who are pre-selected by PPO staff.) PPO staff prepare the APA members with talking points, meeting guidelines, background materials on their Senator(s) and/or Representative and the issue, a briefing sheet and a sample script. PPO staff also conduct conference calls to further members' preparation and advocacy training.

New! More information about this campaign is available in the September 2004 Monitor, as well as the March 2004 Monitor.

CLGBC member Dr. Glenda Russell and Kim Trent (in blue), a staffer in Senator Stabenow's (D-MI) Detroit office, discuss the psychological research on same-sex families and the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.

Past Coordinated Advocacy Campaigns:

Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (click for more information and pictures from the meetings.)
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Concerns
Committee on Psychology and AIDS
Committee on Women in Psychology (CWP) and Division 35 - Society for the Psychology of Women [Members advocated for support of legislation that would fund domestic violence research.]

Coming soon -- Updates on coordinated advocacy campaigns with APA's:

Committee on Children, Youth and Families
Committee on Aging