Advocacy

One of our standing committees is Advocacy.  It meets monthly 


a.    Committee Chair Paul Stansbury first gave a brief overview on the purpose of this committee: it was created as a need at our July 2014 Retreat to help educate our civic partners and communities about the South Bay’s homelessness landscape and to advocate for more regional resources. Individuals doing advocacy on behalf of SBCEH would represent the interests of the Coalition and not their individual organization.  He reviewed the draft “Policy on Advocacy,” which sets the foundation for our work in this area.

He went over key points in the “Public Policy Advocacy: What, Why & How” handout. Since we are not a 501(c)3, we are not restricted by lobbying regulations; however, he recommended we nevertheless follow them as a sound practice.  We can lobby for a particular action but cannot endorse a candidate running for office.

Members of the Coalition get frequent requests to support legislation, often that requires a very short timeframe in which to respond.  He led a discussion on how we should determine what position we should take.  While there is applicable legislation at the national level, it was felt we would have more impact on local issues -- to be the voice of our community on state and local measures.  His committee will draft a set of “guiding principles” that can be used to inform future endorsement requests