The Risks Have NEVER Been This High in 45 years
Do not mistake this as the situation we faced in years past when a Republican Congress or a Republican President put us on the chopping block. In the 30 years of NCAF's existence, never before have we faced so serious a threat to the program. We are being attacked by both parties and from two branches of government. There is no room for complacency or for error.
If we assume support from our Congressional Delegation under pressure: We lose Community Action.
If your communities and local leaders don't rally behind you with active support? We lose Community Action.
If we're perceived as only being supported by the poor or by those who get CSBG directly (including CAA staff)? We lose Community Action.
If each CAA leader does not make a different effort, focused on CSBG, than has ever been called for in the past: We lose Community Action.
The Route Back to High Ground: HOW WE CAN WIN
Many of you have already started on different approaches from our plan, tactics that have worked before, such as mass mailings, demonstrations and messages to the White House. Some CAA directors have gotten good press coverage. We are consciously pressing for a different and more difficult set of actions, aimed solely at Congress.
We have consulted experts and the Senate and House champions of CSBG and the approach outlined below reflects new wisdom about new challenges. The biggest change: don't let the CAA Staff be the face or the voice defending the agency. Put your message and organizing talents to work so your volunteer leader, Board members, officials and partners testify to the community's trust in the CAA. Messages must be worded differently, too. Please try to adjust yesterday's practices to these new requirements.
The Strategy: a majority of the Members of Congress need to learn that the local leaders and regular voters who support them also value and trust their CAA and believe it is effective and necessary. They need to recognize that CSBG is essential to their popular CAA's effectiveness. They need to know it is a local institution, not another federal program. We believe that this can generate the critical mass of committed Senators and Representatives who will stand up to the President and the House and the Republican leadership so CSBG can survive in the final summit on the FY 2012 funding.
CAAs must orchestrate many different CSBG-related communications and persuasive events over several months. Plan strategically for a marathon-not a sprint.
The Steps: Your local leadership, including all the partners who work with you, must learn your message and deliver it on behalf of your agency many times over the coming months. Any time that the Director or other staff is speaking to the press, the public or especially the Congress without influential local people taking the lead is a missed opportunity at best and may weaken the case to Congress at worst.
Step 1: Today, create an assessment of the impact of losing CSBG Funds as soon as March 5 or as "late" as October 1. Highlight the damage to the community in the areas listed below and share it with your Board, local elected officials and key partners. Avoid the common mistakes of CAA Communications that send a message you do not intend to many audiences. Click Here For Damage Assessment Guide
Click Here for a terrific example of a damage assessment
Step 2: As soon as #1 is complete, inform your Board and key partners about the damage assessment and ask for a commitment to be active and visible in a fight that may last the rest of this year. Meet and discuss the role of CSBG so that your leadership knows the difference it makes and the language that works when describing the impact. Poll each about his/her connection to members of your Congressional delegation, as well as to other elected officials and influential citizens who know the Member. Keep a record of commitments and actions to consult often and share with NCAF. Assess your Board members' willingness to speak out on behalf of the agency and to become your public 'face'; begin the strategic log and map you will expand as you reach out to more supporters.
Step 3: Based on your Damage Assessment, create a press release for Monday morning when the President's 2012 budget is publicized. Ask if you can quote your board chair, or any other influential community leaders that are friends of your CAA. The focus should be CSBG- do not discuss LIHEAP, Head Start, or WAP.
Step 4: Congressional Meetings and Follow-up : Set up local District office meetings with your Representatives/Senators and their local director where your CAA's partners go as a group, with the director as a resource but not a presenter to deliver the core message Have your partners/spokespeople who do not work for the CAA request a group meeting in the Representatives and Senators District office. The House is home the week of Feb 21. Meet the top home office staffer if you cannot see the Member on the first try.
Step 5: Letters from the public. Provide the damage assessment widely . Encourage personal (handwritten if not from an organization) letters to your Congressional delegation from all of your constituencies "What X CAA means to our/my group and this community. What the House Bill and the President's proposal will mean. The last program that should be cut is the one that isn't run by the government but is designed and led by our local community and creates unique local programs like __
* Provide the contact info/address, prioritize sending the mail to the District office. Get the information from the Representative/Senator's website.
*Ask for copies. Minimum: get a note telling you who got a constituent letter and the date. Ask them to share the answer they get.
Step 6: Calls by the public. We will need tens of thousands to call the Capitol on a day before key decisions are made, possibly as early as March. These calls can only be made on personal phones. Our aim is to flood the switchboards and be noticed in a dramatic way. Please sign up a hundred potential callers and arrange a way to alert them when it is time. There will be short notice.
Step 7: Social media: again, only personal media sites can be used and message control is essential. We will consult with experts and with CAAs who use social sites actively to arrive at safe recommendations for your partners and constituency. Given the risks - social media are to be viewed cautiously as tools.
When you have them ready: Get NCAF the materials we need to be able to represent your work and your use of CSBG accurately and on short notice. Attached is our information request. Please forward it to your state association director and to the legislative point person for your region.
CRUCIAL MESSAGE STRATEGIES
Defending every program at once= defending nothing:
The Community Action Network is THE ONLY group there is to defend CSBG. Obviously, all of our programs are important, but losing CSBG is the only program that could result in our losing everything. CSBG MUST BE OUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY. You may take fact sheets to leave regarding LIHEAP or Child Care , Community Health Centers and all the bad proposals, but remember that today only one network, CAAs is defending our core resource and our right to claim it.
Similarly- if CAAs say CSBG "supports" the other programs - CSBG will die first. Your argument could be that CSBG funds a unique, concrete initiative, building or service for participants in some program - perhaps a childrens' center for parents in training in a TANF or adult ed. program- but NOT 'more outreach for LIHEAP' or worse, emergency fuel payments. The same subcommittee will have to decide between the competing claims of all these programs. If CSBG is 'more' of LIHEAP- why not just move the money over and skip the complication? If CSBG pays a caseworker who takes a few LIHEAP enrollees with extreme debt burdens and other financial crises and works with them in a financial literacy and family development program with terrific results, then describe this as a separate program coordinated with LIHEAP crisis intake and partnered with utility credit departments.
Messages: Many of the terms and concepts CAAs used in the past no longer have positive meanings to the general public. Talking about the poor and showcasing most individuals' story doesn't work. NASCSP has good material on its site under 'manuals' at www.nascsp.org/csbg. Please review them and make the needed changes in your communications strategy. You can ask NCAF staff for input on your drafts, too.
Please do not post our strategy documents or yours on public sites, like Association or agency web sites or facebook pages. There is a fierce competition underway among all advocates. Further, we are opposing the policy of a President we admire and whose reach through our community of allies and through the online media is a long and penetrating reach. Similarly, know which partners will prioritize your CAAs' concerns before you share a strategy, a platform or your roadmap.
NCAF is still short of the resources we need to staff this campaign, and CAP-PAC cannot meet the demand for our attendance at key events. Your accelerated donations and expanded donations would have very high impact at this critical time.
