California Advocacy Resources
Explore the leading guides, handbooks, and tools for effective advocacy and organizing.
16-Week Policy Advocacy Workshop Simulation
Overview: This hands-on, semester-long seminar explores the methods, tools, and skills used to conduct legislative and regulatory advocacy. Rather than just studying the process, you will actively engage in policymaking. Through a sequence of simulations and assignments, you will learn how to effectuate policy reforms with real-world application by drafting written materials and presenting oral advocacy to demonstrate an implementation strategy for a range of policy reform ideas.
Structure & Workshopping: After three weeks of introductory reading and discussion, there will be short written assignments or preparation for in-class simulations due most weeks. To foster a collaborative environment, students not actively presenting in a given week will serve as the "workshop panel"—providing input, critiquing the writing and presentations of their classmates, and discussing strategies for improvement. The semester will also feature guest lecturers with relevant policy experience from advocacy organizations, think tanks, and government.
Weekly Schedule & Deliverables (5 points per graded assignment)
Phase I: Politics & Goals (Weeks 1-6)
Week 1: The Market and the Polis (Intro to Advocacy)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 1. Understanding the difference between rational models (the market) and political realities (the polis). Introduction to the advocacy project.
- Activity: Identifying systemic gaps and mapping the power dynamics of California’s political landscape.
Week 2: Equity (Issue Spotting)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 2. How different definitions of "fairness" shape policy choices.
- Deliverable 1 (5 pts): A 2-page Issue Spotting Memo. Frame your chosen policy gap as an equity problem, propose a structural solution, and select an administrative/legislative vehicle.
Week 3: Efficiency (Policy Development)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 3. The conflict between efficiency and other democratic goals.
- Activity: In-class workshopping of Week 2 memos. Analyzing how opponents might use "efficiency" arguments to block your equity reforms.
Week 4: Welfare (Petitioning Agencies)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 4. Defining "need" in public policy. Understanding the administrative rulemaking process under state (APA) and federal guidelines.
- Activity: Identifying an open rulemaking period or an existing agency regulation ripe for reform.
Week 5: Security (Commenting on Regulations)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 5. The political psychology of risk, fear, and security.
- Deliverable 2 (5 pts): Draft a formal Public Comment Letter addressed to an agency, framing your regulatory argument around security or risk mitigation.
Week 6: Liberty (Legislative Research)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 6. Negative vs. positive liberty and the politics of paternalism.
- Activity: Reviewing existing California bill text (via Leginfo) to see how competing liberty claims are legally codified and contested.
Phase II: Problems (Weeks 7-11)
Week 7: Symbols (Communications & Media Strategy)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 7. Narrative stories, synecdoche, and metaphors in politics. How to shape the public narrative.
- Deliverable 3 (5 pts): A Media Toolkit. Craft a press release and op-ed outline that uses a compelling symbolic narrative to control the framing of your policy.
Week 8: Numbers (Fact Sheets & Sign-On Letters)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 8. The hidden politics of measuring and counting.
- Deliverable 4 (5 pts): A 1-page Fact Sheet & Sign-On Letter. Use strategic counting and data visualization to condense complex data into a persuasive leave-behind.
Week 9: Causes (Writing Policy Briefs)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 9. Assigning responsibility (accidental, intentional, inadvertent, mechanical causes) to force government action.
- Deliverable 5 (5 pts): A 2-page Policy Brief. Draft a high-impact memo that assigns a clear causal narrative to your policy problem for busy lawmakers.
Week 10: Interests (Grassroots Advocacy)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 10. Mobilizing interests, the free-rider problem, and pluralism. Building power outside the Capitol.
- Activity: In-class coalition mapping exercise. Identifying allies, anticipating opposition, and designing local engagement efforts.
Week 11: Decisions (Legislative Drafting)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 11. Cost-benefit analysis and the politics of decision-making models.
- Deliverable 6 (5 pts): Statutory Drafting. Translate your broad policy idea into strict statutory language (a mock bill or amendment), accompanied by a 1-page digest justifying the legal mechanics.
Phase III: Solutions & Simulations (Weeks 12-16)
Week 12: Incentives (Committee Strategy)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 12. Carrots, sticks, and the politics of shaping behavior.
- Activity: Preparing for committee testimony. Guest lecture on what works (and what fails) when persuading policymakers in hearings.
Week 13: Rules (In-Class Simulation: Hearings Part 1)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 13. How rules mandate behavior and distribute power.
- Deliverable 7 (5 pts): Half the class delivers 3-minute Oral Testimonies defending the rules proposed in their legislation before a mock legislative panel. The non-presenting students serve as the panel.
Week 14: Persuasion (In-Class Simulation: Hearings Part 2)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 14. Indoctrination vs. rational persuasion.
- Deliverable 8 (5 pts): The second half of the class delivers their Oral Testimonies, while the first half serves as the legislative panel managing rapid-fire Q&A.
Week 15: Rights (Amendments & Negotiations)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 15. The creation, expansion, and enforcement of positive and normative rights.
- Activity: A live negotiation simulation where students are handed hostile amendments and must decide whether to compromise to save their bill's core "rights" or kill the bill entirely.
Week 16: Powers (Final Portfolio)
- Focus: Stone Ch. 16. The structure of authority and who ultimately gets to decide.
- Deliverable 9 (10 pts): Submission of your complete, revised Advocacy Portfolio (incorporating all semester feedback) along with a reflection on navigating political power during the simulation.
Grading & Assessment (50 Points Total)
Grades will be determined on the basis of written submissions, in-class role plays, class participation (including workshopping peers), and the final project portfolio. Each of the 8 weekly deliverables is worth 5 points, and the final portfolio is worth 10 points.
General Rubric for 5-Point Deliverables:
- Application of Theory (2 points): The submission accurately applies the week's core concepts and demonstrates a clear understanding of the relevant political or administrative process.
- Professional Execution (2 points): The deliverable mirrors real-world professional standards. It is formatted correctly (e.g., proper memo structure, statutory drafting conventions) and is written clearly, concisely, and persuasively.
- Strategic Depth (1 point): The work anticipates potential opposition and accounts for the practical political realities of California government.
Academic Resource
Community Tool Box
- Community Tool Box
Massive free resource out of the University of Kansas with hundreds of chapters on community assessment, coalition building, writing grants, advocating for change, and evaluating impact.
Internal Structure Guides
Seeds for Change
- Seeds for Change
Free downloadable guides on campaign skills, consensus decision-making, facilitation, and running meetings — especially useful for internal group structure.
Budget Advocacy
California Budget & Policy Center
- Budget Academy
A free open curriculum breaking down how the state budget works. - Dollars & Democracy
Introductory training slide deck explaining rules, key decision-makers, and advocacy opportunities.
Organizer Network
Blueprints for Change
- Blueprints for Change
A set of shared Google Docs targeted at progressive activists covering organizing and campaigning strategies, online-offline approaches, tools, and self-defense for organizers.
Resource Library
The Commons Library
- The Commons Social Change Library
An online collection covering campaign strategy, community organizing, and more.
Methodology Toolkit
Beautiful Trouble
- Beautiful Trouble
A collection of tactics, principles, theories, and methodologies, with free multilingual toolkits.
Legislative Strategy
Indivisible
- State Legislative Advocacy Guide
Free, practical guide covering constituent pressure tactics—letters to the editor mentioning legislators by name, op-eds, and making advocacy visible to legislative staff.
Open Source Guide
Activist Handbook
- Wellbeing for Activists
Resources and guides on maintaining mental health, preventing burnout, and prioritizing wellbeing in movement spaces.
Resource Library
The Commons Library
- Communications for Social Change
Comprehensive guides on digital campaigning, communications, framing, and narrative building.
Open Source Guide
Activist Handbook
- Communication Strategies
A Wikipedia-like site for everyone to exchange knowledge and experiences on activism messaging and communication.
Primary Source Database
California Legislative Information
- Leginfo Database
A free, authoritative platform to track bills, read full text with highlighted amendments, view committee votes, and access staff bill analyses. Essential for understanding current law and legislative arguments.
Open Source Guide
Activist Handbook
- The Activist's Handbook
A Wikipedia-like site for everyone to exchange knowledge and experiences on activism — open source, free to use, by activists for activists, with 450+ guides.
Legal & Policy Advocacy
Alliance for Justice (AFJ)
- California Advocacy Resources Toolkit
Covers regulations impacting nonprofit advocacy in California, the lifecycle of CA legislation, and budget processes. - Bolder Advocacy Initiative
Essential guide on the legal framework for nonprofit advocacy—what 501(c)(3)s can and can't do, tracking lobbying expenditures, and the difference between issue advocacy and direct lobbying.
Government Resource
California Assembly & Senate
- Citizen's Guide to the Legislative Process
Official primary source guides covering how a bill moves from idea through committee, how to testify, what to say to appropriations versus policy committees, and how to read staff analyses.
Educational Materials
Legislative Process Deep Dive
- California Constitution Article IV Legislative [Sec. 1 - Sec. 28]
- Life Cycle of a Bill (Calif. St. Capitol Museum)
- The Life Cycle of Legislation graphic (California's Legislature)
- The Legislative Process, Chap. IX in California's Legislature
- Lifting the Curtain on the California Legislative Process (Video)
Simulation Framework
Harvard Law Policy Advocacy Workshop
- Workshop Structure
A pedagogical model for structuring advocacy campaigns. Sequences through issue spotting, developing campaigns, drafting legislation, and written/oral advocacy.
Methodology Toolkit
Beautiful Trouble
- Theories of Change
A collection of theories and methodologies to understand the cycle that successful social movements tend to follow.
Open Source Guide
Activist Handbook
- Activist Theory
Guides on understanding power dynamics, movement ecology, and the theoretical underpinnings of successful activism.