How to Build a Regional Policy Coalition

1. Ready the Ground: We started out by helping people understand why policy is so important and how it works. This was done through many one-on-one conversations, and a series of policy training sessions geared towards grassroots community-based organizations with little policy advocacy experience (we called it Policy 101, or Everything You Never Learned in High School Civics Class). We also stressed to people working in the community technology field that they are the experts, and their voices need to be heard. We remind people to have the courage of their convictions - we found that policymakers were hungry for information and ideas from our communities. Remember - we elect officials to represent us, and they need to hear our perspective.

We reached out to non-profits organizations such as Community Partners, the Children’s Partnership, the California Center for Health Improvement, the Center for Non Profit Management, the California Teachers Association, and PolicyLink to develop our training sessions. Some of this material is available at http://www.cctpg.org/sacramentoday and http://www.ciof.org/policy. We also helped people to understand that nonprofit organizations can legally lobby, and the rules for lobbying.

2. Develop Common Goals: This was a crucial aspect in developing our strategy. We recognized that everyone needed to buy-in to a policy initiative. So, in the early CIOF period we built on our combined expertise and experience by holding a two-day meeting with our original members to discuss shared mission, values, long & short- range goals, and an action plan. Given the diversity of our stakeholders, it was also important to define goals that were broad enough to be accepted by everyone, yet specific enough to be workable. This was a turning point in our efforts and it brought the group together behind our common goals.

3. Identify Priorities: Without some focus, our goals would have seemed unreachable, so we decided on four key areas to concentrate on in the near-term: public awareness, strategic alliances, issue building and analysis and fundraising to support our policy effort.

4. Define and Disseminate the Message: From this initial meeting and subsequent conference calls, we drafted a policy agenda, which lays out the core ideas and rationale for community technology policy advocacy. Our policy agenda strove to present a simple but powerful message. Our message emphasized the need to move beyond access to training and productive applications of technology. It is based on the fact that schools, libraries, and community-based organizations all need to be key players in the effort to leverage resources dedicated to community technology. Beyond our own agenda we contributed to other policy documents that sought to address the digital divide. Documenting our beliefs, our priorities, and our recommendations have given us both credibility and a valuable tool to use whenever we meet with policy makers.

5. Sustain Network Involvement: Our policy efforts were dictated by local needs and supported by local actions. Thus we developed an organizational structure designed to enable the most participation and collaboration among members and yet make efficient use of our time and other resources. CCTPG has a large statewide membership, a diverse steering committee of 25 members, subcommittees, and a work group, which handle the day-to-day work. We also developed a communications system, which includes a web site where people can get information about the issues and our positions, and an email list to keep members up to date about policy activity. When it's time to call people to action, we try to make it easy, presenting simple tasks that members can easily achieve such as letters to local media, opinion leaders, and elected officials, telling them about the impact of their centers or our position on an issue.

6. Identify Partners and Form Coalitions: By reaching out to organizations, networks, and the private sector, we were able to educate others about the need for greater access to technology and technology training opportunities in underserved communities. Several organizations mentioned Policy Documents that we helped on in their publications on issues of work and health, work force development, and youth development topics. Additionally, CCTPG reached out to other coalitions and networks like the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet), the California After School Partnership, and regional community technology networks to enlist their support for common issues of importance.

7. Be Ready to Respond to Requests: As a result of some of this networking, CIOF/CCTPG representatives were invited to several meetings and hearings in the state capitol where legislative staff were very interested in the CIOF model as it related to bridging the digital divide. To help prepare people speak publicly and to organize our thoughts, we developed talking points and PowerPoint presentations that summarized the issues facing our community and suggested ways to communicate these.

8. Establish a Presence in the State Capitol: Get educated about what's already going on, who's already working on similar issues, and where the pressure points and barriers might be. This step can benefit from some insider knowledge - CCTPG hired a Sacramento-based consultant who already knew the players and the ropes to help guide us through. She spends a majority of her time doing outreach and analysis and a small portion of it lobbying for measures that support the issue of community technology through budgetary, regulatory and legislative efforts. (Due to some funders' restrictions, we cannot use some funds to pay for active lobbying, so we are very careful when we budget and pay for her time.) If you cannot hire that kind of expertise, you can do your own homework by talking to legislative staff people and other 'insiders' to get their perspective and advice.

Through some of the outreach and coalition building we had been doing, we started to get invited to meetings and forums that were focusing on technology use and access issues. We began by meeting with the California Legislative Internet Caucus - most states have a legislative Internet caucus. From that meeting, we began building relationships with the staff people for key legislators and committees. At a pace that surprised most of the network and its friends, CIOF was asked to offer a proposal (for potential inclusion in legislation) that would incorporate our model for bridging the digital divide in California. Now, we are asked for our input on legislation, and can offer suggestions for new legislative efforts.

9. Build a Solid Foundation: Doing policy requires resources and expertise. Through some modest additional grant support and focused outreach to others interested in this issue, CCTPG is now well-positioned to have influence on community technology policy and is sought after by industry groups and other nonprofit organizations to offer advice on how to best bridge the digital divide through community technology programs.

We continually remind ourselves that policy is a process. We try to be mindful that the conversations we established were often more important than a specific legislative action. It is also a process that usually takes more than one year. We have learned to celebrate even our small victories and to have fun doing policy.