National PTA was founded by advocates, and has a strong history of impacting education policy and advocating for children. Advocacy is required to achieve success for all children. There are many ways to achieve social change, and all have their uses. PTA and its members utilize different forms of social change in our overall advocacy efforts. PTA’s Advocacy Training focuses on grassroots advocacy and our resources include content and materials that will help any local, district or state PTA build its advocacy capacity by creating a campaign strategy and training leaders and members on key advocacy skills.
PTA resources will allow leaders to:
- Create a cadre of parents that are ready, willing and able to advocate on policy issues;
- Demonstrate PTA’s influence with key stakeholders by PTA becoming a go-to resource for decision-making;
- Strengthen systems and processes to support high-impact advocacy initiatives.
Using the following available resources will provide a marked opportunity to improve your advocacy capabilities, enhance your ability to mobilize grassroots, increase your stature as a critical education reform player and have a major impact on improving educational opportunities for children.
Full Training Manual
Module 1: Advocacy
Module 2: Campaign Strategy
Module 3: Coalition Building
Module 4: Media
Module 5: Social Media
Module 6: Recruitment and Organizational Building
Module 7: Meeting with Decision Makers
Module 8: Volunteer Management and Development
Module 9: Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
- Advocacy: Michigan PTA's former Vice President for Child Advocacy Mary DeYoung-Smith shares a definition of advocacy and a brief framework for issue advocacy.
- Media: A brief overview of the Media module by Delaware PTA.
- Meeting with Decision Makers: A brief overview of the Meetings with Decision Makers Module by Delaware PTA.
- Recruitment: A brief overview of the recruitment module by Springdale City Council PTA, Springdale Arkansas.