Community advocacy: Making change where you live

If you’re overwhelmed about the state of the country and current or looming policies, you’re not alone. Government decisions and actions coming from the top have sweeping and staggering repercussions — not just on a national level, but on local governments, too.

When big, national policies and culture shifts feel out of control, you can turn to your own communities to make a difference. Local, grassroots advocacy can create real, important change in people’s daily lives, and can lead to even larger impact.

For example, starting in 2018, local community activists in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania uncovered systemic racial bias in home appraisals. They exposed that Black homeowners’ properties were being undervalued by tens of thousands of dollars. Their research provided concrete evidence that spurred local experiments, like “whitewashing” homes to test appraisal biases, and caught national media attention. 

This grassroots movement ultimately influenced federal policy, leading to the creation of the PAVE Task Force aimed at eliminating racial discrimination in home appraisals (now with an unclear future).

Learn more about the impact of community advocates like these and how you can participate in making life better for you and your neighbors.

→ Start a petition now on Change.org

What is community advocacy?

Community advocacy involves individuals or groups in a specific community raising awareness about issues that are affecting them to find solutions. They may also contribute their time, expertise, or services to help others in the community as a volunteer or professional. 

Community causes can include improving local parks, fighting for better schools, making roads safer, addressing public mental health, and affordable housing, to name some. 

Community advocates often collaborate with neighbors and local organizations to bring their needs and concerns to the local government or other decision makers who can make necessary changes. It’s a hands-on, team effort where everyone plays a part in creating a fairer, healthier, and more vibrant community.

Why is community advocacy important?

Simply put, community advocacy is how local residents can speak up for themselves and get their needs met. It takes intentional planning and action to represent the concerns and interests of a group so those in authority are aware and respond. Community advocacy is valuable and often critical because it:

• Addresses and works to resolve important community problems, ranging from healthcare to public safety, and everything in between
• Connects community members and groups with their elected officials who are responsible for hearing and supporting them
• Can help shape local policies and decisions through individuals and organizations championing community interests 
• Directs focus and attention to the needs and struggles of under-represented and underserved parts of the community

Community advocacy strategies: Lessons from successful campaigns

There are amazing community advocates doing important work across the country and the globe to draw inspiration from. We can take the lessons that impactful community campaigns teach us about strategies and best practices to integrate into our own efforts.

These examples range from single community members starting a movement to projects run by organizations with a lot of resources tackling large-scale change. Regardless of the size and scope, each success story has valuable insights we can learn from.

Long Island group calls on local government officials to improve therapy for children with disabilities

In 2024, parents and caregivers from Nassau and Suffolk Counties started a petition to demand fair compensation for providers who serve preschoolers with disabilities. They highlighted a severe provider shortage stemming from 25 years of unchanged wages despite a 60% inflation increase. 

The campaign was a clear success, resulting in the immediate response from the local governments it targeted. In response to the petitioners’ calls to action: 

• Nassau County announced a 25% pay increase for providers which amounts to a $10 increase per half hour of treatment
• Suffolk County announced an 11.5% pay increase for providers, which amounts to a $5 per half hour increase as Suffolk’s rates were already $5 higher than Nassau before these changes

Winning strategies from the campaign

Here are the ways the local group achieved its goals:

• Collective action to solve a shared problem: Community members with a common goal of fair wages for providers and ensuring qualified, professional care for children joined together to take action
• Sharing credible data to emphasize the issue: The group utilized data from reputable sources to support their claims and strengthen their argument
• Targeted specific decision makers and a clear call to action: They targeted their appeal directly to elected officials, pushing for clear, concrete action at the local level
• Used a digital tool as a campaign hub: They used an online petition to raise awareness about the problem and gain support from a diverse group of over 12,000 signers to demonstrate the broad desire for change
• Expanded campaign reach by mobilizing supporters: They directed supporters to grow the campaign by encouraging them to share the petition on social media

Rochester, NY’s appeal to community leaders to make a better environment for kids

A group of residents in Rochester, New York joined forces to advocate for policies that prioritize safe, accessible play spaces for kids. They created their movement to find a solution to poverty and inequities facing their community, particularly the children living there.

Their campaign included: 

• Bringing 62 residents, including children, to speak at City Council meetings
• Sending 2,200 postcards about their mission and requested actions to local officials
• Gathering 4,000 petition signatures to support their cause 

Their efforts culminated in the adoption of Rochester 2034, a plan that dramatically increased commitments to placemaking, play, and healthy neighborhoods. 

Winning strategies from the campaign

The Rochester group’s key strategies for success included:

• Resident-led campaign: Empowering residents directly impacted by the problem to lead the conversation, identify key challenges and solutions
• Finding champions in local government: Identifying partners within local government to support and advocate for improved play policies
• Testing unconventional and innovative ideas: Proposing different approaches like playful sidewalks, children’s gardens, pop-up play days, and story walks, measuring their impact, and adjusting accordingly

Rutgers Cancer Institute: Advancing cancer prevention in New Jersey

Rutgers Cancer Institute (RCI) has transformed cancer prevention in New Jersey through a community-based approach. The Institute defined local communities in need in the NJ area and tailored its research, outreach, and education to address their unique cancer threats and challenges. 

Working closely with community partners, the RCI department created for community advocacy implemented evidence-based strategies that span from data-driven community outreach to specialized training programs for providers.

The campaign produced impressive, life-changing results over the past few years, including:

• Engaging thousands of community members through outreach events 
• Facilitating 60,000+ cancer screenings — resulting in the early detection of over 2,000 cancers
• Lung cancer screening rates increased from 4% to 15%
• Smoking prevalence dropped from 14% to 10.8%
• HPV vaccination rates for adolescents rose from 48.5% in 2018 to 54.8% in 2021
• Policy advocacy led to legislative changes that further support cancer prevention initiatives

Winning strategies from the campaign

Key strategies that drove this success include:

• Identifying a significant, widespread problem: Acting on evidence of a consistent community problem: “NJ ranked 4th in 5-year (2016–2020) invasive cancer incidence nationwide, with prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer incidence rates in NJ being significantly higher than the U.S. average”
• Deep community engagement: Reaching and communicating with a diverse range of community members to understand and address their needs
• Building strong community partnerships: Partnering with local organizations to build community trust and expand the reach of their advocacy, including food banks, libraries, faith-based organizations, health systems, and community health clinics, among others 
• Data-driven planning: Utilizing interactive dashboards and a logic model to target interventions where they’re needed most
• Evidence-based actions: Implementing proven programs and training guidelines to educate and empower both community members and healthcare providers
• Coordinated policy advocacy: Using community insights to influence health policy and drive systemic changes that support equitable cancer prevention and care

This comprehensive, multi-pronged approach not only improved immediate cancer prevention outcomes but also set a foundation for sustainable, long-term impact across New Jersey’s diverse communities.

Start your community advocacy work on Change.org

Online petitions can act as the digital headquarters for your community campaign. It’s where you can document everything about the issue in your community that you want to solve and easily share it. A Change.org petition enables you to:

• Centralize and share your research about the issue
• Outline your goals and desired outcomes 
• Present your requests to decision makers
• Share progress updates with supporters
• Mobilize your community to help with outreach efforts
• Develop a polished resource to use as your primary outreach material

Uplift the voices of your community and fight for the changes you need to thrive. Start a petition now on Change.org