Advocacy Training Day in Washington, D.C.

SCRA and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) are considering holding a joint Advocacy Training Day in Washington, DC.  This training would take place on August 6, the day before the start of the APA convention.  Following a half-day expert training, participants will meet with the staff of their Senators and Representatives (with peers from their state) to advocate for a specific legislative issue.  Given that 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, the legislative issue on which we advocate is likely to be poverty-related (see below).  
 
You do not need any prior expertise on the legislative issue we will be advocating for—the training materials will provide all the information needed. The meetings with Capitol Hill staff will provide an opportunity to learn how to engage in federal advocacy, regardless of your area of expertise.  The training will include coverage of the most effective advocacy techniques as well as interactive role-playing exercises in preparation for the Hill visits.
 
There is no cost for this event.  Travel support is available for a small number of students. You can attend without registering for the APA convention; the two are not related. The advocacy training event is being paid for ($100 per person) by two divisions of the American Psychological Association and so to quality the students would need to be members of either the community psychology or the social psychology divisions.

If you would be interested in attending, please contact Ken Maton (maton@umbc.edu) from the SCRA Policy Committee and answer the following questions answer the following questions:

1.Would you be interested in attending the training (choose one):  
Definitely
Likely
Possibly
Depends on the advocacy issue of focus
 
2.What poverty-related policy issues are you interested in?  This information will help us focus our efforts for what policy issues will be covered during Advocacy Day.