INDIANA ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY

Advocacy: advocacy and policy engagement are important parts of a successful community economic development framework. The organization's advocacy work strengthens members by building relationships. It enhances members' skills and capacity to understand their own policy environments, large and small, and to communicate their values and priorities to their elected officials and program administrators. It enables front-line practitioners to have their voices heard in policy debates and on emerging policy issues. The advocacy function organizes members and supporters around a policy agenda, builds and maintains strategic partnerships with allies to advance this agenda, and monitors and explains trends in policymaking to members.