This week, you’ll complete the final section of the Policy Brief in draft form. This section is where you get to use your own voice to advocate either for or against the policy that you have read and written about thus far in this class. In addition, please submit a draft letter to your legislator.
You can consider the advocacy section, which is generally one to two pages in length, to be a precursor of the letter to the legislator. You can re-use some of the language in the conclusion of your paper in the letter that you write.
When you go to write your letter, please keep in mind the following recommendations:
- If the policy you’re working on is a federal policy, write to a federal legislator. If the policy starts with “H.R.,” write to your own House legislator. If it starts with “S,” write to your Senator. If the policy is a state policy, then write to the appropriate State legislator
- Find your legislator: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
- Look up the actual address of the legislator, and use that in the header of the letter
- Use your own information (you can xxx out your own address for privacy if you want, but format the letter to include your own address)
- Keep the letter short – ideally one page or less
- Try to include the following:
- A brief description of the policy itself (don’t assume legislators are familiar with all the bills that have been filed) and a statement of your position regarding the policy
- A humane appeal or story – describing some suffering that has or would come about as a result of a policy not being / being passed is a common strategy to engage the reader
- Some BRIEF but effective facts about the severity of the problem – how many people are affected, the extent of the harms
- A brief and logical explanation about how the policy would address or improve the problem (or make it worse, if you’re advocating against the policy)
- A strong statement of advocacy for or against the bill, and an invitation for the legislator to contact you for further information (include some way for them to contact you)
- Be completely confident that you have checked and corrected all spelling / grammatical errors
Complete and submit both of the following:
1) Summary of Policy Brief
a. For existing legislation: discuss whether you believe this legislation should be kept as is, struck down, or amended and why. For proposed legislation, discuss whether or not you think the legislation should be passed as is, amended and then passed, or tabled and why
b. Justify your position using the evidence you have gathered. The evidence can be used to assert:
i. Whether the rationale for the legislation is sound based on what you learned about the causes of the social problem the legislation is intended to address. Is the policy’s response to the social problem logical given your understanding of the causes of the social problem? If not, what is your proposed solution?
ii. That the legislation will have / had the intended effect (or, that the legislation will not have / has not had the intended effect – if not, what is your proposed solution?)
c. Make a statement about what YOUR ROLE is with regard to development, implementation, and evaluation of policy as a professional social worker
2) A one-page letter to a legislator (State or federal, select the one that makes the most sense) OR a different governmental or organizational policy-making entity (see instructor for individual exceptions). The letter should advocate for the policy actions (e.g. legislation, amendments) you endorsed at the conclusion of your paper. The letter should be persuasive and select the most compelling elements of the paper overall – documentation of the social problem and its extent or its harms, identification of known causal factors, and clearly articulated responses framed as a policy development proposal
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