The Role of Faith Leaders in Building a Movement
By Ashley Denault, MPP, and Jewlya Lynn, PhD, Spark Policy Institute
One of the most challenging steps for advocates who seek to engage others and build a movement is developing a network of activated volunteers. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is the divide between the already activated “us” of advocacy groups and community organizers, and the not yet involved “them” of other members of communities. This divide can make it hard for advocates to understand and speak to the community’s values well enough to meaningfully employ them.
Faith leaders present a unique opportunity to bridge this gap. Many faith leaders have a passion for making a difference in their community and they also have a specific, broad constituency with whom they regularly interact. Indeed, faith-based mobilization already represents a large and dynamic effort to promote democracy and social justice and strengthen public life in the United States.
Given the reach of faith leaders, and their unique position as trusted members of communities, faith leaders are important in efforts to achieve social change. Project Health Colorado (PHC) was a three-year effort designed to engage individuals and organizations in a statewide conversation about access to health. The organizations involved with PHC recruited volunteers from all walks of life—but one organization, Together Colorado, had a specific focus on faith leaders. The faith leaders were some of PHC’s most active volunteers and were able to extend the reach of the movement beyond what paid staff could have done alone.
A new brief from The Colorado Trust, prepared by Spark Policy Institute, explores how other advocacy organizations can learn to work with faith leaders, recognizing what makes them unique in their ability to help motivate people to action. Specifically, the brief explores the experience of Together Colorado and their efforts collaborating with faith leaders to advocate for access to health care in Colorado. In addition to sharing the model used by Together Colorado, the brief includes a number of specific tips on how to successfully engage faith leaders in order to harness the power of faith-based communities.
The brief is the second in a series that explores lessons learned from PHC. Each brief is designed to provide practical information that advocates, volunteers, nonprofits and others can use to further their health care and advocacy efforts. The first PHC brief looked at strategies to successfully communicate about health care reform. The upcoming briefs share tips on how to use stories to move your audiences to action and on leveraging social media to cause social change. Each brief will be accompanied by a webinar hosted by Spark Policy Institute. The webinar on talking about health care reform is now available online. For more information and invitations to the remaining webinars, please contact Rebecca Kahn of Spark Policy Institute.
Jewlya Lynn, PhD