Advocacy at Home

Advocacy efforts to raise awareness about cystic fibrosis and ignite change don’t just happen on Capitol Hill during events like March on the Hill and Teen Advocacy Day. In fact, advocacy is a continuous effort that begins, and is highly effective, at home.

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Summary

Advocacy is often the most impactful when done in your community on a consistent basis.
There are many opportunities to advocate with the Foundation, however, by building a base at home and empowering others to join forces, the strength of the mighty CF community will continue to resonate across the country.

Given the incredible advances in drug development and the state-of-the-art care center model, it is more important than ever that all people with CF have access to adequate, affordable health care coverage. By advocating for access to high-quality, specialized care such as care centers and the innovative drugs coming out of the pipeline, we can make an incredible difference in the day-to-day lives of people living with this disease. CF advocates achieve success by continuously cultivating relationships with their federal and state representatives.

Building a Grassroots Advocacy Network of CF Advocates

There is strength in numbers. We always welcome more people who are interested in advocating for the needs of the community. As you continue to advocate, make sure that you empower others to advocate as well. A few ways to do this are:

Continue showcasing the power of advocacy by first telling your story and weaving that into the greater CF story.
Use local events to engage, educate, and empower others to join the strong network of CF advocates across the country.
Emphasize that serving as an advocate is not difficult or time-consuming and can have a positive impact on our fight against the disease.

Extend the invitation to community members who are interested. Have them text “FIGHTCF” to 96387* to begin receiving advocacy alerts and information on how they can make a positive change for the CF community.

*Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to optout, HELP for help.

Participate in a Local Town Hall

Periodically, the Foundation will notify advocates about opportunities to participate in certain legislative campaigns, or to share their stories during a town hall or local forum. While you will be acting in your capacity as an individual, the Foundation can provide you with materials and guidance on current bills or discussions and how they would impact the CF community.

If it is an election year, you can also use this time to ask questions of your candidates or elected official. Knowing where candidates stand on health care issues can result in a more informed CF community during elections.

Write a Letter to Your Editor

Letters to the editor (LTEs) are one of the most effective ways to advocate at a local level. The LTE/opinion section is consistently one of the most read sections of a community newspaper. Many members of your community, including members of Congress, read this section to stay up to date on conversations happening in the community.

If you have questions on getting started, contact publicpolicy@cff.org.

Work With Your Chapter to Advocate at Local Events

Your local Foundation chapter is a great resource for local events that can serve as advocacy opportunities.

Throughout the year, evaluate chapter events that may serve as an opportunity to discuss the importance of advocacy and how others in your community can be involved. Fundraising events like Great Strides provide opportunities to connect with other members of your community to share how you're advocating and ask them to join you in doing so.

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Advocacy