This document provides an overview of grassroots engagement strategies for policy change. It discusses what grassroots engagement is, the key elements of an effective engagement strategy including recruitment, messaging, credibility, action, and evaluation. It then outlines specific tactics that can be used for engagement, including media outreach, education outreach, direct advocacy, and network building. Scenarios are also provided to illustrate how these strategies could be applied.

1. FROM THE
GROUND UP
GRASSROOTS
ENGAGEMENT FOR
POLICY CHANGE
Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera

2. FROM THE GROUND UP
Grassroots Engagement for Policy Change
About the Presenters
GABRAELLE LANE
Gabraelle is a public affairs strategist. She assists Southern SAWG with federal food
agriculture policy advocacy. Gabraelle also works for the Southeastern African American
Farmer Organic Network as a Policy and Food Advocate. Over the past twelve years she
has created successful public affairs strategies for the manufacturing and sustainable
food and agricultural industries that increased awareness of key issues nationally and
that supported the growth of new members and retention rates.
QIANA MICKIE
Qiana is the CSA Program Associate for Just Food, a New York City nonprofit that
connects farmers and communities with the resources and support they need to make
fresh, healthy, locally grown food accessible in all neighborhoods. Qiana joined the Just
Food staff in the spring of 2013. Throughout her career, Qiana has followed her passion
to work and volunteer with organizations that are committed to improving lives. She is a
Steering Committee member of NESAWG and remains an active volunteer around
increasing access to healthy food in communities and other sustainable causes. She
earned a BS in Marketing from Hampton University and has worked in community
development and fundraising since 2004.
http://justfood.org
LINDSEY SCALERA
Lindsey is the Grassroots Organizer for Michigan Voices for Good Food Policy. The
organization unites and elevates Michigan grassroots voices in support of policies that
expand opportunities for rural and urban farmers to produce good food, sustain the
environment, and contribute to healthy and vibrant communities. Michigan Voices is a
coalition-building project of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Lindsey’s
background is in EcoJustice Education with a focus on garden-based learning.
migoodfoodpolicy.wordpress.com
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

3. FROM THE GROUND UP
Grassroots Engagement for Policy Change
Ground Rules for Dialogue
1. The purpose of dialogue is to understand and learn from one another.
(You cannot "win" a dialogue.)
2. All dialogue participants speak for themselves, not as representatives
of groups or special interests.
3. Search for assumptions and biases (especially your own).
4. Treat everyone in a dialogue as an equal: leave role, status and
stereotypes at the door.
5. Be open and listen to others even when you disagree, and suspend
judgment. (Try not to rush to judgment).
6. Listen with empathy to the views of others: acknowledge you have
heard the other especially when you disagree.
7. Look for common ground.
8. Express disagreement in terms of ideas, not personality or motives.
9. Keep dialogue and decision-making as separate activities.
(Dialogue should always come before decision-making.)
10. All points of view deserve respect and all will be recorded (without
attribution).
Adapted From http://www.viewpointlearning.com/
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

4. Grassroots Engagement
WHAT IS GRASSROOTS ENGAGEMENT?
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Grassroots engagement happens when you/your community mobilize to
communicate with or influence decision makers on matters that are
important to your/the community’s quality of life. It is a powerful tool that
has been used effectively to pass laws, change regulations and even elect a
president.
GRASSROOTS ENGAGEMENT IS:
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INTERACTIVE: It requires direct and open communication with others.
SUSTAINABLE: If you build strong trusting relationships with others, those people
will then become your greatest resource by continuing to recruit from their
network.
SCALABLE: Your engagement can be as simple as participating in a conference
call or as complex as building partnerships with several organizations.
LOCAL: To be effective, grassroots engagement has to start within the community.
AFFORDABLE: It requires very little financial resources. It does, however, require
significant investment in time and human resources..
WHAT IS AN ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY?
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An effective engagement strategy contains five major elements:
recruitment, message/program building, credibility/trust, action and
evaluation.. These elements are fluid and build on one another:
Recruitment is the active process of educating individuals/organizations of
your cause. In this phase you build trust, discover your stakeholders and
determine where your cause and their interest intersect. From here you
build.
Message/program building occurs once you have a solid core of people.
Together you work to define and develop the message and/or the
programs to further your cause. As you work from your newly created
foundation and base, you start to identify your thought leaders.
Credibility/trust is established when you have the support of your
community, establish thought and consistent communication and are able
to use valued persons in the community as your spokespersons.
Action is where you put your theories into practice. It is here you combine
the above elements to inspire the change you/your community desires.
Evaluation is vital to the entire engagement strategy. It is on-going and
should occur during and after every element of your strategy. It is through
evaluation that the effectiveness of the engagement strategy can be tested.
This can be as simple as asking a few questions or as complex as a survey.
©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

5. Grassroots Engagement Strategies
WHAT TACTICS ARE USED FOR ENGAGEMENT?
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There are numerous tactics that can be used to implement an effective engagement strategy. We
have narrowed it down to the four most effective. These are: Media Outreach, Education
Outreach, Direct Advocacy (Legislative Outreach), and Network Outreach.
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We have goals and engagement strategies for each area.
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Work in one area helps support the goals in the others.
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There are both proactive & reactive ways of working in these areas
MEDIA OUTREACH
Goal: To increase exposure for message/program
PROACTIVE
REACTIVE
• Traditional “earned” media (Media
advisory)
• Assistance with Op-Eds and Editorial
placements
• Editorial Board Meetings
• News Program Subscriptions (
Public News Service used primarily by
media professionals but accessible to
the general public)
• Social Media Engagement - Twitter,
Facebook,
• Storybanking
• Social Media Engagement - Twitter
(Twitterstorm #) Facebook (viral images,
slogans)
• Traditional “earned” media (Press
Release)
• Assistance with Op-Eds and Editorial
placements (Quick turn around)
EDUCATION OUTREACH
Goal: To build credibility/trust and to establish thought leaders
PROACTIVE
Legislative Updates & Presentations
Advocacy Strategy Workshops & Meetings
Fact sheets and other Written resources
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REACTIVE
Legislative Updates & Presentations
Fact sheets and other Written resources
©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

6. Grassroots Engagement Strategies
DIRECT ADVOCACY
Goal: To establish credibility and to inspire change
PROACTIVE
• In-District Meetings & Events (with
elected officials)
• State and Nationwide Action Alerts
• D.C. Fly-In & Hill Visits
• Grasstops Sign-On Letters
REACTIVE
• Grasstosp Sign-On Letters
• State and Nationwide Action Alerts
• Petitions
NETWORK-BUILDING STRATEGIES
Goal: To recruit and increase “community”
PROACTIVE
REACTIVE
• Connecting with Larger Grassroots
• Connecting with Larger Grassroots
Communities Online & In-Person
Communities Online & In-Person
(Listservs, Mailing Lists, Conference Calls,
(Listservs, Mailing Lists, Conference Calls,
Webinars)
Webinars)
• Meeting with Statewide & Local Partner
Organizations
• Coalition Building
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

7. SCENARIO ONE | A Call To Action
How do you mobilize people quickly - not just by giving them information, but
inspiring them to action?
INSTRUCTIONS
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Read through the Scenario completely
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Decide who in your group will be your recorder and your reporter
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Discuss the challenge question(s) and determine the best strategy for
completing the task
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Be prepared to discuss one strategy and to discuss your strategy with
the larger group.
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You have 15 minutes for this exercise.
BACKGROUND
Both the House and the Senate Agriculture Committees are meeting to
draft and finalize farm bill legislation. They are currently considering what
programs to exclude from this draft. The programs in danger of being cut
are priority programs for the sustainable food and farming communities.
To further add pressure, the committee members want to finalize this
process in two working days.
An organization that represents sustainable food and farming systems has
focused the bulk of its resources on providing training and educational
services to its members. Its membership is broad and spread over several
states. Federal policy has been a low priority for this organization. Fifteen
years ago it had a regular policy call. Since then its focus on policy has
been intermittent. The organization has recently hired you communicate
the importance of policy to its membership and ensure they have access
to the legislative alerts.
This new farm bill poses huge challenges to this organization. Many of the
programs in danger of being cut are the very programs that fund the
organization’s ability to provide training and educational services.
CHALLENGE
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What strategy would you use to mobilize this group into action?
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

8. SCENARIO TWO| Collaboration
How can many groups sustain their work together?
INSTRUCTIONS
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Read through the Scenario completely
¨
Decide who in your group will be your recorder and your reporter
¨
Discuss the challenge question(s) and determine the best strategy for completing
the task
¨
Be prepared to discuss one strategy and to discuss your strategy with the larger
group.
¨
You have 15 minutes for this exercise.
BACKGROUND
It is Jan. 1 and your town is experiencing a mayoral transition. The outgoing mayor had
been in office for multiple terms and during his tenure expressed an interest in local
food and agriculture issues such as local food policy, healthy food access, utilizing
municipal land for agriculture; but overall local food and agriculture policy was a low
level priority. He did not fully implement a food system plan for the town, did not
designate a food/ag contact in the mayor’s office, and did not engage well with
community stakeholders on these issues.
The mayor-elect, on the other hand, mentioned multiple times on the campaign trial
that she would make food and agriculture policy a priority in her administration however she never quite offered any detail to support those promises. The mayor
elect is well regarded in town, but does not have any direct experience with engaging
with the community stakeholders around local food issues.
The town consists of a diverse community with a varied level of engagement on local
food issues. There are non-profit organizations, volunteers of all ages, gardeners,
urban farmers, and a spectrum of interested residents in the town around food issues.
These groups have experienced moderate to high levels of success in executing their
own events and programs, but have struggled in the past with collaborating together.
There is a loosely based coalition that some of these groups have participated in,
however consistent engagement has waned. At the last meeting an idea came up to
attempt to engage the mayor-elect in her first 100 days in office.
CHALLENGE:
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What strategies could be utilized to get this diverse group of people to
collaborate cohesively in order to effectively engage the new mayor within the
timeframe?
©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

9. SCENARIO THREE| Storybanking
How can the art of storytelling help to educate others about important issues?
INSTRUCTIONS
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Read through the Scenario completely
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Decide who in your group will be your recorder and your reporter
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Discuss the challenge question(s) and determine the best strategy for completing the task
¨
Be prepared to discuss one strategy and to discuss your strategy with the larger group.
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You have 15 minutes for this exercise.
BACKGROUND
Your region has no shortage of powerful stories when it comes to how communities are
rebuilding local economies through food and farming. As part of your ongoing farm bill
advocacy work, you have decided it is important to highlight key areas of your policy agenda
through the stories that illustrate the importance and impact of the programs and policies you
are fighting for.
Your goal is to collect stories from the people who are most affected. You plan to “bank” the
stories because you can use them in many ways. Stories will help reporters, editors, and others
better cover these issues within the farm bill policy debate. Stories you collect will help you
create online and printable profiles so the general public will be able to more easily learn what
it means to be a farmer or other person working on particular aspects of the food system.
Overall, you want to make sure farmers’ voices are featured more prominently in the media.
THE PROCESS
You know that you can reach out to folks in your region through a variety of means: listservs,
local meetings, conferences in the area, etc.You would like to find out who is interested in
participating and set up a brief interviews with them to gather some basic information about
their farm or organization, and their experiences with the federal program(s) they have put to
use.
It seems simple enough and you have all the equipment you need to record and edit the
interviews, as well as take photos or videos and post them online…
THE CHALLENGE
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How would you approach this project?
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What concerns would you have ahead of asking people to participate?
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How would you ensure that folks who sign up for the project actually participate in an
interview?
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In what ways would you need build new or build on trust with your communities or
participants?
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How would you manage the stories you collect and what would you do with them?
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

10. Following Up
Southern Sustainable Agriculture
Working Group (SSAWG)
POLICY WORKING GROUP
Meets once a month via conference call to
discuss Federal, State and Local legislation
that impacts the sustainable agriculture and
food community and grassroots roots
strategies.
To join please e-mail:
gabraellelane@gmail.com
POLICY ALERTS
To receive the latest on important policy or
petitions e-mail gabraellelane@gmail.com
National Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition (NSAC)
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Take Action Page - Learn more about
the Federal Policies that affect you!
Sign up for Action Alerts – sign up to
stay in the loop about the most relevant
policy actions and updates!
http://bit.ly/nsac_action
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©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.

11. Session Evaluation
Thank you for your participation in this workshop!
Please select the best answer and offer honest, constructive feedback.
1.
2.
Do you have a clearer understanding of grassroots engagement?
q Yes
q No
Did we help you understand grassroots strategies that could work best for you/
your organizations?
q Yes
q No
3.
After this session, are you willing to participate in grassroots activities?
q Yes
q No
4.
Do you work/volunteer as a:
5.
What is the one thing you are taking away from this presentation?
6.
Is there anything you would have liked to see included in this workshop?
q Farmer?
q Farming organization representative?
q Food Systems Representative?
©2014 Gabraelle Lane, Qiana Mickie, and Lindsey Scalera; All Rights Reserved.
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