Effective Strategies To Build Advocacy
Capacity Among Service Provider Coalitions
OCASI Conference
24 April, 2009
S. Gopikrishna (Gopi)
on behalf of the City of Toronto’s
Immigrant and Refugee Housing Committee
(IRHC)
Scarborough Housing Help Centre
416-285 -8070
s.gopikrishna@shhc.ca

This workshop will explore
 A. Birth, Life Cycle & Functions of
Coalitions
 B. Traditional Membership of coalitions
 C. Challenges before coalitions
 D. Non-traditional member recruitment and
capacity augmentation

A. Birth and Functions of a Coalition
 What is a coalition?
 How are coalitions born? What is
the life cycle of a coalition?
 What do coalitions do?

What is a Coalition?
 “to grow together” – an alliance of people,
parties or nations pursuing a common goal
 Defined usually as “a mutually beneficial and
well defined relationship by people and
organizations to achieve common goals “
 Advocacy focus distinguishes coalitions from
“partnerships”, where the implied goal is direct
service

How are coalitions born?
What is the life-cycle?
Birth of a coalition:
 Response to an immediate crisis e.g. HRSDC funding crisis of
2003
 A group of organizations/individuals looking to increase
their influence in decision making e.g. Ontario Medical
Association
 Decision makers initiate consultations to get community
feed-back and buy-in e.g. Ontario Early Years Centre tables
Life-cycle of a coalition:
 Temporary- coalition dissolves upon achieving goal
 Long term- coalition takes on new causes
 Dormant-Active- Coalition takes on causes when necessary

What do Coalitions do? What are the benefits ?
A coalition may focus on information sharing,
birthing partnerships or advocacy
Benefits :
 Draw attention to emerging issues and research
the impact on target population
 Identify options and solutions to an existing
challenge
 Lobbying governments /lawmakers to implement
identified options

B. Membership
 What is the traditional membership of a
coalition?
 How does membership impact the work of a
coalition?
 How do members interact? What is the
decision making process?

Who traditionally are members of a coalition?
How does membership impact coalition work?
 Organizations and/or individuals interested in a given
topic become members. In our work, most members
are non-profits.
 Members are the coalition’s biggest resource- even with
membership fees, coalitions are under resourced
 Ability to negotiate common goals and implement the
goals by working as an “organization” is key to getting
things done

How do members interact?
What is the decision making process?
 Members meet regularly to discuss
issues, exchange information and make decisions
 Decisions are made usually through consensus. If
consensus is not possible, then decisions are
made through a simple majority

C. CHALLENGES BEFORE COALITIONS
 What challenges can a coalition face?
 Can the challenges be classified?
 How can coalitions address
challenges?

Types of Challenges
Challenges classifiable into two types:
Internal and External Challenges
INTERNAL CHALLENGES
 Agreement on a common goal
 Progress is slow and frustrating
 Lack of Resources
 Concern about consequences of
advocacy – will I get into trouble?

Types of Challenges
EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
 Do the funders/community view it as a legitimate
body?
 How quickly can a coalition react to a situation
and how?
 Understanding of policy formulation- decision makers
are concerned about financial impact, non-profit sector is concerned
about social impact

Characteristics of strong coalitions
 Coalitions that speak for a cross section
of the community are seen as legitimate
 Develop a common goal that reflects reality
 Understand that progress is “relentless
increments”
 Ability to state issues in the language of decision
makers

D. Non- Traditional Members
&
Effectiveness
 What is the definition of non-traditional
members? What are examples of this group?
 How will non-traditional members increase
capacity?
 Where and how can we recruit non-traditional
members?

What are examples of non-
traditional members?
A non-traditional member refers to an organization
outside the service provider non-profit
sector whose beliefs align with our
Beliefs
Examples are:
 Students and university professors
 Journalists and radio/TV personalities
 Bureaucrats and funders
 Unions

How can non-traditional members increase
coalition capacity?
 new perspectives in strategy,
research and policy
 Ability to advocate without fear of direct impact
 Increases legitimacy ( constituent concern) and
helps disseminate information outside the sector
 Develop “Champions” – spokespersons inside
government to make subtle but important
changes

Where can we recruit
non-traditional members?
To find “non-traditional members” to champion
your cause, consider:
 Civil servants who know policy works
 Academicians and Students- advocacy is a
given in academic life
 Journalists/broadcasters - a voice to reshape
public opinion
 Unions who support social causes

How can we recruit
non-traditional members?
 No magic formula for recruitment.
However, it is important to thoroughly understand
 Impact of the policy in question on a group that you want
to recruit
 Do their skills and interest match and increase your
capacity?
 What can you offer them in return?

The IRHC story
A brief review of the experiences and practices of
City of Toronto’s The Immigrant and Refugee
Housing Committee (IRHC)
 How did IRHC evolve?
 What is the membership of IRHC?
 What challenges did IRHC face? How did it
respond to the challenges?
 How did non-traditional members assist IRHC?

Birth of IRHC
 IRHC was born out of a consultation held by the
City to respond to an influx of refugees in 1992
 Mandate is “Developing strategies and initiatives
to address housing needs of refugees and
marginalized immigrants”
 Goals include: Addressing housing needs of
newcomers, collaboration, public education and
informing public policy

IRHC Membership
Membership consists of:
 24 non-profit organizations active in the housing and
immigrant serving sectors, minutes sent to 120 agencies
 Academicians and Researchers
 IRHC has been supported by the Shelter, Support and
Housing Administration Division and meeting on a
regular basis for over 15 years
 Works closely with other coalitions such as Canadian
Council of Refugees, Alternative Housing & Services
Committee

Challenges and IRHC
CHALLENGES:
 There was no comprehensive study of housing issues
among refugees and immigrants
 Addressing the issue of who is a “newcomer”?
 Addressing the perspective that the panacea to housing
is employment
RESPONSES:
 Created credible reference material - “Refugee Housing
Study” (1992), the first study of refugee housing issues
in Canada
 Coordinated services by designing “First Contact
Program” offered by Red Cross

Non-traditional members and IRHC
 IRHC’s refugee housing study was possible because of
the assistance from academecians
 IRHC intervened with CIC to address the issue of
documentation for Haitian refugee claimants ( late 2007)-
City of Toronto participation crucial
 IRHC intervened to get refugee claimants eligibility to
access the Rent Bank program

IRHC Welcomes New Members
http://www.toronto.ca/housing/irhc.htm
Contact: Ms. Azar Farahani @
416 392 0068 or
afaraha@toronto.ca