Just as war is too important to be left to generals, policy is too important to be left to politicians and policy makers. Citizens can help design the right approaches and insist that government officials choose solutions that are effective and just. Authentic solutions are those that meet the needs of the affected communities.

Two proven strategies for addressing needs and problems are community organizing and advocacy. These strategies are not mutually exclusive. Community organizing is distinguished as the approach to social change that involves and mobilizes the people that are directly affected by the problems that groups seek to address.

Community organizing explicitly seeks to build people power and the power of an organization that is directed by its constituency. Community organizing increases the capacity of people to affect public policy and hold decision makers accountable. It seeks to address the underlying causes of problems by developing leadership among people—often people traditionally left out of decision-making.

Advocacy—working on behalf of any idea, cause, or policy—can be done either with or without community organizing. Examples of advocacy include public interest lawsuits, some types of social work, media advocacy, and one-on-one persuasion. Advocates work on behalf of people who are directly affected by a problem, representing their needs to those in power. Advocacy done within a community-organizing context can be very potent because large numbers of people affected by a problem are organized and mobilized in support of solutions, representing themselves.

The Alliance and local leaders have developed and used a wide variety of strategies—some proven, some promising—for changing state and local policies. These ideas and experiences are explored in considerable depth in the Strategies and Toolkits section.