Fluent Essays

Respond to each student’s discussion post in 1-2 paragraghs Katelynn Sanchez  Week 2 Discussion COLLAPSE Top of Form Advocacy coalitions are unions made up of organizations and individuals united by particular beliefs, actions, or objectives that push towards a specific agenda. The actors seek to strategically turn their beliefs and actions into influences that impact policy formation processes. Those who may form advocacy coalitions and advocate for policies include government officials, experts, scholars, policymakers, consulting firms, private and non-private organizations (Eyler et al., 2016). It is of great significance to have a diverse team of actors from different disciplines as advocates because they provide rich or different insights on the issues at hand from different perspectives (Pierce & Hicks, 2017). Ground softening refers to the act of setting the right conditions that can enable people to accept public policies. Ground softening helps in minimizing the chances of people disagreeing or refuse the advocacy. One of the influential advocacy coalitions is the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition in the United Kingdom. EVAW was created in 2005 with the aims of ending and preventing violence against women and girls, lobby all government levels to set up policies and laws that protect women and girls from violence, and influence people’s attitudes against violence and promote ways of tackling the issue (End Violence against Women, n.d.). Some members of EVAW include Ashiana Network, Advance, Aurora New Dawn, and Advance. The problem tackled by this organization is violence towards women and girls and retrogressive cultures and attitudes that prevent them from living as they choose. At the same time, there are no notable oppositions to efforts of EVAW, certain retrogressive attitudes that place less emphasis on women’s education and political participation, especially in some Islamic families. A possible policy that can solve the issue of violence against women and girls is the insistence on their protection strategies by those who seek public offices. The reason behind this suggestion is because people in the public offices stand better chances of influencing change and high chances of being heard. In conclusion, advocacy coalitions influence policy formation through practices and actions that address issues of great concern. End Violence against Women is one of the advocacy coalitions that work towards ending violence against women. Besides, the multidimensional approaches from a diverse group of individuals are significant in bringing solutions to problems.  References End Violence against Women. (n.d). About the EVAW Coalition. Endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk.  https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/about/ . Eyler, A., Chriqui, J., Moreland-Russell, S., & Brownson, R. (2016). Prevention, policy, and public health (1st ed., pp. 335-346). Oxford University Press. Pierce, J., & Hicks, K. (2017). Advocacy Coalitions in Foreign Policy. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics.  https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.355 Bottom of Form Amber Lopez-Gaxiola  National Low Income Housing Coalition COLLAPSE Top of Form   A coalition is a group of organizations that come together to achieve a goal on a shared interest (Eyler et al., 2016).  It can include for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, state and local health departments, grassroots groups researchers, faith-based organizations and health and social justice organizations.  It is important to keep a variety of members in a coalition because although they may have different missions, they can come together to come up with a solution to a particular problem that affects them individually.  The coalition I researched is the National Low Income Housing Coalition, its mission is to ensure people with lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent homes.  Its goals are to preserve existing federally assisted homes and housing resources, expand of low-income housing, and establish housing stability as the primary purpose of federal low-income housing policy.  A few of its members in the state of California are  BRIDGE Housing Corporation, Affordable Housing Advocates, A Community of Friends, California Housing Partnership Corporation, and BWA Connections.  The coalition focuses on the large number of families that cannot afford a home, there is a shortage of 7 million affordable homes in the nation for the 11 million low-income families, there are about half a million people that experience homelessness on any given night, and 75\% of low-income families are severely cost-burdened paying more than half their income on rent.  An entity that would be considered an “opposition” would be Congress.  There needs to be more relevant bills that talk about the need for housing for these low-income families ad these need to be placed as an urgent priority for congress to review.  Congress is already working on the American Recovery Plan to create good paying jobs, combat climate crisis and advance racial inequity.  However, the package should include rental assistance to all eligible households, invest money to preserve public housing and provide $50 billion to build new homes through the national Housing Trust Fund.    The coalition proposes supporters to join Dear Colleague Letter to support the campaign.  This letter is being circulated by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY), urging congress leaders to include the proposed package.  The coalition also urges its supporters to email congress and ask them to sign the Dear Colleague Letter or to call them.  It is important to advocate and spread the word for  these p0olicies and laws because it shows that individuals do want this change to occur and also educates policymakers regarding the impact of the policy or law (Eysler et al., 2016).  An image of the site for National Low Income Housing Coalition is below, as well as the site   https://nlihc.org/   About us.  (n.d.).  National Low Income Housing Coalition.  Retrieved from  https://nlihc.org/about   Eyler, A., et al.  (2016).  Prevention, Policy, and Public Health.  Oxford University Press.    Legislative Action Center.  (n.d.).  National Low Income Housing Coalition.  Retrieved from  https://nlihc.org/take-action   The Problem.  (n.d.).  National Low Income Housing Coalition.  Retrieved from  https://nlihc.org/explore-issues/why- Bottom of Form