Budget and Policy Advocacy

Feb 22

Written By CCSJ

We draw on our community-based experiences and holistic framework to inform our advocacy. The community safety policy space has been very active, requiring us to preserve capacity to respond to new policy proposals, in addition to our proactive efforts. We use several tools to influence policy, depending on our relative strengths within the policy ecosystem, requests from our allies, and capacity.

Examples

Full policy campaign

As part of the Language Access Network (LAN), CAA works in coalition with multiple immigrant-serving community-based organizations in the city to strengthen language access laws for city services in San Francisco. Data on and stories from community members with limited English proficiency (LEP), the lack of language services offered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and trying to find appropriate city in-language services and resources when safety issues/emergencies arise, supported our demand for language services to be provided during public health crises and emergencies. This effort was a full policy campaign, which involved co-developing strategies with LAN coalition members based on the lived experiences of LEP residents and working with city agencies to draft the ordinance language. We kept the language access ordinance amendment a priority for elected officials by holding press conferences, organizing community member visits and phone calls to the Board of Supervisors (city council), and proactive individual outreach to officials.

Budget advocacy

We advocate for public resources to build a strong support system for victims and survivors and to address the root causes of harm. In preparation for annual city budget decisions, CCSJ members advocate for funding for community programs, such as youth development programs, victims services, outreach programs, and affordable housing. We also coordinate and share information with other nonprofit and community-based organizations to strengthen our collective advocacy. For example, CYC successfully advocated for city funding for Chinese-speaking mental health clinicians. One was placed at RAMS, a community-based mental health provider specializing in bilingual and culturally competent services, and one was placed at UCSF’s Trauma Recovery Center.

Letters of support

We issue letters of support (or opposition) that align with our values, often at the request of or in coordination with allies. For example, we sent a letter to the governor and state legislators advocating for the implementation of the flexible assistance victims fund pilot, which was at risk of losing funding before it started. The program would provide grants to local survivor-serving organizations to flexibly and quickly distribute funds to meet survivors’ immediate needs.

Public comment

We provide public comment on policies or during public hearings related to community safety. When a specific policy is open for public comment, we submit written comments that are informed by our internal policy analysis. For example, CAA submitted a public comment to oppose a measure to increase incentives to delay police officer retirement, which would have been very expensive and diverted funding away from critical services. When the city council’s Public Safety & Neighborhood Services Committee held a hearing focusing on crime and violence targeting Asian American seniors, we coordinated within our coalition and close allies to provide public comment from staff and community members. We were able to put forth a holistic vision of community safety that centered healing, community empowerment, and cross-racial solidarity.

Ongoing engagement with government officials

We regularly engage with elected officials and government leaders to share information about our work and find areas of collaboration. In the short term, we partner with city council members and other city partners around incidents that occur in their districts and encourage referrals to our services. In the long term, we are able to build relationships with officials as trusted organizations who can provide thought leadership and partnership on different initiatives.