#10 How Can We Find Allies?

How can we amplify our influence and scale it up?

It makes sense to call on institutional power holders like established organizations or influential individuals who can support your interests. Gaining influence requires building alliances with people who control decisions over policies and institutions. But it can be hard to reach people in power. What’s more, how can you engage with power players in a way that benefits your cause and also empowers you? The answer often involves connecting with allies who can provide mentorship and broker on your behalf, being creative in your methods, and seeking elites in a variety of places--sometimes beyond the usual suspects.

What It Can Look Like?

Students For Liberty: Founded and led by students, SFL is a network of pro-liberty organizations and individuals from diverse locations and backgrounds. It is not a top down, chapter based, or membership organization. However, SFL works with some of the most influential think tanks and policy-makers in D.C., offering young libertarians a range of opportunities to meet with political movers and shakers at both campus events and national conferences. Sometimes making it to events is hard, though, so SFL affiliates of all ages often rely on their own social networks like Twitter to gain face time with like-minded individuals and political elites alike. Regardless of whether it’s online or in person, when young people build allies and tap into the political establishment through their involvement with SFL, it often means working with groups and individuals on both sides of the aisle.

YOUTH RADIO INTERVIEW

"Cultivate Connections"

Interview and Illustration by Desmond Meagley

Q. How does the culture of SFL (non hierarchal, no membership) help you engage a diverse community?

A. Making social change without a fired-up, diverse coalition of supporters is near-impossible task. But for young organizers, building strong connections in your community and reaching out to public figures with start power is daunting. Casey Given, the former communications manager for Students for Liberty and current director for SFL spin-off Young Voices, provides pointers for young activists who are looking to build their network and find like-minded allies both bing and small.

Lesson-Application Idea

Youth Participatory Action Research for the 8th Grade Civics*

One of 10 Questions Teacher Leaders applied the 10 Questions framework to her youth participatory action research project for the 8th grade civics.

Advisory Day 1	Introduce YPAR Participatory Action Research (PAR) is a process through which people investigate meaningful social topics, participate in research to understand the root causes of problems that directly impact them, and then take action to influence policies through the dissemination of their findings to policymakers and stakeholders.
	Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is a tool for increasing youth involvement in social movement organizing that can generate renewed enthusiasm for social change and create new opportunities for youth leadership.
	Narrowing Down Your Topic What is your topic? Where do you see this issue? (school, street, workplace, etc.) How do we see this issue in society? What forms does it take? (pay, housing, representation, etc.) Where and what specific form of your issue do you want to focus on for your project?
	Define Where and what specific form of your issue do you want to focus on for your project? Define your issue (provide a detailed, working definition) Define the specific form of your issue (what does it look like, where, and why?) Explain WHY this is an important issue.
Advisory Day 2	Finishing Defining Your Topic Where and what specific form of your issue do you want to focus on for your project? Define your issue (provide a detailed, working definition) Define the specific form of your issue (what does it look like, where, and why?) Explain WHY this is an important issue.
	Gathering Data for the 8th Grade Survey Finishing Defining Your Topic Where and what specific form of your issue do you want to focus on for your project? Define your issue (provide a detailed, working definition) Define the specific form of your issue (what does it look like, where, and why?) Explain WHY this is an important issue.
Advisory Day 3	Join Google Classroom (more discussion and activities take place in Google Classroom)
	Submitting Your Data Question Advisor will type questions into a Google Form (Form is in 8th grade YPAR folder) If you are done, please work on researching the CAUSES of your issue as well as actions you can take to help FIX the problem and/or SPREAD AWARENESS of the issue and HOW PEOPLE CAN HELP.
Advisory Day 4	Take Survey Please take the surveys that are posted in Google Classroom. These surveys are anonymous, but you want to be honest so that everyone can receive accurate data.

This lesson idea is provided by one of our Teacher Leaders. See the original post for a full description.

10 Questions Content Organizer

Teachers can use the Ten Questions Content Organizer to parse a big issue into small discussion topics. Have students fill in the blanks; they can think about the choices they would make and why, and what the consequences would be like. See an example here: "Facing History with the YPP Action Framework––Focusing on Eyes on the Prize: Ain’t Scared of Your Jails”

Question	Answer/Notes	Choices	Consequences
1. Why Does It Matter to Me?
2. How Much Should I Share?
3. How Do I Make It About More than Myself?
4. Where Do We Start?
5. How Can We Make It Easy and Engaging?
6. How Do You Get Wisdom from Crowds?
7. How Do You Handle the Downside of Crowds?
8. Are We Pursuing Voice or Influence or Both?
9. How Do We Get from Voice to Change?
10. How Can We Find Allies?