The purpose of the Political Advocacy Paper is to familiarize you with an in-depth understanding of the political process and a specific area of interest to you. You will identify proposed legislation that is or was under consideration during the 2020-2022 Florida Legislative Session, United States Legislative Session or the Legislative Session from your state. This legislation should pertain to social issues or policy concerns and reflect one of the “areas as legislative and advocacy issues” outlined in the NASW-FL 2021-22 Legislative Agenda
In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in the legislative process, you should consult legislators’ websites, voting records, newspaper articles, and media reports. Many organizations and special interest groups have websites that describe their ideological positions, outline these positions on various policy issues and political agendas, and provide key strategies for advocacy.
From the prospective of social policy advocate, students will provide a written report that describes the findings from their research:
-Description of the proposed legislation and the intent of the legislation
-Identification of Bill’s sponsor(s) and in-depth review of findings regarding the legislator(s) political position, legislative support, and opposition.
-Identification of coalitions, special interest groups, and organizations and in-depth review of findings regarding their positions.
– Analysis of the influential power of both support and opposition positions and potential of either passage or defeat of the bill.
