Grassroots advocacy is a movement initiated by concerned citizens, not organizations or companies. It involves political and community activity to address issues not resolved by government officials. Anyone can participate, and organizing with others increases the movement’s power. Local groups can turn into political organizations, like the Sierra Club. An example is lobbying for higher standards of care for hospitalized patients.
Grassroots advocacy is a form of advocacy that originates among concerned citizens, rather than being orchestrated by organizations or companies. The idea behind the term “from below” is that it refers to a movement that grows spontaneously and naturally, without encouragement from outside sources, just like the roots of stubborn grass. People can participate in grassroots advocacy at many levels, from writing letters to political leaders to organizing educational workshops for members of their community.
People join a grassroots advocacy movement when they see an issue they believe is not being resolved or addressed appropriately by government officials and other entities with the power to determine the response to the issue. This type of advocacy often involves some level of political activity, with movement members interacting with elected and appointed officials in an effort to bring attention to their cause. It can also involve community activity and community education, such as attempts to get members of a community to become more environmentally aware.
Anyone can engage in basic defense. Simply writing a letter to an elected official about a cause of concern is a basic form of advocacy, as is attending city council meetings or taking a more active role in promoting change in a community. Organizing with others can increase the power of grassroots movements by creating a united group of concerned people that is hard to ignore, but isn’t necessarily necessary. People can also approach advocacy from a range of political and social perspectives, and sometimes people with widely disparate ideas and policies join together in the same movement because they have causes of mutual interest.
Grassroots advocacy often involves low-level community activism. Local groups of concerned citizens can come together to increase their strength when it comes to pushing for change, and sometimes these groups even turn into political organizations. Concerned groups of environmentalists, for example, eventually created organizations like the Sierra Club. In these cases, advocacy has moved beyond the grassroots and into a more organized form, with more clout.
In a simple grassroots advocacy example, people might decide that patients at a local hospital aren’t getting adequate care. They could lobby the hospital board and professional organizations of nurses and other medical professionals to promote the development of higher standards of care. They could also push elected officials to control the hospital or get involved in the process of formulating more patient-friendly policies that would improve conditions for hospitalized patients.
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