Involving Congregations in Advocacy Now (ICAN) Introduction My Faith and Advocacy The How-tos of Advocacy How to bring advocacy to my congregation Resources Miscellaneous Activities and Handouts

Involving Congregations in Advocacy Now

• Advocacy Assessment and Development
• Scavenger Hunt
• Did You Know?
• Quick Takes
• Wrap-Up

Quick Takes

Purpose: These introductions can be done with a large or small audience. They are designed to give each participant someone to know and share something with, and they are used when you have a tight agenda and you want to move on quickly.

Skill development area: Self-disclosure; empathy with the feelings participants may have entering a legislative office for the first time. May be used at network meetings.

Time: Aim for fewer than 10 minutes.

Materials: None.

Room set-up: Participants have to be able to interact with one other person in the room.

Instructions: We’re going to introduce ourselves to the person sitting next to us, so please pick your partner for this exercise. If there’s an uneven number of us, would the person without a partner please join me here? For any of these options, the leader keeps time and must remind the partners to switch after 2 minutes, and to end. Now (leader selects one option):

• Look through your wallet or purse or anything on you and find two things that describe you. Take turns, and for 2 minutes apiece, tell your partner your name, and what these two things you’re carrying say about you/ your life. d
• Tell your partner your name. Then for two minutes each, please share with your partner why you do the work you do (or what’s changed in your life since you began doing advocacy).
• Tell you partner your name. Then, for two minutes each, talk about the last good book you read or good movie you saw. Why did you like it?

Notes to leader: Keep an eye out for the person left out or sitting alone, and just quietly be his/ her partner. Be strict about the time, and be sure to give the second group speaking its full two minutes. When you are all done, use the same introduction pattern to introduce yourself to the whole group or have the partner introduce you to the whole group.