CADCA Advocacy Toolkit – A Guide to Educating Legislators

CADCA’s Guide to Educating Legislators is a practical advocacy toolkit designed to help substance use prevention professionals, coalitions, and community leaders make prevention visible to policymakers. The guide explains how advocates can educate legislators by combining credible data with powerful community stories, building relationships with legislative staff, and presenting clear, concise messages that show why prevention matters.

The toolkit introduces key advocacy principles, including how to be vocal, visible, and valuable, how to distinguish between education and lobbying, and how to prepare effective meetings with legislators. It also presents the FRAME method: Facts, Reduce to one page, Anecdotes, Map out strategy, and Evaluate results- as a simple structure for planning advocacy conversations.

This resource is especially useful for professionals and organisations seeking to strengthen their advocacy skills, communicate the value of prevention, and engage decision-makers in supporting evidence-based substance use prevention policies and funding. CADCA describes advocacy as a key part of the public policy process and highlights that legislators often rely on subject-matter experts to help guide their decisions.