Social action letter template

I do not support the euthanasia of animals as a viable or humane solution to resolving conflict with humans. In closing, I strongly urge you to oppose [bill number], which would prohibit pit bull ownership in [state]. Please help ensure the humane and fair treatment of these deserving dogs. Thank you very much for your time and consideration regarding this matter. I look forward to your response. Back to Top. I am writing to urge your support of [bill number] to ban cruel factory farming practices in our state.

As a citizen concerned about animal welfare and a conscientious consumer, I ask that you help improve the standards of care and treatment for millions of farmed animals in [state].

Specifically, [bill number] will ban veal crates, hen battery cages, and sow gestation crates. These various forms of farmed animal confinement contribute to unspeakable and unacceptable animal suffering.

Some key considerations:. Clearly, the industrialized practice of confining farmed animals in veal crates, battery cages, and gestation crates contributes to aggravated and avoidable animal suffering. I strongly urge your support of [bill number] to ban these practices in our state and move typical factory farming treatment of animals away from systematic cruelty and toward more humane practices.

I urge you to discontinue selling foie gras at your stores. Foie gras, although thought of as a delicacy, is produced in a most inhumane manner. Ducks and geese have long metal pipes forced down their throats. Through these pipes, massive amounts of grain are fed to them so their livers swell to as much as 10 times their normal size. These force-feedings occur several times a day.

I urge those in the high-end food industry to recognize animal cruelty and to take leadership in removing from their product line foods made from some of the most cruelly treated farmed animals.

In addition, I recommend adding additional vegetarian offerings to the selection of food products at store, thereby offering your clientele options when it comes to purchasing high-end delicacies.

Again, I urge you to remove foie gras from your department store shelves. I look forward to your support of standing against cruelly produced foods and offering shoppers more humane options.

Do you care about animals, planet Earth, and yourself and your fellow humans? Then, embrace a vegan lifestyle—one where reverence and respect for all sentient beings and planet Earth takes precedence over personal tastes.

A vegan lifestyle involves avoiding animal-based foods, clothing, personal care products, etc. It celebrates life rather than takes life to live. A meat-based diet perpetuates violence on sentient creatures through the horrors of factory farming and the slaughter process. Also, factory farms assault planet Earth as they are often cited for contaminating water sources in communities where they exist. And, we now know statistically what many have long suspected, a meat-based died perpetuates violence on ourselves as well.

Many of our disabling diseases—heart attack, stroke, and cancer—are lifestyle based and a meat-based diet has been singled out as one of their great causes. Animals as well as humans are subjects of a life and should be so treated. If you love animals called cats and dogs, why do you eat animals called cows and chickens? Respect all sentient life, reduce pollutants, heal yourself, cut back or cut out animal-based products in your life.

I am writing to urge you to sign into law legislation that would ban greyhound racing in our state. Smock, Kristina Democracy in Action: Community organizing and Urban Change. New York: Columbia University Press. Skip to main content. Toggle navigation Navigation. Social Action » Main Section. Chapter 5. Chapter 5 Sections Section 1.

Community Locality Development Section 3. Social Planning and Policy Change Section 4. Social Action Section 5.

The Tool Box needs your help to remain available. Toggle navigation Chapter Sections. Section 1. Main Section Checklist PowerPoint. Learn how to empower the population and use strength in numbers to spread awareness of the issue and unify the community on a common cause. What is social action? Why engage in social action? When should you engage in social action? Who should be involved in social action? How do you engage in social action?

A few of the numerous reasons that a group might engage in social action: To include in policy considerations, the interests of those who have traditionally been ignored in these discussions, most often low-income and minority communities. To institute fairer policies and eliminate discrimination. To right past wrongs, as in providing apologies and restitution to Japanese-Americans who were unfairly — and unconstitutionally — interned in concentration camps in the American West during World War II.

To prevent harm to the community. This might mean challenging the siting of an industrial facility because of pollution concerns, for instance. To gain particular benefits to the community, or a part of the community, sometimes on quite a small scale.

To preserve something of historical or social value. To include in policy deliberations those who have been previously shut out, as in, for example, involving minority citizens on a police review board. Some examples: Organizing a group to write letters , make phone calls, or send e-mails to policy makers, particularly legislators, in order to make both your position and the extent of your constituency known.

You might also plan events particularly to attract the media. Putting together or backing a slate of candidates for public office. This may entail anything from stuffing envelopes to going door to door discussing the issues to driving voters to the polls. Attending, as a group or packing or disrupting, depending on your philosophy and the circumstances , a public meeting at which an issue of interest to your community is being discussed. Performing street theater. It goes back at least to ancient Greece, continued through the Middle Ages in morality plays and puppet shows, and has been used in modern times, particularly since the mid-Twentieth Century, for political protest.

Organizing demonstrations, rallies and marches. Picketing or organizing a strike. These are, of course, time-honored labor tactics, usually applied to a particular plant or corporation or industry. There is also the possibility of a general strike — a situation where everyone in a group, a community, or even a whole country, refuses to work for a day, a few days, or indefinitely until those in power accede to demands. Organizing a boycott. Named after Charles Boycott, a British land agent in Ireland who was ostracized i.

Organizing a sit-in. Often an act of civil disobedience, this involves a group occupying a space — perhaps the office of an official who made or represents a policy the group is protesting, perhaps a courtyard or a particular building or a park — in order to make a moral point, to assert their right to use the space, or to force the owners of the space or public officials to negotiate or meet their demands.

The act becomes civil disobedience if the group is trespassing on the space they occupy. The larger organization that Alinsky founded to carry his work around the country, the Industrial Areas Foundation , explains its strategy on its website: "The IAF is non-ideological and strictly non-partisan, but proudly, publicly, and persistently political. And it can prepare and sustain them for along struggle to achieve far-reaching goals.

It can unify communities. Collective action brings people together in the way that many collaborative activities do. It creates a spirit of shared effort and shared passion, and binds individuals into a community of shared purpose. It can demonstrate to the larger community that the organized group is a force to be reckoned with.

It may be the only thing that will move a stubborn opponent. The targets of social action may have been in power for a long time, or may believe that things were simply meant to be the way they are. It may take a long campaign of action to convince them that they have to address your concerns. It may be seen as morally necessary.

Social action can be hard and unpopular. People generally engage in it because they believe their cause is right, and may see it as their moral duty to do something about it. It can motivate people to take other kinds of positive action.

Once people realize that they can influence what happens in their world, they become willing to take on other kinds of tasks — starting cooperatives, rehabilitating derelict housing, cleaning up neighborhoods. They begin to understand that they have the resources to solve many of their own problems, and they develop the motivation and skills to use those resources.

It can be the beginning of a process that ends in a more unified larger community. It can lead to long-term positive social change. Social action, like other forms of community organizing, generally has long-term as well as short-term goals. While the purpose of a particular action might be narrowly defined, the long-term goals of most organizing are greater equity and social and economic justice.

Once again, the prime example in our time was the Civil Rights movement, which, through action that demonstrated its moral force, moved the whole country to demand an end to segregation and racism.

Some times when social action would be unwise: When you can get what you want by lower-key means — negotiation, acceptable trade-offs, persuasion, compromise, etc. You can discredit your whole effort by failing to check your facts. When an action, even if successful, could have disastrous social or political consequences. In some instances, you could gain your immediate demand at the cost of creating a backlash that drives your cause back beyond where you started.

Social action may still be warranted here — the Civil Rights Movement certainly could be described in these terms, especially at the beginning — but you should be aware of its consequences, both to your cause and to the individuals and groups involved. When time is short. The chainsaws are already running to devastate that patch of old-growth forest; the wrecking ball is swinging toward the wall of that historic building; legislators are about to cut food stamps to pay for disaster relief.

When the time is right. The issue may be gaining recognition in the media or public opinion, or public opinion may be changing in your favor.

You may have a window of opportunity here. An action at the right time can solidify support, and really put your effort over the top.

When you have the resources to make action possible. Just having the resources— enough people, money, media contacts, etc. When you want to make a dramatic statement that will focus public attention. Why write an advocacy letter?

To encourage a specific action or outcome on an issue eg. To praise actions taken by officials, local community groups, etc. Who should I contact? Anyone who can make change happen or have influence on change Can it make a difference? Each group is assessed on the benefit it brings to the local community and its standing within that community.

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Hide this message. Home Society and culture Equality, rights and citizenship Social Action. Office for Civil Society. Contents 1. Supporting high impact projects to grow 2. Empowering communities to respond on issues that matter to them 3. Backing employer-supported volunteering 4. Supporting giving 5. Encouraging more young people to take part in social action 6.

Recognising and rewarding outstanding contributions Print this page. How social action is transforming lives The government has set out its ambition for a bigger and stronger society, a world where people ask what they can do for their community not only what their community can do for them.

Our work to encourage social action includes: supporting high impact projects to grow empowering communities to respond to issues that matter to them backing employer-supported volunteering supporting giving encouraging more young people to take part in social action recognising and rewarding outstanding contributions 1. Supporting high impact projects to grow The Centre for Social Action aims to identify and accelerate the development and spread of high impact social action initiatives that complement public services and improve social outcomes.