An Introduction to Advocacy Advocacy is critical in efforts to improve adolescent reproductive health. Advocacy helps ensure that programs for youth are enacted, funded, implemented, and sustained by building support with the public and opinion leaders. Through education and example, advocates support young people s development to ensure that all youth grow up safe, responsible, and healthy. Advocacy is the effort to change public perceptions and influence policy decisions and funding priorities.
Advocates educate about an issue and suggest a specific solution.
All advocacy involves making a case in favor of a particular issue, using skillful persuasion and strategic action. Simply put, advocacy means actively supporting a cause and trying to get others to support it as well. This volume specifically addresses advocacy efforts to improve adolescent reproductive health. Advocacy takes many forms. A club for youth may seek a traditional leader s approval to use office space in a community building.