CNIB is advocating alongside community members across Canada to break down societal barriers to accessibility and create a more inclusive society for people living with sight loss. We have created these resources to support community members when engaging in advocacy in their local communities, whether as a formal CNIB Community Engagement Volunteer, a person living with sight loss, or an ally who wants to help bring about change.
We have arranged the resources below into common advocacy skill areas. If you would like to read all the resources in one place, please check out our Community Engagement Volunteer Skills Guide.
- Getting Started
- Public Speaking
- Letter Writing
- Government Relations
- Public Relations
- Campaigns
- Further Resources
Getting Started
If you are new to advocacy and want to learn more about what advocacy is and the steps to successful advocacy, our Advocacy 101 Guide is for you.
Instructional Videos
Michael McCarthy, principal with Grosso McCarthy, has more than 15 years of experience with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and more than 25 years in health policy and delivery.
In this video series, he shares tips on being an advocate.
Advocacy 101 – Part 1: What is advocacy?
Advocacy 101 – Part 2: Government relations 101
Public Speaking
Speaking out about an issue is key to the success of any advocacy issue. This could be a Community Engagement Volunteer sharing their experiences in a formal presentation, making a public deputation to government or speaking to your friends or family about how to become better allies. When you speak out for accessibility, you help to dismantle the stigma of blindness and transform the audience’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Your voice matters.
Letter writing
The art of writing an effective letter that clearly gets your point across and encourages others to take action is an important tool for any advocate, whether writing to an MP, a business, or an individual.
Government Relations
All three levels of Canadian government play a part in making Canada accessible and so are important stakeholders when dealing with many common advocacy issues. You, may feel underconfident when dealing with government, but politicians are elected to represent the views of their constituents, including you.
If you are still uncertain if your voice matters to government officials, watch our Top 5 Policy Maker Questions video and then access our resources below to help you understand how government works and effectively engage the right person.
Public Relations
When you are working on an issue, it’s important to bring people on-side to support you in your work and help amplify your voice. This could be through partnerships with other individuals and groups, the media, or online.
Campaigns
When dealing with complex societal issues, you will want to tackle your issue on a larger scale and create a campaign. Campaigns can take make shapes and sizes, but to get you started we have created a guide
Further Resources
- To learn more about CNIB’s advocacy work, visit www.cnib.ca/advocate.
- If you are looking for information around your legal rights as a person with sight loss, please visit our Know Your Rights webpage to access our legal information resources. Please note, CNIB does not provide legal advice or representation.
- Educate to Advocate is a series of 14 sessions on various advocacy topics including public speaking, government relations, legal rights, campaign building, and much more. Listen to the Educate to Advocate series.
- For information on how to advocate for guide dog access, visit our Guide Dogs Champions webpage.
- To keep informed about Advocacy news and events in your region, subscribe to our Advocacy e-newsletter Equalize and explore previous editions.
Thank you for your interest in taking action to create a society that is more accessible and inclusive for all. If you have any questions or would like further resources that aren’t on this page, please email us at advocacy@cnib.ca.