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COMMUNICATIONS & ADVOCACY

The actual number of vulnerable children receiving support is still very small relative to the increasing demand for resources to the community level.

To increase our reach and impact, we have forged an approach that goes beyond direct funding to advocate for an increase in support from other funders. Our new ‘leverage’ strategy is geared toward expanding and increasing our impact by using our experience and the lessons we have learned to fuel our organizational learning, communications, and advocacy efforts.

By raising greater awareness, understanding, and adoption of our approach, our goal is to increase the flow of resources to grassroots organizations, where they can have the most positive impact on the lives of vulnerable children and families.

Building on the knowledge emerging from our learning efforts, our Communications & Advocacy Program seeks to illustrate the efficacy of our community-based approach and to convince key opinion leaders and policymakers that far from being risky, investing in communities is an effective and sustainable way to improve children’s lives.

Through our Advocacy Program, we are beginning to engage with government, philanthropic, and faith-based groups—who together contribute more than $1 billion a year for children affected by HIV/AIDS—to help them channel their resources to increase the amount of funding and support reaching the grassroots.

Like our Organizational Learning Program, our Advocacy Program is still in its early stages, with the majority of our efforts focused on sharing what we are learning in a variety of ways and laying the foundation for more formal advocacy initiatives that will follow in later phases.

To date, Firelight has organized and co-sponsored several symposia, briefings, and meetings to engage directly with decision-makers and build an informed constituency working to improve the well-being of vulnerable children in Africa. As our organizational learning agenda begins to generate insights and findings, we will look to disseminate them in a variety of formats and forums and to engage our key audiences in rich discussions and advocacy efforts.

Important dissemination channels include social networks and online media. The goals of Firelight’s new communications, web, and social network strategies are to draw attention to the rich diversity of grantee voices and vivid information from the countries in which we work; regularly share progress on our learning agenda findings; and encouraging dialogue and catalyzing action on the issues that matter to vulnerable children and families.

Our partners are key players in our overall communications and advocacy strategies. We are working with our grantees to help them raise visibility and awareness of their life-changing work, including building their communications capacity; facilitating local advocacy initiatives; and equipping and training them in low-cost mobile technologies to help them tell their own stories to the world.

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