MEMBER ADVOCACY

Empowering college access organizations in our network.

SoCal CAN is supporting the growth of a new generation of college access professionals who, in addition to their direct service work with students and families, are also helping shape institutional and public policies to address inequities in college access and attainment. 

What can we do as college access professionals to advocate for policy changes?

This is an exciting time to continue the movement for educational equity. In response to persistent inequities in higher education, students across California are pushing for initiatives and programs that ensure college access, participation, and completion are available to underserved populations. The door is wide open for direct-service organizations to partner with student leaders – to listen to their challenges support their causes and work with them to drive lasting, statewide systemic change. We only need to step through it.

SoCal CAN has made it easy for college access programs to plug into the movement for educational equity. We encourage you to check out SoCal CAN’s policy agenda, which was jointly crafted by SoCal CAN students and member organizations. This will ground you in the issues that have been identified as greatest important to our students. We also invite you to join our Rapid Response Policy Team where you’ll receive timely updates on key policy issues aligned with our policy agenda and opportunities to act. 

Of course, we also encourage you to amplify the voices, experiences and solutions of your students. Check out our Empower Students Report which includes 20 creative ways to support student agency among countless other student advocacy resources. We also warmly invite your students to apply to SoCal CAN’s Changemakers Fellowship, a year-long paid opportunity for college students to develop the knowledge and skills to be effective advocates for change at California’s colleges and universities. 

 

RAPID RESPONSE TEAM

SoCal CAN’s rapid response team helps members stay informed about timely advocacy engagement opportunities to maximize their influence on policy development at the local, state, and federal levels. To ensure that these opportunities align with your individual organizational capacity and goals, members have the option of choosing which policy priorities they would like to receive notifications about and how exactly they prefer to engage in advocacy. Policy is crucial to achieving our collective goal of educational equity. Be proactive and join the rapid response team today to amplify the power of college access organizations and students in decision-making spaces and increase the visibility of the communities you serve.   

LEARN MORE & JOIN!