Download the Caregiver Coalition Advocacy Guide (PDF), which discusses the role of caregiver coalitions in advocacy, define ways to plan an effective advocacy campaign, and provide practical ways for coalitions to communicate and advocate on behalf of caregivers.
You can also browse our resources below, which include suggested scripts for contacting your representative, resources and materials for planning and engaging the media in a Caregiver Awareness Day and webcasts focused on building and growing your caregiving coalition.
Many of these resources were developed for the coalitions participating in the Building Sustainable Caregiving Coalitions project in 2007. For more information about the project, email nac@caregiving.org.
Call your Members of Congress today. Their district office numbers can be found at
www.senate.gov and
www.house.gov.
State the Coalition’s Position!
Identify yourself as a leader of a caregiving coalition and how many family caregivers you are representing. Be sure to let your Representatives know where we stand on supporting family caregivers.
Facts on Family Caregivers:
- Family caregivers are known as the backbone of long-term care, representing 44.4 million in population.
- The economic value of caregiving to our society is $375 billion annually.
- 17% of family caregivers are providing care 40+ hours a week.
- Estimated annual expenses for a family caregiver is over $5,000.
Sample Script for Healthcare Reform:
“Hello. I’m calling to ask the senator to help make sure long-term services and supports are part of health care reform. Including long-term services and supports in health care reform will achieve greater efficiency, promote personal responsibility and sustain our safety net programs like Medicaid. We must help individuals and families and we must help state governments, all of whom are struggling with increasing needs and costs. I thank the senator in advance for demonstrating leadership on this issue. We must make it affordable to care. Thank you.”
Report Back
To strengthen the Alliance efforts, let us know how your Representatives responded. Email info@caregiving.org or call 301-718-8444.
Each of the caregiving coalitions participating in the project conducted Caregiver Awareness Day activities in their communities. Materials developed by the project for awareness day activities are provided below and may be used by all coalitions planning awareness day activities.
Press Release Templates
Four webcasts were developed for the coalitions participating in the Building Sustainable Caregiving Coalitions project. Following each webcast, the PowerPoint presentations and materials developed for the webcast will be available on our website. The website schedule and topics for each webcast are shown below.
Which Topic for Advocacy - June 27, 2007
Making Your Caregiver Awareness Day a Success – July 26, 2007
Communication Strategies - August 20, 2007
Motivation and Momentum – September 21, 2007
With support from the Retirement Research Foundation and the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, the Alliance is pleased to be administering the
Building Sustainable Caregiving Coalitions and a National Network Through Outreach and Technical Assistance project. The project allows the Alliance to work with 20 caregiving coalitions via four webcasts on advocacy, coalition building, and hosting successful Caregiver Awareness Day Activities.
Caregiving coalitions participating in the Building Sustainable Caregiving Coalitions project:
- Baltimore City Commission on Aging Caregiver Coalition, Maryland
- California Coalition for Caregivers
- Caregiver Education Leadership Council, North Carolina
- Caregivers Coalition of Morris County, New Jersey
- Caring Partners, Delaware
- Central Arizona Kinship Care Coalition
- Coastal Georgia Caregivers Network
- Dane County Caregiver Alliance, Wisconsin
- Family Caregiver Coalition of New England
- Hawaii Caregiver Coalition
- Kansas City Partnership for Caregivers, Kansas
- Larimer County Caregiving Coalition, Colorado
- Metropolitan Caregiver Network Coalition, Minnesota
- Nebraska’s Caregiving Coalition
- New York City Family Caregiver Coalition
- ServiceLink Resource Center of Merrimack County, New Hampshire
- Tri-County Caregiving Coalition, Oregon
- Virginia’s Caregivers Coalition
- Utah Coalition for Caregiver Support
- WHYY Caring Community Coalition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
