The Power Prism® Advocacy Framework

The Power Prism® is a step-by-step plan that will help you recognize and act on opportunities to build momentum in a campaign for change.

Each and every step of the way, your campaign should be guided by the answers to these Three Key Questions:

1. 1. WHAT DO YOU WANT? What is the policy change you are seeking to address body confidence?
  2. WHY DO YOU WANT IT? What data make a case for that policy change?
  3. WHO HAS THE POWER TO GIVE IT TO YOU? Which specific decision-makers in state or local government have the power to make that change?

Once we have those answers, it is time to come up with strategies to influence those key decision-makers. So, let’s get to it! Use this worksheet (PDF) to answer the Three Key Questions for your campaign.

The Power Prism®

The Power Prism® framework is a step-by-step plan that will help you recognize and act on opportunities to build momentum in a campaign for change. It’s all about learning to make it easier for decision-makers to give you what you want. The Power Prism® is built on six “power tools” of advocacy that help apply pressure on decision-makers to reach our policy goals. Successful campaign plans integrate the six power tools continuously. Click here to see sample campaign plan for a campaign to reduce youth access to underregulated weight-loss dietary supplements.

These six tools are Research & Data Collection, Coalition Building & Maintenance, Fundraising & Development, Grassroots & Key Contacts, Media Advocacy, Decision-Maker Advocacy.

Unlike other advocacy frameworks, the Power Prism® sees these six strategic power tools as necessarily interconnected, rather than operating in isolation. How might that look? Click here to see a scenario of what this integration might look like in a campaign.

We’ve made it easy for you to draft your own campaign plan using this template that can be adapted for different policy issues.

Some of the best advice we can offer is don’t go it alone! If you are not already connected to an organization that has expertise in body confidence and eating disorders, do a little research to discover organizations in your area that may have similar interests. You’ll learn more about this in the Coalition section, but we promise that your campaign will go much better with many helping hands.

Research and Data Collection

Before building your own campaign plan, let's take a deeper dive into the six advocacy power tools, starting with Research and Data Collection.

STRIPED News

Check out STRIPED’s new roadmap, which provides model legislation, guides, and fact sheets to help advocates create safer online spaces for youth through algorithm risk audits and social media transparency.

New STRIPED research highlights the significant health and economic toll of body dissatisfaction, weight discrimination, and skin-shade discrimination in America. Learn more in our report, The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals.

STRIPED is now accepting applications for travel scholarships for the next Eating Disorders Coalition Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 8, 2024. To apply, visit our Travel Scholarship webpage. Applications are due Tuesday, April 2, 2024.

Hear key insights on eating disorder prevention from STRIPED Director Bryn Austin in an important new episode of the “Food, We Need to Talk” podcast. Don’t miss this revealing conversation on critical strategies for at-risk youth during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

NPR’s Morning Edition featured a collaboration with colleagues at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health emphasizing the need for universities to work with mental health influencers in order to create impactful social media content promoting evidence-based research.

New STRIPED research in the American Journal of Law and Medicine: Algorithms, Addiction, and Adolescent Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Study to Inform State-level Policy Action to Protect Youth from the Dangers of Social Media.