Advocacy 101

If interested in this course, please enroll in the 2025 Advocacy 101 Course found here.

You don’t have to be a policy expert to make a difference for the lands you love. As someone who cares deeply about the outdoors, you’re well positioned to be an effective outdoor advocate and make a difference for public lands and the transformative outdoor experiences they provide. Getting started as an advocate can be a little daunting and hard to know where to begin - that’s where Advocacy 101 comes in.

This 60-75 minute eLearning course is the perfect tool to help you go from an outdoor enthusiast to an outdoor advocate. After completing Advocacy 101, you’ll be ready to continue advocating for an issue or place you care about on your own and with fellow outdoor enthusiasts and as a part of organized lobby days and other opportunities. The course’s eight modules (without audio) will take you through:

• The basics of advocacy: what it is, why it’s important, what advocacy looks like, and why our community advocates.
• Why it’s important for outdoor enthusiasts to engage with lawmakers on public lands and recreation issues, and best practices for several ways to do so.
• Why it’s also important to engage with land managers, and best practices for doing so, including writing comment letters on land planning processes.
• Opportunities to take direct advocacy action through the course and resources for continuing your outdoor advocacy journey.

To receive The Mountaineers Advocacy 101 badge, you'll need to complete the course, including passing the two quizzes with a score of at least 80%. You’ll be given the opportunity to retake the quiz as many times as you wish. Please allow a week from course completion for the badge to be awarded to your profile.

Login instructions can be found in the course materials section of this page once you sign up. Please let us know if you experience technical difficulties while attempting to sign up or take this course. Questions or comments can be sent via email to elearning@mountaineers.org.

Thanks for your interest in being a part of our advocacy. You can learn more about Advocacy 101 in this blog.