What is the role of an Advocate

To be an effective Advocate you must educate yourself in how the public process works in your community, public relations, fund raising, the master trail plans in your county and city area, the development process, trail construction and maintenance, and how local government works and who are the players and what committees are in place that may influence your project.

Advocacy is essential to getting trails built or preserving open space. We plan to assist Manatee County and other local governments in the implementation of their trails, parks and open space master plans..

We want to build and encourage grass-roots support for trails. We need to educate the public, businesses and local government about the economic benefits. Ecotourism provides additional opportunities throughout our two counties. Trails provide health and physical fitness and educational opportunities too.

Our goals include raising funds to continue advocacy, education and volunteer efforts. We will encourage, coordinate and support trails and open space, volunteerism, community participation and membership.

It is important for us to generate a network of individuals who share our goals. Politicians react to constituent interests. The more people that share our goals through membership will help guide our politicians to focus on our interests.

If you do not have the time to volunteer for our non-profit organization then please join our "Friends of the Trails." Your membership fee will do the work for you and greatly help our efforts as every dollar you give us helps to achieve our goals.